The "Random Ads Widget" would create a widget that could be placed on the primary site (or any site via config option) and would generate a sidebar widget that would allow admins to input unlimited different text (or code) that would then randomly appear in the widget location each time a page was refreshed.
With copious free time on your hands, you could integrate an image upload with the ability to somehow associate unique hyperlinks to each image the widget displays. Or, just make it a text widget that somehow allows admins to add additional text/code in different boxes that would then randomly display.
Am I making sense? Basically, we're looking for a way to replace multiple different text widgets we use for small banner ads, with one widget that would randomly display them randomly all in the same widget location.
EXTRA CREDIT: The big plus would be to provide code along with this widget (or do a separate plugin) that would do the same thing but be designed for hard coding into theme templates. In fact, I would implement this first! Kinda like how Recent Posts works as opposed to the Recent Global Posts Widget.
The "Random Ads Widget" would create a widget that could be placed on the primary site (or any site via config option) and would generate a sidebar widget that would allow admins to input unlimited different text (or code) that would then randomly appear in the widget location each time a page was refreshed.
With copious free time on your hands, you could integrate an image upload with the ability to somehow associate unique hyperlinks to each image the widget displays. Or, just make it a text widget that somehow allows admins to add additional text/code in different boxes that would then randomly display.
Am I making sense? Basically, we're looking for a way to replace multiple different text widgets we use for small banner ads, with one widget that would randomly display them randomly all in the same widget location.
EXTRA CREDIT: The big plus would be to provide code along with this widget (or do a separate plugin) that would do the same thing but be designed for hard coding into theme templates. In fact, I would implement this first! Kinda like how Recent Posts works as opposed to the Recent Global Posts Widget.
@Andrew thanks for the suggestion, hadn't heard of it. But with that whole "more work" thing in mind, and considering this is a feature request forum, I think I'll wait to see if anyone else also thinks this is a great plugin idea.... Anyone?
What existing plugin will provide a simple interface to add a sidebar widget that will randomly display text or html? (The suggested plugin would allow for multiple snippets of text or code to be entered on the widget admin page, and then randomly display the content upon each page reload.)
If such a widget exists, please advise. And if such a solution already exists, the WPMU Dev advantage may be to integrate an associated script for editing theme templates to display the random widget content. Or, perhaps provide a system for weighting certain content to be displayed more than others (like CJ Smartzone settings), or build in an image upload with associated hyperlink, and call it a banner ad widget that randomly shows a different hyperlinked image.
But of course, you market it by providing the awesome compatibility guarantee and support that comes with all WPMU Dev plugins! Thanks for the consideration.
Sweet... So yeah, basic functionality would be to include any HTML in the widget. Other users may find the ability to include javascript or Flash a plus. Unlimited entries is an added plus. Upon page reload one of the random widgets would be displayed.
The "weighting" would be a bonus, though not necessary for an initial release. I'm not certain how your percentage system would work. Widget x given 30% would display 30% of the time? Could get tricky once total percentage exceeds 100%...
I only thought of the ability to show some widgets more than others because we use CJ Smartzones to show ads (some more often than others) on a couple other sites. See screenshot if you're not familiar with CJ Smartzone settings. CJ Help screen says, "Traffic Allocation: Enables you to specify a weight for each link in the SmartZone. The weights range from 0 to 100, often in increments. The weight determines how often that link displays in the SmartZone’s ad rotation, relative to the other link weights."
Whatever method works for your and is easy to implement works for me!
PS: One requirement with the Nelo theme – and many others, I'm sure – would be for multiple random widgets, since there are multiple sidebars (ie: on the custom homepage) where it can be placed. We would like to have at least one random widget on our custom homepage, and another one (perhaps two) that will go in the site-wide sidebar.
EXTRA CREDIT: A way to call/display the widget with a template theme hack would be the icing on the cake! Kinda like how we use the Recent Global Posts widget on pages with a sidebar, and Recent Posts using a template edit like on top right of our Forums page.
