The affiliate view refers to the section of your site where potential affiliates can sign up for an affiliate account and log into their account to get affiliate code so they can promote your products or services.

There are two ways you can setup the affiliate view/area when using the the Affiliate Platform plugin.

i) Option 1 (Stand alone affiliate area)

As soon as you install the plugin the affiliate area gets created using this option. The URL of the affiliate area will be similar to the following (replace example with your own domain name):

All you have to do is send your potential affiliates to the above URL and they will be able to signup for an account or login to their affiliate dashboard.

• Example Affiliate View created with option 1

You can also add the “WP Affiliate Login” sidebar widget from the widgets menu to your sidebar.

If you want to customize the look of the affiliate area to match with your site then you can do so by changing the CSS file. The following article explains this in detail:

• How to Customize the Appearance of the Affiliate View Using CSS

ii) Option 2 (On page affiliate area)

If you don’t like option 1 then you can create your affiliate view/area on a WordPress page or post that you create.

1. Create a WordPress page or post.
2. Place the following Shortcode on the newly created page or post.

The above is an image so do not try to copy and paste (simply type it in)

Now you can start sending potential affiliates to this page and they will be able to sign up for an affiliate account and login to their dashboard.

• Example Affiliate View created with option 2

Note: One thing to keep in mind when using option 2 is that the affiliate area is embedded on your wordpress page so the look and feel of  the affiliate view can be affected by your theme or other plugin’s CSS code as they are sharing the same space.

You need a minimum of 4 pieces of information to track clicks remotely via a HTTP request. These are:

• Secret word (the secret word that you have specified in the settings)
• Referrer ID (the affiliate ID)
• Client’s Browser Information
• Client’s IP Address

Optionally, you can pass in the following additional data too:

• The Referred Site’s URL

1. Tracking Clicks via HTTP GET request

To track clicks via HTTP GET use the following format:

http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/remote-click-track.php?secret=XX&ap_id=YY&clientbrowser=ZZ&clientip=AA

Replace the “example.com”, “XX”, “YY”, “ZZ”, “AA” with the appropriate value.

PHP Example

The following is an example of how to construct this link using PHP:

$secret = "4bd39e2e4a7bb";
$referrer = "amin21";
$clientbrowser = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
$clientip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$prepared_data = "?secret=".$secret."&ap_id=".$referrer."&clientbrowser=".$clientbrowser."&clientip=".$clientip;
$get_url = "http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/remote-click-track.php".$prepared_data;


2. Awarding Commission via HTTP POST request

To award commission via HTTP POST use the following format:

<form action="http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/remote-click-track.php" method="post">
<input name="secret" type="hidden" value="XX" />
<input name="ap_id" type="hidden" value="YY" />
<input name="clientbrowser" type="hidden" value="ZZ" />
<input name="clientip" type="hidden" value="AA" />
<input type="submit" value="Submit Post" />
</form>


Replace the “example.com”, “XX”, “YY”, “ZZ”, “AA” with the appropriate value.

The WordPress Affiliate Software Can be easily integrated with the Simple WordPress Shopping Cart Plugin. There are two ways to integrate the simple shopping cart plugin with the WP Affiliate platform plugin (make sure you only follow one of the methods specified below). You also need simple shopping cart v2.8.5 or over so if you are using an older version please download the latest version from the wp shopping cart page.

i) Integration Method 1

To integrate the WP Affiliate Platform simply check the “Enable 3rd Party Cart Integration” field from the settings menu.

3rd Party Shopping Cart Integration Settings

Now, when your customers return to your “Thank You” page after the payment on PayPal the affiliate platform plugin will automatically award commission to the appropriate affiliate if the sale was referred by someone.

Note: If you have modified your PayPal profile settings and turned on “Auto Redirection” then this method won’t work (please use method 2)

ii) Integration Method 2

Check the “Use WP Affiliate Platform” option from the settings menu of the “Simple WordPress Shopping Cart” and all done.

Simple Shopping Cart and Affiliate Platform Integration

Remember to test it after you do the integration to make sure everything is working fine before you go live.

This is a step by step guide on how to change the look and feel of the WP affiliate platform affiliate view by tweaking some CSS. If you are looking to make the affiliate view blend into your site a little more then you have come to the right place.

Things that you will need for this guide

• A text editor (e.g. MS WordPad)

Let’s get started

1. Open the “style.css” file from the “wp-affiliate-platform/affiliates/” directory.
2. Edit this CSS file to customize the affiliate view.

a) Changing the Background:

There are 2 ways you can change the background of the affiliate view:

• By changing the image
• By taking the image out and using a background color only

Option 1: To change the background image first you will need to find the following bit of code in the “style.css” file.

body {
background:url(images/bg4.jpg) top repeat-x;
height: 100%;
color: #555;
font-size: 12px;
font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana;
}

The “background:url(images/bg4.jpg) top repeat-x;” is the line we will need to edit. The CSS gets the image for the background from the images folder “wp-affiliate-platform/affiliates/images” of the plugin.

