2 Questions. URL-Encoding ebay landing page, Do I have to?? And also...

Discussion in 'Commission Junction' started by ghoulardi, Dec 26, 2007.

  1. #1
    I have two questions.
    1. Do URLs for the landing page have to be url encoded like the flex tool does to them? (%20 for a space, %2E for a comma, etc., etc.)
    2. Also, Will links with & instead of & be tracked correctly?

    The reason I ask is, I have quite a few links that I manualy made into tracking links. Nothing in the link is URL encoded.
    For the ampersand, I used & instead of the URLEncoded value for ampersand which is %26.
    Now if I copy and paste my version of the link it will take me to the correct page but Im not sure if these are being tracked correctly.

    examples:
    =================================================================
    original link...
    http://antiques.ebay.com/

    My version (I changed & to & but not encoded, Will this be tracked?)...
    http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/705-10061-5969-5/1?AID=5463217&PID=xxxxxxx&mpre=http://antiques.ebay.com/

    eBay Flex tool version (the link is URL encoded)...
    http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-1751-2978-71/1?AID=5463217&PID=xxxxxxx&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fantiques.ebay.com%2F
    =================================================================

    If you read at the bottom of this article there is an email from ebay about the rover change over back in 2006. It reads that "landing page where user will be directed must be URL-encoded". So is this true???



    Thanks for any help with this.
     
    ghoulardi, Dec 26, 2007 IP
  2. MrX

    MrX Well-Known Member

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    #2
    the only thing u should be urlencoding is what the mpre equals , nothing else. and don't replace ampersands with & , that's only for inside html, not urls.

    so you want
    $url = 'http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-1751-2978-71/1?AID=5463217&PID=xxxxxxx&mpre='.urlencode('http://antiques.ebay.com');
    Code (markup):
    good luck.
     
    MrX, Dec 26, 2007 IP
  3. ghoulardi

    ghoulardi Peon

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    #3
    Thanks for the quick reply.

    I'm actualy writing a software program and I cannot use ampersands anywhere.
    so If I shouldnt use & which works in my program but I wasnt sure if it would track,
    can I instead use %26 in this part of the link... (5463217&PID) making it (5463217%26PID) ?

     
    ghoulardi, Dec 26, 2007 IP
  4. MrX

    MrX Well-Known Member

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    #4
    y cant u use ampersands?? what language is it?
     
    MrX, Dec 26, 2007 IP