ShopWindow Integration and Setup Guide

Transcription

1 ShopWindow Integration and Setup Guide

2 Contents GETTING STARTED WITH SHOPWINDOW TOOLSET... 3 WEB SERVICES, CLIENT SOFTWARE, OR DIRECT?...3 SHOPWINDOW SIGNUP...4 ACCESSING SHOPWINDOW TOOLSET...4 WEB SERVICES... 5 SHOPWINDOW API...5 CLIENT SOFTWARE... 6 DOWNLOADING CLIENT SOFTWARE...7 SELECTING DEFAULT TEMPLATE...8 SAVING CLIENT SOFTWARE...9 EXTRACTING ZIP FILE...10 CLIENT SOFTWARE INDEX PAGE...12 SET PERMISSIONS ON TEMPLATES_C...13 TESTING...14 LAUNCHING...14 DIRECT CREATIVE...17 SHOPWINDOW SUPPORT WEB SERVICES: SHOPWINDOW API...18 SHOPWINDOW CLIENT SOFTWARE...18 SHOPWINDOW DIRECT...18 SMARTY SUPPORT... 18

3 This document will provide you with the information on how to integrate ShopWindow to your specifications. Getting Started with ShopWindow Toolset The ShopWindow Toolset provides affiliate partners with a live feed shopping engine that can be embedded into any site with minimal effort. It uniquely enables users to search Affiliate Window s database of over 4 million products from over 700 retailers on a sale popularity basis. We analyze every sale our affiliate partners generate over a period of time and look at sales trends in the market. We use this data to order the product search results. This means that the results displayed from a ShopWindow search have taken into account the cost of the product, the merchants reputation and therefore the confidence of the buying public. ShopWindow is therefore the first product comparison engine that truly sorts data in the interests of consumers. The integration of ShopWindow will allow you to provide the users of your website with dynamic content directly from our managed database system. This can be achieved by: 1. Developing your own interface using ShopWindow Web Services 2. Integrating the Client Software package 3. Directing your traffic to Web Services, Client Software, or Direct? Web Services ShopWindow API offers complete flexibility, allowing developers to integrate all or specific elements of the ShopWindow service into your site. The ShopWindow API is platform independent, meaning that it works within any coding environment. Using the ShopWindow API will require a medium level of technical ability and experience. Client Software ShopWindow Client is our out of the box solution. Built in PHP and utilising the SMARTY php template software, the tools allow fast set up and integration into your current site with minimal effort. A set of design templates allows you to choose your very own custom look and feel. Client Software is released under the General Public License (GPL). Direct Some affiliates may simply prefer to direct their traffic to the shopwindow.com site. ShopWindow Direct links will have an affiliates ID automatically embedded into them, attributing all commissions generated to that affiliate ID. Affiliates linking directly to shopwindow.com still earn 100% of the available commission. For further information on ShopWindow please login to your affiliate account and click on the ShopWindow link within the navigation menu, (Fig1). 3

4 ShopWindow Signup 1 All existing Affiliate Window affiliates are already signed up to access and use the ShopWindow Toolset. If you are not yet an affiliate and would like to join Affiliate Window please click here. Accessing ShopWindow Toolset In order to access the ShopWindow Toolset, please login to your account and click on the desired tool detailed within the ShopWindow menu: Client Software Web Services Direct Fig.1 Affiliate Administration Area 1 * NOTE: The Terms & Conditions of being an Affiliate Window affiliate remain the same, there are no new conditions for you to agree to 4

5 Web Services Web Services are normally a set of APIs (Application Programming Interface), which allow for data to be exchanged between applications or systems across a network such as the Internet. Software applications developed in various programming languages and running on different platforms can use Web Services as a way to standardize data exchange, allowing for Interoperability between systems. ShopWindow API ShopWindow API is a web-based service within Web Services, which allows for the development of software applications, based around our ShopWindow data. ShopWindow API allows developers to access all of our product data in a way that facilitates easy integration into your current web architecture. Use of ShopWindow API provides complete control on how ShopWindow data is displayed, but requires development resources to implement. In order to develop and build a robust solution using ShopWindow API, a developer must have a sound understanding of his/her development environment and web architecture. Fig 2 Web Services: ShopWindow API To find out more about ShopWindow API (Fig 2) please login to your affiliate account and click on the Web Services link within the ShopWindow Toolset menu. Alternatively, please contact our ShopWindow Support Team using the details at the end of this document. 5