You need to upload the new background image to this directory. The easiest way to change this image is to name the new image the same as the existing one (bg4.jpg) and replace it, this way you do not need to change the CSS code. You may want to change the “repeat” depending on your image. The above example “top repeat-x;” will repeat the image from the top and along the x axis (horizontally).
Other repeat options:

• y axis (vertically)
• no-repeat
• top-right or left
• bottom-right or left

Option 2: To use just a background color you need to make a small change to the code. See the example below.

body {
Background: #000;
height: 100%;
color: #555;
font-size: 12px;
font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana;
}

In the above example I have set the background color to black.

Color Codes: You can use the following color codes to change colors in CSS:

• Color name (e.g. red)
• Hex value (e.g. #CECECE)
• RGB value (e.g. 255.0.0)

b) Changing the Header

To change the header you need to edit the following CSS code.

#header h1 {
padding: 34px 0px 0px 0px;
color: #FFF;
font-size: 40px;
font-family: Times New Roman, Georgia, Arial;
font-weight: normal;
}


• color: changes the color of the text in the header “the name that appears at the top of the affiliate view”. Refer to the color codes section for more information on what color codes can be used with CSS.
• font-size: allows you to change the size of the font.
• Font-family is the type of font. Note: The fonts used in this code are cross browser friendly, some browsers can not render all fonts.
• font-weight: changes the style of the font. You can make this normal, thick or thicker.

c) Changing the Body Font Color

To change the font color of the body “main font color” you will need to change the color in the following bit of code:

body {
Background: #000;
height: 100%;
color: #555;
font-size: 12px;
font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana;
}

The property you will need to modify is the “color: #555″. Refer to the color codes section for more information on what color codes can be used with CSS.

This guide has covered some basic changes that you can make to the affiliate view to give it a little personal touch. If you would like to learn more about some basic CSS then please see the Basic Guide to CSS article.

This page explains the cForms plugin integrating  with the WP Affiliate Software to design a Pay Per Lead Affiliate Model.

This instruction is best suited for someone with PHP Coding Knowledge. Please follow one of the following integration instructions:

i) Integration Option 1

This integration was documented by Sean Conway from www.499sitedesign.com

All i needed to do was follow the instructions @ cform II for using the my-functions.php file (i used the override location) and include this code. To use this code you may need to change ['Email *'] and ['Your Name *'] to match the field titles in the form. I have included some comments to help.

ii) Integration Option 2

This integration was done and documented by Yvette Kwei from www.magnumip.com.au

Little Background

I created a form with the popular Cforms II plugin (version 11.1).

In my form, users enter their contact details and then choose between one of four packages that I offer (“Basic”, “Standard”, “Premium” and “Custom”). Each package has a different price (in this example, $95, $195, $295, and $395). I wanted to pay my Affiliates for sending me these leads. Further, I wanted the “Unique Transaction ID” in WP Affiliate to be the ID given by Cforms to the particular submission.

The Integration Steps

1. Insert the following code into the “my-functions.php” file within cForms:
##### Start code here:

function my_cforms_action($cformsdata)
{
if (!empty($_SESSION['ap_id'])) $referrer = $_SESSION['ap_id'];
else if (isset($_COOKIE['ap_id'])) $referrer = $_COOKIE['ap_id'];

if (!empty($referrer))
{
$email = $cformsdata['data']['Email'];
$txnid = $cformsdata['subid'];
$itemid = 'Unknown';
$amount = 0.0;

$item = $cformsdata['data']['Type of Service'];
if (strpos($item, 'Basic') === 0) { $amount = 95.0; $itemid = 'Basic'; }
else if (strpos($item, 'Standard') === 0) { $amount = 195.0; $itemid = 'Standard'; }
else if (strpos($item, 'Premium') === 0) { $amount = 295.0; $itemid = 'Premium'; }
else if (strpos($item, 'Custom') === 0) { $amount = 395.0; $itemid = 'Custom'; }

wp_aff_award_commission($referrer, $amount, $txnid, $itemid, $email);
}
}

##### End Code here.

2. Insert a single line of code in “../wp-content/plugins/cforms/lib_nonajax.php”:
###
### allow the user to use form data for other apps
###
$trackf['id'] = $no;
$trackf['subid'] = $subID; ###### <<--- Insert this line here #####
$trackf['data'] = $track;
if( function_exists('my_cforms_action') )
my_cforms_action($trackf);
Notes:

• Cforms v.11.1 allows you to place the “my-functions.php” file in a folder called “cforms-custom” rather than “cforms” itself. This allows you to protect your custom scripts from being over-written when upgrading cforms. If you’ve taken advantage of this option (recommended) make sure the code you insert in step 1 is in the “../wp-content/plugins/cforms-custom/lib_nonajax.php” file.
• Obviously, you can rename the packages to whatever you want, and set the prices to whatever you want, but if you change the packages, you’ll need to manually update the data in the “my-functions.php” file.
• If you upgrade Cforms, you’ll need to re-insert the code in the lib_nonajax.php file.

