Advanced Flash banners

Openads can handle Flash banners just like normal banners. For example;
you can simply click on Add new banner in the administrator interface and select the type
of banner you want to add. If you choose Local banner (Webserver) or Local Banner (SQL)
you can select the .swf file and upload it like you would do with a regular banner. It is
also possible to link to an external Flash banner (External Banner) and specify the full
URL to the .swf file.

Openads will automatically detect the type of the file and generate the
HTML code needed to display the banner during invocation. Please note: Flash banners will
not be displayed if you are using normal remote invocation. Only remote invocation with
JavaScript, iframes or local mode can display Flash banners.

Openads also supports transparent Flash banners. Choose "Yes" from
the Transparent background (Flash only) drop-down list in the Banner
properties page if your flash banner has a transparent background. Openads
changes the embedding code accordingly to allow the transparency. Note, though, that
Openads does not transform the Flash file and can not make it transparent - the original
file must have transparent parts in the first place.

Using Flash banners has always been a problem for ad servers. After
adding a Flash banner, you will probably notice Openads won't track AdClicks for that
banner. This is normal behavior. Usually the destination URLs are hard-coded in the Flash
banner and if the user clicks on the banner it the Flash player will tell the browser to
visit the hard-coded URL directly. Once this URL is set by the creator of the Flash file
it wasn't possible for the ad server to replace it with it's own AdClick logging
mechanism. Different ad servers use different mechanisms to overcome this problem, but
usually it required the creator of the Flash file to supply a specially prepared version
of the Flash file.

Converting hard-coded URLs

Openads has a unique feature which allows you to use any Flash file (even
compressed Flash MX files) and still log AdClicks for that particular banner. The only
requirement is that the links must be already defined in the Flash file (hard-coded
URLs). Due to a small Flash editor which is included in Openads the hard-coded URLs can
be converted and changed to any value you want. And the best thing of all: it is a easy
as a simple click. You don't need to have any knowledge about Flash to enable the
tracking of AdClicks.

If you create a new banner and select a Flash file, a
small checkbox called Check for hard-coded URLs will be displayed below the upload field.
Once you submit the new banner and if this box is checked it will automatically check for
hard-coded URLs inside the Flash file. If Openads finds hard-coded URLs in the uploaded
file it will ask whether you want to convert these URLs. To the left of each hard-coded
URL you will find a checkbox, which allows you to turn off the conversion for specific
links. Also you can change the hard-coded URL and the target frame from within this
screen. If you are finished making the needed adjustments, all you need to do is click on
Convert and the URLs will be converted to Openads' own AdClick tracking
mechanism.

Openads Convert Flash Links:

Openads Flash Static Link:

One other feature that might be interesting is the
ability to convert any Flash file into a compressed Flash MX file. The resulting banner
is much faster to download, but the downside is, it will only be visible to visitors who
use the Flash 6 player. Other users will be alerted a new version of the Flash player is
available.

Openads Convert Flash Links:

If the Flash file has more than one hard-coded URL
you will be able to convert all of them to Openads' own AdClick logging mechanism.
Additionally there is one other feature with allows you to track how many times each
separate button has be click on. If you have enabled the logging of the source parameter
in your configuration settings you will be allowed to overwrite the source parameter
which is specified during invocation with a new value for each different hard-coded URL.
The value you specify in the Overwrite source parameter field will be logged instead of
the value specified during invocation. If you start this field with a + the original
source parameter will not be overwritten, but the value you specified will be appended to
the original source parameter.

After the hard-coded links are converted they will be
listed as Destination URL on the Banner properties page. If you want, you can make
changes to the URLs. A radio button is displayed right behind each converted link. The
Destination URL you select here will be used as the destination for text which is
displayed below the banner.

If you use this feature you might want to keep a
backup of each banner, because phpAds-New will physically alter the file to make the
necessary changes. The original file will not be saved by Openads.

The MFAA ClickTAG

Openads also supports Flash banners which are
prepared using the guidelines set by the Macromedia Flash Advertising Alliance. Flash
banners which are build using these guidelines will not only work correct in Openads but
also in DoubleClick, Engage, L90, TargetNet, 24/7Media and many other professional ad
servers.

Preparing a .swf banner according to the MFAA
guidelines is not very difficult, but you will need to have access to the original Flash
movie source. In the example below the hard-coded URL is replaced with an ActionScript
variable called clickTAG.

Openads Flash Static Link:

Openads will give the Flash player the correct value
for the clickTAG ActionScript variable during delivery. The clickTAG ActionScript
variable will contain the URL which is needed for tracking clicks and will redirect to
the URL specified in the Destination URL field on the Banner properties page.

More information about the MFAA can be found on
http://www.macromedia.com/resources/richmedia/

If you want more infor-mation on how to prepare
banners according to the MFAA guidelines, you can download the Flash Tracking Kit from
the URL mentioned above.