Product update: Upload file field and default referral URL

In our previous product update we’ve discussed about two new add-ons, namely Affiliate Start ID and Cross-site Tracking.

In today’s product update we’ll be going over two new features: the upload file field and the default referral URL option.

Let’s dive!

Upload file field

The upload file field has been one of the most requested fields by our customers. And for good reason. Some countries require businesses to ask for certain documents when starting an affiliate partnership.

The affiliate registration process in these cases was relatively difficult. Because applicants for the affiliate program could not provide these documents when registering for an account, business owners would have to reach out and ask for the needed documents manually.

Well, the situation has changed for the better.

You can now add upload file fields to your affiliate registration form. Through them, your applicants can submit any file, which you can then review from your WordPress admin dashboard.

How to add a file upload field

Now that you know that you can add a file upload field, let’s see how you can do this.

  1. Firstly, install the Custom Affiliate Fields add-on. With it, you’ll be able to create custom fields for your affiliate registration form and affiliate account page.
  2. Once you have the add-on installed and active, navigate to your WordPress admin dashboard > SliceWP > Settings > Affiliate Fields (tab).
  3. Here, select the File Upload option from the select drop-down, found at the top of the page, and then click on the Add Field button. The new field will be added at the bottom of the fields list. Then, click the Edit Field link to open the field’s settings options.
  4. The first thing to do here, is to change the Field Key value. By default, when adding a new field, SliceWP generates a random key for the field. This key is used to save the field’s values in your website’s database. To make the field more human friendly, change the Field Key into something more readable. Let’s say registration_documents. Make sure you’re happy with the key. Once you save the settings and affiliates start registering, you won’t be able to change the key without losing the data saved in the database for the field.The field key option for the File Upload field in SliceWP admin settings page.
  5. Then, if you wish to allow your applicants to upload multiple files for this field, enable the Multiple Files option. With this option disabled, the applicant will be able to select only one file.Multiple files option for File Upload affiliate field in SliceWP admin settings page.
  6. Finally, to make sure the applicant doesn’t upload undesired files, set the allowed file types in the Allowed File Extensions option. Let’s say you want only PDF documents and PNG and JPG images. For this, set the option’s value to pdf, png, jpg.Allowed File Extensions option for File Upload affiliate field in SliceWP admin settings page.

As with all other fields, you’ll be able to set the field’s label and also provide a description to make the field as human friendly as possible for your affiliates.

Default referral URL

By default, your affiliates’ referral URLs are built using your website’s home page. For example, if your website is https://yourawesomewebsite.com/, an affiliate’s referral link will look like this https://yourawesomewebsite.com/?aff=21.

This is how your affiliate sees it in their account:

Affiliate referral link with the website's home page URL, as shown in the affiliate's account page.

In most circumstances, using the home page to build the referral link is great. However, in certain circumstances, when you want to promote a certain landing page, changing the base URL of the referral link is something you’d want.

With SliceWP’s newest update, this is now possible. Here’s how:

  1. Navigate to your WordPress admin dashboard > SliceWP > Settings > General (tab) > Pages Settings (section).
  2. Here, set the Affiliate Default Referral URL option to the link you wish your affiliates to promote. For example, let’s set it to https://yourawesomewebsite.com/your-awesome-product/Affiliate default referral URL option in SliceWP's settings page of the WordPress admin dashboard.

Now, when affiliates check their dashboard, they’ll see the default referral link with the custom URL, instead of the home page, similar to this:

Affiliate referral link with custom URL in the affiliate's account page.

Make sure to update

Now that you know about these new features, make sure you have access to them by updating SliceWP’s core and add-ons.

P.S. We’re constantly looking to improve SliceWP, so if you’re missing certain functionality from the plugin, please don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know what you need.