Referrals not recoding

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by

Jo

I’ve been using this fine for a few years but recently it has stopped recording all affiliate referrals.
I am running the latest version.
Is there anything we can do to debug and fix the issue?

Posted in

Comments

9 responses to “Referrals not recoding”

  1. George Avatar
    George

    Hey Jo,

    I have checked the documentation and changelog for setcookie and nothing seems to have changed regarding the cookie expiration. Even if I set the timeout to 99999 days I get the correct expiration date in my browser. Please check the following screenshot showing my two browser windows, the one with the cookie settings and the other after visiting an affiliate link showing the expiration date.

    https://ibb.co/j5YnK4F

    Kind regards,
    George

  2. Jo Avatar
    Jo

    Thanks. If you could take a look and come back to me that would be great

  3. George Avatar
    George

    Hi Jo,

    This is probably related to the PHP version, because normally the cookie expiration setting can accept positive values or zero. I need to check that further in the PHP changelogs to get a more solid opinion in case something has changed regarding cookie expiration.
    The value 9999 might be accepted but indicates more than 27 years. If you still need to keep cookies valid for a long period, enter the amount of days in the field or 0(zero) to make the cookie last for as long as the browser window is open.

    Kind regards,
    George

    1. Jo Avatar
      Jo

      Hi George

      Have you managed to look into this yet?

  4. Jo Avatar
    Jo

    Thanks for that.
    The only error I could see in the php log was a warning which states that the cookie expiration date was too large:
    Expiry date cannot have a year greater than 9999

    This wasn’t an issue for around 2 years, i’m wondering if you know why it might have suddenly become an issue?
    I have fixed it by reducing it to 1 day and it’s now working again.

  5. Jo Avatar
    Jo

    Thanks. I think i’ve found the issue.
    We had the cookie expiration date set too long:
    Expiry date cannot have a year greater than 9999

    Would that cause it to stop working?
    It was working fine for a few years so not sure why that would suddenly stop it – any ideas?

  6. George Avatar
    George

    Hi Jo,

    I have visited both links provided but as it seems no wp_affiliates cookie is stored in my browser.
    Please check this screenshot below:
    https://ibb.co/qmxzLbB
    Also, make sure to check the Troubleshooting section in the plugin documentation for possible reasons why the cookie is not in place, especially the sections related to caching.
    If none of the entries doesn’t apply to your case then it’s better for us to have a look at your Dashboard, once you provide us with temp admin access to your site using my personal email for the admin account creation: george at itthinx dot com. It would also be useful to enable WP Debugging by editing your wp-config.php file and replace this line: 

    define( ‘WP_DEBUG’, false );

    with these lines:

    define( ‘WP_DEBUG’, true );
    define( ‘WP_DEBUG_LOG’, true );
    define( ‘WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY’, false );

    All messages will be stored in wp-content/debug.log file.

    Kind regards,
    George

  7. Jo Avatar
    Jo

    Thanks. If I am logged in I can see the cookie just fine.
    But logged out in incognito mode it doesnt show

    We have this plugin installed
    GDPR Cookie Compliance Plugin

    Do you think that could be causing a conflict?
    It also doesn’t seem to reset the cookie if I visit another affiliate.

    So if you try this one
    https://www.mooncup.co.uk/?ref=2

    Then this one
    https://www.mooncup.co.uk/?ref=30

    My browser stays as 2.

    Any ideas?

  8. George Avatar
    George

    Hi Jo,

    Welcome to our support forum and many thanks for being a loyal customer with us.

    Normally you shouldn’t have any issues with the plugin and the referrals being recorded, especially since you’re using the latest version of the plugin but just in case, please make sure that you’re using Affiliates Pro 4.7.0.

    Afterwards, copy an affiliate link for an active affiliate found in Affiliates > Manage Affiliates and paste it in a new browser window and open the browser console. For Chrome you should then switch to Application tab and under Cookies, click on your site’s domain and check the stored cookies till you find the affiliate cookie. It should be named wp_affiliates as shown in the screenshot below.
    https://ibb.co/Qjf259X
    If the cookie is not stored then you should have a look at our Troubleshooting section in the plugin documentation. Otherwise, you should also enable WP Debugging and also provide me with temp admin access to your site to have a closer look, using my personal email: george at itthinx dot com.

    To enable debugging, edit your wp-config.php file and replace this line: 

    define( ‘WP_DEBUG’, false );

    with these lines:

    define( ‘WP_DEBUG’, true );
    define( ‘WP_DEBUG_LOG’, true );
    define( ‘WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY’, false );

    All logs will be stored in wp-content/debug.log file.

    Kind regards,
    George

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