According to WordPress stats only 8.1% of AdRotate users have upgraded to 3.8.4.5 but it’s already an all time high in downloads on a daily basis. Let’s hope the other 91.9% also soon upgrade. Or better yet… Buy AdRotate Pro. 
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RSS feed for this sectionAdRotate Pro 3.8.6 available now!
Finally! After 2 months of sun, barbeques, Legos and some development… Version 3.8.6.
Notable changes are of GeoLocation using geoPlugin. Check out the knowledge base on how to use this great addition.
Translators – There are a crap ton of new phrases and words. Also a whole bunch are obsolete. So update your translations. Don’t forget to send in your translations once you have updated them.
Broadstreet Ads – New UI. For even easier implementation of their services so you can benefit even better from publishing their ads.
Changelog:
- [fix] Corrected display of stats for advertisers
- [fix] Inconsistent timezone for data collection
- [fix] Incorrect path for banner folder when WordPress is in subfolder
- [fix] User roles not being applied for some users
- [fix] Advertiser adcode no longer overwritten when editing ads
- [fix] Undefined variables in some forms
- [fix] Reset ad status when using bulk actions
- [new] Geolocations for groups
- [new] Geolocations for advertisers
- [new] Preferred advertising for certain pages
- [new] Periodic update check for AdRotate Pro
- [new] Advertisers now also see a preview of their advert in statistics
- [new] ‘Select all’ checkboxes for Ads, Groups and Blocks
- [new] Caching support for the ‘W3 Total Caching’ and ‘WP Super Cache’ plugins
- [update] Improved ad status checking
- [update] Lots of dashboard tweaks
- [update] Broadstreet Ads interface
- [update] Removed troublesome “Float” option from blocks
Download:
From your original order in your account; right here.
Or if you do not have AdRotate Pro yet, purchase a license here!
Showcase:
There has been a ton of attention for the showcase page. But only 4 sites signed up to be listed there. If you use AdRotate Pro or AdRotate Free and have a cool site. Why not show the world how AdRotate helped you? Check out the showcase page!
Duplication errors on busy sites using AdRotate
Recently while following the search words in my Site Analytics a bit I’ve noticed that there is a small influx of people searching for a particular error that may pop up for some users after using AdRotate for a longer period of time or when your site is particularly busy.
The error in question is a duplicate entry error for the statistics AdRotate keeps and essentially means that the database is “full”.
The solution is rather simple and can be applied from PHPMyAdmin to raise the capacity in only a few minutes.
I have discovered this problem a while ago based on feedback from some users and created detailed page for users to resolve it. Due to the nature of the Query you need to run I do *not* want this in the automated upgrade process. So you have to make the change yourself.
If you run into the error;
WordPress database error Duplicate entry '16777215' for key 'PRIMARY' for query INSERT INTO wp_adrotate_tracker (ipaddress,timer,bannerid,stat,useragent) VALUES ('xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx','1358187611','59','i','')
(or something very similar)
You can find this in your servers “error_log” file through your hosting providers dashboard.
Check out this page with more details and the few simple steps on how to resolve the issue for you.
If you need help with this, obviously contact me as soon as you can and I will help you sort this out quickly.
Blocks have no future
While working on my OmniCard plugin and KeyGenerator plugin for WooCommerce I suddenly had an idea for AdRotate. Those 2 plugins are designed from the ground up to be easy to use and super simple to understand with *everything* they do. Literally everything;
- The KeyGenerator plugin has 1 button and does 1 thing. Generate license keys. No settings no technical shit. Just a button. It can’t be simpler.
- OmniCard has just over 10 options and with that the most flexibility of any payment gateway, but it’s so simple to control even the biggest of bigger idiots can use it.
AdRotate Blocks is not like that anymore. It has bolted on fields and options. People often misunderstand the actual idea of blocks and use it in the wrong way. This means that I did something wrong with Blocks. I’m not entirely sure what. But if the feature no longer makes sense to people or to me, something is wrong.
Therefor I came to the very unsophisticated conclusion that blocks as a feature no longer has a place in the vision of AdRotate. It has to go. Be removed and destroyed! Restore the simplicity. I firmly believe it is a waste of time to further develop and fix the blocks as they are now.
Outrage!
Nope! While the Block as a feature has no place in the idea of AdRotate the idea of blocks must remain. This is a very important change for the future of AdRotate. Ultimately it will make things better and simpler for everyone.
