Adding a zone

To add a zone, go to Inventory > Zones and click Add new zone in the Actions box in the top right-hand corner of the screen. You will now be in the Add new zone screen:

To add a zone:

• Name: your zone should have a unique name. If this field is left blank, OpenX gives it the name of its parent website and adds the suffix "-Default"
• Description: enter information to make it easier to see what the zone is used for, e.g. 'full banner (468 x 60)'
• Zone type: select a zone type (for a more detailed explanation of zone types, see the Zone types page in this guide)
• Size: you must always specify the size of all zones, apart from text ad zones. Only banners that fit these dimensions will be displayed in the zone. This dropdown includes all standard dimensions as defined by the IAB
• Media/Technology Cost: The costs incurred to show ads in the zone
• Comments: this field is provided for you to make notes relevant to this zone

Once you're done click Save Changes to view the main Zones screen.

Advanced options

In the Advanced tab of the Zones page you are able to set the following properties:

• Chain settings
• Delivery capping per visitor

Zone Chaining

Sometimes a zone cannot display an ad because it is not linked to any active banners, or because delivery limitations prevent it from doing so. To ensure that a blank zone is not displayed you can create a chain of zones. When it is not possible to display a banner for a chained zone then a banner from another zone can be used to replace it.This is why zone chaining can also be used as an effective method of prioritising your campaigns.

You have two options when initiating zone chaining:

• Stop delivery and don't show a banner: if this option is selected an empty space appears on the website if no banners can be displayed for the zone
• Display the selected zone instead: selecting this option results in a dropdown menu appearing. Select a zone from it and OpenX will display a banner from that zone if no banners can be displayed for the current zone

Note: Only zones from the same publisher are available in the dropdown, unless you made zones for another publisher public.

Delivery capping per visitor

You can place a cap (limit) on the number of times a visitor sees an ad in a particular zone. You can cap zones in two ways:

• Limit zone views to...in total: this option caps the total number of times users see the banners linked to this zone.
• Limit zone views to...per session: this option caps the number of times users see banners in this zone in a single session.
• Reset view counters after: OpenX records the number of times a zone has been viewed with cookies. You can order the cookie count to reset after a specified period by entering the desired number of hours, minutes and/or seconds in these fields.
  • if a user has disabled cookies banners in capped zones will not be delivered to that viewer.
  • if a user deletes existing cookies then the cookie count is reset to zero and the user will see banners in this zone until the set limit is reached.

Once you are happy with your selections, click Save Changes and you will be taken to the Linked Banners tab.

Linked banners

The Zones > Linked Banners allows you to control which banners you would like to link to a particular zone:

The first dropdown gives you two choices:

• Link banners by parent campaign: select this option to link all banners associated with a particular campaign to this zone
• Link individual banners: select this option to assign individual banners to this zone

The second dropdown allows you to choose from the advertisers that have banners compatible with this zone in their campaign. Once you have made your selection further dropdowns appear listing the relevant campaigns and individual banners. To finalize your choice click the arrow to the right of the final dropdown:

The linked banner and its parent campaign/advertiser will then be listed at the bottom of the page.

Probability

The Probability tab lists all banners currently considered for delivery in a zone:

• Name: the banner linked to this zone.
• Probability: the likelihood this banner will be displayed in this zone when a user visits the web page(s) of which the zone is a part.
• Limitations: if any delivery limitations have been placed on the linked banners, i.e. capping, they will be mentioned here.
• Show banner: click here to open a popup containing your banner.

Note: To change the probability of delivering a banner change the priority settings in the Campaign page or alter the weight of the banner in the Banner page.

Invocation code

The Zones > Invocation Code tab is where ad tags are generated. These tags are then pasted into HTML pages which invoke (call) OpenX to deliver ads. The types of tage available depend on the type of zone you have defined. The tag types (listed in order of popularity) are:

• JavaScript Tag: the most popular and versatile tag type (includes a noscript option for the very small number of users that are not JavaScript-enabled).
• iFrame Tag: this tag permits an ad to be imbedded in an iFrame on a web page.
• Image Tag: useful if you want to display banners to an audience that is not JavaScript-enabled. Width and height attributes are not defined in this tag. If you want to allocate space for an ad before it is displayed then this information must be added directly into the tag.
• No Cookie Image Tag: this image tag does not use cookies. This tag is used by email zone types because most email servers do not support the use of cookies.

Note: Hosted doesn't allow for Local Mode or XML-RPC tags. Users wishing to use them should switch to the downloadable version of OpenX.