Responses (10)
WPMU DEV Fanatic — 5th March 2011 (1 year ago) #
Hello jcnjr,
You might like XmasB Quotes. It isn't built for ads but I believe it manages to do roughly what you're describing.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/xmasb-quotes/
But I'd prefer to have an ads based one myself, as that really is the only use I've ever had for this plugin. Any other votes for a random ads widget?
Cheers,
David
Lifetime member! — 5th March 2011 (1 year ago) #
+1
Member — 18th March 2011 (1 year ago) #
It may take more work, but you can probably also achieve that with the free OpenX platform.
Andrew
Member — 18th March 2011 (1 year ago) #
@Andrew thanks for the suggestion, hadn't heard of it. But with that whole "more work" thing in mind, and considering this is a feature request forum, I think I'll wait to see if anyone else also thinks this is a great plugin idea.... Anyone?
Founder & CEO — 19th March 2011 (1 year ago) #
I'm still a bit confused :/
How would you market this as a WPMU DEV plugin (as compared to the existing ones)?
Member — 19th March 2011 (1 year ago) #
What existing plugin will provide a simple interface to add a sidebar widget that will randomly display text or html? (The suggested plugin would allow for multiple snippets of text or code to be entered on the widget admin page, and then randomly display the content upon each page reload.)
If such a widget exists, please advise. And if such a solution already exists, the WPMU Dev advantage may be to integrate an associated script for editing theme templates to display the random widget content. Or, perhaps provide a system for weighting certain content to be displayed more than others (like CJ Smartzone settings), or build in an image upload with associated hyperlink, and call it a banner ad widget that randomly shows a different hyperlinked image.
But of course, you market it by providing the awesome compatibility guarantee and support that comes with all WPMU Dev plugins! Thanks for the consideration.
Founder & CEO — 22nd March 2011 (1 year ago) #
So basically we'd be looking at a 'random widget'.
i.e.
- a text widget with unlimited possible fields
- where you can set (by a %?) how much you want the widget to appear
So
box 1
ad code 1
20%
box 2
ad code 2
50%
box 3
Nice message
30%
I'm sure that wouldn't be a big effort to build, and would make a nice quick release... lemme know if that's what you're after.
Member — 22nd March 2011 (1 year ago) #
Sweet... So yeah, basic functionality would be to include any HTML in the widget. Other users may find the ability to include javascript or Flash a plus. Unlimited entries is an added plus. Upon page reload one of the random widgets would be displayed.
The "weighting" would be a bonus, though not necessary for an initial release. I'm not certain how your percentage system would work. Widget x given 30% would display 30% of the time? Could get tricky once total percentage exceeds 100%...
I only thought of the ability to show some widgets more than others because we use CJ Smartzones to show ads (some more often than others) on a couple other sites. See screenshot if you're not familiar with CJ Smartzone settings. CJ Help screen says, "Traffic Allocation: Enables you to specify a weight for each link in the SmartZone. The weights range from 0 to 100, often in increments. The weight determines how often that link displays in the SmartZone’s ad rotation, relative to the other link weights."
Whatever method works for your and is easy to implement works for me!
PS: One requirement with the Nelo theme – and many others, I'm sure – would be for multiple random widgets, since there are multiple sidebars (ie: on the custom homepage) where it can be placed. We would like to have at least one random widget on our custom homepage, and another one (perhaps two) that will go in the site-wide sidebar.
EXTRA CREDIT: A way to call/display the widget with a template theme hack would be the icing on the cake! Kinda like how we use the Recent Global Posts widget on pages with a sidebar, and Recent Posts using a template edit like on top right of our Forums page.
OK. Long winded enough answer. Thanks again!
Member — 22nd March 2011 (1 year ago) #
Oops. Probably needs a valid file extension ...
Founder & CEO — 22nd March 2011 (1 year ago) #
Yeh, that smartzone thing is definitely something to look at.
I reckon you could force the widget not to save unless the %s add up to 100 without too much trouble.
One clarification... this is a single wordpress / single site request rather than a super admin force onto all sites multisite request right?
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