How to capture affiliate ID from URL and include it in form submission, even if user go to different pages.

  • abertini
    Asked on August 29, 2016 at 3:24 AM

    Hi, I have a referral link to a page with a contact form in this format http://mysite.com/contact?sid=5

    What I want is to include the sid, or even the whole URL (I don't mind which) with the submission. I know this can easily achieved with the URL widget.

    The problem is that often visitors, after landing on this page, will browse other pages on the site before coming back here and fill the form. By doing so the SID gets lost.

    I see that in one of your old forums someone had a similar question, and one of your support guys (Ben) provided a solution, however this seems not to function anymore https://www.jotform.com/answers/452893-JotForm-ability-to-import-special-utm-parameters-sub-ids-from-links

    Do you have any example on how to achieve this?

     

    Thank you,

    Alex

  • Welvin Support Team Lead
    Replied on August 29, 2016 at 9:14 AM

    We have two get URL widget, one that tracks the original referrer (get referrer widget) and the other that would track where the submission is made (get form page URL). You can use the get Referrer widget:

    https://widgets.jotform.com/widget/get_referrer

    Please try it and let us know if you came up with issues.

     

  • abertini
    Replied on August 29, 2016 at 9:40 AM

    Hi Welvin, thank you for your reply. I tried the Get Referrer widget, but it doesn't seem to record the original referrer, it just shows the last referrer URL. For example if a visitor arrives to the contact form page through the referral link, then goes to the "About Us" page, then comes back to the contact form page and submit an entry, all I can see is the URL of the "About Us" page. The original landing URL is not visible, unless there is some setting that I missed? 

  • Welvin Support Team Lead
    Replied on August 29, 2016 at 11:48 AM

    I'm sorry, I do recall now that the Get Referrer widget works that way. It can track the correct URL for as long as the form is filled and submitted right away. I cannot think of any feasible workaround other than asking it manually. The old thread that you've mentioned is complicated, needs to be checked first if the method is still working. I can check that if this is not urgent. Let me know.

  • abertini
    Replied on August 29, 2016 at 4:42 PM

    Hi, yes if you or someone in your team is able to update that old plugin, that would be great.

    The method created by Ben way down that old thread I mentioned seemed quite simple, as it only involved a plugin and a tag within the  code to embed the form (if I understood it correctly). I think that such feature would be useful to marketers running an affiliate program.

    Thank you.

     

     

     

     

  • Kiran Support Team Lead
    Replied on August 29, 2016 at 6:49 PM

    Please allow us some time to go through the other thread and get back to you if we find any useful information for you.

     

    Thank you for your patience. 

  • abertini
    Replied on August 29, 2016 at 8:20 PM

    Ok thank you. I'll wait for an update from you.

  • abertini
    Replied on August 31, 2016 at 8:47 PM

    Hi Team, just checking if you have any indication of when you will be able to look into this? I really like your forms and I want to make it a core component of my online business, but I'm unable to do so unless I can have the functionality described above.

    I assume it's a matter of having a plugin that captures the landing URL, and stores it throughout the browser session, and when a form is submitted it sends that original landing URL along with the form data. I think that was the same concept described on that old forum above.

    I use Wordpress by the way.

    Thanks, 

  • Mike_G JotForm Support
    Replied on August 31, 2016 at 11:33 PM

    To my understanding, you would like to have the URL of the page where the form is in when it was submitted, is that correct? Have you tried using the Get Form Page URL widget?

    https://widgets.jotform.com/widget/get_form_page_url

    I'll also try to review the answers of my colleague, Ben, from the other thread. I'll also check with my other colleagues if they've already come up with anything. 

    Thank you.

  • abertini
    Replied on August 31, 2016 at 11:57 PM

    Hi Mike,

    The Get From Page URL widget works fine if the visitor lands on the page with the form and submits it without browsing around the site.

    The landing page is always the page with the form, but the problem is that often people go and navigate the site before coming back to the form page and submit it, and by doing so the affiliate ID drops out from the URL. 

    If you had a different version of that widget, that grabs the URL of the landing page and preserves it until the form is submitted, that would be perfect.

