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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.

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.

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 3.7.4.3 and renewed support system

Tiny update to change the support links to the new system I’m launching today.

AdRotate 3.7.4.3

One small bugfix in AdRotate but mostly this update is aimed at updating the dashboard to no longer link to the forums but to the new ticket system instead.

Changelog:

[fix] Typo in query when selecting ads for groups
[change] Support links in dashboard

Support and the future

Since the forum was malfunctioning and was overrun by spam bots and fake users every minute or so. I decided to close the forums directly and work out a new way of supporting plugins. Having been unhappy with how the forum worked for weeks this was the last straw, so to speak.

Over the past days I’ve been looking for and testing a new system. I think I’ve found a good alternative.

Behold!

Your very own support center for everything that involves my business.

http://www.ajdg.net/support/ BOOM BABY!

Ticket support. This means more personal assistance. Still free. And a knowledge base too. This will replace the current manuals and provide a more flexible way of finding information. Instead of a clumsy set of untameable HTML pages this is now all powered by WordPress and some plugins. With tags, categories and everything a knowledge base needs.

As for support. You’ll need an account, just like you did on the forum. You can ask any and all questions pertaining to my services, AdRotate and other products here and of course; use the knowledge base! I have created and expanded the FAQ a bit. I’ve made some tweaks to the current manuals which I imported into the knowledge base and will add more manuals where required.

So everyone – Please forget the dumb forums. Update your bookmark to remove the forums and add http://www.ajdg.net/support/ for future endeavors!

AdRotate now on Twitter!

I’m catching up a bit on ways to bring AdRotate and related services under the attention of a larger crowd. Today I’ve hooked up the blog to Twitter.
Follow AdRotate and updates on @AJdGSolutions.

And here a last reminder. 25 hours left to benefit from various promo codes:

Running till September 1st (GMT+1), available worldwide:
Use the code ‘gimmeadrotate’ to get 20% off on your order of the package ‘Install’.
Use the code ‘iwantadrotate’ to get 20% off on your order of package ‘Install XL’.
User the code ‘betteradrotate’ to get 20% off on your order package ‘Upgrade’.

Promocodes – Last day!!

Today is the last day to benefit from a lower price for installations and upgrades using the promo codes!
If you consider having AdRotate installed or upgraded this is your last chance!

Oh, and there’s one longer running code too!

Running from August 20th until October 1st (GMT+1), available worldwide:
Use the code ‘managemysite’ to get 15% off on your ‘management’ package!

What’s AdRotate worth to you?

Would you pay for updates for AdRotate? And how much would be acceptable? Imagine a normal and a pro-version. Pro would have more features. The regular one less and less committed support.

What is your take on such an approach?

Vote in the poll and let me know!

Thread and poll

A new package emerges

Some orders recently inspired me to create a new, more specific, package and we’ll run a trial for that starting today.
If people like it we’ll keep it on the page.

We’ve learned that a few users would rather have us set up just the groups and blocks. Make the necessary theme edits but *not* create ads.
In many of those cases adverts haven’t been sold yet. Or the administrator has appointed someone else to handle adverts.
So buying our time to set up adverts makes little sense there.

Thus, our response to this is as follows.

New package!
I’ve come up with a new package on our service page.
No ads, more groups, a block of ads and the same styling options.
For a reduced price compared to a full package.

You’ll find this package under the name “integrate” on our Premium Setup page.

Promocodes

As a small reminder, we still have coupon codes active on our services. Valid till March 1 2012.

Current codes
- 20% off on the Install and Install XL packages using the code gimmeadrotate.
- 20% off on the Upgrade package using iwantmoreads.

Go to our services page for more information!

Remember, these deals are for a limited time only and expire on March 1, 2012. So benefit now on your new AdRotate setup and order now!

Codes are valid worldwide.

AdRotate Plugin for WordPress

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