Creating Links in Quikstore

Arguments are how you tell the program what to do. It reads these arguments as name/value pairs. To define an argument to the program it is entered in the address bar of your browser or in an html link like this:

http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?NAME=VALUE

Notice how the arguments start using a question mark:   quikstore.cgi?

then, each argument is entered as the name/value pairs with an equal sign between them like above.

You can also pass multiple arguments to the program like this:

http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?NAME1=VALUE1&NAME2=VALUE2

Notice how they get tied together with an ampersand above. this tells the program that there is more than one "Set" of name/value pairs that the program will have to test for in order to return the proper results to the user.

Form more detailed information on how this works, click here.

Listed below are examples of typical links using these name/value pairs that can be used in QuikStore.
 

You may also link directly to a specific product from the database or to a list of products by category or keywords. The following are examples of linking to a specific product or a group of products using categories or keywords from the products.dat file:

Specific Product:

<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?search=yes&product=4&page=index.html">Product 4</a>

Keywords:

<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?search=yes&keywords=books&page=index.html">Keyword - books</a>

Category:

<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?search=yes&category=robots&page=index.html">Robots</a>

You'll notice a "page" variable being passed as well. This is the name of the current page being viewed by the user or a page that you want them to return to after vieing the product.

Link To the View Cart Page:

You can link directly to the view cart page by entering the following arguments:

1. the name of the page you are coming from: page=index.html

2. the Type of store you are using: store_type=html  (required for html stores only)

3. And the function you are trying to do: view_cart=yes

   Here is the link:
   
   <a href="http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?page=index.html&store_type=html&view_cart=yes">View Cart</a>

• Database Search parameters:

  • page=mypage.html 

    • (should always be used with any of the values below. 
      this is the return page when the user click the Back to Product page button.)

  • search=yes (should always be used with the values below to initialize a search)

  • category=t-shirts (display a specific category of products)

  • keywords=anything (search for products with keywords)

  • case_sensitive=yes (case sensitive search)

  • exact_match=yes (keywords must have an exact match)

  • and=1 (Boolean AND search - match a entire phrase)

  • and=0 (Boolean OR search - match any word [default])

  • columns=3 (Number of products per row)

  • max_rows=15 (number of products displayed per page)

  • sort_field=03 (change the default sort field)

  • sort_type=alpha (alpha for text fields, numberic for price)

  • sort_order=descending (sort from z - a or high to low)

  • Example: <A HREF="/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?search=yes&category=t-shirts&page=mypage.html">
    Example: <A HREF="/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?search=yes&category=t-shirts&page=mypage.html&columns=4&max_rows=12">

  • Note: The number in max_rows should be evenly divisible by the number of columns or some products may fail to display.

• Cart Parameters:

  • Add to cart:
    
    <a href="/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?add_to_cart=yes&item-ANK-1632|18.00|SILVER ANKLE BRACELET|NA|NA=1&page=ankle-bracelets.html&store_type=html">Add to cart</a>

  • Add to cart with one single option ("selectable" options require a form):
    
    <a href="/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?add_to_cart=yes&item-ANK-1632|18.00|SILVER ANKLE BRACELET|NA|NA=1&OPTION|1|ANK-1632=BLUE ENAMEL|0|0&page=ankle-bracelets.html&store_type=html">Add to cart</a>

  • View the cart:
    
    <a href="/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?view_cart=yes&page=ankle-bracelets.html">View Cart<a>

• Misc Linking Parameters:

  • checkout=yes (go to checkout)

    <a href="/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?checkout=yes&page=ankle-bracelets.html">Checkout<a>
    
    

  • store=abc (when using more than one store)

  • store_type=html (for html store types. Default is database.)