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.