Depending on the zone and banner(s) you are currently working with, the dropdown menu will contain combinations from the list above (unless you are generating a No Cookie Image Tag, in which case only the Bannercode will display):

When you select the tag type, you can set various optional parameters in the Tag settings section of the page which change the bannercode for your zone. These parameters vary depending on the type of zone and the type of zone tag you use. The following table describes these parameters and which tags use them.

Note: If a tag is not available in the dropdown menu it is possible that the system administrator has disabled this tag type for the server. Contact your administrator for more information.

Parameter	Description	Used by which tag types?
Target frame	This value sets the HTML TARGET attribute in the bannercode. The Default option opens the target page in a new browser tab, or you can change it to open in a new window or in the same window.	All
Source	Enter a source value if you want to limit banner delivery based on source, such as 'music' or 'construction'. See also: Banner delivery limitations.	All
Support 3rd party server clicktracking	Use this setting to track clicks in OpenX for ads served on an external ad server. See also: the 3rd Party Click Tracking white paper.	All
Insert cache-busting code	JavaScript tags automatically insert a random number into the invocation code to ensure that an earlier banner is not delivered from the browser cache. With all other tags, to avoid ad caching, you must enter this manually into the tag and tick Yes.	All
Include comments	Removing comments from the bannercode reduces the amount of code in your web pages. However, before you remove comments review them carefully as they contain important information about the code. After you have set and reviewed the comments for all optional parameters you can then tick No to remove them.	All
Show text below banner	Tick Yes if you want to display text below a banner. Enter this text in the Banners page.	JavaScript, local mode, XML-RPC
Don't show the banner again on the same page.	Tick Yes if you do not want to show the banner again on this page view.	JavaScript, local mode, XML-RPC
Don't show a banner from the same campaign again on the same page.	Tick Yes if you do not want to show any other banner from this campaign on this page view.	JavaScript, local mode, XML-RPC
Store the banner inside a variable so it can be used in a template	This option enables you to use local mode to display banners in site templates. If you tick No and use a site template, the banner will display before the rest of the page loads.	Local Mode
Host language	PHP must be running on the remote host.	XML-RPC
Use HTTPS to contact XML-RPC Server	Tick Yes if you want to connect to a secure server using HTTPS.	XML-RPC
XML-RPC timeout (seconds)	Set the number of seconds to wait for a response from the server.	XML-RPC
Refresh after	To automatically refresh a banner, specify the number of seconds between each reload. After each refresh, a new banner from your zone is displayed.	iFrame
Resize iframe to banner dimensions	This option is only available if your website and OpenX are on the same top level domain. In this case, it is possible to show banners of different sizes in a zone and the iFrame will resize to fit. Note: Enabling this option may cause security alerts in modern browsers.	iFrame
Make the iFrame transparent	This option works only with Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher.	iFrame
Include Netscape 4 compatible iLayer	Because the Netscape 4 iLayer does not work well with tables, do not place the banner in a table cell if you are using this option.	iFrame
Include code to track Google AdSense clicks	Tick No if you do not want to track these clicks.	iFrame

Types

OpenX supports a wide range of zone types. When you create a zone you must select which type you want. This selection affects the types of zone invocation tags you can create to place in your web pages. Here we will discuss zone types and the tags they support.

A zone can be one of the following types:

• Banner, Button or Rectangle: the most common zone type. This zone type allows you to choose from any of the zone tag options.
• Interstitial or Floating DHTML: these types of zone are for splash pages, or ads that overlay a web page and appear to 'float'. These zone types only support JavaScript tags. This type of zone offers four options:
  • Simple: creates a zone for a splash page that overlays a web page. Splash pages tend to be set to disappear after a certain amount of time
  • Floater: this option creates a zone for an ad that moves across a web page and disappears at the far side, or one which loops across it either regularly or continuously
  • Cursor: creates a zone for an ad that appears beside the user's mouse cursor, following the cursor as it moves
  • Geocities: creates a zone for an ad similar to those on Geocities pages. These ads appear at the top of a page and can be collapsed and closed by the user
• Text ad: these zones are for displaying text ads. They can use JavaScript, Local Mode or XML-RPC tags.
• Email/Newsletter zone: these zones display banners in HTML mails. The follwoing restrictions apply:
  • only banners from campaigns with specific start and end dates can link to an email zone
  • you cannot link a campaign to an email zone; you must link directly to a banner
  • you cannot rotate ads in an email newsletter zone
  • the No Cookie Image Tag is the only ad tag that can be used in these zones