Bypassing cgi-bin links solution 2 - community collaboration.

[NormanRouxel]

Why not put the bit

<actinic:variable name="CatalogURL" /><actinic:block php="true">echo Ref2file("<actinic:variable Name="ProductReference" />");</actinic:block>

into a new Layout (DirectProductLink) as below

<actinic:variable name="CatalogURL" /><actinic:block php="true">echo Ref2file("<actinic:variable Name="ProductReference" />");</actinic:block>#<actinic:variable Name="EncodedProductAnchor" />

And you then make links like this

<a href="<actinic:variable Name="DirectProductLink" />">My link text</a>

Which is a little more readable.

I've also added in the product anchor so you'll go straight to the actual product on long pages.

[george]

Good work Gabriel, another seemingly basic tweak thats been needed for a long time.

[gabrielcrowe]

Those

$flist = array();

look redundant (probably from my earlier demo).

actually, i left these in as a thankyou. so people would know that this is actually your code.

of course! lolz.

[gabrielcrowe]

no doubt, grand theft code is occuring right this second.

[dave_finlayson]

Yep, so far I haven't found any other issues, great work.

Now that you've proved it works, we just need Actinic to pop it into v9!

[gabrielcrowe]

Gabe,

Seems to work pretty well, generated all the links correctly anyway.

Couple of wee probs:-

We display 10 best sellers, adding it into the standard best seller layout works online but within Actinic it only displays half it should (i.e 5 best sellers)

Adding it to Also bought's also works but I can't get it to display images within Actinic, although again, they are displayed online.

these problems are due to the piddly poor preview rendering. I generally have it turned off, since i trust my instinct more than i trust the incomplete render of the preview.

generated pages look ok, as you say, so once uploaded, the site looks and works fine.

[gabrielcrowe]

norm, you're spot on. lol.

in fact, i had to move the echoing into the loop, since actinic had a paddy over something about the structure it generated.

its so fiddly sometimes. not what i'd call stable at all.

and as for the bugs there, you're right too, its far from productionable.

has anyone any ideas why this happens?

[dave_finlayson]

Gabe,

Seems to work pretty well, generated all the links correctly anyway.

Couple of wee probs:-

We display 10 best sellers, adding it into the standard best seller layout works online but within Actinic it only displays half it should (i.e 5 best sellers)

Adding it to Also bought's also works but I can't get it to display images within Actinic, although again, they are displayed online.

[NormanRouxel]

Those

$flist = array();

look redundant (probably from my earlier demo).

[gabrielcrowe]

include this code at the end of your actinic_main.php then restart actinic.

/***************************************************************
* GetSectFileName - A support function for Ref2File
***************************************************************/

function GetSectFileName($sectref)
    {
        $connect = odbc_connect("ActinicCatalog8","","");
        $query = "SELECT [sPageName] FROM [Catalog Section] WHERE [nSectionID]=".$sectref."";
        $result = odbc_exec($connect, $query);
        while(odbc_fetch_row($result)){
            //$name = odbc_result($result, 2);
            $url = odbc_result($result, 1);  
        }
        odbc_close($connect);
            return $url;
    }

/***************************************************************
* GetProdParent - A support function for Ref2File
***************************************************************/
function GetProdParent($prodrefs)
    {
    $prodrefs = str_replace("{","",$prodrefs);
    $prodrefs = str_replace("}","",$prodrefs);
        $connect = odbc_connect("ActinicCatalog8","","");
        $query = "SELECT [nParentSectionID] FROM [product] WHERE [Product Reference]='".$prodrefs."'";
        $result = odbc_exec($connect, $query);
        while(odbc_fetch_row($result)){
            $parentid = odbc_result($result, 1);
        }
        odbc_close($connect);
            return $parentid;

        }

/***************************************************************
* GetSectParent- A support function for Ref2File
***************************************************************/
function GetSectParent($sectrefs)
    {
    $prodrefs = str_replace("{","",$sectrefs);
    $prodrefs = str_replace("}","",$sectrefs);
        $connect = odbc_connect("ActinicCatalog8","","");
        $query = "SELECT [nParentSectionID] FROM [Catalog section] WHERE [nSectionID]=".$sectrefs."";
        $result = odbc_exec($connect, $query);
        while(odbc_fetch_row($result)){
            $parentid = odbc_result($result, 1);
        }
        odbc_close($connect);
            return $parentid;
        }

/***************************************************************
* Ref2file - Use Actinic's pwn database, to convert a prod ref, to a filename
* @param int $ref the product reference.
* @author Gabriel Crowe + NormanRouxel 08 September 2007
*
* usage example:
<a href="<actinic:variable name="CatalogURL" /><actinic:block php="true">echo Ref2file("<actinic:variable Name="ProductReference" />");</actinic:block>">Link Text</a>
***************************************************************/
            
function Ref2File($ref) {
return GetSectFileName(GetProdParent($ref));
}
function Ref2ParentFile($ref) {
return GetSectFileName(GetSectParent(GetProdParent($ref)));
} 

<a href="<actinic:variable name="CatalogURL" /><actinic:block php="true">echo Ref2file("<actinic:variable Name="ProductReference" />");</actinic:block>">Link Text</a>

then make a link like this, wherever a product reference is in context, such as a marketing item.

To get the parent of the section your item is in (for single product per page lists) then make a link like this:

<a href="<actinic:variable name="CatalogURL" /><actinic:block php="true">echo Ref2ParentFile("<actinic:variable Name="ProductReference" />");</actinic:block>">Link Text</a>

This will traverse up another level.


what does the code do? basically, it uses actinics own database to find the name of the section that pertains to a product. by using the product reference. The code may cause some slowdown on larger shops, but really, all it does is convert the prodref, to the filename online.

note:
**EXPERIMENTAL** causes some errors occasionally when actinic closes. Other than that, how about some testing and input?

special thanks go to NormanRouxel for the initial code.