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ViewsCategory:GABFrom Geeki
FeaturesThis system is designed to manage static banners, flash banners, rotating image banners, text ads (i.e., Google Adsense), and even butter your freaking toast when you feel like it. Okay, not butter your toast, but the oracle STRONGLY suggests that you read this file (as boring as it looks) BEFORE you install it. This can be a very complex system and the oracle really hates seeing questions posted that would have been answered if you would have simply read this thing. Ohm. ScreenshotsThere are no ACP screenshots. There is an old SWF video here that should give you an idea: http://www.thevbgeek.com/swf/gabsetup.htm IssuesYeah, yeah, not 100% phrased. Also, new installs of old versions required the following action (because for some odd reason, not doing so could cause an error): After a fresh installation, make sure you save your MASTER script (AdminCP -> GAB Manager -> Scripts -> MASTER -> Save). Nothing was obvious as to the cause of that problem, but if you happen to experience it, save your MASTER script and report the problem. Installation
Upgrading
SettingsGAB allows you to use a weighted system to dispay ads. The higher the frequency value, the more likely the ad is to appear during selection. For instance an ad with a Low (1) frequency will appear on average four times less than an ad with a Mega High frequency (4). You can add/change frequencies how you see fit by clicking Settings -> Frequency from the GAB Manager. The Debug link can be used to display your current settings. It looks like a bunch of garbledygook but can be useful for support purposes. Please do not post the content unless requested. The Options are where you specify the settings for GAB. Note that there is no ending slash on the 'Server path to banners folder' or 'URL path to banners folder' settings. Make sure you tick the checkboxes under 'Usergroups that view ads' if you want people to see your ads. You can use 'Usergroups that can turn off ads' for usergroups that can (duh) turn off ads.
BannersThis is where you add banners to GAB. Most of the options should be self-explanatory but if you have questions, just post them. If your 'Banner type' is 'Image' or 'Flash' then fill in the 'Banner' section. If your 'Banner type' is 'HTML/Adsense' then fill in the 'Text Ad' section. If you are tracking clickthroughs, you must set a full and valid http:// link in the 'Destination URL' box. Note that 'Forums' and 'Scripts' are where you can set the forums and scripts for where the ad will appear. If you are just starting out, use 'All scripts' and 'All forums' until you get the hang of GAB.
Flash and HTML BannersNon-clickable Flash banners are a consequence of Flash itself. Surrounding a Flash banner with an A HREF tag will not make it clickable. Flash banners are not clickable unless you build the banner using clickTAG. The GAB_item_flash template accounts for clickTAG. Visit http://www.adobe.com/resources/richmedia/tracking/designers_guide/ for information on how to build clickTAG into Flash banners. Further, the GAB_item_flash template accounts for WMODE, setting it to transparent, but DHTML layers, such as the vB navbar drop down menus, may lose focus, with the Flash banner grabbing the focus instead. Visit http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=E5141 to read more about it. If you run into focus issues, you might try making use of z-index, but the oracle suggests that you save your energy and place Flash banners in a location that is away from DHTML layers. Please note that the oracle will not deal with Flash support questions. There are simply too many versions of vBulletin, JavaScript, Flash, skins/styles, etcetera, and there may be no solution other than to workaround the issue. With regard to HTML banners, the GAB_item_html template (selectable under 'Template for html/text ad') contains JavaScript so that the HTML banner can be tracked. This means that any links you add to the HTML banner, will generally click to the 'Destination URL' instead of the links you set. If you want to display Google Adsense, you should not use the GAB_item_html template, as it is likely to go against Google policy! Google Adsense people, do the following:
For any other non-Adsense HTML banner, if you want clickable links that take you to some place other than the 'Destination URL' then you should also select GAB_item_solo instead of GAB_item_html, but doing so means no click tracking through GAB, unless you link to the gab_redirect.php file yourself in your ad. The following is an example of the latter: Here is some HTML ad content with a <a href="BELOW-LINK-GOES-HERE">link</a>. http://www.YOUR-DOMAIN.com/YOUR-FORUM-DIR/gab_redirect.php?id=YOUR-BANNER-ID As with Flash support questions, the oracle will not deal with HTML support questions, as the oracle has just spewed all she can with regard to the issues related to Flash and HTML banners. CategoriesThis is where you set the categories for your banners. All banners need to have a category. If you have any 'Categoryless Ads' then give them a home (i.e., category) so GAB is happy. Categories are a way to... erm, group banners of similar types. For instance, you can put all horizontal image banners in one category and all vertical image banners in another category. That way you can set GAB up to pull from a specific category when creating billboards (see below for billboards).
BillboardsThis is probably one of the most confusing parts to GAB but don't fret. You'll get the hang of it. So what is a billboard? You see them on the sides of the road, advertising something or other, cluttering up the scenery. In GAB a billboard is a way for you to specify what types of ads are shown on that sign on the side of the road.
If you add or edit a billboard, every 'Type of ad' shown within each billboard should be unique, and the weights should sum to 100. Remember that GAB billboards specify the type of ads to show. You could create one billboard for only Image and Flash, and another billboard for only Image and HTML/Adsense, etcetera. If you have 50 images, you still only specify 'Type of ad' as Image one time. Use the weights for display frequency. ScriptsThis is probably the other most confusing part to GAB but again don't fret. You will get the hang of it. So what is a script? In GAB it is a PHP file. Nearly every vB PHP file has an associated script name (e.g., showthread or forumdisplay). The script name is found inside the PHP file. For example in the vB forumdisplay.php file is the following line of code near the top of the file: define('THIS_SCRIPT', 'forumdisplay'); The script name is taken from that line of code, and for this example, forumdisplay is the script name. Note that THIS_SCRIPT is not the script name. GAB uses the script name to allow you to customize on which pages ads should appear. This allows you to set what type of ads (recall the billboards) get shown on a page by page level. For each webpage where you want an ad, you MUST have an entry in the scripts section! You will notice a special script entry called MASTER. The MASTER script allows all other script entries to simply 'inherit' the settings from the MASTER script. This saves you buttloads of time, in that you do not need to edit the settings for each individual script. If you are just starting out, make sure 'Use Default' is ticked for every script. Once you get the hang of GAB, you can experiment.
ManageDeactivate expired ads, compress the stats table, and show the debug garbledygook. A cron job is automatically set for you, so you do not need to run anything here, unless you like to click things. ModerateAny time you edit or add a banner, and set the 'Active' option to 'Awaiting Moderation' the ad will be listed here. So what's the point of that? It is a way for you to easily list out any ads that might need more work before going live. StatsObvious. Displaying AdsSo how do you get ads to show? You will need to edit your templates to specify where the ads should appear. Depending on your settings, ads will appear where you stick the $GAB_ads[NUMBER] variables, where NUMBER is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9. Make sure that NUMBER is actually a number (e.g., $GAB_ads[0]). For example, let's assume that under GAB Manager -> Scripts, you have 'Use Default' checked for all scripts. Further, let's assume that under GAB Manager -> Scripts -> MASTER, you have $GAB_ads[0] set to one billboard and $GAB_ads[1] set to a different billboard, where each billboard has at least one 'Type of ad' listed, and there are banners of that type. You could then place $GAB_ads[0] in your vB navbar template and $GAB_ads[1] in your vB footer template to display ads. Note that if you want ads across all your skins/styles, the $GAB_ads[NUMBER] variables need to appear in all your skins/styles! TroubleshootingCheck the following items:
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