Tag: Website

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 🙂

Bugfix update for AdRotate Free – Fixing several bugs and updating the widget to work better with W3 Total Cache it’s fragmented caching feature. Shortcodes have been updated as well. Post injection should now work more reliable with some complex settings of multiple groups mixed into the same post/page.

Changelog

[unordered_list style=”arrow”]

• [change] Better W3 Total Cache support
• [fix] Post injection not always showing with multiple groups
• [fix] Removed obsolete useragent column from database

[/unordered_list]

Sipalay Islands

Or, Tinagong Dagat more precisely. A crazy beautiful lagoon filled with small rock islands. All overgrown with trees and jungly stuff.

It took a while to get right. Also the lack of feedback from a few people who were supposedly testing the beta slowed things down. But, things work for me. On both my test and real site. Yay and stuff.

Widgets

AdRotate Pro’s widget was kinda stale and dated – Requiring a manual ID entry. I have created 2 easier to use widgets. Or I hope they’re easier to use. The widgets are simpler to control, one for adverts and one for groups.

Caching support

The implementation for W3 Total Cache has been updated to work. The current widget will not be updated for it. In a few months or so the old widget will go away entirely. The new widget uses the new implementation. Along with shortcode output, which has also been updated.

If you want your widgets to work with W3 Total Caches fragmented caching you’ll want to switch over to the new widgets soon-ish. For shortcodes no action is required. The existing shortcodes have been updated.

Geo Targeting

AdRotate Pro now uses version 3 of my Geo API. This version is a bit faster and more efficient.
Also here, no action required on your part. AdRotate Pro will automatically use the newer API.
The API now handles in excess of 800000 requests per day. Quite a lot 🙂 We’ll see how things hold up.

Post Injection

Once again, post injection has been updated. Stuffing multiple groups behind various paragraphs should now work more reliable. Meaning, adverts will actually show for more complex setups.

Another new fancy thing is that Post Injection now finally works for widgets as well. You can set Post Injection to ‘Widget’ now and then set up a group widget with that group. The widget will detect the post injection setting and act accordingly for pages and/or posts. Quite neat I think. This will work for both the standard Sidebar and other widget areas. The old widget does not support this feature. So using the new group widget is encouraged 🙂

Changelog

[unordered_list style=”arrow”]

• [new] Post Injection extends to widgets
• [new] Page Injection extends to widgets
• [new] All new widgets for easier control and setup
• [new] AdRotate Geo API v3
• [new] AdRotate Update API v4
• [change] Dashboard tweaks
• [change] Better W3 Total Cache support
• [fix] Post injection not always showing with multiple groups
• [fix] Better day recognition for schedules
• [fix] Correct schedule creation for renewing adverts
• [fix] Correct device icons for adverts in groups and schedules
• [fix] Removed obsolete useragent column from database
• [fix] Better use of WP_Error for Geo Targeting
• [fix] Better error reporting for Geo Targeting

[/unordered_list]

Beta testing

In order to test a bunch of things I sent out beta versions to people willing to test. Once again it turned out a waste of time as nobody provided any feedback on things and just took the files and ran. Thanks for your assistance guys, really…
I probably won’t be providing beta’s again anytime soon 🙁

I went into a cave!

I took a boat and went to this small rock island at the mound of Campomares Bay near Sipalay City. There was a big cave with tons of bats. Also one caveman was found… Red ‘Iron man’ shirt, unwieldy beard. Claims he made AdRotate and thinks that makes him famous. Perhaps you’ve heard of him?