Impressions -- Campaign did not expire

suckerpunch

Hello,

I created a custom package with 500 impressions, and have assigned two ads to it.

The campaign details says that there has been only 422 impressions, but on the same page says that the ads have received 1260 impressions.

If I add up the impressions from the Ad Manager, and the Statistics page, they add up to 1260.

So why does the campaign think its only had 422 impressions?

I've attached screenshots with the areas highlighted. I've also attached my package details so you can see how I've set it up.

Thank you!

Ninja

suckerpunch
Hi
Kindly edit fields in first post : https://cl.ly/3y3R0p24250G
And submit site login details and FTP information, I will check it directly with dev team on this.

Regards

suckerpunch

Hello,

Unfortunately I am not authorized to grant external access to the website.

I am on the latest version of Joomla and the latest version of AdAgency.
I seem to recall this impressions mismatch was the reason that we moved away from this solution.

I can provide your tech screenshots of any item that they require.

Thank you!

alindinca

Hi,

I just made a test on our test site, I created a package for 5 impressions, I created 2 ads and one campaign for that package, and after 5 impressions for each ad, the campaign is expired and I can not see the ads in front-end.
Each ad has 5 impressions and campaign has 10 impressions.
I need to check this on your site and debug, I need the admin access and ftp account.

Kind Regards,
Alin

suckerpunch

alindinca
Hello Alin,

I can appreciate that often the easiest way to troubleshoot this kind of thing is to do it directly.
However, we do have a security policy that prohibits us from granting third party access to our website, both for PIPEDA compliance and our clients internal security policies.
There would be too much red tape to cut to get around that.

If you are unable to recreate the error on your end, perhaps we can clone the site into a staging environment. I would suggest that a test of more than 10 impressions from the same IP address is most likely not enough to recreate the issues that I am having.

I've attached an overview of the discrepencies.

Basically, all of the impressions seem to be logged accurately EXCEPT where it pertains to campaign impressions, which coincidentally is where the campaign status is controlled.

Seems to be a discrepency with the way that ad impressions are counted, and how those contribute to overall campaign impressions.

In all cases where campaign impressions are pulled, it pulls from the #ad_agency_statistics table, except when reviewing campaign impressions, it pulls from the #ad_agency_campaign table, from the Quantity field. I have a feeling the issue is where the campaign_quantity is logged.

On line 1985 of modules\mod_ijoomla_adagency_zone\helper.php, there seems to be a logic bug here:
if((isset($banners->type)) && ('cpm'==$banners->type) && ($how_many<=$limit_ip)){

The $how_many variable should be referencing how many times the IP has seen the ad. Instead, the $how_many variable is set to the total impressions (defined on line 1898 of the same file).

I have verified this by outputting the $how_many to a PHP error log, and verified that the value output is synchronize with the impression count for the latest entry in the ad_agency_statistics table.

Basically, if you set the limit per IP to something arbitrarily low (to actually limit impressions from an IP), it has the unwanted effect of setting that as the total limit of campaign impressions per day.

Edit: The easiest way to replicate this is to set the Limit IP's value to 10. View an ad 10 times. Then, use a different IP address (VPN) to see if any more impressions are logged on that campaign for the day from a separate IP.

alindinca

Hi,

Unfortunately I can not replicate this, $how_many count the number of impressions for the same ad from the same IP, start with line 1911, but if limit count is maximum, the script stop on line 1930
// max limit impressions per IP for one ad per day
Please if you can, do a site clone and I will do a debug on AdAgency files. I need the admin access and ftp account for that new site.

Kind Regards,
Alin

suckerpunch

alindinca

Hello Alin,

Sorry for the delay -- Its been a busy few weeks in the office.
I am working with our tech wizard to get a stage site set up for you.

In the meantime, I have easily determined that this is indeed a bug, and can help you to recreate it on your end with no further involvement from me.