  • Chriistian Jotform Support
    Replied on September 1, 2016 at 2:31 AM

    Hello @abertini,

    Unfortunately we currently do not have other widgets for your requirement aside from the Get From Page URL Widget and the Get Referrer Widget. I understand that these two widgets does not fit your requirement. I will check with my colleagues to see if they have any updates. Thank you.

  • abertini
    Replied on September 5, 2016 at 4:37 AM

    Hi Team, do you have any update on this matter?

    If you are no longer looking into this please let me know, so I can move on.

     

    Thank you

     

     

  • Chriistian Jotform Support
    Replied on September 5, 2016 at 5:10 AM

    Unfortunately, I and my colleagues are not able to find the exact solution for your requirement. Currently, the available widgets can only pick up the current url of the form or the page where the form is embedded. Since the solution will involve saving the url to your website's session, you will need to hire a programmer to do it for you. It might also involve using wordpress plugins that is not in the scope of jotform. The old thread might help, but it is quite complicated so I would suggest hiring a programmer that will help you out with the specifics of your requirement, which is saving the link into a session on your website and then submitting it with the form.

    If you have other questions, feel free to contact us again.
    Thank you.

  • Bane
    Replied on September 5, 2016 at 7:02 AM

    Hi Alex,

    I am Bane (Ben) from the other ticket. I have resigned my position on JotForm, however my colleague reached out to me and asked about the plugin.

    Looking at what you have mentioned above, the plugin should still work for you:

    https://shots.jotform.com/ben/ezchoicefinancial/session_handling_by_jotform_ben.zip

    If you like, I could even upload it to WordPress, in which case it would be possible to install it through WordPress and you would be updated as soon as any updates are made.

    Basically the plugin works in the following way:

    1. someone comes to your website

    2. an ID is stored in server side session

    3. they can go to any page once, they return the plugin will still know their session and add it to the form.

    The usage was set to:

    [jotform_affiliate_links url='http://form.jotformpro.com/form/1234567890/' width='800' height='900' class='someCSSclass' framesize='2']

    This allows you to add any URL (custom or direct one, regardless of the domain (.com, .us, etc), so all forms should work as long as you provide correct URL.

    Other than URL the other parameters are not required.

    The only way that the ID would not be passed to the form is one of the following is true:

    1. Your form does not have a text box field named "sid"

    2. Your server or WordPress clear out session data

    Both of those would depend on your setup. :)

    Hope that helps you and I should get notification over email here as well in case you want me to upload it to WP repository. Since I would be doing this on my own free time, do give me a bit of time to get back to you :)

    I did notice that you have mentioned that it is not functioning so please do check out the above and if your setup should work, yet is still not, I think that it would be rather easy to figure out what happens.

    Regards,

    Bane (nickname Ben)

  • abertini
    Replied on September 14, 2016 at 8:10 AM

    Hi Bane,

    I just came across your reply now, I didn't get a notification of your post, or if I did I missed it. My apologies for the delay in my reply, and thanks a lot for your input! it's quite remarkable for a past employee to still contribute in this way, much appreciated!

    Tomorrow I'll go through this again in details, and I'll let you know if I have any luck. A few weeks ago I tried to use your original code, but the syntax didn't seem to work anymore.

    I'll keep you updated, thanks again!

     

    Alex

  • SkyClaim
    Replied on March 4, 2017 at 4:13 PM

    hi, i need some help here. i have a weebly site and want the affiliate tracking like above? Bane?

  • Kevin Support Team Lead
    Replied on March 4, 2017 at 8:14 PM

    The plugin Ben provided on this thread was designed to work with WordPress since they allow server side scripting through their hosted version, then you're able to customize the code and add the needed one to achieve this. 

    Upon reviewing some info about Weebly, seems like they do not allow this kind of code since it's designed to create static websites, you cannot customize the content further with some custom codes. 

    If you would like to implement the solution given on this thread then you would need to have the ability to add server side code t your webpage. 

    Reference link from Weebly: https://community.weebly.com/t5/Getting-Started/does-weebly-supports-PHP/td-p/10603 

  • SkyClaim
    Replied on March 5, 2017 at 3:50 PM

    Thanks.

    so is there any affiliate software that I could use and intergrate into jotform so that whoever sends the client will get a commission?