Banner Rotation

[Robert]

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have or know where I might obtain a simple banner rotation script? I currently have about 5 or 6 standard (468x60) banners that I want to put into a rotating cycle on my site. I don't need anything fancy with stats. click-thrus ratios, etc. Just need the banners to rotate so visitors don't see the same banner each time they visit the site.....it makes them%)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and/or recommendations.

Best to all,

Bob

[Jeff]

A free banner rotation script written by Justin can be found here http://www.jm4n.com/banner.zip

For running banners on your site that you do want to keep stats for I would also recommend http://awsd.com/scripts/webadverts/index.shtml

[Joe]

I use Justin's banner rotation script and it works really well. It also has a stats feature (impressions and click-throughs) that may not be heavy duty but it is sufficient if that is all you need to know.

Joe

[Robert]

Thanks Jeff and Joe!
Think I'll give Justin's script a try. Looks like it's just what I need.

[Mandi]

Another thumbs up for Justin's script . . . I just installed it for a client, and she's very happy with it. The interface is simple enough for a non-technically-proficient website owner to administer herself, without having to contact me everytime she wants to add a new advertiser. Runs sharp too :)!

[evanair]

I tried to follow the link to get Justin's script, but the page (and domain) come up as not found. Does anyone know where to find this script?

[Bob]

http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=56883#post56883

Monty had posted this a while ago and the link appears to still be valid. In addition there is some additional information regarding the script in that post.

Hope this helps :)
-Bob

- Hopes Monty don't mind :ididthat: -

[Elek]

Hi,

I'm probably missing something obvious. Justin's script works perfectly as long as I don't want to use different size banners. A button on one page, a 468x60 banner on another one, for example. I have uploaded the banners, and the "standard" SSI call <!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/showbanner.pl" --> works OK. But, of course, it displays both types. When I add ?W=468&H=60 just to display 468x60 banners, it doesn't work - it returns the error message [an error occurred while processing this directive]. What am I missing?

Thanks a lot,

Elek

[morrisdan1]

Hello everyone,

Excuse me, but may I barge in ? : )

Ok, I happen to be looking for a banner rotater when I came across this discussion.
And have tested Justin's scripts since then.

Ok, in spite of the fact that all I did was to follow instructions and only edited the path line in all 3 files, admin.pl, showbanner.pl and click.pl, I'm currently having Internal 500 errors with showbanner.pl and click.pl

And that I've used the same path for all 3 .pl files, is that the way it's supposed to be ?

And when I checked the script errors files, it only stated that the error was in "line 11". Which I believe is the line number where the codes starts (ie. the part that's not to be edited), etc.

Am I missing something here ? Please advise. I'd appreciate it. Thanks in advance !

Sincerely,
--Dan

[Elek]

Well, I must admit that I'm somewhat disappointed that noone has offered any help so far... :(

I've been investigating the issue a bit more and here's what I came up with:

The php output works OK - but I'd hardly want to change all my files to .php in order to make the banner ad rotation to work (people have bookmarked pages, etc.).

While the SSI call <!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/showbanner.pl" --> works (but not with different sized banners, as I said before - this is the problem), <!--#include "/cgi-bin/showbanner.pl" --> doesn't seem to work with any banner - is this any hint toward an answer?

I'd really badly need some help...

Thanks a lot,

Elek

[kitchin]

It would be great if htm files could be treated as php files. I have the same concerns as you when I convert a site from ".htm" to ".php": that I'm creating a bunch of dead links from search engines or bookmarks. So I go through sometimes elaborate redirection schemes to offer links from the old pages to the new pages.

Can it be done? Php-process ".htm" files via some server directive?

As for your Justin script, I've never used it. What does it have to do with php?

:QTSweden:

[Elek]

Unless I'm completely misguided, I think it would be a bad idea to use .htaccess to serve php pages through .htm because of server concerns. It might be something similar to using SSI calls through .htm, which is forbidden now.

Justin's script has three output format: SSI, php and Javascript. I don't want to use Javascript, because it might be disabled on some machines.

Elek

[Monty]

Elek,

I have been doing some testing

HERE (http://2coolfishing.com/ttmb/test.shtml)
and can confirm the same behavior that you saw. I have never used this script with anything but the javascript call and that part is the only part that appears to work as advertised.

Here is the code I used to support my testing:


<html>

<head>
<title>1</title>
</head>

<body>

<!--#echo var="HTTP_USER_AGENT" --><br>

<!--#include cgi="http://2coolfishing.com/cgi-bin/2coolbanners/showbanner.pl" --><br>

<!--#exec cgi="http://2coolfishing.com/cgi-bin/2coolbanners/showbanner.pl" --><br>

<script language="JavaScript"
src="http://2coolfishing.com/cgi-bin/2coolbanners/showbanner.pl"></script>
</body>
</html>


It would seem that unless you are willing to run javascript, this script isn't going to work for you. Webadverts is also not a good choice due the load it places on the server.

Sorry I couldn't help more,

Mont

[Elek]

Monty,

Thanks a lot for your support! I'm glad that at least I know it's not my fault that I can't get this script to work.

Is WebAdvert the same as WWWAdverts? This is an alternative I'm looking at right now.

Thanks again,

Elek

[kitchin]

If you look in your directory /big/dom/x[your acct goes here]/logs_cgi and look for "error" you will get a description of the perl error that is causing the 500, I think.

[Elek]

kitchin,

I have found the error in the logs, but I'm still not closer to a solution... (an error is an error is an error). I tend to think the script should be modified to work properly - but I can't do that.

Elek

[Monty]

Elek,

http://awsd.com/scripts/webadverts/index.shtml is the one that causes problems on the servers. I work with that author on development of his forum script, so it's not a case of bad apples or anything like that. Terra said it spawns forks/processes that load up the server and that's not a good thing for community servers.

I don't know about the other one. I understand your concerns about javascript code, especially with WebTV users, but I decided a while back to be happy with making things work for 90% of folks, and making it work as well as I can for the rest.

Mont

[MichaelC]

I'll just chime in briefly to mention that if you have the time to spend configuring a robust (yet also free) banner rotation solution, you should really consider PHPAdsNew (available from SourceForge). It's way more configurable than a "little" banner rotation program, if you're willing to read up on configuration.

Also, as you may have already learned, the "simpler" CGIs aren't necessarily "smaller," at least where server overhead is concerned.

MC

[kitchin]

Yes, and php is much easier on the server than perl. I'm still curious what the perl error logs looked like. As for javascript, I've seen it work pretty well on WebTV.

By the way, my own idea for a very simple php banner rotation is here:
http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=62242#post62242
(the last post in the thread).

[tedloh]

<!--#include "/cgi-bin/showbanner.pl" -->

should be

<!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/showbanner.pl" -->

[Elek]

Ted,

Thanks. I copied the code from the manual without much thinking. But the problem is the same: "an error occurred while processing this directive", even with the "standard" version, where no banner sizes are specified.

Elek

[kitchin]

Originally posted by Elek:
I have found the error in the logs, but I'm still not closer to a solution... (an error is an error is an error).

When I look in my error logs, I see very specific things like:

syntax error at example.pl line 377, near "$mailto)"
Execution of example.pl aborted due to compilation errors.

example.pl is not your script, by the way.