External links in. Stored monitored and actioned

[Andy K]

The website I am working on has arranged deals with several companies to have a link from their website into ours.

Here are the requirments:

• The link will open up our site in a new window - no problem.
  
  The link needs to activate the relevent company's logo to appear on our site somewhere - ???
  
  The link source needs to be stored - using cookies?
  
  The source ref then needs to be added to the details sent in the enquiry form - so commision can be paid to the relevent source.
  I have an enquiry form set up using ASP so adding another variable should not be much of a problem.

Its just fitting all the pieces together . .

Any advice would save my balls!>! Im not after code at this stage, just direction

Andy

[D3mon]

Using ASP:

1. Get the other site to link to yours with a ref ID like:

http://[yourdomain]/[page].asp?ref=4

2. use request.querystring("ref") to get the number

3. use SELECT CASE to decide which logo to show depending on the number sent

4. use request.servervariables("HTTP_REFERER") to get the other webpage they came from

5. place the HTTP_REFERER value in the form as a hidden field

[Rob]

Of course... if you are using HTTP_REFERER then you may not even need to link with a reference number... a straight link would be much better... specially for SEO reasons.

[Andy K]

Thanks D3mon that is a great help > U.R.A.Legend!

About the Select Case

Would I use code like this:

Code: Select all

<%

mylogo = request.querystring("ref")

Select Case mylogo
<% Case 1 %> 
[img]logo1.gif[/img]
<% Case 2 %> 
[img]logo2.gif[/img] 
<% Case 3 %> 
[img]logo3.gif[/img] 
End Select%>

Then where I want the logos to appear on each page i would put something like:

Code: Select all

response.write("mylogo")

? - I guess this is almost right but not quite ?

AK

[Rob]

Hi Andy...

use this code:-

Code: Select all

<% 

mylogo = cint(request.querystring("ref")) 'Forces to an integer

Select Case mylogo 
   Case 1  Img = "image1.gif"
   Case 2  Img = "image2.gif"
   Case 3  Img = "image3.gif"
End Select
%>
[img]<%=img%>[/img]"

Hope this helps.

[Andy K]

Cheers Rob

response.write("great help!")

I will keep this topic posted with my progress, no doubt it will be useful to others.

In the mean time U-ALL feel free to add any comments

cheers
AK

[D3mon]

Of course, bear in mind that some surfers have applications that block the referrer...

[Andy K]

In which case if I define the 'ref' id numbers with the company names, I could use the 'ref' id on the form, and not bother using the HTTP_REFERER value.

[D3mon]

Sounds fine, so long as you don't need to know exactly which page of the company website the visitor came from.

[Andy K]

I have set up test links using ref numbers linking to the Home page. I have placed the Select Case code mentioned above at the top of the Home page and saved this: home.asp

It works fine to reveal the relevent logos. Only problem is when you click onto another page the ref number goes and so the logo disappears. How can I retain the ref number please?

I am placing the same asp code to the top of each page. it has crossed my mind to create and external asp page and link this in, but will this retain the ref number?

Do I need to add the 'ref' value to each link somehow?

[D3mon]

You could add the ref# to the url of each page in your site, but it would probably be easier to use a session variable to store it.

[Andy K]

Ok i have sorted the Session variable, here is my code on the opening page:

Code: Select all

<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252" %>
<% 
Dim ref, mylogo

Session ("refer") = cint(request.querystring("ref"))

mylogo = Session ("refer") 

Select Case mylogo 
   Case 1  Img = "Logo.gif" 
   Case 2  Img = "Logo.gif" 
   Case 3  Img = "Logo.gif" 
End Select 
%>

Then I remove the linebelow) on all the other pages, and the logo stays on throughout.

Code: Select all

Session ("refer") = cint(request.querystring("ref"))

I am using a Template and the logo appears within a Optional Region. if viewing the pages without following a weblink, the img src is shown as an error (white square red cross) . I know it is possible to show/hide Optional Regions but i am finding it tricky.

Instead I set Case 0 Img (ref=0) to a tiny square image

[Andy K]

The last hurdle. . . I hope!

I can add the 'ref' number/ Session variable to the end of the form email like this:

Code: Select all

FullForm= FullForm & "

Estate Agent Lead: " & Session ("refer")   & "</p>"

For example for var=2 This gives a line in the email of:
Estate Agent Lead: 2

But I want the numbers to be referenced to names. I have tried to do this by setting a new variable 'nlogo' but it is wrong, making Errors on Page:

Code: Select all

<%
nlogo = session ("refer")
if nlogo = 1 Then
nlogo = "Logoone"
if nlogo = 2 Then
nlogo = "Logotwo"
if nlogo = 3 Then
nlogo = "Logothree"
End if
%>

1. How can I assign text to the numbers ?

2. If necessary, where do I script if statments. In the body or above the head ?

AK

[Andy K]

just worked it out.

I used Select Case quite easy really,

Code: Select all

nlogo = Session ("refer") 

Select Case nlogo 
   Case 0  nameL = ("none")
   Case 1  nameL = ("logo1") 
   Case 2  nameL = ("logo2") 
   Case 3  nameL = ("logo3") 
End Select

Then put this in the email line:

Code: Select all

FullForm= FullForm & "

Estate Agent Lead: " &  (nameL)   & "</p>"