[NSFW] Complicated linking code gets altered by Pretty Links
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Please be advised that the page(s) I have problem with contain NSFW material.
I am an affiliate webmaster and I use Pretty Links plugin for handling my affiliate linking codes. Not long ago one sponsor provided me with some new linking codes for their sites which are non-standard and pretty complicated. For instance, for one of their sites this is the new linking code:
http://join.thecastingroom.net/signup/signup.php?nats=<?=$_REQUEST[‘nats’]?$_REQUEST[‘nats’]:’MjY4LjMuMTcuMTcuMC4wLjAuMC4w?>&step=2
That website exists in Pretty Links under the entry called “Thecastingroom” and the shortcode for it is https://www.roughstraightmen.com/recommends/thecastingroom.
Now, the problem is that when I enter the above mentioned link into the area “Target URL” in Pretty Links, press Update, and then find that entry again to check whether Pretty Links memorized it correctly, it turns out that some of the characters from the linking code are changed. This is what Pretty Links actually has in the Target URL field when I check that entry later:
As you can see, the characters for opened and closed square brackets have been changed into %5B and %5D, respectively.
I don’t know if this affects the linking code itself, i.e. if the linking code will continue to work as expected. But, I guess it would be best if the linking code remained unchanged. As it is now, Pretty Links makes some changes to the linking code that I enter, and I don’t know how to prevent it from happening.
Do you have any idea how I can make Pretty Links memorize the above mentioned linking code without introducing any changes to it? Also, if that is impossible to achieve due to some reason, do you think that in this example the changed code will continue to work as expected?
Thanks in advance!
The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]
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I installed the Code Snippets plugin and I entered the code that you provided here as a new snippet. I ticked the box where it says “Run snippet everywhere”. I cleaned the cache of my Total Cache plugin.
Then I went to the Pretty Links dashboard and tried to edit one of the problematic links by copy/pasting the correct linking code (with the square brackets). Unfortunately, when I press the “Update” button and later check that entry, it still displays the changed version of the linking code (square brackets are changed into %5B and %5D).
However, I tried testing these problematic linking codes on sites such as this one:
https://redirectdetective.com/
and when I test the link for e.g.: https://www.roughstraightmen.com/recommends/thecastingroom I see that the redirection occurs to the code that does contain the square brackets, but is still changed in other ways. Please take a look at this:
the correct linking code should be like this:
http://join.thecastingroom.net/signup/signup.php?nats=<?=$_REQUEST[‘nats’]?$_REQUEST[‘nats’]:’MjY4LjMuMTcuMTcuMC4wLjAuMC4w?>&step=2
this is what I see in Pretty Links dashboard after I enter the correct linking code, press Update and later check that entry:
This is what redirectdetective says where the visitor is redirected:
This is the part that differs from the original code compared to the one reported by redirectdetective:
?nats=<?=$_REQUEST[‘nats’]?$_REQUEST[‘nats’]:
is changed to:
?nats=?=_REQUEST[nats]?_REQUEST[nats]:
In my opinion, this doesn’t look good either. It’s not the original linking code. Is there anything else I can do to make it work as intended? Maybe a different code snippet might help?
Thanks in advance.
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