Ok, first of all I love the way the XOOPS banner manager works.
BUT It is in a badly need of Advertising link and PayPal IPN integration.

What I need it to do is to be able to add a link to the menue somewhere where people can go and purchase ads.

The admin should be able to set different packages and visitors should be able to purchase ads and once the payment is confirmed by IPN automated, the admin should get an email AND PM that there are ads waiting approval.

ALSO, I have a program which does just this called pHpLords Banner Manager.

if anyone wants to port it you have my permission to do so and distribute it free. The ONLY thing it needs is to make sure the IPN system still works because since PayPal made a few changes I have not tested it.

It is available for free through our site to anyone who wants it.

Max

I wouldn't personally go so far as to say that this is an ESSENTIAL feature.

It is VERY easy to use ANY other banner management system as an external program, and have the banners displayed on your XOOPS site by removing the <$xoops_banner> in the theme.html file and replacing it with the invocation code generated by your banner management system.

It isn't an essential feature for most personal websites, but for those of us that would like to sell ad space, it is. Incorporating PayPal or any sort of online payment option into the ad software is the best way to go.

Where can we download your software? I went to your website but didn't see a download section.

Thanks!
Chris

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I don't disagree with this. However, if software already exists that will do this, why do we need to integrate it within Xoops? All we need to do is introduce the invocation code into the theme and voila.

I agree that it would be fairly simply to replace the xoops_banner smarty variable with output from another script, and just provide a link in a menu to the 'backend' of the banner ad software where people can purchase ads etc.

However, I can also understand that some people like features fully integrated in Xoops. Often it is just to prevent the need for logging in twice, but also it is to give the whole site a more consistent professional feel, rather than something that is hacked together. This may seem like a relatively small job, but from personal experience it takes a long time to do a good job as you need to have thorough knowledge of the code you are integrating (typically this is the hard part because much PHP software is badly written/organized).

Perhaps an 'advanced' banner management module exists for Xoops... I don't know. I believe the module development team is taking over the banners functionality, so maybe you could ask at the module development site (there is a link icon in right column of this site).

Most modules arise because of a personal need for a particular function, and usually that is incentive enough for someone to write a module. vB3Dev, if you are a coder I would suggest starting this project yourself as it would be a good way to start becoming familiar with the XOOPS core and if you wrote the banner management software you are way ahead of everyone else in understanding how that works. If you are not, and if you need this quickly, I would offer some kind of incentive for someone to do it for you.

Oh, and our banner manager is free and has statistics wher users can log in anc check their stats and buy more ads.

WHY should it be ported? So people don't have to log in twice but it can be used either way if you don't mind having separate registration and logins.

Max

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Ditto!

Oh and my partner coded it and believe me he is one of the best coders in the world.

He did a REAL SMTP server in PHP which we sell for $219 and many people love it. Download it and take a look at the code. I am sure you will find it to your liking.

Max

http://phplords.com/dl/bannermanager_1.0.zip

The way I see it, on most sites, the users and the people who purchase advertising from you are completely seperate from one another, so log-in wouldn't be duplicated anyway.

And advertising normally takes place on behalf of a company, ie: a company account, whereas site membership is personal - again, two different things.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure a lot of people have a use for it to be ported - I'm just highlighting these points so that maybe some people can use it as it stands.

I guess I am thinking of how to acquire *new* advertisers... if they visit your site, like what they see, see some ads, and see a link to purchase ads, then this can operate more smoothly than if they have to email you to set up a banners account for some separate banner management software. However, I suppose for repeat and/or large advertisers, they may not even care what goes on in your site, in which case the separate login is the way to go.

However, please bear in mind I have no clue what I am talking about. I have never purchased or sold banner ads, and I don't think I've ever clicked on one either.

The software I'm sure is quite usable as it is now. If someone does decide to integrate it in to Xoops, I hope they will be willing to share their efforts with the XOOPS community!