Linking to products in Actinic

[abi rhodes]

Hi,

I have been searching through the suppost forum and dicovered some useful information on how to link to a particular product from a website external to actinic.

However the link I use doesn't seem to be working.

I have tried the following:

http:http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/acatal..._The_Times_196

http:http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/acatal...ml#product_196
http:http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/acatal...fiths.html#196

and others. But each time the link simply goes to the Trevor_Griffiths.html page and not the product directly!!

Any ideas as to how I can link to any product directly?

Cheers
Abi

[dave_finlayson]

Abi,

You need to add

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

into your product template. Probably best beside the product description. Think will make your link 'jump' to the correct product.

[abi rhodes]

OK, have tried other ways

I have also tried the cgi-bin route eg:
http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/cgi-bi....com/acatalog/

But still no joy.

David - where abouts do I add the extra coding? I am quite new to this and have no idea where to start adding strings of code to the product info. Can you give me some more details?

Cheers
Abi
Nottingham

[dave_finlayson]

Abi,

No problem, if this doesn't make sense then just repost, I am notorious for not making sense:-

1. Open Actinic and click on the design tab
2. Make sure you have one of your product pages visible
3. Click on the product name, with any luck this will highlight the text 'ProductName' in your layout code (should be highlighted in blue unless you have advanced view turned on)
4. Copy and paste '<a name="<actinic:variable name="EncodedProductAnchor" />"></a>' (without the quotes) just before this bit of text.
5. When you paste it in it should look like this:- <a name="EncodedProductAnchor"></a>
6. Upload the sites and check it works

And make sure you take a backup before you do it!

[abi rhodes]

Linking problems

Hi David,

Thanks for the help with this.

I went to the design section that you mention and found this

<a name="<Actinic:Variable Name="EncodedProductAnchor"/>">
<b><Actinic:Variable Name="ProductName"/></b></a>

there already. What does this mean, have I already got the section you suggest adding?

Thanks for your patience

Cheers
Abi

[dave_finlayson]

Abi,

Sorry, you are absolutely right, the correct anchors are there, it's your links that are wrong! The link should include the product code - not the product name, so for instance the 'These are the Times' screenplay link would be:-

http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/acatal...iths.html#a153

All you need to do is make sure you have the 'a' before the product code.

The link above will work

[NormanRouxel]

All you need to do is make sure you have the 'a' before the product code

This will fail if you use non alphanumerics in your product references. These get replaced with _nn. E.g. "$" becomes "_24". Also duplicates have extra code e.g "a1_21" prefix in the anchor.

If you go this route (the cgi method is better) then it's best to look in your pages generated source for the exact anchor to use.

[dave_finlayson]

As usual Norman is right! He probably comes from the intelligent side of Edinburgh!

http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/cgi-bi...=154&NOLOGIN=1

is the sort of link you are after!

[NormanRouxel]

If you have complex product references, then the following might help

<a href="http://www.mysite.com/acatalog/pagename.html" onclick="javascript:location.href=this.href+'#a'+escape('ABC-12').replace(/%/g,'_');return false;">Go to product</a>

And you change the pagename to suit and the ABC-12 is the product reference.

Although the correct URL is generated by the JavaScript, search engines can still follow the link (but will go to the top of the page).

[abi rhodes]

Thanks for the help

Hi Norman and David

Thanks to your combined effort I have cracked it

Here is the url I used in the end http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/acatal...iths.html#a153

and it finally works.

Cheers guys,
A very happy Abi in Nottingham