MDK

Refreshing the Perl AdServer

I would like to encourage the further development of the Perl Ad Server. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it is an initiative by Gabor Szabo to bring community elements to a broader audience by a series of links that can be displayed on a website and which automatically refresh on page load.

The very first move, if it hasn’t already been done, is to make this a project on Github perhaps in something like the tpf repo or similar?

Then we should start to encourage participation from the community to take the various suggestions I propose forward as it is very unfair to push the hard-pressed and busy Gabor to do all this himself :).

Files and Additions

The first thing to be addressed is the type of adverts we are serving. Currently the adserver feeds all, but if we want to broaden the uptake and the usage we need to broaden our advert types and things we are promoting.

So let’s break into sections for the website user to add to or display. We can do this by either separate files (my preference) with the name of the file being the ‘headings’ (the adserver name for them as shown below) or sections in one file separated using the following ‘headings’:

(Note: Filename in parenthesis)

• Community (community)
• Monger Groups (mongergroups)
• Monger Meetings (mongermeets)
• Projects (projects)
• Organisations (non-commercial) (orgs)
• Events (events)
• News (news)
• Companies (commercial) (?) (companies)

These ‘headings’ (or sections) help us to identify areas of interest and we can display/hide them.

My preference to put these into separate files is to make them easier to edit and add to. If we use one file and order it in a sensible manner (say alphabetically) the constant adding of elements and sections is going to get messy. Also by using the idea that files and elements are imported we work towards seeing the controller for that as an importer, so it can be import:file or import:ical or import:etc. you get the idea.

Display on page

Change the display that is auto-generated to something like:

<ul>
  <li><span>TYPE OF AD</span><span>
      <a href="ITEM LINK">ITEM LINK DESCRIPTION</a></span></li>
</ul>

All items in say [community] would be auto tagged in the type area with:

Community: ITEM

etc.

This allows people to style the “type” separate to the “item”

Or allow them to have:

<h4>TYPE as Heading</h4>
  <ul>
    <li><span>
        <a href="ITEM LINK">ITEM LINK DESCRIPTION</a></span></li>
  </ul>

to display as:

Community

• Item
• Item

Projects

• Item
• Item

etc.

Configuration

Break the Javascript pull of the adverts into an easier to configure item. The current Javascript is perfectly acceptable for the current adserver, but if we want to map out a more configurable tool we need to have more options.

A further advantage to having these as separate items is that they can be added to and configured as individual elements, allowing for future customisation.

My first thoughts run as follows:

(Note: I have used ‘as’ as the prefix to identify adserver items when using the same names for classes, id etc.)

Heading “type”: (asheading)

Values:

• inline
• heading

Headings: (asdisplayheadings)

Values:

• All

• Or by name:
• community (Community)
• mongergroups (Monger Groups)
• mongermeets (Monger Meetings)
• projects (Projects)
• orgs (Organisations (non-commercial)
• events (Events)
• news (News)
• companies (Companies (commercial) (?))

Number of Links: (aslinks)

Values:

• Numerical

Perl AdServer Logo: (aslogo)

Values:

• yes
• no

Perl AdServer Link: (aslink)

Values:

• yes
• no

Logo Position: (aslogopos)

Values:

• inline
• above
• below

Link Position: (aslinkpos)

Values:

• inline
• above
• below

Language: (aslang)

Values:

• all
• by language type

e.g.

asheading: Inline
asdisplayheadings: all
aslinks: 5
aslogo: yes
aslink: yes
aslogopos: above
aslinkpos: below
aslang: all

Would produce a block of links 5 in depth with the adserver link above and an adserver link below. The logo will also serve as a link and all of these could then be styled as css if we use the title (aslink etc.) as the css class in a <span> or similar, all the ‘headings’ (sections) will be displayed and adverts in all languages.

Auto Add

I like to think that the Adserver can be further expanded in the future, it can then have some of the following features:

1. Make the adserver refresh events on a rolling basis, maybe add this as a feature to the configuration (astimedelay) or similar?
2. Build a script to import events from the community calendar and Perl Events calendar and add them automagically to the “Monger Meetings” or “Events” sections?
3. Build a script to add News items from locations such as the tpf Blog, Perl News, Perl Weekly etc. (not sure that we should add Twitter or Facebook items as these have too much line noise and chatter)?
4. Build a script to auto add some of the larger projects on MetaCPAN by finding their project hosting page?

My thoughts are to provide a tool that will allow Perl groups, sites and news services to show relevant content that is constantly updating, making content fresh, providing good links and advancing the language.

Controversy

Adding a heading section called “Companies (commercial)” is going to challenge a few people. The Adserver is a community element so why have this section?

I have a personal belief that we need to integrate communities and businesses together to allow a symbiotic relationship to flourish. I also like to think that this will:

• Display the large number of companies using Perl
• Encourage those sites to use the adserver and community elements on their site
• Bring the community closer together

There is always the fear that someone will try and ‘game’ the results, but I believe this is unlikely, and also irrelevant. If we keep this open to all and allow people to use and mash the adverts as they wish then it is a fair field for all of us.

Due to spam attacks I have made the decision to block all comments on my site except for those that come from members of the group of per.ly people. If you want to make comments on my site then email me at m {dot} keating (at) shadowcat {dot} co {dot} uk.

-mdk