On line 1871 - 1904:

**$sql = "select `impressions` from #ad_agency_statistics where `entry_date`='".$time_interval."'";
	$database->setQuery($sql);**
	
	if(!$database->query()) {
		echo $database->stderr();
		return;
	}
	else{
		$all_impressions = $database->loadColumn();
		$all_impressions = @$all_impressions["0"];

		if(isset($all_impressions)){
			$all_impressions = json_decode($all_impressions, true);
			
			if(!isset($all_impressions["0"])){
				if(isset($all_impressions)){
					$all_impressions = array("0"=>$all_impressions);
				}
				else{
					$temp = array("advertiser_id"=>"0", "campaign_id"=>"0", "banner_id"=>"0", "how_many"=>"0");
					$all_impressions = array("0"=>$temp);
				}
			}
			
			if(isset($all_impressions) && count($all_impressions) > 0){
				foreach($all_impressions as $key=>$value){
					if(isset($value["campaign_id"]) && $value["campaign_id"] == intval($campaingID) && $value["banner_id"] == intval($bannerID)){
						**$how_many = $value["how_many"];**
						break;
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}

This block selects the impressions from the ad_agency_statistics table, and then sets the $how_many variable to this value.

Then, the block from lines 1985 - 2023, which is what actually decreases the Campaign Quantity, uses the following statement at line 1985:
if((isset($banners->type)) && ('cpm'==$banners->type) && ($how_many <= $limit_ip)){

This is comparing the $how_many to the $limit_IP variable. As I've discovered and outlined, $how_many is set on Line 1898 to the ad_agency_statistics total impressions for that ad for that date.

You are correct that on Line 1911 - 1930, we do compare the current user IP to the limit IP's and stop the script there. But, that is not where the bug is.

Hypothetical scenario:

Impression Limit
The Limit IP's is set to 10 per day.

User A
User A views the ad 10 times. On his 11th view, and every view thereafter, he gets kicked out of the ImpressionsCalc function between the block from 1911 - 1930 (specifically, the empty return statement on line 1927).
At this point, the impressions for the ad are 10 in the ad_agency_statistics table, and our campaign quantity has decreased by 10. Thus far, the script is working correctly as it should.

User B
User B views the ad. User B hasn't hit the limit impressions yet (its his first view). However, in the impression calc function, when he gets to line 1985, it is comparing the total ad impressions on this day to the IP Limit.
Therefore, the script fails to correctly decrease the campaign quantity, even when it should.

This can easily be tested by outputting these variables at this point in the script to a PHP error log, on say line 2024.
error_log("How many:" . $how_many . " | Limit IP: " . $limit_ip . " Banners Type: " . $banners->type, 0);

Steps to reproduce:
Set Global IP per day Limit to 5.
Set up a CPM style campaign
Create an ad.
View the ad 5 times from one IP.
- Note that the ad_agency_statistics will increase by 5.
- Note that the ad_agency_ips will show 5 impressions for your IP.
- Most important, note that the ad_agency_campaign impressions quantity will have decreased by 5.

At this point, you can modify the ad_agency_statistics table, and set the how_many value for this particular ad ID to an arbitrary number (say 999). This is optional, but will help with testing the error_log output.

Change your IP (use a VPN)
View the ad 5 times from this NEW IP address
- The ad_agency_statistics still will increase. (correct functionality)
- This new IP will be added to the ad_agency_ips table. (correct functionality)
- However, the the ad_agency_campaign impressions quantity does not decrease for this campaign. This is incorrect functionality.

Review your php error log.
You should see that at line 2024, the $how_many variable being output coincides with the ad_agency_statistics value.

