Variable Combination?

[marknc]

Is it possible to somehow join two variables? I want to assign a url to a section name and product. Normally, this would look something like:
Product_Sections_Whats_New_100.html#art567.
I have tried this with the following:
<a href="<actinic:variable name="SectionURL" />#a<actinic:variable name="ProductReference" />">CLICK HERE to return to the Product List</a>
but it doesn't work! Firefox doesn't know what to do with it!
Does anyone know how I can achieve the link to the specific product using variables? Is there some special code needed to join them?

[NormanRouxel]

Don't use

#a<actinic:variable name="ProductReference" />

Use:

#<actinic:variable name="EncodedProductAnchor" />

Because Actinic encodes special characters in the product reference when building the page anchor and thus uses EncodedProductAnchor as the product anchor.

[marknc]

Just tried this and getting the same "don't know what to do with this..." from Firefox. Is it possible that this doesn't work in Preview? Also I notice in the source code that the "a" following the "#" is included in the EncodedProductAnchor variable, so only the "#" is required. So my code is like this:
<a href="<actinic:variable name="SectionURL" />#<actinic:variable name="EncodedProductAnchor" />">CLICK HERE to return to the Product List</a>

[Duncan Rounding]

It won't work in preview as Firefox doesn't like the file reference to your hard drive in a link.

[marknc]

OK. I will upload and see what gives. Thank you.

[marknc]

Uploaded this code:
<a href="<actinic:variable name="SectionURL" />#<actinic:variable name="EncodedProductAnchor" />">CLICK HERE to return to the Product List</a>
but it still doesn't work.
It appears to create a url like this:
...Product_Sections_Sparklers_6.html&NOLOGIN=1#an280
Don't know what the NOLOGIN bit is about but it doesn't allow the link to the product to work. Not sure where to go from here...

[Duncan Rounding]

Did you try Norman's post above.

[marknc]

Uploaded this code:
<a href="<actinic:variable name="SectionURL" />#<actinic:variable name="EncodedProductAnchor" />">CLICK HERE to return to the Product List</a>
but it still doesn't work.
It appears to create a url like this:
...Product_Sections_Sparklers_6.html&NOLOGIN=1#an280
Don't know what the NOLOGIN bit is about but it doesn't allow the link to the product to work. Not sure where to go from here...

Yes I did. As above.

The link created by these variables is:
http://mysiteurl/cgi-bin/ss000001.pl...OLOGIN=1#an280
I think the NOLOGIN bit is appended because the link is going via the cgi-bin and I'm not sure of any way around it. I keep experimenting but it's all guess work really.

[Duncan Rounding]

That link format will work - are you looking to create a link that doesn't go via the cgi-bin?
If so then use this:

<a href="<actinic:variable name="SectionPageName" />#a<actinic:variable name="ProductReference" />">CLICK HERE to return to the Product List</a>

[marknc]

Absolutely brilliant. That works, thank you drounding. I learned something today. I'm so grateful for the solution. All the best.
Mark

[NormanRouxel]

Using

#a<actinic:variable name="ProductReference" />

will only work if your product references are purely alphanumeric. If there are any other characters used this will fail. Much better to use

#<actinic:variable name="EncodedProductAnchor" />

as mentioned before.

[marknc]

Point noted Norman. All of our references are indeed alpha/numerical. I am just working on how to make a direct link to a product work with duplicate products. My guess is that the duplicates would have to have their own unique reference number.