Revive Adserver Forum

The Revive Adserver team is proud to announce the immediate availability of Revive Adserver v5.1.0. We are pleased to announce the release of version 5.1.0 of the Revive Adserver software. This new version has several enhancements and improvements, and addresses some low risk security issues that have been discovered recently. Here is a list of enhancements in Revive Adserver v5.1.0: We redesigned the email sent to users when a password reset request is made. We added an agency status, allowing to suspend or deactivate accounts, optionally showing custom messages during delivery for such accounts. No blank impressions will be logged in such cases. We added an optional custom message during delivery when a non-existent zone ID is requested. No requests, nor blank impressions will be logged either. We replaced the Flash-based video player for video ads with the HTML5 video tag supported by modern browsers. We added a new manager level permission to delete items. We fixed a number of bugs in this version 5.1.0 of Revive Adserver: Removed usage of the *et_magic_quotes_gpc() deprecated functions. Optimized ad selection context build algorithm. Improved compatibility of Asychronous JS invocation with single page applications, by using the srcdoc attribute when possible. Updated subdivisions for South Africa, following ISO-3166-2: change of subdivision code from ZA-GT to ZA-GP, ZA-NL to ZA-KZN. Added missing delivery script settings for async tags. Removed the possibility to set individual permissions for users that are linked to an admin account as such users always have all the permissions by design. Even though the UI was showing checkboxes it has actually never been possible to disable them. Full release notes for v5.1.0 can be found on our Github page. Security fixes This version 5.1.0 contains fixes for some low risk security issues that were recently discovered: Fixed open redirect in the click tracking script, by deprecating the existing ck.php script and making it ignore the oadest parameter, so that it only redirects to the destination saved in the banner itself. Alongside, a new “signed” click tracking delivery script as been added, (cl.php): it uses regular query string parameters and HMAC SHA256 signature to ensure the destination URL is not tampered with. Fixed a persistent XSS vulnerability caused by missing HTML escaping when displaying the website URL in the affiliate-preview.php tag generation page. Fixed a reflected XSS vulnerability in afr.php that could still be achieved on legacy browsers, bypassing a previous fix. A more detailed security advisory is available at https://www.revive-adserver.com/security/revive-sa-2021-001/ We recommend upgrading to the most recent 5.1.0 version of Revive Adserver as soon as possible. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v5.1.0 is available for download now. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Updating Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server(s) being used meet(s) the minimum technical requirements. Community contributions The continued development of Revive Adserver is being sponsored by community members, either financially or in the form of code contributions. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received. If you would like to contribute to our project, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. Another way to contribute to our project, is by using the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. The post Revive Adserver v5.1.0 released appeared first on Revive Adserver. [url={url}]View the full article[/url]

Available for download: release candidate for the upcoming Revive Adserver v5.1.0 We are pleased to announce the availability of the first release candidate of the upcoming version 5.1.0 of the Revive Adserver software. The new v5.1.0 contains more than a dozen improvements and enhancements. It also contains a security improvement related to the click tracking functionality. Since this new version includes many changes and enhancements, including some breaking changes, we feel it is appropriate to first publish it as a Release Candidate. This will enable users, administrators, plugin developers, hosting providers, and consultants to put the new version to the test in all sorts of scenarios and environments. If everything goes according to plan, we expect to release the final v5.1.0 two weeks from today, on Tuesday, January 19, 2021. Here is a list of new features, improvements, and enhancements in Revive Adserver v5.1.0-RC1: We redesigned the email sent to users when a password reset request is made. We added an agency status, allowing the system administrator to suspend or deactivate accounts, optionally showing custom messages during delivery for such accounts. No blank impressions will be logged in such cases. We added optional custom messages during delivery when a non-existent zone is requested. Requests nor blank impressions will be logged. We replaced the Flash-based video player for video ad previews with the HTML5 video tag that’s built into modern browsers. We added a new account level permission to delete items. We removed the open redirect functionality in the click tracking script, by deprecating the existing ck.php script and making it ignore the oadest parameter, so that it only redirects to the destination saved with the banner itself. At the same time, a new “signed” click tracking delivery script as been added, cl.php: it uses regular query string parameters and HMAC SHA256 signature to ensure the destination URL is not tampered with. There are also several bug fixes and code improvements in Revive Adserver v5.1.0-RC1: Removed usage of the *et_magic_quotes_gpc() deprecated functions. Optimized ad selection context build algorithm. Improved compatibility of Asychronous JS invocation with single page applications, by using the srcdoc attribute when possible. Updated subdivisions for South Africa, following ISO-3166-2: change of subdivision code from ZA-GT to ZA-GP, ZA-NL to ZA-KZN. Added missing delivery script settings for async tags. Important: this release candidate and the actual v5.1.0 release later, has a number of Non-Backwards Compatible Changes: Delivery rules including South African subdivisions Gauteng and Kwazulu-Natal will require manual adjusting. Click tracking via ck.php is deprecated and the behavior of some ad render internal functions (_adRenderBuildClickUrl, _adRenderBuildParams) has changed accordingly. The “{clickurlparams}” magic macro has been removed. Removed 3rd Party click tracking plugin, as the system is not compatible with the new signed click tracking functionality. Deprecated PHP execution inside banners by removing the setting from the admin UI. The (risky) functionality itself will be still working if enabled in the configuration file, but will be removed in a future release. Removed support for Flash banners and the fl.js delivery file that is now unnecessary. Removed Flash-based graphs and supporting libraries in the video ads plugin reports. The new manager permission is disabled by default, which means that non-admin managers won’t be able to delete items, unless an admin grants them the permission. The VAST output was still using the obsolete video/x-mp4 as content type, which has now been updated to video/mp4. Full release notes for v5.1.0-RC1 can be found on our Github page. Release candidate: for testing purposes We would like to invite community members to install this release candidate on a staging server, or update their existing staging installations to this release candidate. Any feedback would be highly appreciated. Please report anything unusual you find in this release candidate, either by adding a comment to the existing issues tagged for this release, or by opening a new issue on our Github pages. Please make sure to first check if the issue you’re about to report has already been reported by another community member. If no blocking issues are found and reported, we plan to release the final v5.1.0 two weeks from today, on Tuesday, January 19, 2021. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v5.1.0-RC1 is available for download now. Please keep in mind that this is a release candidate, and as such it can result in issues. If you don’t feel confident about testing release candidate software, we recommend that you wait until the final v5.1.0 is available. This will be announced here on the blog, on our Twitter account, and to the subscribers to our mailing list. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Updating Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server(s) being used meet(s) the minimum technical requirements. Community contributions The continued development of Revive Adserver is being sponsored by community members, either financially or in the form of code contributions. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received. If you would like to contribute to our project, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. Another way to contribute to our project, is by using the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. The post Revive Adserver v5.1.0 Release Candidate appeared first on Revive Adserver. [url={url}]View the full article[/url]

