Snap Affiliates v2.0 for v1.5.0 and later

lat9:

In your admin's Configuration->Affiliate Program, what do you have "Affiliate Key Prefix" set to?

The key is set to ** CNWR_**

picandnix:

using the default option links to homepage but you Vann also select a specific product too by using the tool in the box.
The default option links to "Page Not Found"

mikebr:

I'm logged in as a customer. At the tab "Marketing Tools" It says ```html
"Site Link

The following link can be used anywhere you want to promote this site. Copy and paste the HTML code following each image into your blog or web page to link to us."

> That link includes the customer's affiliate ID  or the link states <a href="http://www.mysite.com/&referrer=CodedNo...">Gifts for all occasions....</a>
> 
> That link ends up at "Page Not Found"
It looks like you've got one of the SEO plugins installed as well.  In a "standard" Zen Cart installation, the generated link should be of the form

<a href="http://www.mysite.com/index.php?main_page=index&referrer=CNWR_21362757845">Gifts For All Occasions At GiftaDoodle.com</a>

Looking through the posts in the support thread associated with this plugin's [parent](http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?124461-snap-affiliates), it appears that there are known issues using the affiliates plugins with some (or all?) of the SEO plugins. You might ask in the support forum associated with the SEO plugin that you're using how to include an additional $_GET variable in the URL that they're generating.

All users of this plugin, please note that (in the US, anyway) there are tax implications associated with creating an affiliate program for your website. I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant, but you should perform your own due diligence by googling affiliate marketing 1099.

v2.0.0 of the plugin is now available in the Zen Cart Plugins area: http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1635

I'm preparing (and will submit later today) v2.1.0 with the following changes:

• BUGFIX: Don't display "Details" button if there are no affiliates (yet).
• BUGFIX: Payment email to affiliate always shows $0.00.
• BUGFIX: Approval and payment emails show FILENAME_REFERRER_MAIN for referrer_main page link.
• BUGFIX: Payment email shows referrer_main as link for "Contact Us".
• BUGFIX: Pagination on Customers->Referrers was broken. Also, moved maximum number of affiliates to display to a configuration setting.
• Added a configuration switch to control whether or not a customer receives a commission on purchases made with their affiliate key in their account.
• Added a configuration setting to identify any Orders Status codes that should not receive a commission.
• BUGFIX: Disable the "Pay" button if the affiliate's current commission value is 0.
• "Prettied-up" the account-activation and commission-payment HTML email text.
• Added validation for the commission-rate entry in Customers->Referrers.
• BUGFIX: Missed a couple of admin-side language values (details buttons values).
• If the affiliate's account is not approved, the "Ban", "Pay" and "Update" buttons are disabled.
• Added a section to the readme identifying how to upgrade from previous versions of the plugin.
  In addition, I've updated the admin-side auto-install to be version-cognizant so that the configuration additions made for v2.1.0 won't disrupt/change any of your existing configuration settings, they're just added to the database!

lat9:

It looks like you've got one of the SEO plugins installed as well. In a "standard" Zen Cart installation, the generated link should be of the form

<a href="http://www.mysite.com/index.php?main_page=index&referrer=CNWR_21362757845">Gifts For All Occasions At GiftaDoodle.com</a>

> Looking through the posts in the support thread associated with this plugin's [parent](http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?124461-snap-affiliates), it appears that there are known issues using the affiliates plugins with some (or all?) of the SEO plugins. You might ask in the support forum associated with the SEO plugin that you're using how to include an additional $_GET variable in the URL that they're generating.

Ceon's SEO Plugin is installed.

In the customers account when navigating to 'Marketing tools'  The Site Link Generator produces the following code:

<a href="http://www.mysite.com/?zenid=a9oo496a04v6s5ujt7ts7rgi44&referrer=CNEY_7013629850121">Gifts</a>

This code does link to the Home Page.

I understand the standard Zen Cart configuration should produce the following:

<a href="http://www.mysite.com/index.php?main_page=index&referrer=CNEY_7013629850121">Gifts</a>

Is there a problem with the generated code?

The Deep Link Generator Transform Generator Produces the following Code:
<http://www.mysite.com/&referrer=CNEY_7013629850121>

This code is wrong and links to "Page not found"

Mike, try replacing your copy of /includes/modules/pages/referrer_tools/jscript_tools.php with:

<script type="text/javascript"><!--
var referrerPrefix = "<?php echo SNAP_KEY_PREFIX; ?>";
var referrerKey = "<?php echo $referrer->fields['referrer_key']; ?>";
var link_hint = "<?php echo TEXT_PASTE_LINK_HERE; ?>";

function transform() {
  var textArea = document.getElementById("referrerLinkDump");
  var linkPrefix = '&';

  if( textArea ) {
    if( textArea.value.indexOf( "&referrer=" + referrerPrefix ) == -1 && textArea.value != link_hint ) {
      if (textArea.value.indexOf( '?' ) == -1) {
        linkPrefix = '?';
      }
      textArea.value += linkPrefix + "referrer=" + referrerKey;
    }
  }
}

function removeTip(textArea) {
  if( textArea.value == link_hint ) {
    textArea.style.color = "black";
    textArea.value = "";
  }
}

function addTipIfBlank(textArea) {
  if( textArea.value == "" ) {
    textArea.value = link_hint;
    textArea.style.color = "grey";
  }
}
//--></script>

If the link contains a '?', the referrer variable will be added with an & otherwise it'll be added with a ?.

