OpenX is an open-source advertising server (written in PHP and
using a MySQL or PostgreSQL database) that is licensed under the
GNU General Public License. It features an integrated banner
management interface and tracking system for gathering statistics.
The product enables web site administrators to rotate banners from
both in-house advertisement campaigns as well as from paid or
third-party sources, such as Google's AdSense.
OpenX is the latest reincarnation of the product's brand,
following the name OpenAds, itself following the name
phpAdsNew.
History
OpenX began as phpAdsNew, a fork from a similar project called
phpAds, created by Tobias Ratschiller in 1998. When the phpAds
project came to a halt in 2000, Wim Godden decided to create
phpAdsNew by expanding the project with new features. He hoped the
'New' moniker would be temporary, lasting only until Ratschiller
could update the phpAds website. Unfortunately, this only happened
years later, after the name phpAdsNew was too well established to
be changed.
During the time period between 2001 and 2002, Wim Godden led the
phpAdsNew project and later received help from developers such as
Niels Leenheer and Phil Hord, continually adding new features and
improving the existing ones. After the release of version 1.9, a
completely revised version 2.0 was created. This task was led by
Niels Leenheer. The new version included many new features as well
as a revised graphical user interface.
After gaining in popularity and earning support from the
open-source community, the project was renamed to OpenAds. Features
that were built for phpAdsNew 2.0 were also integrated into the
latest OpenAds software, which at this point had reached version
2.3.
When version 2.4.4 was released in 2007, OpenAds was once again
rebranded under a new name: OpenX.
Feature set
OpenX provides standard banner rotation, click tracking,
zone-based ad selection, zone-based campaign targeting, direct ad
selection, ad targeting (per browser, domain, language, etc), ad
capping and full Adobe Flash support.