How to Use Revive Adserver Introducing the new How To article section, with tutorials for new and experienced users of the Revive Adserver software. How to use Revive Adserver – Getting Started Tutorials Anyone using the Revive Adserver software will agree that it is relatively simple to use. There aren’t as many bells and whistles as we see in other ad serving systems, many of which every day users won’t actually need. How To Articles Still, as with any specialized software, there is a bit of a learning curve. In order to help new users get started quickly and easily, we’ve worked on a new How To section here on our website. Right now, there is already a nice collection of articles covering the basics of the software: advertisers, campaigns, banners, websites, zones, and preferences. Once you’ve studied these articles and followed the examples, you’ll have a good level of understanding for the most commonly used features. Each article is filled with a large number of screenshots, visually demonstrating the explanations and instructions. There are also many tips and best practices, straight from the developers of the software, and based on over a decade of hands-on experience helping literally hundreds of users and clients. Over the coming months, we will continue to add articles, making the new How To section even more comprehensive. The table of contents below will automatically be updated every time an article gets added. Articles about How to Use Revive Adserver Advertisers Create an Advertiser Campaigns Create a Campaign Link a Campaign to Zones Campaign Types Campaign Pricing Models Banners Create a Banner Define Delivery Rules Websites Create a Website Zones Create a Zone Create Zone Invocation Code Preferences Create Delivery Rule Sets The post Announcing new How to Use Revive Adserver articles section appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

Revive Adserver Plugin store open for business! Summary Introducing the Revive Adserver Plugin store, offering third party plugins to extend and enhance the functionality of your ad server system. In more detail The Revive Adserver software can be extended and enhanced by adding plugins. This enables developers to build additional functionality or to extend existing functionality. As a matter of fact, a large part of the core functionality of the Revive Adserver software is provided in the form of plugins. These plugins are automatically installed when the Revive Adserver software is installed. The beauty about all plugins – assuming they’ve been coded correctly – is that they will automatically be taken along during software updates of the Revive Adserver software itself. The update wizard will simply go over the entire list of installed plugins and put them into the updated version. Plugins can also be updated individually, when the developer releases a new version of their product, without having to do a full update of the core software. Even though the plugin model has been a part of the Revive Adserver software for more than a decade, we noticed that this is not as well known as we would like it to be. We want to encourage users of our software to consider adding plugins that might make it even more useful. And we also want to encourage developers to consider building new plugins. In addition, we want it to be more convenient for users to discover high quality plugins and to safely purchase them. That’s why we’re launching the Revive Adserver Plugin store right here on the website. It is open for business already, and we’ve listed the first few products as well. More will be added in the very near future. For potential buyers of these plugins, it should act as a place where they can find and purchase products that have been vetted by the Revive Adserver team. For developers, this should act as a central hub that’s easy to find for buyers, potentially giving them a much larger audience then trying to build a presence on their own. Initially, we will proactively reach out to developers we know and trust, asking them if they’re interested in having their products listed in the new Plugin store. Later, we will create a way for other developers to submit their products to us for consideration. At that time we will also publish the requirements that each new product will have to fulfil, and the details and costs of the verification process that will be put into place.  Let's go shopping! Please take a minute to have a look at the plugins already available in the Revive Adserver Plugin store! The post Revive Adserver Plugin store open for business! appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

Response to report about outdated Revive Adserver installations being compromised Summary A report about compromised Revive Adserver installations does not emphasize enough that these installations ran outdated versions of the software. We put a lot of effort into security updates. As part of that, we are about to introduce rewards for security researchers who report newly found vulnerabilities responsibly on HackerOne. We urge users to always update to the most recent version available. In more detail A few weeks ago, a company called Confiant posted a blog about some cases where they discovered Revive Adserver installations being compromised. Whoever was responsible for this then proceeded to insert malicious codes into existing ads. The malicious codes would redirect site visitors exposed to these compromised ads to sites that would then attempt to infect the visitor’s computer or perform other malicious actions. In their blog post, Confiant points to our Github project and – unfortunately – misspells our project name consistently. They describe the Revive Adserver project as “a huge PHP project that has been around for well over a decade.”. They also link to our webpage with past Security Advisories and our HackerOne program page. Next, Confiant is correct in stating (direct quote from their blog): This not to say that the Revive team doesn’t handle security issues well, but more to illustrate that this is a large project that has been around for many years and that there are many ad serving infrastructures out there that are based on dated versions of Revive. And that last part is where the crux in this matter lies: even though our project frequently releases updates of the Revive Adserver software, which anyone can download free of charge and install in a matter of minutes, there are still many individuals and organizations who continue to run outdated versions. This is – of course – not limited to just our software. Keeping the software being used for an online operation up to date is crucial, but that doesn’t mean that everyone puts in the effort all the time. As can be seen from our Security Advisories page and from our release history, we put a lot of effort into investigating any reported vulnerabilities, and into releasing security fixes for these as soon as is humanly possible. However, we can’t force the users of our software to update. Fortunately, many users do so anyway. At the time of this writing, almost 1,600 known installations of our software run the recent v5.0 x software. And more than 600 of those have been updated to the most recently published version v5.0.5, just a few weeks after it was released. For good measure: both v5.0.5 and v5.0.4 contain some security fixes, and these were all for very minor issues that are completely unrelated to the larger problem that Confiant refers to. And Confiant even adds: “For context, Tag Barnakle have compromised ~60 ad servers in total.”. So, in the context of literally thousands of known installations, the number of compromised installations is relatively small. Of course, even just one compromised installation is one too many. Contrary to what Confiant writes, this is not a new problem. The practice of attacking and compromising outdated installations of ad server software has been around for as long as ad servers have been in existence. That’s because an ad server is a very attractive environment for criminals, since it enables them to very easily reach a large audience. In that sense, creators of malware are not that different from regular advertisers. Confiant does not give any detail about how the compromised installations were attacked. We assume however, that these attackers simply use the well published attack vectors to get into outdated installations. People and organizations running outdated versions with known security vulnerabilities are in fact responsible for the issues they face. We do our very best to inform our users as soon as a new version is available. We have a free mailing list to inform subscribers about new releases. The software displays a message inside the user interface, informing system administrators about new releases. We post updates on our blog, on the community forums, on Twitter and on Facebook. But then the users themselves will have to take action and spend a little time to actually perform an update. We continue to take the security of our software extremely seriously. And we’re literally putting our money where our mouth is. Later this year, we will enhance our existing HackerOne program, offering rewards to security researchers who report new vulnerabilities to us, obviously, in a responsible manner. We will investigate any report we receive and we will release security updates if and when necessary. Meanwhile, we urge our users to always update their installations to the most recent version of the Revive Adserver software. It was, is, and continues to be a free download, so there’s no reason to delay updating for financial reasons. Don’t want to update yourself? Alternatively, if you don’t want to spend any time on keeping the software up to date, we also have a Hosted edition that you can subscribe to. This is a Software-as-a-Service offering that uses the exact same software, and that will always be kept up to date with the most recent version. All you have to do is subscribe, log in and use it. The post Response to report about outdated Revive Adserver installations being compromised appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