The WP Affiliate Platform can be used to capture leads (potential customers) so you can award the appropriate commission to the referrer later once you have made some money from the lead.

The WP Affiliate Platform can be setup to be used with the following two types of Pay Per Lead affiliate model

1. You pay the referrer a commission for every lead that the affiliate sends your way (the commission is awarded when the lead takes an action on your site e.g. submits a contact form)
2. You pay the referrer when you make actual money from the lead that the affiliate sent your way (the commission is awarded when a sale is made to that lead later). For this model you need to capture the lead so you know who originally referred that lead. This allows you to award the appropriate commission later.

This page explains how you can capture lead using the Contact Form 7 and WP Affiliate Platform plugins

Capture Leads Using the Contact Form 7 and WP Affiliate Platform Plugins

Step 1: Setting up the Contact Form

Somewhere in your contact form’s “message body” enter the following piece of text:

[wp_affiliate_lead:reference:1:end]

Contact Form 7 setup

1 is the a reference number (it can be anything). If you have multiple contact forms on your site then this number allows you differentiate which form generated which lead.

Step 2: Modify the code so the lead gets captured upon contact form submission

Open the “classes.php” file from the “includes” directory of the Contact Form 7 plugin and search for the following text

$headers = "From: $sender\n";

Once you find that line simply add the code given here just above that line.

All done, now when a visitor submits a contact form that has the special tag embedded in the “message body” it will capture the lead. You can view all the leads in the “Manage Leads” menu of the Affiliate Platform Software. You will be able to manually award commission from this menu once you get revenue from a lead.

Screenshot of the Manage Leads Menu

The WordPress Affiliate Software Can be integrated with the eShop Plugin developed by Rich Pedley (This is not the WP eStore plugin).

The New Integration Instructions (Works with all Payment Gateways)

1. Get the Latest eShop plugin (version 5.2.0 or above)
2. Download and activate the eShop Affiliate Integration plugin

All done!

The Old Integration Instructions (Use it until you get the new version of eShop)

This integration covers only the “Standard PayPal Payment Gateway”. Further integration is possible if you understand the General 3rd party integration basics and can modify the code a bit.

To integrate the WP Affiliate Platform simply check the “Enable 3rd Party Cart Integration” field from the settings menu and the commission will be awarded to the affiliate when the customer lands on the “Thank You” page after a payment.

3rd Party Shopping Cart Integration Settings

The WP Affiliate Platform plugin can be integrated with the Contact Form 7 plugin to setup a Pay Per Lead affiliate model (the affiliate who refers a visitor gets a commission when the visitor submits a form).

You will need to have “Remote POST” enabled for the Affiliate Platform plugin. If you don’t know what I am talking about then please read the first paragraph of following URL:

• Enabling Remote POST in the Affiliate Platform Plugin

Step 1. Include the JavaScript

First of all, you need to include the JavaScript file (wp_aff_integration.js) needed for this integration to your themes header or footer. The JavaScript file is located inside the “api” directory of the affiliate platform plugin. It’s URL should look similar to the following:

http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/wp_aff_integration.js


Once you figure out the proper URL of the JavaScript file then simply add the following line to your theme’s header.php or footer.php file:

<script src="http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/wp_aff_integration.js" type="text/javascript"></script>


Step 2. Add the Commission Awarding Code to the Contact Form 7 Plugin

Now, when you edit a form scroll down to the bottom and find the “Additional Settings” section. Simply paste the following bit of code in this field and it will award the commission after the form is successfully submitted:

on_sent_ok: var url='http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/post.php?data=AA|'+getCookie('ap_id')+'|BB|CC|DD'; ajax.gets(url);


Replace the following with the appropriate data:

• example.com – replace it with your domain name (e.g. shadow-labs.com)
• AA – Replace it with the secret key that you have configured in the “Additional Integration Settings” section of the Affiliate Platform Settings menu.
• BB – Replace it with the sale amount (e.g 49.95). The commission will be calculated based on this amount.
• CC – Replace it with the proper transaction ID (you can leave it empty and an unique transaction ID will be generated for you)
• DD – Replace it with the item ID (this will help you identify which form the commission came from if you have multiple forms on different pages)

Additional Settings Section of the Contact Form 7 Plugin

So, a typical value in this field will look like the following:

on_sent_ok: var url='http://www.shadow-labs.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/post.php?data=4bd39e2e4a7ty|'+getCookie('ap_id')+'|49.95||2'; ajax.gets(url);


Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions.

