ULTRANERDS

Setting Up DataFeeds With LinksSQL

This method will work with the following affiliates:

• Rockler, Independent program
• Fun To Collect, feed from Aff Solutions, Commission Junction merchant
• Bill Bam, ShareASale
• Australian Native, private feed, ShareASale merchant
   

This page is aimed at helping you setup LinksSQL as an affiliate database (i.e you can import links from 3rd party affiliate sites, and show their products on your site). Thanks for Deborah Carney for her help on this :)

Before you import your data you need to set it up properly. For affiliate program feeds, such as Commission Junction, if you want images to show in
your links pages, you need to add a couple of fields to the database.

Go to Database, click on Links > Properties , and then at the bottom of the main frame, there will be an 'Add Field' link. Click on that, and it will take you to the "add a new field" page.

I recommend adding these three fields:
ImageURL, CHAR, 255
Keywords, CHAR, 255 (this is optional, but useful for Search Engine Optimization)
TrackingImage, CHAR, 255

You can add more, but these are sufficient. Additional fields you may want
to add are Price, ThumbnailUrl (not all feeds have this)

Then you need to check your category structure and make sure your feed has
the categories set up the way you want them to be created. If you select
the option to create categories (in Data_Import), this field needs to be set up....

In Excel you can create the Category column by using the concatenate
function, the formula is +cell1&"/"&cell2"/"%cell3 etc.

Modify link.html to include the extra fields:

Example:

You now need to now actually run the import of your data via Data_Import. You can do this by going to Plugins > Data_Import > Start Import. Here is a step-by-step guide (simplified) of how to import a flat file database; (i.e one from the affiliates above);

1. Extract the data into a comma, pipe (|) or tab separated file (in Excel, you can do this with a normal "Save As" command.
2. Now you need to copy the VERY first line of this file, and paste it into the text-box that is shown on step 1 of the Data_Import plugin.
3. This next step lets you setup how your fields match up to your current database fields. You need to match up the appropriate fields to whatever you want to match up with it. Please note, you can also set 'Defaults' for the main fields a little further down.
4. When you click the submit button from the above step, you should then see a list of categories that have been generated. These are the ones that have been setup by the plugin. You need to now click the link at the bottom of that page, so it can start to import the entries themselves. Depending on the size of your import, this can take anywhere from a few seconds, to a matter of 30-40 mins (limited to your servers timeout levels too, but this isn't normally a problem).
5. Thats it! Your data should now be in your database, ready for you to goto Build > Build All, to generate all your pages :)

If you are interested in LinksSQL, and would like to purchase it for a discounted rate (LinksSQL+Data_Import=$500), then please see this page;

LinksSQL + Data_Import