The Revive Adserver team announces the immediate availability of Revive Adserver v5.0.5. We are pleased to announce the release of version 5.0.5 of the Revive Adserver software. This new version addresses issues with cookies when running PHP 7.3 and higher. It also addresses some minor security issues that have been discovered recently. Here is a list of changes in Revive Adserver v5.0.5: Fixed issue with setting cookies on PHP 7.3+ introduced with the latest cookie changes. Full release notes for v5.0.5 can be found on our Github page. Security fix This version 5.0.5 contains fixes for some minor security issues that were recently discovered. We recommend upgrading to the most recent 5.0.5 version of Revive Adserver as soon as possible. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v5.0.5 is available for download now. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Upgrading Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server(s) being used meet(s) the minimum technical requirements. Community contributions The continued development of Revive Adserver is being sponsored by community members, either financially or in the form of code contributions. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received. If you would like to contribute to our project, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. Another way to contribute to our project, is by using the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. The post Revive Adserver v5.0.5 released – includes security fixes appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

Revive Adserver, cookies, Google Chrome v80 Revive Adserver, cookies, Google Chrome v80 Summary: With the release of version 5.0.4 of Revive Adserver on January 21, 2020, our software is now fully prepared for the upcoming changes regarding third-party cookies in Google Chrome v80. In more detail As announced by Google, Google Chrome v80 is due to be pushed to users in February 2020. This version implements what Google calls a “secure-by-default model for cookies”. Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s Edge are set to also implement this in the near future. Instead of trying to explain what this means, we would like to recommend having a look at the article posted on the Webmaster Central blog, Get Ready for New SameSite=None; Secure Cookie Settings. In case you find it hard to understand this rather technical article by Google, you could also have a look at article WTF is Chrome’s SameSite cookie update? On Digiday.com, which has a somewhat more humorous take on the matter. We released Revive Adserver v5.0.3 on January 14th, 2020, including some changes to the way we set cookies, with the aim of supporting the new directive. Unfortunately, the changes were not entirely successful, and a few days later we became aware of several issues affecting cookies. While the ad server still worked, several features that require cookies, for example frequency capping, did not. These issues have been tackled with priority. On January 21, 202, we released Revive Adserver v5.0.4, which fixes the earlier cookie issues and made some additional improvements to how Revive Adserver deals with cookies. We recommend updating to Revive Adserver v5.0.4 at your earliest convenience, so that you’re fully prepared for the release of Chrome v80 next month. Don’t want to update yourself? Alternatively, if you don’t want to spend any time on keeping the software up to date, we also have a Hosted edition that you can subscribe to. This is a Software-as-a-Service offering that uses the exact same software, and that will always be kept up to date with the most recent version. All you have to do is sign up, log in and use it. The post Revive Adserver, cookies, Google Chrome v80 appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

The Revive Adserver team announces the immediate availability of Revive Adserver v5.0.4. We are pleased to announce the release of version 5.0.4 of the Revive Adserver software. This new version addresses issues with the creation and use of cookies that were discovered after the release of version 5.0.3 on January 14, 2020. It also addresses one security issue that has been discovered recently. Here is a list of changes in Revive Adserver v5.0.4: Fixed cookie based features (e.g. frequency capping) inadvertently broken in the 5.0.3 release. Full release notes for v5.0.4 can be found on our Github page. Security fix This version 5.0.4 contains a fix for one low risk vulnerability that was recently discovered and reported to us through our HackerOne security program. We recommend upgrading to the most recent 5.0.4 version of Revive Adserver as soon as possible. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v5.0.4 is available for download now. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Upgrading Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server(s) being used meet(s) the minimum technical requirements. Community contributions The continued development of Revive Adserver is being sponsored by community members, either financially or in the form of code contributions. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received. If you would like to contribute to our project, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. Another way to contribute to our project, is by using the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. The post Revive Adserver v5.0.4 released – includes security fix appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

MaxMind’s new license key for downloading GeoLite2 files Downloading and updating GeoLite2 files Revive Adserver version 5.0 comes with a new, completely rebuilt geotargeting plugin, capable of using the new GeoIP2 datafiles produced by MaxMind. Our software was developed to be capable of downloading the required GeoLite2 country datafile from MaxMind’s servers upon initial installation, or while upgrading from a version older than v5. It is also capable of keeping that datafile updated by downloading any newer files that MaxMind publish (usually on a weekly basis). We released Revive Adserver v5.0 on September 30, 2019. On December 18, 2019, MaxMind suddenly announced that they were going to implement a mandatory license model for file downloads and updates of GeoLite2 files. License keys for GeoLite2 are free of charge. Following MaxMind’s announcement, a new version 5.0.3 of the Revive Adserver software was released on January 14, 2020, which is capable of using your MaxMind GeoLite2 license key to download GeoLite2 datafiles. In this blog post, we explain how to obtain a free license key from MaxMind’s website, and how to use it in your installation of Revive Adserver v5.0.3 or higher. Step 1: sign up for a MaxMind license key As explained in the blog post by MaxMind, you can get a license key free of charge. The steps are: Sign up for a MaxMind account (no purchase required) Confirm your signup and set a password to access the MaxMind backend website Create a License key Step 2: Enter license key in geotargeting plugin settings Here is what you need to do to enter the license key you just obtained in the plugin’s settings: Go to your installed Revive Adserver v5.0.3 (or higher), and log in as a system administrator. If necessary, switch to Working as System Administrator in the top right hand corner of the screen. Now click the Plugins tab. Most likely the new MaxMind GeoIP2 Plugin is listed at the top of the list of available plugins. For this plugin, click the Details link in the same row. On the details screen, you’ll see two components. Click the Settings link in the first row. In this settings screen, you will notice a new settings field for the License Key. Paste the license key you obtained from MaxMind in step 1. Now click the Save Changes button. Step 3: Force download of GeoLite2 file (optional) If you’ve been using a prior version of the software that was capable of downloading the GeoLite2 country datafile without a license key, the software will now be able to do that again using the license key you just entered. By default, the software will check for new files during the maintenance process at midnight. If it notices that a newer file is available, it will download that and use it to replace the outdated file on your server. If you created a fresh install of Revive Adserver v5.0.3, or if you updated from a version older than v5.0, and entered your license key, it will now be capable of downloading the GeoLite2 country datafile. To force the system to do that right away, instead of having to wait until midnight, here’s how: Make sure you are still logged in as a System administrator, and that you are still Working as System Administrator. Go to the Plugins tab to open a list of the installed plugins. In the row for the MaxMind GeoIP2 Plugin you will see that the status column shows the plugin to be Enabled. Now click the Disable link at the right of the same row. The screen will refresh and the plugin’s status will have switched to Disabled. A new Enable link has come into view in same place. Click it to enable the plugin again. To avoid disrupting your ad serving, disable and enable within a few seconds. Once again the screen will refresh, but you may notice that it takes a few seconds. This is because at that very moment the plugin is proceeding to download the GeoLite2 country datafile from MaxMind’s servers. The time it takes to download it depends on the speed of your server’s connection to the internet. That’s all, your geotargeting plugin is now up to date. It will automatically keep an eye on any new versions of the GeoLite2 country file and download it once available. This will happen at most once every 24 hours, at midnight. Don’t want to get your own license key? Alternatively, if you don’t want to spend any time on configuring a server and installing the software, obtaining a MaxMind license key and setting that in the software, we also have a Hosted edition that you can subscribe to. This is a Software-as-a-Service offering that uses the exact same software, and that will always be kept up to date with the most recent version. All you have to do is sign up, log in and use it. We’ve already taken care of regular updates of the GeoIP data files for you! The post MaxMind’s new license key for downloading GeoLite2 files appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