6 Client Software Our ShopWindow Client Software allows quick and easy integration of the ShopWindow data within your website. Client Software has been developed using the SMARTY template engine, which separates presentation logic from business logic. This allows you to customize the presentation of your client software without editing the business logic, developing your own look and feel. Using your web editing skills, Cascading Style Sheets can be applied, layouts can be changed, and logos can be added to give your Client software unique identity and branding. ShopWindow Client package is released under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) so you are free to alter the code and re-distribute it according to those terms. A forum for users to exchange template ideas and code is available at 6

7 Downloading Client Software To download ShopWindow Client Software, navigate to the Client Software area by clicking on the text link (underneath ShopWindow Toolset ). Please refer to the red outlined area below (Fig.3) Fig.3 Affiliate Interface 7

8 Selecting Default Template Before beginning to download Client Software, you will need to choose the default design template that your Client Software will use. (Fig.4) On the ShopWindow Download screen select one of the templates you wish to use. If you plan to customise ShopWindow Client Software immediately you should select the ShopWindow Default Template. You can preview each example by clicking on each respective Preview button. Fig.4 Selecting a template design By selecting a template you are only setting the default style for your ShopWindow Client Software. Your Client Software will still include all design templates on download, should you choose to change the default template at a later date. Instructions on how to change the default template are detailed within the document, Customising ShopWindow Client Software Presentation and Content. Once you have chosen your default template, please click the respective Download button. (Fig.4) 8

9 Saving Client Software After clicking the Download button a window will open and prompt you to either open or save the ShopWindow Client Software (Fig.5). Fig.5 File download Please select save and choose the desired location for the.zip file (Fig.6). You will see that the file name generated starts with your Affiliate ID number. Fig.6 Naming your ShopWindow Files Your ShopWindow Client Software automatically contains your affiliate ID and your system encrypted ShopWindow API password. This is to ensure that all of your appropriate commissions are tracked, reported and rewarded to you. 9

10 Extracting Zip File The ShopWindow Client software will be downloaded as a zip file. Before uploading the software to your web server, you must extract the files to a folder on your computer. Please navigate to the Zip File and double click on it (named with your affiliate ID). A window will open containing the ShopWindow Client Software, which can be extracted by clicking on the extract all files link within the menu located on the right. (Fig.7) Fig.7 Extracting Client Software Select the destination of the file by browsing your computer hard drive. (Fig.8) Fig.8 Selecting Client Software destination Once you click ok the files will be extracted to your hard drive, ready for you to upload to your web server (which must run PHP v.5.2 or above). 10

11 Confirming your ShopWindow Credentials We recommend that you check your ShopWindow credentials within your constants.inc PHP file. Open the directory containing your Client Software; the directory will be named using your Affiliate ID. Within this directory, please open the constants.inc PHP file. This file can be opened using a HTML or Text editor, such as WordPad. Fig.9 demonstrates the USER_ID as being Your constants.inc file should display your affiliate ID in a similar fashion. Fig.9 -Text from the constants.inc file for example affiliate ID In order to ensure that your Client Software will function as required when uploaded to your domain, please confirm the following on upload: 1. Your affiliate ID is correct within the API_USERID 2. Your password within the API_USERPASS is the hash key code displayed alongside your API Password on your update account details page within your affiliate area (Fig.10) Fig.10 Affiliate Account Passwords Information on how to update your password within your Client software can be found within the ShopWindow Technical Specifications & Support Guide. After you have confirmed your ShopWindow credentials, you can move on to uploading the Client Software to your Web Server. 11

12 Upload package to Web Server The Client Software can be uploaded to your host server using an FTP Client such as Smart FTP or Core FTP. Please upload each of the files to your server, by drag and drop (Fig.11). Fig.11 Root Directory of Website (a) Affiliate Window recommends that the original file structure should be kept unchanged; however if you wish to place the ShopWindow files in a separate directory within the root ensure that you update the path names within the index.php page. Client Software Index Page The Client Software interface is provided as a complete web page that can be integrated as your website s home page or as an additional page within your website. REMEMBER your website can only have one home page and this will be the index page within your root. If you choose to integrate Client Software as your home page then you must rename, replace, or delete your current index page. If you choose to integrate Client Software as an additional page within your site, you must rename the ShopWindow index.php page (ensuring that the file still remains a PHP file) and link through as required (or upload the files into a separate directory on your web server). 12

