The Geolocation Magic Macros plugin for OpenX, Magic Geo in short, enables you to dynamically insert the name of the geographic location of a visitor into a banner. This can be used in both the HTML code and the destination URL. Using this new feature, you can automatically make a banner adjust its content to the location of a visitor.

Demonstration

The banner below demonstrates this by showing your country name and country code, and the name of the continent, and a link to a Wikipedia article about your country.

The code used in this HTML banner looks like this:
You are currently in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/{geo.country.enc}" title="read about {geo.country} on Wikipedia" target="_blank">{geo.country}, country code {geo.country_code}</a>, which is part of {geo.continent}.


More information and download

There is a product page containing all information, documentation and a link to download this free Geolocation Magic Macros plugin for OpenX.

OpenX Ad Server - free open source ad server

On Thursday, June 3rd, 2010, I’m hosting two events in Amsterdam: a training course for new OpenX users and a Master Class for experienced users.

OpenX training course

This training course is aimed at people looking to use the OpenX software to manage ads on one or more websites. It’s designed for people that have no prior knowlegde of OpenX, or for those that want to fresh up their expertise. No technical skills are required, it’s sufficient to know how to use the internet.

This training course will be presented in Dutch only. More information, a brochure and a signup form can be found at:
http://www.erikgeurts.nl/openx/cursus/

OpenX Master Class

This master class is aimed at experienced OpenX users, looking to expand and enhance their knowledge of the OpenX software and to discover new applications. The program will be put together dynamically based on the subjects that participants bring up.

This master class will be presented in Dutch only. More information, a brochure and a signup form can be found at:
http://www.erikgeurts.nl/openx/masterclass/

Later in 2010, I will also be hosting similar events for English speaking audiences, most likely also in Amsterdam.

First symptoms: statistics disappeared

The first symptoms is that the statistics in OpenX disappear. I’ve seen reports of people mentioning this on the OpenX forums, and some people have also contacted me directly. Luckily, the statistics aren’t really gone from the database, and ad delivery continues to function without problem. This was confirmed when inspecting the database and looking at the tables that store the statistics.

Cause: hacks of old versions

While investigating one of these problematic OpenX installations, fellow OpenX consultant Matteo Beccati discovered that it had been attacked, abusing a vulnerability in OpenX v2.8.2 that has been fixed a long time ago. Unfortunately, not everyone has taken the time to upgrade yet, leaving their systems vulnerable to attacks like this one.

It was found that the attacker uses this security vulnerability to insert an additional administrator account. Next he uses this login to upgrade the OpenX plugin that takes care of the available banner types. The plugin he injects contains malicious code that creates a backdoor into the server. As a side effect, the attack creates some entries in the database, leading to the disappearance of the on-screen statistics.

From the logs that have been found, this appears to be an automated attack. The attacks that have been investigated are all originating from the same IP address.

Remedy: upgrade

For someone running OpenX v2.8.2 or older who hasn’t been infected yet, the best course of action is to upgrade to a more recent version of OpenX as soon as possible. If it takes a while to prepare and plan for this, then meanwhile I would recommend removing the install.php and install-plugins.php files in the ‘www/admin’ folder of your OpenX installation.

If a system has been attacked already, an upgrade is not going to fix this problem, since the modified plugin will be migrated to the new version, along with any changes in the database. This will have to be cleaned first.

Update

In later reports of the same kind of hack, the ‘missing statistics’ issue no longer occurred. It appears that the hacker has changed this element. However, the malicious code is still getting injected. The first time people notice problems is when their site or the ad server is reported as as containing malware by Google’s Safe Browsing program.

Not only OpenX v2.8.2 is vulnerable to this problem, the same applies to v2.8.0 and v2.8.1.

OpenX Ad Server v2.8.5 has been released for download, but I don't recommend upgrading (yet).

Without any form of publicity, OpenX.org have released version 2.8.5 of the OpenX Ad Server. There are a few strange things about this release, which makes me hesitant about recommending an upgrade.

• First of all, I wonder what the official status of this release is, since it hasn’t been formally announced like all previous releases. At the time of this writing, it’s been offered on the site for at least 10 days.
• Secondly, if you look at the OpenX Developer site, this version isn’t marked as ‘completed’, symbolized by the wrapper about the package icon of all previous versions.
• Thirdly, looking at all of the issues that are listed for version 2.8.5, a few of them still show a status of ‘unresolved’.
• And finally, work is already under way for the development of version 2.8.6, which must mean that version 2.8.5 has a few known bugs that require fixing.