Depending on your situation you may need to be able to award commission via a HTTP GET or POST request. WP Affiliate Platform has an API for awarding commission using a standard HTTP GET or POST request. If you want to use this API then you need to enable it from the settings menu. The following is a screenshot of this section in the settings menu:

Additional Integration Options Screenshot

Once you enable it, you can start to send request to the specified URL to award commission remotely.

You need a minimum of 3 pieces of information to award commission via a HTTP request. These are:

• Secret word (the secret word that you have specified in the settings)
• Referrer ID (the affiliate ID)
• Sale amount (commission will be calculated based on this amount)

Optionally, you can pass in the following additional data too:

• Transaction ID
• Item ID
• Buyer email address

1. Awarding Commission via HTTP GET request

To award commission via HTTP GET use the following format:

Replace the “example.com”, “XX”, “YY”, “ZZ” with the appropriate value.

PHP Example

The following is an example of how to construct this link using PHP:

$secret = "4bd39e2e4a7bb";
$referrer = "amin21";
$sale_amt = "29.95";
$prepared_data = "?secret=".$secret."&ap_id=".$referrer."&sale_amt=".$sale_amt;
$get_url = "http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/post.php".$prepared_data;


2. Awarding Commission via HTTP POST request

To award commission via HTTP POST use the following format:

<form method="post" action="http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/post.php
">
<input type="hidden" name="secret" value="XX">
<input type="hidden" name="ap_id" value="YY">
<input type="hidden" name="sale_amt" value="ZZ">
<input type=submit value="Submit Post">
</form>

Replace the “example.com”, “XX”, “YY”, “ZZ” with the appropriate value.

There are two ways you can integrate a plain PayPal button with the WP Affiliate Platform plugin.

Method 1: The Quick Integration Method

You need to use a “Thank You” page where the customer will be redirected to after the payment (this is the site where the Affiliate platform plugin is installed). Use the URL of this “Thank You” page in the “return” hidden field of your button. Also, add the “rm” hidden field’s value to 2 (“rm”=2) for this button (this will tell PayPal to POST the payment data back to the thank you page when the customer clicks the “return” button after a payment).

• Example Button Code for Plain PayPal Button
• Example Button Code for Hosted PayPal Button

Once you have that in place then all you need to do is use the “3rd party integraion” option in the affiliate plugin. Simply check the “Enable 3rd Party Cart Integration” field from the settings menu.

Now, when someone lands on your “Thank You” page after the payment, the affiliate plugin will verify the payment and award the commission to the appropriate affiliate (if this sale was referred by an affiliate).

If you are using PayPal hosted buttons then you need to specify the values of the “rm” and “return” fields in the advanced variables section of the button on PayPal.

Note: If you have modified your PayPal profile settings and turned on “Auto Redirection” then this method won’t work (please use method 2)

Method 2: The Robust Integration Method

The Affiliate Platform plugin comes with a basic IPN handling script. The ipn script is stored in the “api” directory inside the “wp-affiliate platform direcotory”. The URL of this IPN handling script will be similar to the following when the plugin is uploaded to your server:

Now, all you need to do is specify the URL of the ipn handling script in your PayPal button’s code. For example:

<input type="hidden" name="notify_url" value="http://www.your-domain-name.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/ipn_handler.php">


And add the Affiliate’s ID to the “custom” field of the button from the cookie. For example:

<input type="hidden" name="custom" value="<?php echo $_COOKIE['ap_id']; ?>">

i) Example for PHP

If you are placing the button on a PHP script then your button code will look similar to the one show on the following page:

• Example Button Code for PHP (Plain button)
• Example Button Code for PHP (PayPal hosted button)

Remember, if you are planning to place the PHP example code on a WordPress post or page then you need to have a plugin (e.g. PHP Exec plugin) that lets you execute PHP code in WordPress page or post. If you have such a plugin installed on your site then you should be able to copy and paste the example code in HTML view and modify the necessary information (e.g PayPal email address etc) to get it going.

ii) Example for Javascript (Plain HTML)

If you are placing the button code on a plain HTML page then you will need to use Javascript to retrieve the cookie value so it can be added to the custom field of PayPal.

a) Include the JavaScript File

You need to include the JavaScript file (wp_aff_integration.js) needed for this integration to your themes header or footer. The JavaScript file is located inside the “api” directory of the affiliate platform plugin. It’s URL should look similar to the following:

Once you figure out the proper URL of the JavaScript file then simply add the following line to your theme’s header.php or footer.php file:

<script src="http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/wp_aff_integration.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

b) The Button Code

Once you have the JavaScript file added to the page you can place the code for the PayPal button. Here are two different examples:

• Example Button Code for Javascript (option 1)
• Example Button Code for Javascript (option 2)