Sunday 11 September 2016

Find out what the new V23 of Nifty Slideshows brings you

Bug fix

I fixed a bug with sharing slideshows to the gallery but the main reason for releasing a new version was some behind-the-scenes changes to improve things generally.

New features

  • All major and some minor settings can now be set in the link you use to start up Nifty Slideshows. This means you can set your own defaults like referral id and store id. More on this below
  • Customer-only products now fully supported from the following makers:
    • homewetbar
    • glasswithatwist
    • alpisano
    • agogocreative
    • banderoleandbirch
    • bears4humanity
    • calliopedesigns
    • carriageoakcottage
    • carvedsolutions
    • christmasbykrebs
    • coinrings
    • cookiecutterkingdom
    • countrybarnbabe
    • crystalimagery
    • custom_candleworks
    • customphotoblanket
    • cutmaps
    • dayspringmilestones
    • ellawinston
    • factory_enova
    • gogostickers
    • handcraftedaffairs
    • hammers_and_heels 
    • hello_bride
    • heybabycraftco
    • helloworldpaperco
    • holmesstamp
    • holtzleather
    • hipflaskplus
    • jdsmarketing
    • justtherightpillow
    • lazerdesigns
    • lepapierstudio
    • loveyoualatteshop 
    • magic_wood_art
    • mrcwoodproducts
    • marshmallow_farms 
    • metalandlights
    • missyvdesigns
    • milkandhoneyluxuries
    • mkdesignsus
    • moresprinkledjoy
    • newswangerpen
    • paragonleatherworks
    • rustalgic
    • range_leather_co
    • rnkshops
    • sipdark
    • sistermoonboutique
    • smilingtree
    • sofacitysweethearts
    • sugar_yeti
    • tealsprairie
    • themintbox
    • uniqueledproducts
    • visionusa
    • waggingwipers
    • wordswithboards
Customer-only products are those where there is nothing for storekeepers to design. All those I looked at are exclusively available on zazzle.com and not international domains, so I've assumed that's the case for all of them.

Setting your own defaults - advanced users only

You can pass the settings you want used into Nifty Slideshow maker by including them as parameters in the link you use to start it.

For example, let's say your store id is dizzydebbie, you can save yourself time typing that every time by starting Nifty Slideshows using this link: www.kdl.to/nifty-slideshows.html?storeid=dizzydebbie

Once you've set up the link for your defaults, bookmark it for ease of use next time. You can even set up different defaults for different promotion needs and bookmark them all. Maybe one per autopost blog you regularly use, for example.

A full list of parameters you can use follows. If you don't use a parameter, it will use a default, usually blank.
  • rf=
    Your referral id, for example 238582202591969585 (this is the default)
  • bg=
    Background colour to use for non-in-situ product shots, eg ffffff (this is the default)
  • st=
    Sort type. Choice of popularity or date_created (default = popularity)
  • sd=
    Sort directon. Choice of desc (most popular or newest first) or asc (least popular / oldest first). The default is desc
  • ps=
    Page size. The number of products requested from Zazzle's rss feed mechanism (used to get the products for the slideshow). Example 35 (default = 15)
  • pg=
    Page number. Instead of returning the first "page size" set of products, pull the nth set. Example 2 (default = 1)
  • tc=
    Tracking code. For example, nft_ss_pntrst_thnks_gvng (default = nft_ss)
  • title=
    Title of the slideshow. Use + instead of space. For example Mugs+with+Thanksgiving+designs
  • qs=
    Search word / term. Use + instead of spaces. For example thanksgiving+turkey
  • storeid=
    The part that comes after zazzle.com/ for example hightonridley
    Note it can also be a collection. If so use collections/collectionid For example, collections/119815600039373332
  • dp=
    Department id. For example, 252178814251104427
  • cg=
    Category id. For example, 103739611579647755
  • pm=
    Promotion code. For example, ESSENTIALS40
  • zd=
    International Domains. Choice of 1 use international domains or 0 don't use (default = don't use)
  • mt=
    Autopost blog secret email address. For use when using your own email client to share to autopost blogs. Example secret.email.address@blogger.com
  • uh=
    Unhide autopost section. Choice of 1 unhide or 0 hide (default = hide)
Remember, the first option (url parameter) you use is preceeded by ? and subsequent ones are preceeded by &



For a full description of how Nifty Slideshows uses these, please see the documentation.


Saturday 10 September 2016

More on sharing Nifty Slideshows to the Gallery on Pinterest

The Nifty Slideshow maker page uses the AddThis service for its sharing buttons. When clicked, they let you share the page with your friends so they can make their own Nifty Slideshows.

So how do you share that wonderful slideshow you just made to the gallery? Simple, make sure the gallery is on display and only then click the envelope share button.

Here's what it looks like with the gallery on display. You can see the tops of the first few in the gallery at the bottom of the screenshot:
When it looks like the above and you click the gray envelope share button, you should see the email share dialog looking something like this:
Now you're ready to fill in the secret "To" email address, currently the one shown in the first screenshot. Next, fill in the From email address (use your own - note that I won't see this), do the Captcha and hit send.

If you want to get a copy of the email that gets sent, after the secret email address in the "To" box add a comma and then your email address. Note that I won't see that email address either.

If you see instead the screenshot below when you click the gray envelope share icon, then either the gallery wasn't on display when you clicked it or I have a bug I need to know about!

That's what it should look like when sharing the maker page itself, not when sharing to the gallery. Do you see the difference?

Do let me know in the comments (or on the Zazzle forum) if it's not working as described.