With the introduction of blocks they worked sort of like a group but with multiple ads. Their special purpose would be to generate a grid and show ads in a special way. Awesome! Perfect for the then new and hip 125*125 ads. Now, 3 years or so later, the functionality of blocks eludes me.
The idea was a layered approach, Ads go into groups, groups go into blocks and they would all work together and everyone would be happy. It doesn’t quite work as I want it to and I generally dislike how blocks turned out overall.
Solutions!
Yep! Groups have a future. And all they need is some love and a grid option. Yes, a grid. So you can still make blocks. Except it’s a group. Less layers, less clutter. Which means less confusion and greater ease of use. Oh imagine the joy …
So the very top of my Todo list now looks like this;
Timeline
I want to make blocks obsolete before years end. Changes can be expected soon.
AdRotate Free 3.8.4 and AdRotate Pro 3.8.4
Options options options!
A number of new options related to stats. Lots of bug fixes related to the Advertiser interface. Some changes and tweaks. And the big new thing – Broadstreet Ads. AdRotates first integration with an external service. And what a service. Allowing your advertisers to change ads via Twitter, Facebook or text message. Anywhere. Anytime. Without you having to do it for them. That’s neat!
Who or what is Broadstreet
Broadstreet currently does business with Publishers and Advertisers in the United States, Europe and some in Asia. Publishers create adverts through their services and allow Advertisers to easily manage and update those adverts.
Read all about Broadstreet Ads and what they can do for you on their website!
Get it while it’s hot!
Starting today there a sort of sale going on for AdRotate Pro.
Get a discount of 20% on AdRotate Pro Single, Multi and Developer licenses.
Coupon code: ADROTATEPRO
Valid from: February 26th 2013 till March 5th 2013
Changelog
- [fix] Number of undefined value notices
- [fix] Advertiser and Moderation access roles not being applied (pro)
- [fix] Improper use of global $wp_roles
- [fix] Single column blocks not applying line break
- [fix] Advertiser username not showing when advertiser edits his/her own advert (pro)
- [fix] Moderation queue now actually works (pro)
- [fix] adrotate_clean_trackerdata() not always active
- [fix] adrotate_mail_notification() not always active (pro)
- [new] Broadstreet Ads integration
- [new] Advertiser ad creation now optional (pro)
- [new] Advertiser ad linking now optional (pro)
- [new] AdCode field for ads now supports registered shortcodes (pro)
- [new] Statistics tracking now optional
- [new] Tracking logged in users now optional (pro)
- [change] Purged and reinstated all AdRotate automation schedules
- [change] Advertiser ad creation optimized (pro)
- [change] Improved page/post injection select box
- [change] Improved user-agent filter check
- [change] Restored missing export options for advertisers (pro)
- [change] Blocks: float setting “none” now has no float instead of “float:none;”
- [i18n] Updated translation strings
Download
Free Users: Find the update through your WordPress Dashboard.
Pro Users: Version 3.8.4 is available now in in your account on this website.
Upgrade instructions are available in the knowledge base.
Sell adverts via Broadstreet Ads – The easy way!
A few weeks ago I was approached by Kenny Katzgrau who runs and co-founded Broadstreet.
Broadstreet bridges a gap between customization and management where Publishers can allow Advertisers to easily and quite effortlessly configure and customize their adverts at any time from anywhere.
Broadstreet currently does business with hundreds of Publishers and Advertisers in the United States, Europe and some in Asia. Kenny from Broadstreet proposed a sort of co-operation where their Advertisement system would integrate with AdRotate to accommodate their current and future users better. Since a lot of them already use AdRotate it would make sense to team up with me and integrate the two. And so we did!
So what does this mean for you
You as a publisher can create adverts through the Broadstreet system directly from the AdRotate Dashboard and empower your advertisers to fill in the blanks to keep their advert up-to-date via various online media services. This has been tested to work and turned out quite popular, too.
Imagine a restaurant owner who quickly wants to advertise the daily special. Or perhaps a store or business who regularly change their adverts for all kinds of products they offer. Organizing events becomes easy to promote with adverts that are quickly and easy to update with better or more information as it comes available.
Code generated through the Broadstreet system is easy to handle and use and suits the AdRotate Plugin perfectly.
A real advert as example:
The text in the center of this advert can be changed and updated by your advertiser without you having to update the advert. This saves you time. And gives your advertiser a good amount of freedom to promote their products! Of course you can choose certain styles and coloring when creating the advert.
Available how and when?
