TELL A FRIEND

Provide an easy interface within MIVA Merchant for visitors to refer your site URL to their friends. The module uses the MIVA SMTP capability. The subject and body of the Tell a Friend email message is configurable through the Merchant admin interface. The form colors and fonts that the customer sees is also configurable in admin. You can choose to have a CC sent to the store email address and a log entry (date, from, to, product code - if applicable) maintained in a flat file when referrals are sent. If the customer sends the referral email when they are on a specific product screen, a second link to the product is included in the email. In Merchant 4.x and if you are using our Gift - Wish List module, there is a convenient button on the bottom of the Gift List display that sends the Gift List URL to your friends.

The module is MMUI and OpenUI compatible. If using the MMUI, two edits are required in the mmui.mv. With MMUI, you can place the button just about anywhere on the screen that you want it, the most common location being at the bottom of the category column. With the OpenUI, you can select through admin among the eight possible locations.

New in the compiled version is an alternate template form for the customer to enter friend names and email addresses, plus an option to allow them to include a note. The default form has three friends names and addresses. With the alternate template, you can have more than three. This template can be HTML customized to suit your look and feel. If you are not skilled at coding HTML, you can still use the default (built in) form which is customized with colors, fonts, etc with easy inputs in admin.

New in the compiled version is the ability to embed certain tokens in the tell a friend email. For example, if you are using our Coupon Redemption module with its unique coupon code generation feature you can insert a token like %module|couponrd|1~TELL-% in the body of the email. If you are on a product page when you send the email, the email can also contain the product name, image or thumbnail, and price by using tokens.

New in the compiled version is the ability to send the email as HTML formatted instead of plain text. The emails can be multipart so that you can have both text and html sections of the email and the recipient browser will automatically select which section it is able to display. In Merchant 5x you can change the character set from default iso-8859-1 to others, e.g. utf-8.

New in the compiled version is the ability to send the search string to a friend if your store is also using our Power Search module. Clicking the link will reproduce the search the original friend had created with Power Search prior to sending the Tell-a-Friend email. This is similar to the link you can send for the Gift/Wish list if you are using our Gift List module.

The compiled version of this module can use OpenTokens instead of hook points within OpenObjects. The OpenDesigner screen lists the OpenObjects which can replace all or some screens within the OpenUI user interface. The OpenObjects provide a template screen which contains the existing hook points (backward compatibility), OpenToken capability, and the ability to move output around within the OpenObject screen. Since the tokens in this module conform to OpenToken functionality, they may be used in other template type screens like those provided by Viking Coders. Place the Tell-a-Friend button on the Merchant pages so that it better fits your desired look.

In Merchant version 5.x you can have the Tell A Friend form on a page in Merchant or use it in a popup screen. You can display a thank you message after the submission and if you are using our coupon module, can generate an on-the-fly, unique coupon code.

Online overview and initial setup instructions for our MIVA Merchant modules.

Screen shot showing administrative interface for Tell a Friend messages

^OpenUI Tokens:~compiled OpenUI v4.74+