The Revive Adserver team announces the immediate availability of Revive Adserver v5.0.3. We are pleased to announce the release of version 5.0.3 of the Revive Adserver software. This new version has two new features, one is about the SameSite cookie policy for Google Chrome and other browsers, the other is support for registering a license key to enable download of MaxMind’s GeoIP2 files following the changes in MaxMind’s EULA. Here is a list of changes in Revive Adserver v5.0.3: Added support for the SameSite cookie directive which will soon be required by browsers in order to allow 3rd party cookies. Updated MaxMind2 database updates downloader to use a license key, according to their EULA changes. Full release notes for v5.0.3 can be found on our Github page. We encourage our users to upgrade to the new version 5.0.3 as soon as possible, so that they can benefit the most from the new functionality of Revive v5. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v5.0.3 is available for download now. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Upgrading Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server(s) being used meet(s) the minimum technical requirements. Community contributions The continued development of Revive Adserver is being sponsored by community members, either financially or in the form of code contributions. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received. If you would like to contribute to our project, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. Another way to contribute to our project, is by using the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. The post Revive Adserver v5.0.3 released appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

The Revive Adserver team announces the immediate availability of Revive Adserver v5.0.2. We are pleased to announce the release of version 5.0.2 of the Revive Adserver software. This new version fixes a number of bugs and issues that were reported after the recent releases of version 5.0.0 and 5.0.1. Here is a list of the issues that have been fixed in Revive Adserver v5.0.2: A warning message was always showing in the delivery rules screen, incorrectly indicating there was a mismatch with the cached delivery rules. Delivery rule targeting countries were not working. Midnight maintenance triggered an error when the GeoIP2 plugin tried to download the file updates. Full release notes for v5.0.2 can be found on our Github page. We encourage our users to upgrade to the new version 5.0.2 as soon as possible, so that they can benefit the most from the new functionality of Revive v5. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v5.0.2 is available for download now. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Upgrading Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server(s) being used meet(s) the minimum technical requirements. Community contributions The continued development of Revive Adserver is being sponsored by community members, either financially or in the form of code contributions. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received. If you would like to contribute to our project, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. Another way to contribute to our project, is by using the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. The post Revive Adserver v5.0.2 released appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

The Revive Adserver team announces the immediate availability of Revive Adserver v5.0.1. We are pleased to announce the release of version 5.0.1 of the Revive Adserver software. This new version fixes a number of bugs and issues that were reported after the recent release of version 5.0. Here is a list of the issues that have been fixed in Revive Adserver v5.0.1: Improved performance of delivery rules validation and recompilation, which was causing upgrade failures under some circumstances. Fixed an issue that caused the From e-mail header to be malformed when sending campaign expiration and other e-mails. Fixed an issue preventing the MaxMind GeoLite2 City database from being updated during midnight maintenance. Added several missing entries to the ISO-3166 Subdivision delivery rule, including subdivisions in Belgium, Spain, Switzerland and other countries. Allow video autoplay within iframes generated by the async and iframe invocation tags.. Full release notes for v5.0.1 can be found on our Github page. We encourage our users to upgrade to the new version 5.0.1 as soon as possible, so that they can benefit the most from the new functionality of Revive v5. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v5.0.1 is available for download now. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Upgrading Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server(s) being used meet(s) the minimum technical requirements. Community contributions The continued development of Revive Adserver is being sponsored by community members, either financially or in the form of code contributions. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received. If you would like to contribute to our project, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. Another way to contribute to our project, is by using the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. The post Revive Adserver v5.0.1 released appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