The Broadstreet integration will be available as a feature in both AdRotate and AdRotate Pro. Testing is in the final stages and we’re expecting to release updates very soon. Check out Broadstreets website for more details on what they do and how they will help you.
If you have any questions please comment below or write to sales@ajdg.net for more information.
It’s my birthday! Great discounts in the store!
Tomorrow the 9th I’m turning 28. During the entire day you can use the code “ITSMYBIRTHDAY” to get 28% off on your entire cart. All products and combinations possible.
This sale runs on February the 9th (CET/GMT+1) only and is available worldwide! Don’t forget to apply the coupon code!
Better integrated support for AdRotate Pro users
Coming to your site soon. As you might have noticed currently (or before today) AdRotate Pro (Multi) and (Developer) Licenses had unlimited ticket support and (Single) licensees got 2 tickets on purchase. This turned out to be a little short and underused.
So the good news is that Every license will get unlimited support tickets. And what’s even better is that you can do it right from your dashboard. The concept page is being tested now to make it easy on you. Here is what it looks like right now.
This will be ready soon along with some small bugfixes and things.
Bulk actions in the free plugin
Free Users this is for you. I realized that I’ve made a mistake removing the bulk renew options on the management page. In an earlier beta I’ve removed these because they didn’t work and kinda forgot to fix them. However, now there is no way to easily renew multiple adverts. As a bunch of people noticed and commented about. At some point I have promised the plugin would still be functional and fun to use. Without these that’s not true. The next release will bring back bulk renew options from the Ad Management page. Hang in there 
Automated installers are my nemesis
New installations are NOT affected by these issues. Most issues are contained to the free version of AdRotate.
Or so it seems. Once again, despite endless testing a bug slipped into the upgrade script causing all sorts of weirdness on so many websites. With the help and tips of many of you I have pinpointed where the issue is and and working on a fix as I write this.
Currently resolved issues:
- Unserialized warning on some dashboards
- Empty Objects for disabled adverts
- Empty Objects for the AdRotate info dashboard
- Block sizes incorrectly calculated
- Ads showing up as expired while they’re not
- Too much ads per block
- Disappeared ads
Currently being tested:
- Stats disappearing (also not gone, but invisible!)
I’d like to stress that no data is deleted by actions made by AdRotate. Ads are not displaying correctly for some people because the database upgrade script has a small (but important) bug. A fix is being tested right now.
For the missing stats I’m still looking for answers. But that’s expected to be resolved shortly, too.
Thanks everyone for your input and support! If you have found any quirks or bugs let me know as soon as possible! If you can submit reports within the next hour or so I can still workout a solution for the upcoming patch.
[update 1]
Just fixed the blocks, they now show the correct amount of ads
Additionally, active ads showing up as expired is explained. Since the free AdRotate does no longer work with schedules. If the ad has expired and upcoming schedules it kind of lingers in “limbo” right now. AdRotate does not properly recognize this. The ads need to be re-saved to solve this. This will clear out the non-relevant schedules.
AdRotate Pro – Now available!
And finally! Here it is! AdRotate Pro, version 3.8. Bringing many optimizations, some new features and a lot of changes.
Buy buy buy! In the store.
Changelog:
- [fix] Typo in query when selecting ads for groups
- [fix] Weight selection (Pro)
- [fix] Slashes being added to advert title when using certain characters
- [fix] Empty $_POST and $_GET are now properly populated
- [new] Credit limit for adverts (Pro)
- [new] Move the banners folder elsewhere (Pro)
- [new] Allow advertisers to manage their own adverts (Pro)
- [new] Improved messaging system (Pro)
- [new] AdRotate main dashboard
- [new] Statistics exporting and variable periods (Pro)
- [change] Improved email headers for notifications (Pro)
- [change] Menu structure for Advertisers and Publishers (Pro)
- [change] Improved Nonce security features
- [change] Improved use of $wpdb->prepare()
- [change] Improved statistics display and processing
Translations:
Many changes have been made to the translations. An all new PO/MO fileset is included in the plugin. THe files are different for AdRotate Pro and AdRotate.
Free version of AdRotate:
AdRotate will remain a free version. Just with some features cut out. AdRotate is and will be a fully functional and full featured plugin. Version 3.8 with the above mentioned fixes and changes will be released shortly.
Currently I’m finalizing the free version to make the “pro sales talk” not too intrusive. It must remain a pleasant plugin to use…
Where to get it?
AdRotate Pro comes in 3 flavours. A single, multi and developer license. You can purchase them from the store.