A few days after we published our call to help kick start the OpenX Plugin Ecosystem, OpenX.org released a new plugin that enables users to deliver video ads directly through their OpenX Ad Server.

OpenX Product Manager James Kung writes on the OpenX blog:

This plugin represents significant progress, both in terms of the types of ad formats you can manage through any OpenX ad server and in terms of the extensibility of OpenX as a foundation for your ad serving. (…) Since this is the first version of the OpenX Video Plugin, it is intended to serve your own video ads only and does not include the ability to integrate video ads coming from ad networks. We will be working to evolve the plugin to include more features like this in the next version.

The OpenX blog has more details on this new video plugin and links to the documentation. The plugin is available as a free download (zip file) for installation in a self-hosted OpenX system, and it has also been installed on the OpenX Community Hosted environment (which is the new name of the OpenX Hosted product). It follows the VAST standard for video ads that have been established by the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and works in pair with any video player that can support the addition of a VAST plugin.

The OpenX Video Plugin was scheduled to be published with OpenX Ad Server version 2.8.2, but for reasons unknown to us, it didn’t make it into that release. Instead of waiting for the release of version 2.8.3, OpenX.org have decided to offer it as a separate download.