Introducing: new Geotargeting plugin for MaxMind’s GeoIP2 Revive Adserver version 5.0 comes with a new, completely rebuilt geotargeting plugin, capable of using the new GeoIP2 datafiles produced by MaxMind. In this blog post, we present an overview of the changes and improvements in the updated Geotargeting plugin that ships with Revive Adserver v5.0 and higher. Continue reading to find out what’s new, and how this will improves your ability to use geotargeting effectively. Brief introduction of Geotargeting In case you’re not familiar with the term ‘geotargeting’, it is a technical feature that enables you to target an ad to a specific geographic location or area, for example a country or even just a city. It works by taking the IP address of the person visiting the website, and looking up an estimation of the associated location in a large datafile. What has changed? And why? Revive Adserver – like its predecessors OpenX Source, and phpAdsNew – has always had a geotargeting feature. It relies on datafiles compiled by a third party, a company called MaxMind. These datasets are updated regularly, because there are frequent changes in the assignments of blocks of IP addresses to internet service providers and geographic locations. MaxMind had a file format they called GeoIP for years, but when they announced they were to stop supporting that file format and move on to the new GeoIP2 format, it prompted us to redevelop the geotargeting plugin. Automatic installation and updates of MaxMind datafiles In previous versions of Revive Adserver, we used to include a copy of the so-called ‘Geolite Country’ datafile. This file allowed for geotargeting at the continent and country level. A problem with this approach was that the file was only ever up to date for a few weeks after the release of a new version of Revive Adserver, whereas MaxMind updated their data files at least once per month. On top of that, MaxMind no longer permit this kind of distribution of their datafiles with software like ours. Fortunately, there is a much better alternative, which has been implemented in version 5.0. While performing a new installation of Revive Adserver v5.0, or while upgrading an earlier version to v5.0, the installation wizard will automatically download the most up to date version of the GeoIP2 city datafile from the MaxMind servers and store it on the server that is being used for Revive Adserver. Even better, it will also check every night at midnight if a newer version of that GeoIP2 city data has been made available. If so, it will download that and use it to replace the outdated file. As a result, not only will a Revive Adserver installation with version 5 or higher always use the most recent version of the MaxMind datafile, but it is now also by default the city datafile (instead of the country file shipping with our software in the past), allowing for much more precise geotargeting by continent, country, city, and various other geographic areas. Renewed geographic structure As part of the modernization of the data files, MaxMind have incorporated the most recent insights about the geographic structure of our planet. The Geotargeting plugin that ships with Revive Adserver 5.0 and higher now supports targeting at these levels: Continent: target visitors that are located on an entire continent, like Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Asia, or even any combination of continents required. Revive Adserver will present a list of all known continents and users can simply select the one(s) they need. Country: target visitors that are located in one or more countries on our globe, by selecting that country or set of countries from a comprehensive list. City: after selecting a country, type the name of a specific city, or even a comma delimited set of city names, to target visitors from those locations. It is important to note that geotargeting is not an exact science, and the more granular the targeting becomes, the accuracy of it is lower. Subdivisions: many countries have divided their areas in structured sub divisions, and the MaxMind datafiles now support this, as does the new geotargeting plugin. For example: at Subdivision level 1, the United States of America is made up by the 50 states. Some countries also have an additional Subdivision level 2. Metro code and Postal code: for the United states, the geotargeting plugin supports targeting by US Metro code, and for the area comprised of the US and Canada, targeting by Postal code is also available. Latitude/Longitude: the final geotargeting method supported by default in Revive Adserver v5 is by providing the coordinates of a ‘square’ area, simply by entering the starting and ending latitudes and longitudes. Get Going To benefit from this new Geotargeting functionality, get started by downloading the Revive Adserver v5.0 software today, and installing it on your own server. If you already have an older version of Revive Adserver installed, upgrade it to v5.0 today to take full advantage. Alternatively, if you don’t want to spend any time on configuring a server and installing the software, we also have a Hosted edition that you can subscribe to. This is a Software-as-a-Service offering that uses the exact same software, and that will always be kept up to date with the most recent version. All you have to do is sign up, log in and use it. The post New geotargeting plugin in Revive Adserver v5 – an overview appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

The Revive Adserver team announces the immediate availability of Revive Adserver v5.0. We are pleased to announce the next major release of the Revive Adserver software, which has been given version number v5.0. This new version introduces a completely new Geotargeting plugin, enabling the software to work with the MaxMind’s new GeoIP2 datafiles. There is also a new feature to duplicate websites and their zones, and a number of bugs have been fixed. Here are the most important changes included in Revive Adserver v5.0: New features and enhancements We implemented a new geotargeting plugin, which is compatible with the newer GeoIP2 datafile format being published by MaxMind nowadays. A particularly nice improvement is that the new plugin is capable of automatically downloading the datafiles from MaxMind’s servers, and also to update those files when MaxMind publishes a new version. We’ll post a separate blog shortly with some extra details and tips about the new Geotargeting plugin. Development of the new Geotargeting plugin has been made possible by a financial contribution from our partner Aqua Platform, specialists in high performance, high availability Revive Adserver hosting. We extended the screens for managing user access to accounts, to display the most recent login date and time of users. We added a feature to duplicate websites and their zones. We want to thank long time community member Heiko Weber for contributing this new feature. Bug fixes Fixed compatibility with PHP 7.4 and improved compatibility with other PHP versions Fixed an issue with emails about campaigns about to expire due to end date not using the user’s preferred date format Important: this v5.0 release has a number of Non-Backwards Compatible Changes: The date and time that new user accounts are created / email address is updated has changed to UTC format in the database with this release. As timezone information was not stored with the previous values, these cannot be safely converted to UTC format. As a result, all user account creation / email address update values stored before upgrading to this release may not be accurate – but only by up to +/- 13 hours. There are several changes between the legacy GeoIP and GeoIP2 databases and the upgrade process will try to migrate the rules in the best possible way: – “Regions” have been split into two levels of subdivisions and the ISO-3166 database has been updated. Depending on the country, the old delivery rule will be transformed in the appropriate subdivision level and geopolitical changes applied to the best of our knowledge – “Area code” is no longer returned. Any such delivery rule will be deleted. – The way the Geotargeting plugins work has been revamped. As such, third party geotargeting plugins or plugins depending on geotargeting information might need to be updated accordingly. Full release notes for v5.0.0 can be found on our Github page. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v5.0 is available for download now. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Upgrading Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server(s) being used meet(s) the minimum technical requirements. Community contributions Several new developments in version 5.0 have been sponsored by community members, either financially or in the form of code contributions. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received. If you would like to contribute to our project, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. Another way to contribute to our project, is by using the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. The post Revive Adserver v5.0 released appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

The Revive Adserver team is immensely proud to announce the availability of the first Release Candidate of Revive Adserver v5.0. We are pleased to announce the next major release of the Revive Adserver software, which has been given version number v5.0. Since this new version includes a large number of changes and enhancements, including some potentially breaking changes, we think it is appropriate to first publish it as a Release Candidate. This will enable users, administrators, plugin developers, hosting providers and consultants to put the new version to the test in all sorts of scenarios and environments. If everything goes according to plan, we expect to release the final v5.0 in a little over 2 weeks from today, on Monday, September 30, 2019. Here are the most important changes included in this Release Candidate for Revive Adserver v5.0: New features and enhancements We replaced the legacy MaxMind GeoIP plugin with a new version which is compatible with the newer GeoIP2 database format, as legacy GeoIP is no longer supported by MaxMind We extended the screens for managing user access to accounts, to display the most recent login date and time of users We added a feature to duplicate websites and their zones. We want to thank long time community member Heiko Weber for contributing this new feature. Bug fixes Fixed compatibility with PHP 7.4 and improved compatibility with other PHP versions Fixed an issue with emails about campaigns about to expire due to end date not using the user’s preferred date format Important: this release candidate and the actual v5.0 release later, has a number of Non-Backwards Compatible Changes: The date and time that new user accounts are created / email address is updated has changed to UTC format in the database with this release. As timezone information was not stored with the previous values, these cannot be safely converted to UTC format. As a result, all user account creation / email address update values stored before upgrading to this release may not be accurate – but only by up to +/- 13 hours. There are several changes between the legacy GeoIP and GeoIP2 databases and the upgrade process will try to migrate the rules in the best possible way: – “Regions” have been split into two levels of subdivisions and the ISO-3166 database has been updated. Depending on the country, the old delivery rule will be transformed in the appropriate subdivision level and geopolitical changes applied to the best of our knowledge – “Area code” is no longer returned. Any such delivery rule will be deleted. – The way the Geotargeting plugins work has been revamped. As such, third party geotargeting plugins or plugins depending on geotargeting information might need to be updated accordingly. Full release notes for v5.0.0-rc1 can be found on our Github page. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v5.0 Release Candidate 1 is available for download now. Please keep in mind that this is a release candidate, and as such it can result in issues. If you don’t feel confident about testing release candidate software, we recommend that you wait until the final v5.0 is available. This will be announced here on the blog, on our Twitter account, and to the subscribers to our mailing list. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Upgrading Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server(s) being used meet(s) the minimum technical requirements. Community contributions Several new developments in version 5.0 have been sponsored by community members, either financially or in the form of code contributions. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received. If you would like to contribute to our project, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. Another way to contribute to our project, is by using the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. The Hosted edition will be upgraded to v5.0 shortly after the new version has been released officially. The post Release Candidate 1 for Revive Adserver v5.0 appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

