OpenXBridge is built on a modular platform which has given it grate expanability, and will support furture growth and added support for more advertising networks. The current work flow for a Commission Junction advertiser is:

• The first step is to download all your banner adverts form Commission Junction and store the in the internal cache. This reduces server load and bandwidth consumption.
• Next a new Advertiser is created in your inventory called "Commission Junction" all CJ banners will be assosiated with this advertiser (if one already exsits it is used instead of creating a new one)
• For each CJ advertiser a new campaign is created called "AdvertiserName - Default Campaign", again if one already exsists it will be used instead
• If a banner is found with a promotional start and end date then a new campaign is used called "AdvertiserName - Promo Campaign"
• The default campaign weights these campaigns are: 40 for Default Campaigns and 80 for Promo Campaigns
• The default banner weights these are: 10 and 60 for Promo Banners.
• Delivery targets are also setup for Promo Banners so they do not show before or after there indended dates
• It creates a new URL banner for each CJ link, with out producing duplicates
• Finally it links all new campaigns to your zones
• Something to be aware of. OpenXBridge will not link new banners with all your Zones by default It will only links new banners to Zone that contain "Content Zone - %" (% being a wildcard). So the simplest way to automatically link your new banners is to rename your current Zones. For example if your primary zone name is "My Zone 1" you would rename it to "Content Zone - My Zone 1"

OpenXBridge has a built in automated installer that will guide you thru the nessesary installation steps and create its own configuration file and database tables.

OpenXBridge must be installed in a seperate directory inside your web sites root, but must use the same database as OpenX. This reduces alot of the load and lag time seen in previous versions by directly querying the OpenX database instead of the API. Something I make clear however is OpenXBridge at no point writes to the OpenX database, it will only read from it in order to save time. All write commands are handled by OpenXs own API.

Inorder to use OpenXBridge with Commission Junction you will require a Commission Junction Developers key, which can be obtained for free from Commission Junction API Site

You will also need a self hosted copy of OpenX 2.8.1 or 2.8.2. More information on installing and setting up a copy of OpenX can be found on the OpenX website

The latest stable version of OpenXBridge can be downloaded from here

OpenXBridge is currently at version 1.9.9.9 which will be the last release candidate before version 2 is complete.

All tests are proving this RC to be stable and reliable, so unless information comes in that something is missing or wrong this will be the same as version 2 when it comes out.

Updates - October 17th

OpenXBridge is currently at version 1.9.9.9 and while it is stable and perfectly functional there are still areas where it excels and other where it struggles.

Updates - November 9th

OpenXBridge just hit version 1.9.9.9.2. I had planned that the next launch would be 2.0 but we're not there yet. There are no new features in ...9.2 but full installer support for OpenX 2.8.1. So if you've installed Bridge already you want need to update to this version, just wait for version 2.0

Currently the biggest problem facing users is the web UI. The automated installer is doing it job and does it well, but after that the browser interface is struggling with the extreme load and about of time taken to download all the link from Commission Junction and proccess them. I am working on this now and hope to resolve the issues by the time 2.0 comes out but that is looking firther away than I was hoping it would be.

If you are comfertable using a unix/windows command line then you are currently able to make full use of OpenXBridge by running the command "php5 ./index.php --app=cj --action=fullrun" which will download all thinks from Commission Junction and add them to OpenX

This week OpenX launched version 2.8.2, from what I can see this new version should cause no problems to OpenXBridge however I am yet to find the time to upgrade my own OpenX installation so have been unable to test it as yet. If you experiance any problems please let me know about them and ill get them fixed. If need be ill push and update out of cycle to make sure that command line support still functions with OpenX 2.8.2.

In the mean time all I can do is ask for your passiance. I am working to improve the browser interface in the hope that OpenXBridge can save all Commission Junction publishers with OpenX time and money.

--Stu

While this software is offerd 'as is' if your having any problems with it or need some extra help then look thru the forums and ask any questions you have Forum Topics

All bugs and new features are tracked and recorded using Bugzilla, please report or request as much as you like. Bug Reporting & Feature reporting