A client asked me how he can target an ad so that it will only be displayed when the site visitor is using a specific browser, in this case Google Chrome. He wants to show a special ad for that situation.
Fix for Contract Campaign Under Delivery Problem (Part 2)
March 7, 2011 By
In December 2009, I wrote a blog post about a fix for the contract campaign under delivery problems that many people experienced at the time. Back then, OpenX version 2.8.2 was the most recent release. The fix didn’t make it into OpenX v2.8.3 security fix version that was released just before Christmas 2009, but it was incorporated in all later releases.
The developer who created this fix, Matteo Beccati, continued working on the issues that many people reported with contract campaigns that wouldn’t get the required number of impressions, even when there was more than enough traffic available.
A second fix, a follow up to the earlier fix, has been released in June 2010, but I never got around to mentioning it here on the site. The bug report and fix can be downloaded from the OpenX developer zone.
Update March 10, 2011: I’ve had the opportunity to test this second part of the fix in a real-life situation for one of my clients. There was a contract campaign that was seriously under delivering, doing only about 11,000 impressions per day where it needed at least 15,000 per day to reach its target by the end date. After the patch was implemented, the probability percentages of the campaign’s banners in the zones it was linked to immediately increased and the campaign has started to compensate for the lower impression numbers before. It looks very plausible that it will reach its target at the end of the duration.
How to: Choosing a smart location for an OpenX installation
January 6, 2011 By
Another entry in my new Q & A section, and this time it’s a question I’ve received numerous times in the past:
I’m planning to install OpenX. I’m starting small, but I want to be ready for the future growth that I’m hoping for. What’s your advise for choosing a location for the installation of my ad server?
This is a very good question, because making the right choices now will save you a lot of time, energy and trouble later.
[Read more...]
Can OpenX do conversion tracking?
December 23, 2010 By
When a site visitor buys a product or service, this is called a 'conversion'.
I often get questions in the mail or through the contact form that might be relevant to more than just one person. That’s why I have decided to start answering these questions on this blog. I’ve created a new Q&A category, I hope to be able to add more posts shortly.
A visitor of the site, Michael, sent me the following question:
Is OpenX capable of conversion tracking at the banner level, and determine the eCPM of each individual banner?
My reply to Michael was:
[Read more...]
How to: Dynamically insert an affiliate ID into a banner
December 21, 2010 By
I often get questions in the mail or through the contact form that might be relevant to more than just one person. That’s why I have decided to start answering these questions on this blog. I’ve created a new Q&A category, I hope to be able to add more posts shortly.
Lorand Minyo from Romania sent me this question:
I have a campaign running on multiple sites with different publishers, with two banners in rotation. These publishers run the invocation code on their sites and I use OpenX to count views and clicks. However, I’d like to give each of the publishers the ability to have a different link for the same banner – for example publisher 1 using banner X and have the link myurl.com?affid=1, publisher 2 using the same banner X and have the link myurl.com?affid=2 and so on. This would be particularly useful, since I want to count views and clicks in OpenX and record transactions in my billing system. So my question is: Can you have different links for the same banner or different links for different zones?
Lorand, this is possible, and it is not even all that hard to implement. I suggest we use two techniques that are not very well known: site variables in zone invocation code and magic macros in banners. I will explain below.
[Read more...]
How to: Upgrade OpenX Ad Server
November 14, 2010 By
A few years ago, I published an article on this blog, describing the procedure I was using at the time for upgrading an existing OpenX installation. Over time, I’ve made small changes to this process based on experience. The article below describes how I currently do these upgrades.
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How to: move banner image storage location in OpenX
October 25, 2010 By
A new place to store all your banner image files
When you do a standard installation of OpenX Ad Server, the installation procedure will result in a situation where the banner images will be stored in a folder that’s deep down in the OpenX folder tree. This makes it hard to perform future upgrades or effective backups. Luckily, it’s rather simple to move the banner storage folder. In this article, I will explain how to make that change.
[Read more...]
