OIOpub Blog
The latest version of OIO is now available for download. It is also the last planned release before the user orientated re-development program begins, and as such does not contain a lot of new features.
>> For a guide on how to upgrade the script, please see this tutorial.
Offline payment module
After requests from a number of people, you can now let advertisers pay “offline”. If selected, the advertiser will be taken to a page containing instructions that you define in the admin area.
Filtering Zones by Wordpress Category
Again, this was a feature requested by quite a few people. Each text / banner ad zone contains a new option that lets you associate a Wordpress category with each ad. When displaying an ad zone on a category or post page, only ads within those category(s) will be shown. This allows you to use a single ad zone to filter ads via category.
Tracker Module Update
Previously, tracking impressions meant loading a new image file on every page request, which increased load on the server. This extra image file has now been removed to help reduce load. Some backend code was also added to stop individual ads from using the tracker if needed (on request, requires editing the database).
Less Admin Clutter
Previously, every ad zone created was shown at the top of the settings page (e.g Zone 1, Zone 2). This took up a lot of space and made it difficult to tell at a glance which ad zone was which. A dropdown menu is now used instead, with “Zone 1″ being replaced by the name you give each zone. The admin editor has also been tweaked for easier use, via feedback on the forum.
Better compatibility with Wordpress config file
This issue was highlighted recently in the forum. If you use Wordpress 2.6+ and have moved your wp-config.php file for better security, OIO will use wp-load.php instead. This should prevent anyone else from having to hack OIO to get it to work with their config file.
Other Tweaks
The “availability” column on the purchase page now shows the number of free ad slots available (rather than the total number). The “price” dropdown menu is also pre-selected if there is only one price available, to improve continuity.
New Release Policy
The automatic upgrader will not notify users of a new “zero” version (ie. 2.20) until it has been sent out to members of the focus group. This will help ensure that any problems that are present will be quickly diagnosed before the majority of people upgrade.
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This crops up every so often, so I thought a reminder post about it might be useful.
Bad Behaviour is a plugin used by many security-conscious Wordpress blog owners to restrict access to the blog. One of the ways it does that is to restrict calls from other websites, unless their IP address is whitelisted (ie. Bad Behaviour is told to let through traffic for that IP address).
By default, Bad Behaviour blocks calls from payment services like PayPal’s IPN, meaning OIO won’t get told when a valid payment has been made. This blocking applies to any automated payment notification, as well as calls by OIO itself (via the marketplace API key).
Luckily, Bad Behaviour comes with a whitelist file that we can use to add IP addresses, to prevent this blocking. I’ll use paypal in the example below, as it is the most common cause of complaint.
PayPal IPN Example
1.) Firstly, we need to find the IP addresses to add to our whitelist. PayPal provides a list of these here (other payment services will probably provide something similar). The IPN is governed by the IP addresses at notify.paypal.com, which at the time of writing are:
216.113.188.202
216.113.188.203
216.113.188.204
66.211.170.66
2.) Now we’ve got our list of IP addresses, it’s time to find the Bad Behaviour whitelist. There is a file within the plugin’s “bad-behaviour” directory called whitelist.inc.php. Open this file and you should see the following php code near the top:
$bb2_whitelist_ip_ranges = array(
“64.191.203.34″, // Digg whitelisted as of 2.0.12
“208.67.217.130″, // Digg whitelisted as of 2.0.12
“10.0.0.0/8″,
“172.16.0.0/12″,
“192.168.0.0/16″,
//”127.0.0.1″,
);
3.) Now let’s add the PayPal IPN addresses to that section of code, save the file, and we’re done:
$bb2_whitelist_ip_ranges = array(
“64.191.203.34″, // Digg whitelisted as of 2.0.12
“208.67.217.130″, // Digg whitelisted as of 2.0.12
“10.0.0.0/8″,
“172.16.0.0/12″,
“192.168.0.0/16″,
//”127.0.0.1″,
“216.113.188.202″,
“216.113.188.203″,
“216.113.188.204″,
“66.211.170.66″,
);
If you’re having problems with any other automated notification systems while using Bad Behaviour, simply repeat the process above using the IP addresses of that provider.
