zen_href_link

[dw08gm]

Greetings

I have dozens of new pages created using the About_Us mod, which are accesed via dropdowns located in the header and footer, and also via the sitemap and other pages. The content of these pages is of no great concern and visitors are not required to login to the store to view the content.

For links to these pages, I have used the format:

<a href="index.php?main_page=example">Example</a>

however upon discovering other pages linked as follows

<a href="' . zen_href_link(FILENAME_PRIVACY,'','NONSSL') . '">Privacy</a>

I am wondering what is the criteria for using the latter format over the former and whether I should convert all of the former link types to the latter type.

In addition, I have several forms created using the Band Signup mod, all of which are linked to by the former link format. None of these forms writes to the database, other than via the Email Archive Manager mod, although I may wish them to be so written further down the track as the forms require the input of private and business information to be sent via email. Should the latter link format also be applied to these form pages.

Thanks in advance.

[swguy]

The latter is really best practice. It handles SSL, zenid, etc. correctly.

[dw08gm]

Thanks for replying swguy

In adopting the latter format,

a) how does one determine (where do I found out) what code should be inserted into the middle section, ie that highlighted in red as follows:

zen_href_link(FILENAME_PRIVACY,'HERE','NONSSL')

b) With respect to the forms, in what situations should the NONSSL be replaced by SSL.

Thanks

[swguy]

a) The list of defines is in includes/filenames.php.

b) When you want SSL. :) In most cases you won't.
"Are you concerned about the content being intercepted" is the question to ask.

[dw08gm]

a) The list of defines is in includes/filenames.php.

Thanks, however, now I am confused as none of these following provides an indication of what to put in the middle.

In includes/filenames.php,

define('FILENAME_ACCOUNT', 'account');

define('FILENAME_PRIVACY', 'privacy');

yet in tpl_site_map_default.php

<a href="' . zen_href_link(FILENAME_ACCOUNT, '', 'SSL') . '">

<a href="' . zen_href_link(FILENAME_PRIVACY) . '">

Surprisingly,

<a href="' . zen_href_link(FILENAME_PRIVACY,'','NONSSL') . '">

does not occur in tpl_site_map_default.php.

b) When you want SSL. :) In most cases you won't.
"Are you concerned about the content being intercepted" is the question to ask.

For form pages, I would have thought "yes", but for other pages - "no".

Yet, in tpl_site_map_default.php, zen_href_link(FILENAME_CONTACT_US) does not mention either SSL or NONSSL.

Am I understanding correctly that form input data sent via email transmission is relatively insecure, and that invoking SSL via zen_href_link to the form pages will provide an SSL layer for those pages.

Please deconfuse me.

[DrByte]

The "middle" parameter contains any parameters you need passed to the page. If you're not doing that kind of advanced coding, you just pass an empty string instead.

In the future you can determine the answer yourself by looking at the function definition for zen_href_link and all its parameters, by using the Developers Toolkit and looking for "function zen_href_link", and then do another search for just "zen_href_link" and see how it's used in various places to understand what parameters are inserted there and when.