Update about security of OpenX software
September 22, 2010 By
In recent weeks, many stories have been published about security issues regarding the OpenX Ad Server software. Please find below some additional information on the current situation regarding the security of the OpenX software.
The most recent and most severe issues all resulted from a security problem in a third party open source component named “Open Flash Charts 2″. This component is used in the Video Ads plugin that comes with OpenX v2.8.4 and higher. The problem has been corrected with the release of OpenX v2.8.7. Instead of performing a full upgrade, a much simpler task is to just upgrade the Video Ads plugin. If you run OpenX version 2.8.3, which doesn’t have the Video ads plugin, you will not be affected by this particular issue.
There is also a smaller but still significant issue in the OpenX core software. It affects all version of the OpenX v2.8 software, up to v2.8.5 and it is relatively easy to fix. The way to do that is outlined in an OpenX forum post. Applying this patch is not complicated, but it does require some skill in editing php software files.
You can find out which version of OpenX you have by looking at the source code of any page of your OpenX system, including the login page. The version number is displayed in line 4 of that source code.
To summarize the above:
- if you run OpenX v2.8.2 or older, an upgrade to version 2.8.3 would be recommended, including a patch for the security issue that was discovered in August.
- if you run OpenX v2.8.3, applying the security patch that was published in August should be sufficient.
- if you run OpenX v2.8.4 or higher, it would be smart to upgrade the Video Ads plugin, and apply the patch for the security issue, or to upgrade to OpenX v2.8.7.
OpenX Ad Server v2.8.7 released
September 16, 2010 By
OpenX Ad Server v2.8.7 released for download
A new version of the OpenX Ad Server software has been released. This version 2.8.7 fixes a very serious security issue. According to the announcement on the OpenX blog:
there is a vulnerability in the 2.8 downloadable version of OpenX that can result in a server running the downloaded version of OpenX being compromised.
The issue stems from the Video Ads plugin for OpenX, which in turn uses an open source third party component called Open Flash Charts (OFC) to display graphs about video ad performance. There was a security issue with OFC which has now been fixed.
In addition, the upgrade notification inside the OpenX management pages has this information:
If you recently upgraded to version 2.8.6, you can simply install an upgraded video ad plug-in available [here] or remove the following file: admin/plugins/videoReport/lib/ofc2/ofc_upload_image.php from your installation.
This is the second update in less than 1 week, which might sound alarming. On the other hand, there will always be bugs and security vulnerabilities in software, and it’s better to have those fixed.
Besides this fix for the security issue that was uncovered, there is also a seemingly small functional change in this new version:
For users in the UK, all market interfaces now reflect your participation in Orange Ad Market, and all Orange Ad Market market monetary values are in GBP.
Since both the OpenX main website and the OpenX blog appear to be down at the time I’m writing this, I can’t give you any more information than what I included above.
What does still seem to work at the moment is the download link at http://download.openx.org/openx-2.8.7.zip.
OpenX Ad Server v2.8.6 released (or not?)
September 9, 2010 By
Note: this is a cross-post from my contribution at OpenXtips.com yesterday.
OpenX Ad Server v2.8.6 released for download
Just like in March 2010, a new version of the OpenX software has been released recently, but not a single byte of publicity has been devoted to it. No mention on the OpenX blog or on Twitter, nothing. Judging from the dates on the files in the download archive, the new release was completed on September 2nd of 2010, so almost a week ago.
This new version 2.8.6 seems to be mostly about the security issue that was found and fixed a few weeks ago. Back then, on August 12, a somewhat cryptic announcement was posted on the OpenX forums, informing people how to fix the security problem. That post also hinted at a new release that would be out soon.
The release notes file in the 2.8.6 archive points to the OpenX Developer site for more details, but the issue tracker for version 2.8.6 is still open and most issues in it are still marked as unresolved. And the version check inside the OpenX software doesn’t give any notifications about upgrade availability.
Altogether, this is a pretty strange situation. Obviously, it’s smart to upgrade to a new version as soon as it’s released, especially if the upgrade is about fixing security issues. On the other hand, what should we think about a release that is not announced in any way, shape or form?
