I asked this once before, and I'm asking again.. for a banner rotation program, what would you like to see, and how would you like it to work?
I don't want to debate the issue, I just want to know _how_ you would like banners, advertisers, graphics, etc, managed on your site if you had an integrated links/banner program.
_MY_ needs are not "normal" but it's easier to code in the flexibility early on, when designing the database, then to go back and try to do it later.
What features/fields do you need?
How do you want to group banners, ads, rotations, zones, cycles, etc?
What management tools do you need?
How do you want banners to come up on the site?
Do you want advertisers to have access to their banners/ad campaigns, etc.
Do you want it "advertiser" based, "campaign based", "zone based" or what?
Give specifics -- compare it to what you are doing now, and how you want it different.
Database design is serious stuff ---- and this is a _very_ complex task. I've been chipping away at it for almost 6 months. It's easy to get redundant data, cyclical tables, and poor design. It's not easy to do it right
Writing the program is probably going to be the easiest part of the whole process, especially if I use DBSQL to proxy it. The _real_ hard part is the data tables and dependencies. If you don't believe me -- just try it!!
Think about advertisers, banners, campaigns, zones, pages, locations, targeting, etc and how much data that entails, and how each piece of data should only be entered ONCE and propagated through the system as intended. It's _not_ easy! I get a headache (literally) every time I put more than about 20 minutes in on it.
Once the tables and dependencies are set up, getting the images to display is EASY!
So, this is where I need all the feedback on _HOW_ you want -- or need -- a banner display system to work.
((and if the database and dependencies/logic is set up right, the back-end should be portable across front-ends -- ie: PHP, Perl, or whatever, with minimal coding, since the _access_ would be via a simple SQL call from the small CGI triggered in the <IMG> tag for HTML, or with a PHP function call for PHP. -- the admin program would be the complicated part (making sure all the dependencies were set right) -- that, for now, will be perl based.))
Long, wordy, but at least I got it out!!
------------------
POSTCARDS.COM -- Everything Postcards on the Internet www.postcards.com
LinkSQL FAQ: www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/
I don't want to debate the issue, I just want to know _how_ you would like banners, advertisers, graphics, etc, managed on your site if you had an integrated links/banner program.
_MY_ needs are not "normal" but it's easier to code in the flexibility early on, when designing the database, then to go back and try to do it later.
What features/fields do you need?
How do you want to group banners, ads, rotations, zones, cycles, etc?
What management tools do you need?
How do you want banners to come up on the site?
Do you want advertisers to have access to their banners/ad campaigns, etc.
Do you want it "advertiser" based, "campaign based", "zone based" or what?
Give specifics -- compare it to what you are doing now, and how you want it different.
Database design is serious stuff ---- and this is a _very_ complex task. I've been chipping away at it for almost 6 months. It's easy to get redundant data, cyclical tables, and poor design. It's not easy to do it right
Writing the program is probably going to be the easiest part of the whole process, especially if I use DBSQL to proxy it. The _real_ hard part is the data tables and dependencies. If you don't believe me -- just try it!!
Think about advertisers, banners, campaigns, zones, pages, locations, targeting, etc and how much data that entails, and how each piece of data should only be entered ONCE and propagated through the system as intended. It's _not_ easy! I get a headache (literally) every time I put more than about 20 minutes in on it.
Once the tables and dependencies are set up, getting the images to display is EASY!
So, this is where I need all the feedback on _HOW_ you want -- or need -- a banner display system to work.
((and if the database and dependencies/logic is set up right, the back-end should be portable across front-ends -- ie: PHP, Perl, or whatever, with minimal coding, since the _access_ would be via a simple SQL call from the small CGI triggered in the <IMG> tag for HTML, or with a PHP function call for PHP. -- the admin program would be the complicated part (making sure all the dependencies were set right) -- that, for now, will be perl based.))
Long, wordy, but at least I got it out!!
------------------
POSTCARDS.COM -- Everything Postcards on the Internet www.postcards.com
LinkSQL FAQ: www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/
Advertising -- suggestions