13 Set Permissions on templates_c In order for your Client Software to output content and build templates, you must set the permissions on the templates_c directory. Within your FTP Client, navigate to the Smarty directory which is located at /smarty. Next, locate the templates_c directory, right click on it and select properties, as show in Fig.12. Please set the permissions on the templates_c folder as follows: User = WRITE Group = WRITE Others = WRITE Fig.12 root directory of website (b) 13

14 Setting these permissions will result in the permissions protocol to be 777. (Fig.13) Fig.13 Changing the properties of the templates_c folder Once this has been completed, click on OK to confirm the changes, and close the FTP Client. Completing the actions detailed in this guide will result in Client Software being uploaded to your web server. Testing Please load your website and navigate to the Client Software page to confirm a successful integration. Testing can be conducted on your Client Software by replicating a visitor s action, such as: - Searching for a product using the search field - Browsing a category by selecting a category from the category list - Clicking a product link to take you through to a merchant site If you are experiencing problems please refer to the end of this document for ShopWindow Support and contact details. Launching Once your ShopWindow setup is ready to go live there are a few optimisations you can make to ensure your site loads faster. 14

15 The first is to turn on caching and it is also suggested you turn off force compile. This will mean you do not have to rebuild every file using PHP every time it is requested. These settings can be found in: /classes/class.smarty_sw.php Line 68 and 70 contain (provided the code on this page has not been edited): $this->force_compile = true; $this->caching = 0; It is advised to change this to: $this->force_compile = false; $this->caching = 2; The above changes will reduce the calls to the Product Serve API and will hopefully speed up your site noticeably. It is worth noting that if you make these updates before you are ready to go live any changes you make to your templates and/or PHP files may not go live instantly. This is because the smarty cache and force compile pre-builds your files and stores them in your /smarty/templates_c for fast retrieval. You may need to read the following thread from the ShopWindow Forum if you are using a version of PHP older than with the ShopWindow v2 Client Software. Please click here. 15

16 Direct ShopWindow Direct allows you to send your traffic directly through to and still receive all the commission on confirmed sales. Similar to a merchant programme on our network, you simply link through to our ShopWindow.com domain via text links and banners, as shown in Fig x60 468x60 Fig.14 ShopWindow Banners Each link through to ShopWindow.com will append your affiliate ID onto the end of the URL. This will allow ShopWindow.com to apply your affiliate ID to all of the links out from the site, dropping a cookie to identify you as the affiliate referrer. (Fig.15) Fig.15 ShopWindow tracking showing the affiliate ID

17 Creative To access creative and links available for ShopWindow Direct, please login to your account and click on the Direct link within the ShopWindow menu. The ShopWindow Direct page will be displayed, which provides you with all creative and links in order to direct traffic to shopwindow.com. Fig16. Fig 16 ShopWindow Direct Deep Link Generator The ShopWindow deep link generator will allow you to deep link to the shopwindow.com site displaying one of the following, A specific merchant page of all their products (e.g. Comet ) A category specific page of products (e.g. MP3 Players A specific merchant product page (e.g. MP3 Players sold by Comet ) A bespoke product search term results page (e.g pink MP3 players ) 17

18 ShopWindow Support General ShopWindow Support Telephone: Forum: Web Services: ShopWindow API If you are developing your own solution using ShopWindow API, we provide support for the following: Datafeed queries Product category queries Please contact the ShopWindow Support team for queries of this nature. ShopWindow Client Software For support regarding the integration of ShopWindow Client Software within your website please refer to the following support resources: Documentation including FAQ s, click here ShopWindow forum at ShopWindow Direct For help resolving problems regarding ShopWindow Direct please send our support team a ticket via your affiliate interface. SMARTY Support If you want to customize the SMARTY templates that have been provided within the ShopWindow Client Software package, please refer to the SMARTY forum for full resources and support. The smarty forum can be located at SMARTY is an open source templating system, with its own online support community. 18