html banners not displaying in Advertising Module

Regular Joined: Oct 11, 2007 Posts: 86

Hi

I serached for this but could not find an answer.

When I use the advertising module I cannot get html code provided to me to display banners.

For example, I select Ad class as Javascript/HTML Code and attempt to use the following code:

Code:







<a href="http://send.onenetworkdirect.net/z/28628/CD141282/"><img src="http://show.onenetworkdirect.net/42/141282/28628" alt="Antec Nine Hundred" border="0"></a>

No banner displays.

It works for adsense ads, javascript ads, and image ad code but I cannot get the above to work?

I am sure its something simple.

Any help will be appreciated.

Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2010 12:11 pm

First, what version of RN are you using. There have been a number of "fixes" in earlier versions. I have tried your code on my test site: the alt "Antec Nine Hundred" flashes quickly and disappears. If I put the following in:

Code:

<p>xx<a href="http://send.onenetworkdirect.net/z/28628/CD141282/"><img border="0" src="http://show.onenetworkdirect.net/42/141282/28628" alt="Antec Nine Hundred" /></a></p>

the "xx" comes up in the ad position while the alt flashes and disappears. In pre-2.4 versions of Ravennuke some of the SQL for saving ads didn't work properly. Actually, just pasting the link you gave into the address bar results in a blank 1x1 gif file appearing. So I think what's happening is that your alt is being quickly replaced by a blank image resulting in ... err ... well, what you see, nothing.

Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2010 3:33 pm

Hi.

I setup that admin function that lets you check the version number and it reports:

rn2.20.01

Are you saying that the html text given on the referral program site is bad? They have 20 or so links for Nvidia and they are all formatted in this same way.

I did try placing the html code on a dreamweaver html site of mine and its as you say - nothing there. . .

Do I need to upgrade versions? I have always been hesitant since I have a lot of pictures in a Gallery 2 install and did not want to break the site which has been running very well . . .

Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2010 3:57 pm

I will just confine myself to facts and let you make the decisions. There were a lot of bugs in the Advertising Module code that Ravennuke inherited from PHPnuke. These were fixed subsequent to rn2.20.01. Without doing a lot of research I couldn't say exactly which RN release fixed which bugs but if you want Advertising to run fairly well you'd be advised to upgrade. There have been VERY MANY other fixes both functionally and from a security perspective after rn2.20.x. The upgrade scripts will update your database tables to the latest RN release. The RN wiki contains further information about upgrade requirements and the process to follow.

I run several sites with Gallery 2 and RN2.40.01. They work fine. You should use search here to find several fixes needed for Gallery2 in conjunction with RN2.40.01. The process for loading Javascript and CSS files in the header area has changed with the latest RN releases and you will probably need these fixes as part of an upgrade.

RE. your immediate problem, it appears to me that you are linking to a blank image file. If you do that with your ad you are just going to get a blank spot on the screen. I think that's why the alt text flashes briefly but then the image loads and you get an empty area. That's also why if you put "xx" in there the "xx" will show up where the ad is. I don't think the problem has anything to do with whether the ad is code or javascript or anything else.

Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2010 8:52 pm

I think you are right. Will upgrade after I have some time to research the process.

Will contact them on Monday regarding the blank image file.

Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 7:43 am

The other thing you could try is to put the link in to an image file on your own site that you know works correctly. If the ad shows up with that in it then you know that the problem is with the image file you are trying to use. Use one of the logo files or something like that in our images directory.