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Banner System

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Banner System
I suggest New Sql Link include :
1) Banner system
- Keyword Banner search
- Differ Category differ Banner


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Re: Banner System In reply to
It's been reported that the new version will include a basic banner system.

Check the various release notes.

http://www.postcards.com
FAQ: http://www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/

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Re: Banner System In reply to
I also own a banner system called 'AdvertPRO' which they are saying will have full Gossamer Threads Links/SQL integration in the next release - aparently it already works with normal Links but I'm not 100% sure of that. It's a great bit of software thats worth checking out! www.advertpro.com

regards

Regan.

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Re: Banner System In reply to
I know that is what they say, but I think the planned release date for that product is a bit more nebulous than the release date of the new Links.

http://www.postcards.com
FAQ: http://www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/

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Re: Banner System In reply to
I use AdvertPro with Links SQL and it works great for me (someone in the GT forum put me onto them initially :). If anyone's interested, they're putting the price up with the next release [3.5], so if you are considering buying the current version of AdvertPro [3.0] I would advise you buy now as an upgrade to 3.5 is free!

As for Links, it'll be interesting to see how the initial 'built-in' GT banner system will work with LSQL V2. For people who can't afford a separate banner-serving package, or simply want it included with 'links' for ease of management, I'm sure it'll be a great plus.

I would guess that you shouldn't expect the first GT banner manager to have ALL the bells 'n' whistles of a top-end commercial package or features enough to suit everyone's implementation of Links, but as usual for GT products it probably won't be very long before GT and us users start modifying it to do all the things that most people will want :)

From what I can gather the GT LSQL banner manager will be a plug-in module of some sort that will work through the Admin panel, Pugdog?

All the best
Shaun

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Re: Banner System In reply to
Don't sell the "commercial" aspect of GT short.

With the new back-end engine, and modular code, and mod_perl mind set, any banner system, or add on will work lightning fast, and if the "hooks" for a banner system are there, then the only _real_ stuff that has to be added is the interface/billing end of the package. The actual ad-serving should be close to trivial -- and FAST

I have Advert Pro I've got to make work with Links SQL, and I've talked with them about the Links SQL version. From the impression I got they had not even started it yet. Which, in some ways would make sense, since without knowing what the next version of Links is doing, creating a new product for a 'old' version doesn't make a lot of sense.

If you've worked with AdvertPro a bit, do you have an idea for how to use it to make a "featured" links category?

what the customer wnats is:

1) each top-level category has no links, just a featured set of links. One from each sub-category.
2) If an advertiser has paid for featured status, that "link" should be served up (think of the link record as the banner).
3) If no advertiser has paid for that spot, the default pool should be accessed (Think of the other links in the category as the pool).


It occured to me that since the status of the "featured" link is a paid one, that using the banner system would be the best way to go. Essentially, it's a banner system, but the "banner" is the link record, not a graphic.


Any clues??

http://www.postcards.com
FAQ: http://www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/

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Re: Banner System In reply to
Pugdog,

I didn't intend to sell GT short, its just that until the new banner system is released, tried, tested, and updated a bit, I wouldn't expect it to have the pedigree of some of the commercial packages that are designed specifically to deal with banner management and that have been around for a long while - like I said, I'm sure it'll quickly reach a point where it'll do all the things that other packages do, and probably quite a lot more knowing GT :)

I'm not privvy to the setup and workings of the up-coming GT banner manager, which doesn't help as I can't make an objective comparison - but I have every faith in GT to 'come up with the goods' and I know from experience that they'll do nothing less than their best to make it an excellent package :)

'Featured' issue - I'd have thought you could set up specific regions for each 'featured' top-level category/sub-cat and then add the HTML directly into the banner record in AP, with a default link for when there are no 'featured' links to display - sorry, but I'm having a bit of trouble visualizing it :)

All the best
Shaun

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Re: Banner System In reply to
How easy is it to intergrate AdvertPro with LinksSQL basically for now I want to be able to display certain banners in a main category and all the subcategories.

Is there another package available that would easily achieve this. I haven't seen keyword matching as of yet but this would be a great feature to add aswell.

Thanks
Jason

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Re: Banner System In reply to
I use AP to target my main top-level categories only, as it would be too difficult to target each of my 5000+ cats individually. I setup my regions within AP and then modified nph-build.cgi to match the first few characters of the category 'name' with a specific AP region and assign a 'zone name' for (A)Banners, (B)Buttons, (C)Text. I then pass the 'zones' to the category template and use it in my AP ad call, e.g.;

nph-build.cgi
Code:
# Set the advertising zones based on the category name.

my ($cname, $zonea, $zoneb, $zonec, $zonename);
$cname = $category_r->{'Name'};

if ($cname =~ /^Anim/) {$zonea="OAA"; $zoneb="OBA"; $zonec="OCA"; $zonename="Animals, etc";}
elsif ($cname =~ /^Arts/) {$zonea="OAB"; $zoneb="OBB"; $zonec="OCB"; $zonename="Arts, etc";}
elsif ($cname =~ /^Busi/) {$zonea="OAC"; $zoneb="OBC"; $zonec="OCC"; $zonename="Busines, etc";}
elsif ($cname =~ /^Care/) {$zonea="OAD"; $zoneb="OBD"; $zonec="OCD"; $zonename="Career, etc";}
template category.html
Code:
<center><p>
< ! - - # INCLUDE VIRTUAL ="/path/to/banners.pl?region=<%zonea%>&mode=SSI" - - >
</center><p>
AP have commented on their website that they're working towards better integration with Links, but there is nothing specific as yet (3.2.5) - I think it's being developed for the next release (3.5) due some time in October.

All the best
Shaun