Customizing ShopWindow Client Software - Bespoke Functionality -
Contents INTRODUCTION... 3 ELEMENTS OF CLIENT SOFTWARE... 4 ELEMENTS... 4 HOT PICKS... 6 INTEGRATING AN ELEMENT... 7 CONSTANTS.INC.PHP FILE... 7 DEFINING PARAMETERS... 8 PARAMETER EXAMPLES / CATEGORY ID... 8
This document provides information on how to integrate the various Client Software elements within your website such that the functionality is tailored to suit your functionality requirements, helping you deliver highly motivated customers to merchant websites. Introduction Affiliate Window have developed ShopWindow Client Software to allow for the data and content to be customised as well as the presentation of ShopWindow within a website. Each element that compromises the Client Interface has been segmented and provided independently, allowing you to integrate elements of Client Software rather than the entire Client Interface. Affiliate Window appreciate that you may have a website or page that does not require a complete integration, but instead can be enhanced with the addition of search functionality or a category selection. 3
Elements of Client Software The elements 1 of ShopWindow Client that can be integrated independently are: - Search Box - Category Tree - Hot Picks - Featured Retailers - Product Display List - Product Display Each of these elements have been created and provided in PHP, located within /elements/. Elements The following screen shots provide a visual representation of the elements that can be integrated independently. 1 You may have seen additional element files within the elements directory. At present these additional elements cannot be integrated. 4
Category Tree Search Box Refine By Fig.1 - ShopWindow Elements Product Display List Featured Retailers 5
Fig.2 Product Display Hot Picks The products that are included within the Hot Picks (Fig.2) pool are based on merchant recommendations and statistics, and are selected by account/programme managers. For example, a merchant may select their best selling LCD TV to be included within the Hot Picks. Fig.3 Hot Picks 6
Integrating an Element To integrate an element of ShopWindow Client, you must ensure that the desired webpage is a PHP page. Within the PHP tags of your webpage, you must call the element that you want to integrate, located within /elements/. Fig.4 shows the code required to integrate the ShopWindow Category Tree. constants.inc.php file containing your affiliate id and password Fig.4 Category Tree PHP Include calling the Category Tree element Using the above PHP include each element of ShopWindow Client can be integrated within your website, calling the desired element file from within the elements directory. If you want to integrate the ShopWindow Search element within your website, the code would be as shown in Fig 2. Fig.5 Search Box PHP Include calling the Search box element Constants.inc.php file It is vital that the constants.inc.php file is called at the top of your page; this is the file that contains your login credentials and will allow your ShopWindow Client to return your specified ShopWindow Data. The constants.inc.php file should be called only once within a page that you are integrating ShopWindow Client elements. 7
Defining Parameters Affiliate Window has developed the code within each element file to be user friendly, allowing you to easily identify parameters and customise the content and data that is output through ShopWindow Client. This enables you to define your data requirements without editing the element files to be included within your page. Instead, you simply include parameters within your own webpage before the element file is called. (Fig.6) PHP parameter identifying the category to output within the category_tree element Fig.6 Defining Parameters PHP Include calling the Category Tree element Fig.6 demonstrates there are many parameters that can be identified to allow for the customisation of your chosen ShopWindow Client element. Parameter Examples / Category ID Further examples of possible parameters that can be used as well as a list of category ID s are available within the ShopWindow Appendices. 8