This is incorrect, as it has the unintended consequence of limiting the total possible campaign impressions per day to the same value as the global ip limit

I will work on getting a dev site set up for you to test, but I've now recreated this and debugged and have ratified my findings with another developer here, so hopefully I'm not going crazy.

alindinca

Hi,

If I understand correctly from you, this variable "$how_many" calculate the number of impressions from ad_agency_statistics for a specific ad, and this is how should be. But, if you set the campaign with a limit of impressions, but you change the number of ad impressions from database, then you should change the number for "quantity" column from "ad_agency_campaign" database table. First time, the number from that column in 15, and for each page refresh that number will be 14, 13, 12... till 0. When this number will be 0, the campaign will be expired and the ad will not be available in front-end, the number of impressions for that ad should not be increased.

Kind Regards,
Alin

suckerpunch

alindinca

Hello Alin,

Changing the impressions in the database was just used as a tool to illustrate the bug.

The issue is that on line 1985, in the part of the file that determines whether or not to decrease the campaign quantity, the script is comparing the global ip limit against the total daily impressions for the ad.

What the script should be doing is comparing the global ip limit against a single IP's daily impressions for the ad.

Does this make sense?

The script correctly returns empty at line 1927 when User A who has hit the daily IP limit views the ad.
However, when User B views the ad, even if they haven't hit the daily IP limit, their impression still does not decrease the campaign quantity, because the script is comparing the global IP limit against the total daily ad impressions.

alindinca

suckerpunch I understand now your point of view and I can tell you that is not a bug but it was builded like that. When you create a campaign based on impressions you want an add to be shown that times on page. And, the script start to count impressions. If we will cont per user/per impressions limit, then instead of let's say "1000 impressions" campaign we will have "10000 impressions" campaign when the limit per user is 10...
I am not sure if we need to change the way that it is working now in order to not create confusion for all other users that have AdAgency at this moment.
Thank you!

suckerpunch

alindinca

Hello Alin,
That doesn't make much sense to me -- The issue here isn't the amount of impressions or campaign quantity when creating an ad.

The issue is that in helper.php, it will not decrease the campaign quantity if the total daily impressions for that ad is greater than (or equal to) the ip_limit.

if((isset($banners->type)) && ('cpm'==$banners->type) && ($how_many <= $limit_ip)){

This means that if you set the ip_limit per user to 10. If an ad receives 1000 impressions, it will only count the first 10 campaign impressions no matter how many users see the ad from different IP addresses.

If you have 10 user who each view the ad 10 times, you would expect the ad to receive 100 campaign impressions. I don't understand how this could be by design.

I think the developer intended to compare the $limit_ip to the individual users impressions of the ad, but instead it is being compared to the total daily impressions for that ad.

I will try to explain this one more time.

The global IP limit is set to 10.
If 10 users view the ad 10 times, you would expect 100 campaign views. Instead, we receive only 10.
Because it is comparing the $limit_ip to the total ad impressions, and not the individual user impressions.

Basically, after the ad_agency_statistics daily impression count reaches the limit_ip's value, no more campaign impressions will be counted against that ad for the remainder of the day, no matter who the impressions come from. This results in the overselling of CPM campaigns, as the campaign will actually last much longer than intended.

suckerpunch

Hello Alin,
I've set up a stage site and have provided the credentials in the top section of this post.

I've set up a demo ad that currently has 0/1000 impressions.
I've set the Limit Impressions to '10'.

Steps to recreate:
View the ad 10 times from your IP address.
Notice that the campaign impressions will decrease by ~10.

View the ad 10 times from a DIFFERENT IP address.
The campaign impressions should decrease by 10 (again). However, they do not. These campaign impressions do not count.

I hope this will help you implement a solution.

alindinca

Hi,

I think I understand now the real issue, please replace this line:
if((isset($banners->type)) && ('cpm'==$banners->type) && ($how_many <= $limit_ip)){
with this:
if((isset($banners->type)) && ('cpm'==$banners->type)){

in this mode, the campaign will increase the impressions, if another user with another IP load the page. If that IP have the max imp per day, in this for loop
foreach($all_ips as $key=>$value){
...
the user will return with not action for impressions count.

If all is ok, the change will be added in the next AdAgency version.

Kind Regards,
Alin