Integrating IdevAffiliate with eSeller ....
If you wish to use an affiliate program to allow affiliates to earn commissions on sales, then it is possible to integrate IdevAffiliate with PHP-eSeller.
NOTE : At present this system only works with digital items and not physical items. This is because when the customer logs in to download their digital items, the affiliate code is triggered. Physical items have no download or log in and so the affiliate code is not triggered.
How affiliate programs work
A customer signs up to your affiliate application, creating an account as an affiliate. They are then provided with a set of links which may be text based or graphic based each with a reference identifying their unique customer affiliate id.
The affiliate places the links and banners onto their web site or blog and when someone clicks on the link, the affiliate program places a cookie onto the customer machine. If that person then makes a purchase from your web site, IdevAffiliate uses the cookie to track the affiliate id and the affiliate is given a commission.
Integration
Integration uses the Generic Pixel method where a small graphic image is placed on a page which can only be reached by purchasers.
These are the steps needed to integrate IdevAffiliate with PHP-eSeller.
In IdevAffiliate, log into the IdevAffiliate admin area and select
"Cart Integration"
"Shopping Cart Integration Wizard"
and click on "Enable Generic Tracking Pixel" button.
Click on the Edit Optional Variables link.
Click on the tick box for
"Use Optional variable #2" and
"Use Optional Variable #3" and click on the
"Update Optional Variables" button.
Now click on the "View Integration instructions & processing code" which will show the Generic Pixel image code.
In the menu click on
"General Settings"
"Fraud Control"
In the "Fraud control type" drop down list, select "Order Number" and click on "Update Settings" button. This is important to prevent
duplicate triggers of the commission code with the same download link.
This is all the configuration that is needed in IdevAffiliate.
The Generic Pixel code that is required to integrate with PHP-eSeller is :
<img border="0" src="http://www.site.com/idevaffiliate/sale.php?profile=xxxxx&idev_saleamt={TOTAL_COST}&
idev_ordernum={UNIQUE_ID}&idev_option_2={CUSTOMER_EMAIL}&idev_option_3={PRODUCTS}" width="1" height="1" />
where xxxxx is the unique profile number for your installation of IdevAffiliate and www.site.com/idevaffilate is the location of your installation.
Placing Generic Pixel into PHP-eSeller
Now that you have the Generic Pixel code and IdevAffiliate is set up you can now place the Generic Pixel into PHP-eSeller.
The Generic Pixel code has to be placed into the template file login_downloads.htm which is located in the template folder. It can be placed anywhere within the file.
The following is an example of the code :
<patTemplate:comment>
-------------------------------
Displays each file that may be
downloaded for this user
-------------------------------
</patTemplate:comment>
<table align="center" summary="download">
<tr>
<td><img border="0" src="http://www.site.com/idevaffiliate/sale.php?profile=72198&idev_saleamt={TOTAL_COST}&idev_ordernum={UNIQUE_ID}&idev_option_2={CUSTOMER_EMAIL}&idev_option_3={PRODUCTS}" width="1" height="1" /></td> </tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Number of products which you may download : <strong>{PRODUCT_COUNT}</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<patTemplate:tmpl name="downloads_entry">
<tr>
<td align="left"><strong>Item : </strong>{ITEM_NAME}</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">{MESS1}</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">{MESS2}</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">{BASENAME} {FILESIZE}</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">
{BUTTON}
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><hr></td>
</tr>
</patTemplate:tmpl>
</table>
Variables
List of possible variables accessible in login_downloads.htm
{TOTAL_COST} is the total value of the digital items in the cart.
{UNIQUE_ID} is the link code which is used as the unique id to prevent fraud.
{CUSTOMER_EMAIL} is the email address of the customer
{PRODUCTS} is the list of product names
Testing the affiliate system
Go to the http://www.yoursite.com/idevaffiliate/ and create a new account.
Copy the text links or banner and place it onto a web page on your web server.
Click on the banner to set the cookie on your machine.
Now go to your PHP-eSeller installation and make a test purchase or use the complementary sell feature to create a download link.
Put the download link into you browser and you will be presented with the download buttons for the items that you have purchased.
If you now go to page view source in your browser, you should be able to see the tracking pixel on the web page with all the variables that have been transferred.
Log into IdevAffiliate and you should see the pending commission.
Try putting the same download link into the browser again. If you have set up the fraud prevention correctly, it will not generate another commission for this download purchase.
