Link to Product with Attributes

Using 1.3.9h - new install. Accessing via Safari.

I have products with attributes. I can determine the url for each combination of interest by adding to the cart and copying the url that it has in the cart. All good.

Now I need to provide links from the outside world to these products with the relevant attributes set.

The links work perfectly from within the cart, but if I enter that same url directly into my browser, it takes me to the product, but without any attributes set.

EXCEPT: it seems to work if there is already an active session in the cart - even if in a different window/tab.

Is there a trick to this please?

Thanks!!

You're getting that link by posing as a customer, choosing the attributes you want, and then copying the url that shows up on top of the browser? If so - does that URL contain a sessions ID? If so (and so) what happens when you remove that sessions ID?

There is no session id in the url.

Actually I'm getting the URL by copying the link that exists on the item as listed in the cart contents.

On further investigation, it appears that the link works only when the specific item is in the cart.

So, is there another way in which to arrive at a specific product having particular attribute settings from an external source?

I would really appreciate some guidance on this. If there is no way to link to a specifically attributed product, then I am going to have to convert 10 products into 360. Not looking forward to that!:frusty:

Perhaps someone could explain why the url works when the product is in the cart, but not otherwise.

Thanks.