The Revive Adserver team announces the immediate availability of Revive Adserver v4.2.1. We are pleased to announce a new release of the Revive Adserver software, which has been given version number v4.2.1. This new version fixes a number of bugs that were discovered since the last 4.2.0 release, and it also addresses one security issue that has been discovered recently. Here are the most important changes included in Revive Adserver v4.2.1: We fixed an issue with the “Active Campaigns” filter, which was incorrectly hiding campaigns if it contained at least one inactive banner, and depending on the order of active or inactive banners found for the campaign. We fixed an issue with some of the required PHP extensions for Revive Adserver not being displayed in the pre-install/upgrade check screen. Security fix This version 4.2.1 also contains a fix for one vulnerability that was recently discovered and reported to us through our HackerOne security program. We strongly advise people to upgrade to the most recent 4.2.1 version of Revive Adserver as soon as possible. In case that is not immediately feasible, we especially recommend to delete or block the www/admin/password-recovery.php script. Release notes Full release notes for Revive Adserver v4.2.0 can be found on our Github page. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v4.2.1 is available for download now. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Upgrading Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server(s) being used meet(s) the minimum technical requirements. Community contributions Version 4.2.1 has been sponsored by several community members, either financially or in the form of code contributions. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received. If you would like to contribute to our project, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. A special thanks for their contribution to this version goes to Aqua Platform, specialists in Revive Adserver hosting, for helping test the changes to the password recovery process. Another way to contribute to our project, is by using the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. The post Revive Adserver v4.2.1 released – bug & security fixes appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

The Revive Adserver team announces the immediate availability of Revive Adserver v4.2. We are pleased to announce the next major release of the Revive Adserver software, which has been given version number v4.2. This new version contains several enhancements and improvements, and it also addresses two security issues that have been discovered recently. Here are the most important changes included in Revive Adserver v4.2: We’ve updated the definition of “active” Advertisers and Campaigns, to also include Advertisers and Campaigns which will become active in the future (i.e. in the “Awaiting” state), to help with their management. The Zone Probability screen now includes a link to the parent campaign for each banner. We replaced the old “weight” measure on the Zone Probability screen with the actual Campaign and Banner weights, to improve clarity around probabilities of banner display in a zone. IP anonymisation is now enabled, and OAID cookie are now disabled by default on new installations, as per our plans published in the first half of 2018 around the introduction of the GDPR. For developers: we added support for hourly statistics to the XML-RPC API. This change was contributed by the makers of the Revive Adserver REST API. We have also fixed numerous bugs, and there are also some non-backward compatible changes, so please make sure you carefully study the release notes. Important: Revive Adserver v4.2 has a Non-Backwards Compatible Change. Support for PHP 5 has been dropped and Revive Adserver now requires at least PHP 7.0.8. Security fixes This version 4.2.0 also contains fixes for two vulnerabilities that were recently discovered and reported to us through our HackerOne security program. We strongly advise people to upgrade to the most recent 4.2.0 version of Revive Adserver as soon as possible. In case that is not immediately feasible, we especially recommend to delete the adxmlrpc.php, www/delivery/axmlrpc.php and www/delivery/dxmlrpc.php files. Release notes Full release notes for Revive Adserver v4.2.0 can be found on our Github page. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v4.2 is available for download now. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Upgrading Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server(s) being used meet(s) the minimum technical requirements. Community contributions Several new developments in version 4.2 have been sponsored by community members, either financially or in the form of code contributions. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received. If you would like to contribute to our project, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. Another way to contribute to our project, is by using the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. The post Revive Adserver v4.2 released – bug & security fixes appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

The Revive Adserver team is immensely proud to announce the immediate availability of the Release Candidate of Revive Adserver v4.2. We are pleased to announce the next major release of the Revive Adserver software, which has been given version number v4.2. Since this new version includes a large number of changes and enhancements, including some breaking changes, we think it is appropriate to first publish it as a Release Candidate. This will enable users, administrators, plugin developers, hosting providers and consultants to put the new version to the test in all sorts of scenarios and environments. If everything goes according to plan, we expect to release the final v4.2 in 2 weeks from today, on April 23, 2019. Here are the most important changes included in this Release Candidate for Revive Adserver v4.2: We’ve updated the definition of “active” Advertisers and Campaigns, to also include Advertisers and Campaigns which will become active in the future (i.e. in the “Awaiting” state), to help with their management. The Zone Probability screen now includes a link to the parent campaign for each banner. We replaced the old “weight” measure on the Zone Probability screen with the actual Campaign and Banner weights, to improve clarity around probabilities of banner display in a zone. IP anonymisation is now enabled, and OAID cookie are now disabled by default on new installations, as per our plans published in the first half of 2018 around the introduction of the GDPR. For developers: we added support for hourly statistics to the XML-RPC API. This change was contributed by the makers of the Revive Adserver REST API. We have also fixed numerous bugs, and there are also some non-backward compatible changes, so please make sure you carefully study the release notes. Important: this release candidate and the actual v4.2 release later, will have a Non-Backwards Compatible Change. Support for PHP 5 has been dropped and Revive Adserver now requires at least PHP 7.0.8. Full release notes for v4.2.0-rc1 can be found on our Github page. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v4.2 Release Candidate is available for download now. Please keep in mind that this is a release candidate, and as such it can result in issues. If you don’t feel confident about testing beta-level software, we recommend that you wait until the final v4.2 is available. This will be announced here on the blog, on our Twitter account, and to the subscribers to our mailing list. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Upgrading Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server(s) being used meet(s) the minimum technical requirements. Community contributions Several new developments in version 4.2 have been sponsored by community members, either financially or in the form of code contributions. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received. If you would like to contribute to our project, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. Another way to contribute to our project, is by using the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. The post Release Candidate 1 for Revive Adserver v4.2 appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

