is Zazzle unable to retrieve the affiliate referral code because the variable name has been changed?

[CreativeLeahG]

Re this thread which most people won't see due to its location a technical issue has potentially been identified.

Source thread:

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/external-tools-materials/nifty-bookmarklets-update/m-p/117663

Mark says: 

"I noticed today that a change Zazzle made to product pages stopped some of the Nifty Bookmarklets from being able to pick up your referral id when you used them."

"In the product page code they changed the name of the variable to which the logged-in users referral code was assigned. It was an 'under-the-hood' change which only affected my bookmarklets as they used the old variable name.

Nothing else would have been affected and Zazzle's own sharing tools would have worked as usual."

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I don't understand this technical stuff so I asked .... and got the response below, but perhaps Zazzle can clarify what this change means? I use tracking codes.

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"When a user clicks on an affiliate link, their browser sends a request to the merchant's website with the affiliate's ID embedded in the URL. The merchant's website then retrieves the referral code from the database and stores it in a cookie on the user's computer. If the merchant's website is unable to retrieve the referral code because the variable name has been changed, the affiliate will not be credited for the sale.

In addition, the change in variable name could also cause problems for affiliates who are using custom tracking code to track their referrals. This code typically relies on the ability to access the referral code from the cookie, so if the cookie is not set or if the value of the cookie is incorrect, the tracking code will not work."

Technical creator whizzos on here can you help explain this?  @Fiorenzo @JimCarnicelli @PacifierCity 

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[Polenth]

When you get the links from Zazzle, they still use rf= to add on the code. I don't see any signs that things have changed in a way that'd break old links. It sounds like the tool was looking at the page's source code, which isn't where anyone who isn't a scripted tool would look for the code.

[CreativeLeahG]

Thank you, so the other info in my Op is wrong? Also what reason would Zazzle have for making this change, in what way do we benefit?

Thanks

[HightonRidley · Accepted solution]

Yes, the other info in your OP didn't reflect what really happens.

Code often changes as a knock on effect of other changes. For example (and this isn't necessarily right, just an example) when the product page was changed to allow us to use our own media for the in-situ etc views, the code would need to change to allow for it. That might in turn mean that there's a knock-on that requires code that's not directly related to it to be changed.

What the specifics are in this case I don't know but it wasn't done for its own ends or to directly provide us with benefit.

Really, it's not something you need to worry about 🙂

[CreativeLeahG]

Excellent thank you Mark

[HightonRidley]

Confirming what @Polenth said, the change made to the Zazzle product page code has no impact whatsover on how the affiliate links work. Affiliate links will still work in the same way they always have.

I'm sorry that you've felt concern where none is warranted.