OIOpublisher IP Address
In case you’re also having problems authenticating your API key, you might want to add the IP address of OIOpublisher.com to the whitelist. At the time of writing, this is: 91.198.165.34
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Don’t get me wrong, I like OIO…
But I want to make it better. To do that, I’m going to need your help.
After releasing one more version in the current series (see features to be added), I’m going to be rolling out what I can only describe as a “blog wiki” style section of the site. It will categorise every different aspect of OIO (from the creation of ad zones to the inbuilt affiliate program), showcase the new admin interface, and include a few of my own ideas for the next major version.
But, this isn’t a documentation exercise…
I’m going to hand things over to the users and ask you to help re-design OIO from the ground up. Don’t worry, it won’t involve any web development on your part, only your imagination. You’ll be able to browse OIO by feature, leave your feedback and comment / rate other people’s ideas. As the feedback comes in, the interface will be updated to reflect your ideas, until a group consensus is reached.
And the result with be…
By focusing just on the end product (what you see, as the end user), and not the development obstacles that can sometimes stifle a web project, we can come up with a great product that fulfills your needs. It will then be my job to develop the backend code to match the feature set and interface created by your ideas.
It’s a potentially ambitious project, and won’t happen overnight (I work full time too), but I am confident that this will help take OIO to the next level, producing something that everyone can have a say in.
More details will be emailed to everyone in the following weeks. Even if you haven’t purchased OIO, you can still contribute to the next version by registering free. You’ll then be included in any email announcements.
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I’ve been quite busy lately, and as such haven’t done too much with OIO in the weeks following the official release of v2.1 (other than bug fixing).
This evening I had a quick glance around for articles on “the world’s favourite ad manager” (trademarked in advance for the time it becomes true!). I was pleasantly surprised to see this review by Keller Hawthorne of fresheventure.com. All too often I see articles that were obviously written just to try and get people to purchase, but Keller went the extra mile and talked about her experiences setting up OIO; the problems as well as the successes. She has even produced a short video tutorial on how to set up affiliate ads.
Keller’s article was also informative for me, as it pointed out a couple of “could do better” areas; the layout of the control panel in particular. It will be interesting to see how the new admin design goes down with users (not yet ready to demo I’m afraid, but it has been re-designed now). I’m hoping for an equally valuable amount of constructive feedback as occurred with the affiliate program changes.
The other chord that the article struck with me was how well casual users of OIO, once they have learnt the ropes, can teach others about to make the most out of it. More often than not they do it far better than I can. I may have to explore the opportunity of “user-driven tutorials” more.
I’m hoping to get back on the development trail in mid June, including releasing the first demo of the re-designed admin area, and working towards a re-build of the core application that will allow future developments to occur far more quickly. I’ll also be starting the hunt for a marketing partner to help grow the site further.
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Is OIOpublisher compatible with a standard Wordpress installation?
Yes, the script is fully compatible with any Wordpress 2.x version, including the latest v2.71.
Does OIOpublisher work with any Wordpress theme?
Yes, as long as the theme footer contains the Wordpress “footer hook”. If you are unsure whether your theme supports this, open the theme’s footer.php file and look for the php code below:
<?php wp_footer(); ?>
If you cannot see this code, simple add it to the footer file, just above the </body> tag.
Is OIOpublisher compatible with WPMU?
Yes, as long as you install OIO in the “plugins” directory. It is not designed to work in the “mu-plugins” directory. If you want to show ads across the entire site, rather than using it on a blog by blog basis, it is suggested that you install OIO in standalone mode.
Is OIOpublisher compatible with Wordpress.com blogs?
No, Wordpress.com does not allow the use of 3rd party plugins on it’s hosted blogs, nor the use of javascript.
Is the Wordpress plugin a separate script from the standalone install?
No, it’s exactly the same script and will automatically load as a Wordpress plugin if placed in the “plugins” directory of a Wordpress blog.
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