Exactly 3 months ago, on December 7, 2018, the first subscriber opened an account on the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. We had been collecting a waiting list of eager users since the announcement of the Hosted edition back in September 2018, and immediately after soft-launching it to the waiting list, people started joining. Later in December, we officially launched the Hosted edition for everyone. Since then, we’ve been adding new subscribers every day. We are very happy and proud that so many people and companies have decided to give the Hosted edition a try. A blog post on the Revive Adserver Hosted edition website details the uptake in the first 3 months, and also lists what we’re developing for the future of the Hosted edition. We invite you to have a look at the Revive Adserver Hosted edition, review the features it has to offer, read the frequently asked questions, and consider the pricing plans available for customers of all sizes. If you like what you see, you can sign up today and be up and running in no time. The post Hosted edition 3 months since launch appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

A few weeks ago, on the five year anniversary of our project, we announced plans to create a Hosted edition of the Revive Adserver software. Today we’re proud to unveil the Revive Adserver Hosted edition. Anyone can download our free, open source software, and install it on their own server, or get a hosting firm to do that for them. Starting now, there’s another alternative. Just go to the new website for the Revive Adserver Hosted edition and sign up for an account. Our Software as a Service model means you can use the world’s most popular open source ad server software to manage your ad campaigns, without having to manage the servers, databases, backup facilities, software updates, technical staff, or any other technical and operational hassle. Just sign up, log in, and you’re in business! We’ve designed an attractive price offering. Our ad serving rate is one of the lowest in the entire ad tech industry, $0.01 CPM, so it costs just 1 cent for every 1,000 ad requests. Plans start as low as $10 per month, enabling you to serve up to 1,000,000 ad requests per month. But of course, with higher volumes you’re welcome as well. Despite these low fees, the Revive Adserver Hosted editions runs on a high performance hosting platform, in close collaboration with some of our most trusted partners. Users of the Hosted edition will benefit from rock solid stability, and lightning fast ad serving. We invite you to have a look at the Revive Adserver Hosted edition, review the features it has to offer, read the frequently asked questions, and consider the pricing plans available for customers of all sizes. If you like what you see, you can sign up today and be up and running in no time. The launch of the Revive Adserver Hosted edition is an exciting step for the entire team, and we look forward to welcoming you on board! The post Revive Adserver Hosted edition Launched! appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

Ever since we publicly announced the Revive Adserver open source project, on September 13, 2013, we kept a record of the number of installations of the software in active use. This is possible because every installation out there can do a daily check with us to find out if a newer version is available. By doing so, not only do we get a sign of life from every installation, but these checkins also include the version number of each installation. As a result, we can keep track of how many instances of each version we ever released are still being used. For the record, this is an optional feature, which is enabled by default. It can be disabled by switching a single checkbox. So, for the remainder of this post, keep in mind that the actual number of installations out there is probably higher. Every month, on the 13th, we take a snapshot of the installed base and update the chart below. This is the chart we produced on November 13, 2018: As you can see, in the first 3 years, the number of installations kept growing, but at some point midway 2016 that growth leveled off. As a matter of fact, the number peaked around 8,100 in the middle of 2017 and then started to very gradually decline. At first glance, this might seem like a bad thing. However, as with so many things in life, there are multiple sides to the same story. Just take a look at the following chart, which shows the different versions in use over time. It starts in July 2015, which is the first snapshot we kept of this break-out by version: The oldest versions 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2, while still in use for a number of installations, steadily decline and currently represent about 41% of the total installed base. Version 4.0, while still being used by around 23% of installations, is also declining steadily. And the most recent version 4.1, is being used by the largest share of the installed base, 35%, and shows impressive growth. This is more clearly visible in this chart, which shows the number of active installations for versions 4.0 and 4.1. It shows a steep growth of version 4.0 up to the moment version 4.1 was released. Version 4.1 continues to increase while 4.0 gradually decreased: Not only does this demonstrate that people continue to upgrade to v4.1, but also that new installations continue to be created with v4.1 right out of the gate. Unfortunately, this graph is a little bit low on data points because we did not collect this data for the most part of 2017. Where do the newer versions come from? We believe that a major factor for the steady growth of version 4.1 is that this is the only one that is capable of running on the newer releases of the PHP engine, PHP 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2. Therefore, as more and more hosting providers and server administrators are migrating to PHP7, it is more or less mandatory to also upgrade to the newest version of Revive Adserver. Most likely those are the installations that are used the most actively, and so there is a real sense of urgency to keep the software up to date. Why are outdated versions still running? The other side of the equation is this: why do so many installations out there still run the (by now) completed outdated versions 3.0, 3.1, or 3.2? One possible explanation is that these instances have, at some point, been installed by people that were curious about the software, and then abandoned or forgotten. Another possible explanation comes from the existence of ‘auto installers’ that are on offer at many hosting providers. While it is very appealing to be able to install an application with just a few clicks, this comes with one huge disadvantage. Most of the times, the installations created by these auto installers are impossible to upgrade. As a result, once you’re running it, you’re effectively stuck. We expect that the number of installations running these very old versions of Revive Adserver will continue to decrease, for example when hosting providers upgrade their servers to newer versions of PHP, effectively breaking ancient Revive Adserver installations that are not capable of running on PHP7 and above. Some of those ad servers will then be upgraded, hopefully to the most recent version of Revive Adserver, and ideally then kept up to date going forward. Why it’s important to always upgrade As with almost any software, it is the most sensible approach to always update to the most recent version available. Known security issues are fixed with these updates, and new features are introduced alongside fixes for newly discovered bugs. Using an outdated ad server with know security issues puts your site visitors, and your business, at risk. How to be informed when a new version is available We want to help users by informing them as soon as we release a new version of our software. To that end, we have a mailing list you can subscribe to. We’ll send a short message with a link to the blog post announcing each new version. Sign up to our update notifications mailing list, and be among the first to know about our updates! Always run the newest version, with no effort: Hosted edition Another way of always using the most up to date version of the software is by using the Hosted edition we recently announced. This Software as a Service offering, which will be unveiled in the coming weeks, is ideal for people that prefer to spend their time on other things than installing or updating software, maintaining servers, and so on. If you want to be informed as soon as the Hosted edition is available, please put your name on the waiting list. We’ll then send you an e-mail as soon as it is launched. The post Always keep your Revive Adserver installation up to date appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

