Email a Friend

[Design2Please]

Hi,

I am using Actinic Catalog 8

I have added the email a friend code (as per the AUG) to my product extended info pages (i added it here rather than the product general description so as to save space on the section pages.

The problem i currently have with this is that because my extended info pages are pop ups it means when you click on the link in the "email a friend" email then it only takes you to the extended info page. Is it possible to change this to send to the section page instead (as in link to the product category page)?

Also is there a way to change how the link appears in the email so that it shows the product name as the link rather than the actual URL as this would look tidier. If possible i would be interested in trying to include the product image in the email as well.

If you want to have a look at the site in question then it is:

www.designtoplease.co.uk (Nb: the site is not complete yet so orders are not possible yet).

Kind Regards

[cdicken]

Jonathan

The following code will include the product name and a link to the main product in the 'email a friend' link:

            Enter e-mail address to tell a friend
<input type=text value="" size=40 onchange="
	var thisloc=location.href + '#<Actinic:Variable Name="EncodedProductAnchor"/>';
	if (this.value != '') {
		location.href='mailto:' + this.value +'?subject=Take%20a%20look%20at%20<Actinic:Variable Name="ProductName"/>&body=Check%20out%20<actinic:variable encoding="perl" name="ProductName" />%20at%20<actinic:variable encoding="perl" name="SearchCGIURL" />%26PRODREF%3D<actinic:variable name="ProductReference" />.'
		}
">
<input type=button value="OK">

I don't know any way to get images and HTML emails via these sorts of links. I think you would need a rather cleverer bit of code to do that.

[Design2Please]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the reply,

I have currently resolved this issue by getitng the link to point the category page that the product is from by making the variable "thisloc" the base url plus the section url name. However would i be right in thinking the code you have suggested points the link to the product on the relevamt section page?

If so i will give that a go as will be more targetted than just pointing to the top of the section page.

Kind Regards

Jon

[mpwildeman]

OK button missing

Hi,

I've used the above code to add the Email to a friend on the extended Info page (i too wanted to save space). But the OK button is missing on some pages.

I think it's to do with the size of the page. Default is 500 w x 700 h. I have tried changing this to 1000 x 1000 but still some pages are missing the OK button (so maybe not a size thing?).

Layout is "includes Add to Cart Button" and i've tried placing the email bit above and below the ADD button but the same problem.

Examples

works OK = http://www.bigmatts.com/acatalog/info_HOODPAD.html
doesnt work = http://www.bigmatts.com/acatalog/info_WUSH.html

Any ideas would be welcome

Cheers

Matthew

[Rich-MLandS]

Create an additional page with your company header, product image & content + price. E.g. (email-page-111.html) - 111 stands for product number. A tutorial on this is in the Advance Guide.

The just write a simple ASP, Javascript or PHP script to refer to these pages and send it in an e-mail.

You can view a system which I created on here: http://www.hamradio.co.uk

Hope that gives you a few more ideas.

[mpwildeman]

OK button

Thanks Richard,

useful info.

But I still really want to know why the OK button is missing on some pages but not others

[cdicken]

Becasue the non-working product has '"Wush" in the product name (with double-quotes) which breaks the javascript.

What you can do in v8 is right-click on the 'ProductName' variable in the 'email a friend' link text - then select 'Edit Appearance' and set 'Encoding' to 'HTML'. That should do it.

[mpwildeman]

" " in product name

Thanks Chris,

I tried what you suggested - change to HMTL - and that makes the OK button appear.

BUT

When I click on OK to email someone I get this message

"The command line argument is not valid. Verfy the switch you are using"

This only happens on itmes with "" in the item name eg "Wush".

SO

I decided to just drop the "" and try that and that works fine

BUT

the link its sends isnt correct e.g.

http://www.bigmatts.com/cgi-bin/ss00...F=OAK-2391L/61

This was the email generated from a prouduct without "" in the name. But the link isnt correct - not such page.

Sorry to be a hassle but do you have any ideas. Just to confirm belwo is the scritp I'm running:-

Enter e-mail address to tell a friend
<input type=text value="" size=40 onchange="
var thisloc=location.href + '#<Actinic:Variable Name="EncodedProductAnchor"/>';
if (this.value != '') {
location.href='mailto:' + this.value +'?subject=Take%20a%20look%20at%20<Actinic:Variable Name="ProductName"/>&body=Check%20out%20<actinic:variable encoding="perl" name="ProductName" />%20at%20<actinic:variable encoding="perl" name="SearchCGIURL" />%26PRODREF%3D<actinic:variable name="ProductReference" />.'
}
">
<input type=button value="OK">

[cdicken]

Is the product reference really 'OAK-2391L/61'. The '/' is a reserved character in URLs and so might cause the problems. Try the HTML encoding on the 'ProductReference' variable as well.

[mpwildeman]

Still not working

Hi Chris,

I changed the endoding to HMTM (just with the code to produce the link not the entire page), but that didnt work. Now have productname and productref as hmtl.
Checked by using a different product incase the / is causing problems. But still the same error. The link isnt correct e.g.

http://www.bigmatts.com/cgi-bin/ss00...ODREF=KG-ZIPPY.

product code is

KG-ZIPPY

extended info page is

info_KG_ZIPPY_33.html

general section is

http://www.bigmatts.com/acatalog/Jeans.html


Any ideas?

[cdicken]

Try changing the encoding to "Quoted Perl". That might do the necessary encoding. Sorry it's proving so tricky - but I'm sure we'll get there in the end.

[mpwildeman]

Hi chris,

tried that. Changed prodcutreference and ProductName to Quoted Perl but the same problem - the link isnt right.
I only changed the reference and name within the "Enter email address...." section not anywhere else on that page, if that makes a difference.

The link now comes up as

http://www.bigmatts.com/cgi-bin/ss00...l&PRODREF=WUSH.

which isnt correct.

I'm sure we'll get there in the end.

Matt

[cdicken]

http://www.bigmatts.com/cgi-bin/ss000001.pl&PRODREF=WUSH

should be

http://www.bigmatts.com/cgi-bin/ss000001.pl?PRODREF=WUSH

i.e. with a question mark rather than a '&'

You also need a &NOLOGIN=1 at the end of the link.

e.g.

http://www.bigmatts.com/cgi-bin/ss000001.pl?PRODREF=WUSH&NOLOGIN=1

[mpwildeman]

How do it get that then

Hi Chris,

yes in deed the link should be

http://www.bigmatts.com/cgi-bin/ss00...WUSH&NOLOGIN=1

that works fine but how do I make the system produce this correct working link?

The none working one I posted in the previous thread was generated by the system and posted into an email. So how do I get the email to generate the correct link?

The code that is generating this link is (I think) :-

if (this.value != '') {
location.href='mailto:' + this.value +'?subject=Take%20a%20look%20at%20<actinic:variable encoding="perl" name="ProductName" />&body=Check%20out%20<actinic:variable encoding="perl" name="ProductName" />%20at%20<actinic:variable encoding="perl" name="SearchCGIURL" />%26PRODREF%3D<actinic:variable encoding="perl" name="ProductReference" />.'
}

All the above variable are now set to "Perl Quoted"

Sorry to be so dense but can you help?

[cdicken]

Hi Matthew

I'm afraid that non alphanumeric characters such as '/' or '-' are never going to work in the 'Email a Friend' link as will either break the javascript, or if they don't break the javascript, they are invalid for Actinic's search functionality.

I've just spent an hour playing around with this, and I'm afraid the only way you are going to get this to work is if you ensure all your product references are just letters and numbers.