[ic] Advanced affiliate issue

interchange-users@lists.akopia.com interchange-users@lists.akopia.com
Mon Aug 6 23:04:01 2001


On Mon, Aug 06, 2001 at 10:02:53PM -0400, Mike Heins wrote:
> Quoting Jason Timm (jason@itchoices.com):
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > We are using the affiliate functions extensively.  We run a single catalog
> > that is the core of an affiliate program with 30+ affiliates and growing
> > quickly.  Each affiliate has their own look and feel capability (and static
> > pages) but all use the same databases (products, shipping, etc.) as well as
> > the same common pages.
> > 
> > Currently, each domain is mapped to the same directory on the server (main
> > document root).  So, when an affiliate goes to www.theirdomain.com, they get
> > forwarded to their entry point within IC.  But, from then on it seems like
> > IC uses the SERVER_NAME variable to pre-pend all future URLs and paths.
> > This means that after the first click to their site, the URL changes to
> > http://www.mydomain.com/cgi-bin/catalog/sites/their_affiliate_id/page.html.
> > While this still has their affiliate id in it, it no longer looks like their
> > URL.
> 
> > Does anyone have any ideas on how to make IC use a value from the
> > affiliate table instead of the SERVER_NAME variable?  In other words, make
> > the URL stay the same from beginning to end while using the same catalog?
> 
> Well, you can just set VendURL to be /cgi-bin/catalog without the
> http://whatever stuff. That works -- I can't remember whether you get
> a warning or not.


I'm thinking you are in a messy place.  If SERVER_NAME changes
you will be switching sessions (which affiliates don't like).

Why, **if they have their own static pages**, are they not just
their own catalogs?  Or are those static pages outside IC?
We used to do something like that with symlinks; just a makefile
to build another catalog.  Basically cp -aR | sed 

How do you handle cookies and SSL?  My $.02 is that you will be
better off letting the URL change but keeping the look and feel 
for each affiliate constant.  People are used to the url changing,
eg stores.yahoo.com.  You could use something generic like that too.

cfm

-- 

Christopher F. Miller, Publisher                               cfm@maine.com
MaineStreet Communications, Inc           208 Portland Road, Gray, ME  04039
1.207.657.5078                                         http://www.maine.com/
Content/site management, online commerce, internet integration, Debian linux