See if that helps.

lat9:

Mike, try replacing your copy of /includes/modules/pages/referrer_tools/jscript_tools.php with:

<script type="text/javascript"><!-- var referrerPrefix = "<?php echo SNAP_KEY_PREFIX; ?>"; var referrerKey = "<?php echo $referrer->fields['referrer_key']; ?>"; var link_hint = "<?php echo TEXT_PASTE_LINK_HERE; ?>"; function transform() { var textArea = document.getElementById("referrerLinkDump"); var linkPrefix = '&'; if( textArea ) { if( textArea.value.indexOf( "&referrer=" + referrerPrefix ) == -1 && textArea.value != link_hint ) { if (textArea.value.indexOf( '?' ) == -1) { linkPrefix = '?'; } textArea.value += linkPrefix + "referrer=" + referrerKey; } } } function removeTip(textArea) { if( textArea.value == link_hint ) { textArea.style.color = "black"; textArea.value = ""; } } function addTipIfBlank(textArea) { if( textArea.value == "" ) { textArea.value = link_hint; textArea.style.color = "grey"; } } //--></script>

> If the link contains a '?', the referrer variable will be added with an & otherwise it'll be added with a ?.
> 
> See if that helps.


Works Great!!
Thank You

Thanks for letting me know, Mike. Since that change is "global", I'll include it in a future update.

v2.1.0 is now available in the Zen Cart Plugins ...

Thanks for working on this. I was wondering - while reading this thread and the older one, will this module work with simple seo mod installed? I did not find an answer in the parent forum...before installing, I figured I'd ask.

kman55:

Thanks for working on this. I was wondering - while reading this thread and the older one, will this module work with simple seo mod installed? I did not find an answer in the parent forum...before installing, I figured I'd ask.
I haven't tested with any of the SEO mods. All I can suggest is installing in a test directory to see if it "plays well together".

kman55:

Thanks for working on this. I was wondering - while reading this thread and the older one, will this module work with simple seo mod installed? I did not find an answer in the parent forum...before installing, I figured I'd ask.

briefly playing with this mod on a zencart with simple seo, image handler, checkout without an account and various other modules and everything seems to be working just fine. I'll keep playing and report back if I find anything that seems to be out of wack. again, thank you for working on this much needed mod.

lat9:

I haven't tested with any of the SEO mods. All I can suggest is installing in a test directory to see if it "plays well together".

So far, I can quickly link to internal pages without a problem. However, to create a link to a category or subcategory page - I get a 404 page not found. If anyone else has a solution or can direct me to a solution - I would be grateful.

Which version of the plugin are you using? I think that the jscript change that's included in v2.1.0 might help. I've tried going to your site and manually adding the ?referrer=CNFW_9999 to the end of the URI without any 404's.

I am actually testing it on another domain. I was able to get it to work. For other who might be reading this, in my Admin>Configuration>SEO URL - I changed the "add cpath to product url" to true. That fixed the 404 errors. I am now able to link to internal product pages, category pages, sub category pages as well as the home page.

I do have a question - how long does the cookie for an affiliate's ID remain valid? 3 months? 6 months? Forever? Also, if the same customer that the affiliate sends purchases something today, and then again 2 weeks from now, would the affiliate still get credit on that purchase?

The cookie is set for 365 days in /includes/init_includes/init_snap.php (sounds like a good candidate for an admin configuration value in the future). If the customer does not clear their cookies, the cookie (once set) lasts for the duration set in the initialization script, so Yes, the affiliate would still get credit on that purchase.

For all you guys who use this module, let me ask you a quick question. I just installed it on a 1.5.1 site. Everything looks good, except during my testing, my test account doesn't seem to be earning any commissions.

For example, I created a referral account. Then using the Link Creator, I created a custom URL for a product in my store. I then logged on as a DIFFERENT user and clicked that link, made a purchase, and I hoped to see an earned commission for my test account. However, I am seeing nothing under the Order History for the affiliate account. It's as if nothing was registered.

Any ideas what I could be missing? I do see a cookie being created on my machine which records the referrer_key in there.

I just don't know why it's not recording the sale after I purchase something while using the affiliate URL as a test. I hope anyone using this module can let me know your thoughts!

Jeff_Mash:

For all you guys who use this module, let me ask you a quick question. I just installed it on a 1.5.1 site. Everything looks good, except during my testing, my test account doesn't seem to be earning any commissions.

For example, I created a referral account. Then using the Link Creator, I created a custom URL for a product in my store. I then logged on as a DIFFERENT user and clicked that link, made a purchase, and I hoped to see an earned commission for my test account. However, I am seeing nothing under the Order History for the affiliate account. It's as if nothing was registered.

Any ideas what I could be missing? I do see a cookie being created on my machine which records the referrer_key in there.

I just don't know why it's not recording the sale after I purchase something while using the affiliate URL as a test. I hope anyone using this module can let me know your thoughts!

you have posted the same question in v1 of this module, so, which version are you using and which version of ZC are you using?

I am using v2.10. I accidentally posted in the other thread before seeing this one. I appreciate any help you (or anyone) can contribute to my problem. I'm sure it's something silly, but for the life of me, I don't know why it isn't tracking affiliate sales. I do use the Ultimate SEO add-on, but from what I have read, this newer version should work. I don't get any 404 errors or anything with custom URL's. In fact, my URLS look like this and load fine (edited out my domain, but hover over the link to see the format):

http://www.MYDOMAIN.com/store/space-trix-by-fun-inc-trick-p-15698.html&referrer=CNWR_144491364328461

But when I place an order using that link, and then when I log into my referral account, it doesn't have record of the sale.