Updates updates and more updates… This month an exciting new feature gets added. Some improvements and overhauling of things and a whole bunch of changes to make AdRotate smarter. Also some bugs got fixed.
Archive for Adverts
In the current system stats get counted for adverts. A whole lot of it. And it all goes in one big pile of numbers. That works fine for strong and beefy hosting packages. It also works fine if your site is not particularly busy.
Overtime this pile of data can become rather large and adverts expire. But still all that data remains in the pile. Which is less than optimal. So, behold! Adverts that are no longer required to be in the active pool can now be archived. Among a few other things this gets all it’s stats moved to a different location. You can keep the stats, see them at any time. But they’re no longer part of the active pile of data. So for running campaigns AdRotate Pro doesn’t have to deal with it.
And that means your site will be faster! yay!
The Archive function is available in version 3.20 and up. It’s a AdRotate Pro only feature and you access it from the Manage Adverts page in the various Bulk Menu’s in there. Along the top is a archive link where you can manage your adverts that are archived. Simple to learn, simple to use.
Error Detection
AdRotate Pro has an all new error detection system that checks adverts, various features and provides useful links and descriptions to fix those items. Over 15 error states can be detected in the plugins configuration on top of all the error states for adverts.
If something is wrong you’ll see a big banner along the top telling you what’s going on.
Stats overhaul?
I still haven’t quite figured out a good way to get a date picker to work the way I want it to. Also the graphs are getting a bit old. But I did update the format of stats as you see them. More informative numbers in a bunch of places and reworked summary stats for both the Publisher and their advertisers. Statistics should now be a little bit more easy to read and interpret.
Adblock detection
The adblock detecting feature got introduced a while ago. And it works soso. I’m not up for the cat & mouse game that adblockers play to break AdRotate (Pro) and me trying to avoid them. AdRotate and AdRotate Pro have a few other features that are able to work around ad blockers if used properly. The adblock detection system is not part of that. If you do need this feature you can use this plugin instead: https://wordpress.org/plugins/ad-blocking-detector/
AdRotate Geo
Due to increased usage and ensuing performance degradation the free lookups quota has been reduced to 30000 per day as of today. Version 3.20 will reflect this change in it’s descriptions but even if you don’t upgrade you get less lookups per day. The API everyone uses sets the rules for that, not AdRotate Pro.
If you need more than 30000 lookups per day you should look at using MaxMind’s dedicated service instead of using AdRotate Geo – Links with more information about pricing and features are in AdRotate Settings under Geo Targeting.
Changelog
[unordered_list style=”arrow”]
- [new] Archive function for adverts
- [new] AdRotate error detection and status notifications
- [new] Stats display for graphs now shows totals and CTR
- [change] Regression: 30k free lookups via AdRotate Geo
- [change] Updated bot filter keywords
- [change] Removed “Adblock detection” feature
- [change] Reports display tweaks
- [change] Impressions always tracked when using internal tracker
- [fix] Javascripts not always loaded in dashboard
- [fix] Translations not always working
- [fix] Advert evaluation cache not always accurate
[/unordered_list]
Tiny Cebu City
It’s not as big as it looks. Look it’s tiny! I’m leaving for Bohol soon. Hopefully I’ll see some Tarsier there. But for sure I’ll be visiting the Chocolate hills and the beach 🙂
