AdRotate Pro 5.8.18 is available today! This version includes some long overdue updates to the weight feature and updates to the notification system. A number of bugfixes and even a low-risk security flaw have been addressed. Good stuff! So log in to your dashboard today to get version 5.8.18 as soon as possible!
Features
The Impression spread function in Schedules has been overhauled and now can spread impressions for ALL adverts using that schedule. This means that if you configure 100000 impressions in a schedule, that gets divided up by all adverts using it instead of per advert.
This lets you create timed campaigns with multiple adverts more easily. They all share the same schedule anyway, so now you can set one global impression limit for them in the schedule for the campaign.
The weight function is functionally unchanged but the dashboard options have been redone to make it more clear what the function does and how it works.
As requested by some users notifications have been expanded, new error states have been added. This makes AdRotate smarter to detect errors in adverts, but also more informative in telling you when adverts need your attention… Running out of impressions? Now there is a notification for it. Running out of budget? AdRotate will tell you. And a few more like it.
These new statuses act as a soft-expiry. With a new color inthe “adverts need attention” list and until you top up the budget, impressions or whatever needs to be done the advert is expired. Look for the blue highlighted adverts to see what that means.
Following input from another AdRotate Pro user, the ads.txt file can now be in a different location. This can be managed from Settings – Similar to how the banners folder works.
Also AdRotate Pro no longer creates an empty ads.txt file in the configured configuration. Instead if you need one you can create it yourself from Settings > Maintenance. After the file is created you can then edit it from Manage Adverts > Header & Ads.txt.
And finally, you can now upload and use .webp files for your banner images. Support has been added to the AdRotate Pro asset manager.
Most modern browsers support this new-ish format, but not all like it. Consider that when you start using these super compressed files. Older and less popular browsers may lack support for it. Otherwise it’s a fine alternative for .jpg as it’s a much better compressed format that takes less space in storage.
Security
AdRotate Pro addresses a security flaw on some text fields where a XSS attack would be possible for privileged users. This means admin accounts.
Since you protect your admin account the risk of this being exploited is near zero. Still, the affected text fields, 5 of them, have been fixed and are now secure.
PHP8
A number of compatibility issues with PHP8 have recently been resolved and AdRotate Pro should now work properly on it.
Please if you find quirks or errors when using PHP8 let me know as soon as possible and include the error message so I can fix them in the next update.
AdRotate Swap
I’m still working on AdRotate Swap. The unique and new approach to website promotion. AdRotate Swap will be added to a future version of AdRotate and AdRotate Pro. AdRotate Swap is an easy way to promote your website for free on websites that use AdRotate or AdRotate Pro. Every AdRotate and AdRotate Pro user can participate.
If you have thoughts or comments about this new feature, let me know in the comments or through the contact form!
Update regularly!
Staying up-to-date with plugins is important and is almost never a bad thing. Updates are important for your website security. But more often updates also add new or improve features as well.
Updates are available via your dashboard and require no special knowledge to install, this makes it extremely easy to keep your site secure and have the latest features.
Changes in AdRotate Professional 5.8.18
- [fix] Sometimes missing indexes notice in AdRotate Geo status check
- [fix] Text color for AdRotate Geo status check
- [fix] Low-risk security flaw on certain text fields
- [new] Advert status for exceeding click/impression limits
- [new] Advert status for exceeding advertiser budget limits
- [new] ads.txt can now be in a non-standard location
- [new] Option to manually create an ads.txt file
- [new] Option to manually create a banners and reports folder
- [new] Improved status indicators for banners folder
- [new] Impression spread for all adverts using a schedule (campaigns)
- [new] Upload .webp files via the AdRotate asset manager
- [update] Reworded the weight function
- [update] Added a description to the weight function
- [update] Re-arranged device checkboxes
- [update] Redid dashboard help tabs