Revive turns Five – announcing Hosted edition Today marks a special day for us, the Revive Adserver project team. Exactly 5 years ago, we announced to the world that we took what was already the world’s most popular, free, open source, ad server software, to bring it forward into the future. We called it Revive Adserver. Now, on the fifth anniversary of that memorable day, we’re proud of what we’ve achieved, and excited about the future of the project. We’ve heard from many people around the world how the Revive Adserver software enables them to display ads on their sites, in their apps, and on their video content. At at time when it seems that ad tech is more and more dominated by huge players, we feel it is important that there is an independent, open source, and free, alternative. That doesn’t mean Revive Adserver is just for small operations. As a matter of fact, we’ve seen sites running the software to display billions of ads per month. Revive Adserver has always been software that anyone can download, free of charge, in order to put it on their own server. Or to get a hosting company to put it on theirs. However, we’ve also heard time and time again, from people eager to use Revive Adserver, yet unable to install and run it themselves. There could be several reasons: lack of time, lack of skills, and so on. We’re working on offering a Hosted edition of the system in the last quarter of 2018. If there is sufficient interest, we’ll be able to operate a low cost, high performance hosting platform, in close collaboration with some of our most trusted partners. Users of the Hosted edition will benefit from rock solid stability, lightning fast ad serving, at very reasonable rates. Starting today, you can sign up for a waiting list for the Hosted edition of Revive Adserver by submitting the form below. There is no obligation by doing so, all it means is that you’re expressing in interested in this exciting new service, operated by the same people that brought you the downloadable version. We’re excited about this project and can’t wait to find out if the community is equally excited. Hosted Edition Waiting List Put yourself on the waiting list for the Hosted Edition by submitting the form below. Name* First Last Email* Number of ad impressions per month*Your best guess, please Select one from this list Between 0 and 1 million Between 1 and 10 million between 10 and 25 million more than 25 million I really don't know (yet) Ad server experience*Have you used an ad server before? Select all that apply. DFP Self-hosted Revive Adserver Some other ad server No ad server experience Location* Country Select a country from the list Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Costa Rica Côte d'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Greenland Grenada Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati North Korea South Korea Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine, State of Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Martin Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Sudan, South Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Please confirm This iframe contains the logic required to handle Ajax powered Gravity Forms. The post Revive turns Five – announcing Hosted edition appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

Revive Adserver v4.1.4 is available now. This new version of the Revive Adserver software includes two new settings that can be enabled, one to prevent the creation of a unique but random ID value in the OAID cookie, and the other to anonymise IP addresses coming into Revive Adserver before they are processes. These new settings will help with GDPR compliance. To take advantage of the new settings, log in as an Administrator and go to the Configuration tab. The Banner Delivery Settings page is automatically displayed. The new settings are in a section called “Privacy Settings”: Put a checkbox in the setting(s) you want to enable and don’t forget to click the “Save changes” button at the end of the page. If the “Disable unique Viewer id cookies” setting is On, any existing OAID cookies for visiting browsers will be replaced with the same value for every visitor: 01000111010001000101000001010010. This is the binary representation of the acronym GDPR. New visitors will also receive a new OAID cookie with value 01000111010001000101000001010010. If the “Anonymise viewer IP address” setting is On, then the Revive Adserver software will turn the 4th octet of any IP address it deals with into a zero, thus making it meaningless when it comes to identifying individual visitors. For example: 192.168.1.123 will become 192.168.1.0. The anonymized IP address will subsequently be used for geotargeting (if enabled) or for recording conversion statistics. In this release v4.1.4, these two settings will be Off by default in the interest of backward compatibility. In a future release, most likely v4.2.0, the defaults will become On. Below is a list of all changes in Revive Adserver v4.1.4: New feature: Added new privacy settings under ‘banner delivery settings’ to optionally stop tagging viewers via a cookie with a unique identifier (OAID) and to anonymise IP addresses, in order to better comply with GDPR regulations. Fixed an issue with evaluating very large delivery rules that caused an internal error with the PCRE library. Reverted a change introduced in v4.1.2 that was preventing preferences from being properly saved. Full release notes for v4.1.4 can be found on our Github page. Download, install and upgrade Revive Adserver v4.1.4 is available for download now. Once downloaded, please refer to the instructions for Installations of Revive Adserver or for Upgrading Revive Adserver. Make sure that the server being used meets the minimum technical requirements. The post Revive Adserver v4.1.4 released appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

If you work in the digital advertising industry, you must have heard about GDPR by now. So a very brief introduction should be sufficient. GDPR is an acronym for “General Data Protection Regulations”, which is a law that was adopted by the European Parliament in the autumn of 2015 and which came into force on May 25, 2016. There was a 24 month implementation period, and as a result the enforcement of GDPR commences on May 25, 2018. We want to help the community understand how GDPR and other privacy regulations apply to using the Revive Adserver open source software. That’s why we’ve published a number of articles. The first article has an introduction about GDPR and how it relates to the Revive Adserver software. The second article describes how the Revive Adserver software treats personal data. Privacy and data protection are important topics, but they are also complicated. Regulations are updated all the time and their interpretation evolves constantly, for example from jurisprudence. We will update the aforementioned articles from time to time when new insights become available. The post Revive Adserver in the age of GDPR appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article

Help us test the upgrade of Geotargeting rules to GeoIP2 The Revive Adserver project team is looking for help from community members to test the upgrade path of geotargeting to GeoIP2. In a recent blog post, we announced our plans to modernize the Geotargeting feature in Revive Adserver. The upcoming version 4.2 of Revive Adserver will have support for the new GeoIP2 and GeoLite2 data files published by MaxMind. In the blog post, we mentioned that we intend to include a migration process for existing geotargeting rules. This would ensure that banners with existing getoargeting will be converted from the current format to the new format, as best as possible. However, we recognize that there are very many ways to use geotargeting, and even more combinations of all of those. As a result, it would be virtually impossible to define a set of test cases that cover every possible use case. The second best alternative is to enlist the help of the Revive Adserver community. If you use Revive Adserver with a few dozen, or preferably a few hundred banners, that have geotargeting rules specified, and if you’re willing and able to send us an export of the banners and targeting tables from your database, then please consider submitting the form below. Once we are ready to start testing, we will contact you (or a subset of the applicants if there is much interest) and provide instructions on how to send us the necessary table exports. Yes, I would like to contribute to the Revive Adserver project by participating in the Geotargeting upgrade path test process. My name* First name Last name My Email address* A note about your privacy: any personal data collected through this form will only be used to contact you for this particular test. The Revive Adserver project team will not share your data with anyone, and we will not contact you for anything other than this test. If you’re unable to assist us with this specific item, then please consider helping us by becoming a sponsor of the Revive Adserver project on Patreon. For as little as $10 a month or more, your financial contribution helps us to continue developing Revive Adserver so that it continues to be the world’s most popular, free, open source ad server system. The post Help us test the upgrade of Geotargeting rules to GeoIP2 appeared first on Revive Adserver. View the full article