[New Plugin] Banner with Exp Date

[shawn_a]

You are using "siteurl" and therefore an http request to load the xml file. You should be using local path (folder) to file, so it doesn't load it over the web.

Plugins are supposed to store their data in data folder for backup and security safety, this is clearly stated in the wiki. All user data should be stored in one place, if i move the site over to another or back it up, all data is in the proper place. Also since the plugins folder contains executable code, it is not typically writable.
See Data and settings here
http://get-simple.info/wiki/plugins:creation