Would like to capture data before form sent to affiliate

[voltrader]

I would like to track conversions by matching form submissions to another site with the referring string.

The form is submitted to the affiliate using a standard <FORM> tag.

How can I record the referrer string using onSubmit?

I'm assuming JS cannot write to a serverside DB -- if so, any other creative ways to record this data before form is sent to the affiliate?

[CaseyRyan]

I would change the form to submit to a serverside page on your side, capture the code then submit the page to the affiliate.

You wouldn't necessarily use Javascript here, you woul use a server side code like PHP or ASP.

-=casey=-

[voltrader]

Thanks - That would've been the way I'd usually do it, but I'm not supposed to change their code. It's a js app form.

Is there anyway to hit an image bug onSubmit? That way I can record the time of the image bug hit and correlate it with the referrer string.

[CaseyRyan]

I'm not sure what an image bug is. I think at the end of the day, I would just change their code. You're just redirecting through a page. It's your right to track that stuff. I mean, you're throwing them business.

I guess this is kinda the "do it and ask for forgiveness later" but I don't think that as long as they are getting the referrals, they're going to care about what manner in which that referral leaves your site. Just my opinion though, I understand if you don't want to do it this way. :)

-=casey=-

[CaseyRyan]

delete me... I hit the submit button twice. :)

[voltrader]

Thanks -- you're probably right. I'll capture the data server side.

How do I simulate a POST to the affiliate? Is there a javascript redirect that can do that?

[CaseyRyan]

You could load the form with all of the form values already populated and have a onload event that does a form.submit().

The better way would be to use the same server side code to do the post so that it doesn't have to go back to the client to do it. THis way you have as much control over it as possible.

-=casey=-