AbleDesign Programs (Scripts)

AbleDesign - Programs

Programs > Banner Simple

Description:
Banner Simple is pretty much what it sounds like: a very simple banner rotation program. No fancy administration area, campaigns, or logging and statistics. Just a very fast, efficient, and easy to set up and operate program for people who want to randomly rotate banners and not worry about all the frivolous stuff and perpetual bug squashing.

Banner Simple's major limiting feature at present is that banner files are identified by the size (width x height; in pixels) of banners they contain. For example, the common 468x60 banners would go in a file named mybanner_468x60.txt. Similarly, 100x60 banners would go in mybanner_100x60.txt. Why is this a limiting factor? Well, it means banners of different sizes -- such as slightly different heights for a border tile placement -- cannot go in the same rotation.

Directions for use:
Simply copy the code at the bottom of this page into a .php page. You may name it anything you wish (something like banner.php will be fine). Any page that you wish to include the banner rotation on will then call banner.php, or whatever you named it, such as:

<?php
include("/banner.php");
echo get_banner("468x60");
?>

Only include banner.php once per page, but you may call the get_banner() function as many times per page as you wish. Just specify which banner file (by width x height) is being called.

To set up the files which will contain your banners (i.e. mybanner_468x60.txt), create a blank text file and add the following for line 1:

# URL | target="_blank" (1 = Yes, 0 = No) | off-site image (1 = Yes, 0 = No) | image | Alt text

Pay attention to the order of the fields between the pipes (|), as that is the same order each of your banners must follow.

This is the URL that the banner will link to when clicked on.
If you wish for the banner's target page to be opened in a new window, set this to 1. Otherwise, set it to 0 and the target will open in the same page.
If the image for the banner is being loaded from a site/server other than the one the banner rotator is running from, set this to 1. Otherwise, set it to 0; you may see a slight performance increase.
This is the banner image. If the previous field is set to 0 (on-site image), then this will simply be the image's file name. Otherwise, it will be a full URL and file name.
The ALT text for the image.

So, a banner that links to Google, opens in a new window, and uses an off-site image might look like:

http://google.com/|1|1|http://google.com/images/ad.jpg|Google Search

Make sure to add each banner's code on its own line. Do not add a blank line after the last banner.

<?php

/* Banner Simple, Version 1.0
 * by Dan Kaplan <dan@abledesign.com>
 * Last Modified: January 10, 2003
 * --------------------------------------------------------------------
 *
 * USE THIS LIBRARY AT YOUR OWN RISK; no warranties are expressed or
 * implied. You may modify the file however you see fit, so long as
 * you retain this header information and any credits to other sources
 * throughout the file.  If you make any modifications or improvements,
 * please send them via email to Dan Kaplan <dan@abledesign.com>.
 * --------------------------------------------------------------------
*/

$base_dir = '/path/to/www/';
$img_url = 'http://www.mysite.com/images/ads';

// add any banner sizes (width x height) that you will use:
// IAB Standards & Guidelines:  http://www.iab.net/standards/adunits.asp
$banner_sizes = array ("468x60", "100x60", "100x38", "300x250", "250x250", "240x400", "336x280", "180x150", "468x60", "234x60", "88x31", "120x90", "120x60", "120x240", "125x125", "160x600", "120x600");

$srand_called = FALSE;
$last_file = '';
$array = '';

function get_banner($size='') {
	global $base_dir, $img_url, $banner_sizes, $srand_called, $last_file, $array;

if (empty($size) || !in_array($size, $banner_sizes)) {
		$size = "468x60";
	}

$size_split = explode("x", $size);
	$width = $size_split[0];
	$height = $size_split[1];

if (empty($last_file) || ($size != $last_file) || !is_array($array)) {
		// if calling muliple banners on one page, no need to read in the same file repeatedly.  so,
		// if the last banner file read in is the next one called, pull the $array array from memory.
		
		$file = $base_dir."/mybanner_".$size.".txt";
		if (!file_exists($file)) {
			// could not load the banner file, so create a default blank image and exit
			$banner = "<img src=\"\" width=\"$width\" height=\"$height\" border=\"0\" alt=\"broken image\">";
			return $banner;
		}
		$array = file($file);	// read $file into an array
		$last_file = $size;		// save the last read-in file into memory
	}
	
	if (!$srand_called) {
		// slightly less random without this; srand() should only be called once for multiple banners
		mt_srand ((double) microtime() * 1000000);
		$srand_called = TRUE;
	}

$rand = mt_rand(1, count($array)-1);	// start at 1 to ignore comment line
	$line = chop($array[$rand]);

if ($blank == 1) {
		$target = "target=\"_blank\"";
	} else {
		$target = "";
	}

if ($off_site == 1) {
		$image = $image;
	} else {
		$image = "$img_url/$image";
	}

$banner = "<a href=\"$URL\" $target><img src=\"$image\" width=\"$width\" height=\"$height\" border=\"0\" alt=\"$alt\"></a>";
	return $banner;
}