Since it’s been so quiet about the release of version 2.8.5, I haven’t really had time yet to give it a good test drive. For the time being, it is my recommendation to stay with version 2.8.3.

The first webinar will be held on Wednesday, March 3rd, from 10 to 11 AM Pacific time. This webinar is aimed at new and beginning users of the OpenX Ad Server, with subjects like:

• How to organize your inventory
• How to traffic a campaign
• How the ad server selects a banner
• How an ad is delivered

I think this is a great initiative and a wonderful opportunity to gain some insight from the people who created the software.

You can read more about the webinar series on the OpenX blog and sign up for this first webinar. There is a limited number of seats available, and places will be assigned on a first-come-first-served basis.

More information can be found in the blog post announcing this new release of the plugin.

OpenX Ad Server v2.8.4 released for download

The OpenX Blog and an e-mail newsletter to all registered users have been announcing the newest installment of the OpenX Ad Server software, version 2.8.4 for the last 6 days. Yesterday, the new version has finally been released for download.

I have been able to test this new version in recent weeks, and I can report that the installation and upgrade procedures have been changed significantly. One very important change is that anyone installing or upgrading is forced to create an OpenX account. This used to be optional. In my opinion, this will put off a lot of users from upgrading or from even starting to use the software. The software is still free of charge, but users now pay a price by having to give up their privacy.

Update January 31: A bug has been found in OpenX version 2.8.4, affecting the display of statistics for banners. It appears to be mostly a cosmetic problem, the statistics are in the database but not showing up correctly in the OpenX statistics screen. Information can be found on the OpenX Developer Site.

OpenX Ad Server version 2.8.4 announced

On Friday, January 22, as one of the last things before the start of the weekend, OpenX.org announced the upcoming release of version 2.8.4 of the OpenX Ad Server. According to the blog post, the free service OpenX Community Hosted has already been upgraded, and the new version will be available for download ‘later in the week’ (which is a bit odd, because at the time of posting the week was effectively over).

More focus on OpenX Market

The announcement on the blog focuses primarily on the many changes and new features for using the OpenX Market. That’s not surprising, because OpenX Market is the main source of revenue for the company. Making it easier for more OpenX publishers to participate in this market was a move that was to be expected.

Bug fixes and improvements

The blog post doesn’t mention it, but this new release also fixes dozens of bugs and long standing issues. The Issue Tracker on the OpenX Developer site lists a total of 144 issues. A little bit surprising, perhaps, is that only 115 of these have been labeled as ‘fixed’.

Version 2.8.4 includes the security fix that was rushed out just before Christmas with the emergency release of version 2.8.3, and it also contains the fix for the serious under delivery problem for contract campaigns. Both of these fixes were contributed by independent consultant and developer Matteo Beccati.

Reviews to follow

Since the downloadable version of OpenX Ad Server v2.8.4 is not yet available, I haven’t been able to test drive it yet. I do have the OpenX Community Hosted account, and I can see the new features for working with OpenX Market in there.

I’m planning on writing some follow up blog posts as soon as possible, for instances about the new upgrade procedure (which is said to have a mandatory registration step), the new OpenX Market features and other noteworthy issues.

Your feedback, please!

What would you like to know about this new release? What should I be researching and writing about? Drop a comment below or contact me with your views!

You can submit my OpenX support request form if you’d like to discuss working with me on your OpenX project.

This plugin was designed primarily for use by publishers operating one or more websites. It enables them to help their clients to deliver their advertising campaigns to visitors who are most likely to be interested in the products or services being promoted. This is done by capturing and storing data about the visitor’s surfing behavior and search behavior, or demographic data. When creating an advertising campaign, the ads can be targeted to this known data about the visitor.

Information about this OpenX plugin, including an explanation of the concepts of behavioral targeting and retargeting, can be found at the AdServerPlugins.com website.

Display Statistics as Graphs using a free plugin for OpenX

The team at AdserverPlugins.com have released an update of their free “Statistics as Graphs” plugin. This version 1.0.0 release is available for download right now at their website.

The new version now displays graphs for almost all statistics: advertisers, campaigns, banners, web sites, zones and global history. Graphs are now available for all user types (administrators, managers, advertisers, website owners). Every graph has buttons to navigate to the previous and next month, or to go up a level to show the current year’s statistics. Clicking a bar will drill down into the underlying statistics, down to a day graph with an hourly break down.

The graphs are now displayed using the open source product “Open Flash Chart 2“, providing more flexibility and charting options than the Google Visualisation API that was used for the first beta release.