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How to use OpenAds with Joomla

and How NOT to Use it!

This article is edited since phpAdsNew changed its name to OpenAds

Recently we have received many questions regarding the integration of OpenAds with Joomla/Mambo. JooMaDesk decided to write this little guide to help you set it up with Joomla/Mambo and integrate the advertisement invocation code in your modules, content and use the system to track completely all visitor movements to/on and from your site and provide you with some general info as well on the usage of the tool.

Now here is the first little issue what will definitely cause some major discussion but we are most willing to defend the fact that we state that: You do not need any integration with your users in Joomla! or Mambo In fact ....You should not want an integration! Of course you should ask the question "why?" which is a very good question of course. Here is our answer which reflects the view of many of colleagues and customers in the online marketing industry. You have to go a little bit backwards and as yourself the question why do people need a good adserver in the first place::

Marketers live from fully up-to-date information, 24 hours a day 365 days/year and as detailed as possible to see consumer trends and behaviors and anticipate their actions and campaigns on these trends and behaviors. They need data, they need it as normal people like you and us in need of milk and bread and burgers and rice and they need it ultra light and fast without all beauty of Joomla/Mambo/Drupal/etc and without make-up. They need it online wherever they are on PC/WAP/Whatever gadget they use....In other words they do not want to waist time visiting a nicely build website and being distracted from by that high standard graphical and flashy content when loading important statistics....So why having them login through Joomla? Your "normal" visitors do not even want to see a link to OpenAds[ because people are afraid of adservers because the privacy is at risk which is a fact.....So do not show your Adserver in the first place or any link to it as well on your front-page at least. Hide it away in your service pages or so....Your Adserver users (who are not the target group of the site you are building in most cases) will know where to find the link for the login once you have informed them.....

OpenAds is a very good package and tries to keep up with and follows more or less the T&C''s and guidelines as defined by the Internet Advertising Agency and AAAA (Association of American Advertising Agencies) The T&C''s include provides thorough definitions of terms and of agency and publisher obligations. The most notable terms are related to:

* Notification, reporting, and billing procedures
* Make-good definitions
* Publisher rejection of ad materials
* Indemnification.

That document is a collaborative effort by agencies and publishers designed to identify and address key issues facing today''s Internet advertising industry. It is designed to improve efficiency and increase profitability for all parties involved in the buying and selling of advertising on the World Wide Web. The joint task force for the Ts&Cs negotiations included both IAB and AAAA members. It was co-chaired by Susan Berg of the Walt Disney Internet Group and Jeff Weitzman of Yahoo! representing the IAB, and Adam Gerber of The Digital Edge representing the AAAA. They managed to streamline potential business issues facing publishers and agencies and provide the industry with a uniform document to use as a basis for agreements. The Ts&Cs reflect the state of the industry today and a greater understanding, on the part of agencies and publishers, of each other''s businesses and business objectives.

The Ts&Cs are voluntary and are posted on both organizations'' Web sites (http://www.iab.net and http://www.aaaa.org). Both the AAAA and the IAB will continue to urge their members and media companies who agree to the Terms and Conditions to attach them to future insertion orders. IAB member companies that participated in the development of the Terms & Conditions included AOL, CNET Networks, Inc., Walt Disney Internet Group, DoubleClick, Terra Lycos, and Yahoo! Participating AAAA member agencies included Foote, Cone & Belding, Modem Media, OgilvyOne and The Digital Edge.

Now how to make this Adserver work properly with Joomla so your ads and other information is properly being tracked and stored in the database for client reviews?

1. Latest version of Joomla installed
2. Download all needed documentation (admin and userdocs) from the website of OpenAds. You need to do this:: this is almost mandatory!
3. Read and study the software and its options clearly and Google if you cannot understand the terms for clarification
4. Download when you do understand the software here: http://www.openads.org/
5. Create a Database and install OpenAds.....as with most Open Source software it comes with an auto-installer and is very simple to install just like Joomla/Mambo.
6. Create clients and campaigns and upload banners to OpenAds (see manual howto)

If you have done this we start the serious work of integrating the ads into Joomla!

We start with the

option to place banners or ads on module positions (user1/user3/etc):

Just a general remark in advance...all the banners and the management of the clients/users/passwords/banners etc are located in OpenAds and not for instance in your "stories"-folder of Joomla!

1. Download the module named mod_kl_evalphp (The module is made by Konlong (John Long) who we thank gracefully!) .
(The module provides for the parsing of PHP script stored in the modules php parameter) and install with the auto installer to your site module section.
(installer/module/browse/upload/done).
Copy this module and rename the copy to Advert no1. (or equivalent)
2. Create a banner invocation code in OpenAds (PHP!!! and not Javascript or text or whatsoever: this comes below) and remove the php-tags
3. Goto Joomla > admin > modules > Advert no1 and insert the invocation code where parameter states "PHP-script"
(Use Notepad or Dreamweaver or so but not Word because of its hidden tags) define the position where the module should show, the pages etc, and save.

Here is your first working OpenAds banner in Joomla which can be tracked, capped, (geo) targeted etc. You can now click the banner and you will see when you login to OpenAds[ that the respective banner has 1 page-view with the precise date and time of viewing and clicking etc. Please note that OpenAds creates the invocation code fully automatically for you so you don not need any knowledge in PHP (?), Javascript, DHTML or whatever invocation you want to use.

Now up to place banners or ads within content

Download the Mambot named kl_php (The bot is also made by Konlong (John Long) who we thank once again gracefully!) . The bot allows for embedded PHP in Content and install with the auto installer to your site Mambot section. (installer/mambots/browse/upload/done). Publish the bot if not auto published.

1. Create a banner invocation code in OpenAds (PHP!!! and not Javascript or text or whatsoever: this comes below) and place this code on the place where you want the banner to show up in your Content. The code needs to be placed in HTML-mode of your editor.
So this is how you place the ad, generated with invocation code of OpenAds in the content of Joomla/Mambo and you now have a fully integrated content ad visible with full functionality in OpenAds! You see how easy it is? The code is generated by OpenAds and you only have to paste it into the right position with some minor adjustments!

Now up to place banners or ads based on Javascript invocation

DON''T Use it !!! Interesting isn''t it? Technically no big deal. the software automatically generates the code for you. Two reasons why not....

1. If you have loads of ads the loading time of your opages become catastrophic since the javasscript code for each ad is rather heavy but this is not the main issue.
2. Many companies have switched off the option in the browser to allow Javascript for security reasons......
So your ad will not be visible.......This is the main reason not to use Javascript enabled banners!

How to track all movement on your Joomla-site with OpenAds

Of course you want to see how people behave on your site and which pages are being read most etc. The standard Joomla/Mambo options are very limited in providing said information. TFS does not provide the info needed (IP oriented info) So we use here for internal purposes the OpenAds facility......perfect, fast and loads of info.  We can see exactly how a visitor has clicked through our site at what time etc.......(how many time a "read more" is clicked for instance or how many times my corporate profile is being viewed etc)

1. Create a transparent image of 1px/1pix (yes you read correct 1px/1px) .
2. In OpenAds create one or more clients representing your site or segments of your site.
3. Upload this 1x1-image to each client as a banner in OpenAds.
4. Create a banner invocation code (the same way as done for content above) and place this code directly after the last word/point/letter/etc of your content text
(think about it:: in HTML-mode!).

done.....Your visitors will not see the 1px x 1px image (transparent) and you get all the data you need to monitor the traffic on your own site!

Hope this helps!

Leo



DISCUSSION THREAD HERE: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,37226.0.html