Data Feeds Provided to Affiliates by OneNetworkDirect by Digital River

Introduction to the OneNetworkDirect Datafeeds
General Setup and Options
Coupon Feeds
Product Data Feeds
Transaction Feeds
General Notes to OneNetworkDirect Feeds

Introduction to OneNetworkDirect Datafeeds

The affiliate network OneNetworkDirect by Digital River (DR), which is speciallized for providing an affiliate management, tracking and payment system for software providers, offers a number of different data feed options to affiliate publishers.

It provides product data feeds, coupon feeds as well as feeds to access transactional data in an automated fashion that affiliates can import into their own legacy systems or databases.

Unlike most networks, OneNetworkDirect does not offer access to feeds for FTP download at their own servers. This is not a bad thing necessarily. Having an FTP server where affiliates can pickup feeds requires from the network the creation of FTP accounts and the frequent creation of feed files for the affiliates, regardless if the affiliate uses them or not. This creates extra overhead and most networks who provide feeds in that fashion charge affiliates for the setup of such accounts or require the affiliate to meet certain criteria, like generating a certain amount of transactions in a specified time period first to qualify for a free account setup.

FTP is still an option, but requires the setup of an FTP server on the side of the affiliate, where OneNetworkDirect will upload feed data periodically. This does still require the network to generate the feed files for the affiliate, but they can at least stop doing this, if the FTP server account provided by the affiliate stopped working for some period of time. Affiliates who keep an FTP Server up and running are more likely to use the provided feed content and don't waste the networks resources for nothing.

The available option to PULL feed data whenever needed or wanted is HTTP, which is basically using the same methods as a web browser to access the data (port 80 or 443 for secured access via HTTPS).

- top -

General Setup and Options

Return to Network Specific Implementation Guides and Documentations or to Affiliate Datafeeds Resources.

FTP Servers - Affiliates can setup FTP Locations via the networks web interface themselves. Not only is there the option to provide one FTP location, but as many as you like. This is unique as far as I know. I have not seen any other network providing this option. Why this feature makes sense for some affiliates will probably become better clear when you hear the other options regarding the setup of data feeds provided by OneNetworkDirect.

For each FTP location, you must provide the following information: Name (a descriptive name for the location of your own choice), the URL:PORT/PATH to the location where you want OneNetworkDirect to send specified feeds to at an ongoing basis, the Username and the Password required to login to that FTP location.

The following options and settings are the same across all available types of data feeds that are provided by OneNetworkDirect:

Feed Name: Give the feed a descriptive name for your own identification purposes (required, 5 - 45 characters in length)
Available Delivery Methods: HTTP or one of the FTP Locations that you specified (push)
Available Feed Formats: XML, CSV, PIPE or TAB Delimited (and RSS, but only for Coupon Feeds)
The Row Delimiter for all delimited feeds is the Windows line-break: Carriage Return+Line Feed (CR+LF / Chr(13)+Chr(10))

Any feed can be restricted to only include data for one, multiple or all programs/campaings that are active for the particular affiliate account.

- top -

Coupon Feeds

Return to Network Specific Implementation Guides and Documentations or to Affiliate Datafeeds Resources.

In addition to the standard settings and filters as specified in General Setup and Options chapter of this article, following additional filters can be configured for coupon/promotions data feeds:

Filter by Country (select one, multiple or all)
Filter by Language (select one, multiple or all)
Filter by Category - this is only the category where programs are grouped into. There are no categories for the type of coupon or something like that.

You can select ALL or only the Columns that you want to included in the feed. Following fields are available:

p.s. The delimited feeds include the column names in the first record. Column names are always in lower case, don't use special characters and use the underscore/underline character (_) as substitute for a space/blank.

Column Name XML Tag	Name	Format	Notes
merchant	Merchant	string	Name of the Merchant
merchant_logo_url	Merchant Logo URL	string	points to the URL of the merchant logo (typically 120x60 pixels in size) that is also used within the network interface itself.
country	Country	string	see notes below
language	Language	string	see notes below
start_date	Start Date	date	"YYYY-MM-DD", such as "2009-09-01" for September 1. 2009
expire_date	Expiration Date	date	"YYYY-MM-DD", such as "2009-09-01" for September 1. 2009
coupon_title	Coupon Title	string	title for the offer/promotion
coupon_code	Coupon Code	string	see notes below
offer_description	Offer Description	string	detailed description for the offer
product_name	Product Name	string	Name of the product where the promotion applies to
product_description	Product Description	string	Product description
product_image_url	Product Image URL	string	see notes below
link	Link URL	string	link with Affiliate ID to product/offer
html_code	HTML Code	string	see notes below
terms	Terms	string	optional, limitations and restrictions that might apply
keywords	Keywords	string	Individual Keywords/Keyword phrases are separated by comma.

Additional Notes:

There is always a value for "product_image_url", which does not mean that there is also an actual image. It should not show a broken image tag, if there is no image though. In most cases a transparent 1x1 pixel gif is being displayed.

However, I have seen several cases that it shows a large 280x280 pixels image that states "No Image Available" instead, which is not very nice. 280x280 is also the size of all product images, where it is available. This seems to be fix defined by OneNetwork, because I have seen several images that were actually smaller but then made to a 280x280 image, which creates a thick white empty space around the actual image. That is also not so nice.
Coupon Code seems to be a required field that can not be left empty my the merchant. It always has a value. Merchants enter values like: "NA/Link", "No Code Needed!", "No code needed" or "(no coupon code needed)", if no code is required to enter by the customer. It would have been smarter by OneNetwork to allow merchants to select that no code is required and then either leave the value for "coupon_code" empty or at least use the same wording across the board, such as "No Coupon Code Required" or something like that.
OneNetwork does not use the international abbreviations for lanuages (e.g. "EN" for English or "DE" for German), but the full name in English, e.g. "English" for English or "German" for German.

Note that the data in the feed in XML format are always wrapped in a CDATA block; all fields, without exceptions. The stucture of the XML file looks as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<feed>
<coupon>
<merchant><![CDATA[ ]]></merchant>
<merchant_logo_url><![CDATA[ ]]></merchant_logo_url>
<country><![CDATA[ ]]></country>
<language><![CDATA[ ]]></language>
<start_date><![CDATA[ ]]></start_date>
<expire_date><![CDATA[ ]]></expire_date>
<coupon_title><![CDATA[ ]]></coupon_title>
<coupon_code><![CDATA[ ]]></coupon_code>
<offer_description><![CDATA[ ]]></offer_description>
<product_name><![CDATA[ ]]></product_name>
<product_description><![CDATA[ ]]></product_description>
<product_image_url><![CDATA[ ]]></product_image_url>
<link><![CDATA[ ]]></link>
<html_code><![CDATA[ ]]></html_code>
<terms><![CDATA[]]></terms>
<keywords><![CDATA[ ]]></keywords>
</coupon>
<coupon>
...
</coupon>

...

</feed>

The "html_code" tag has the following content and layout:

<div class="coupon">
<p>
<a href='AFFILIATELINK'><img src='IMAGEURL' border='0' /></a>
</p>
<p>
<a href="AFFILIATELINK">TITLE</a><br />
DESCRIPTION  Offer Expires: YYYY-MM-DD
</p>
<p>Coupon Code: <a href="AFFILIATELINK">COUPON CODE</a>
</div>

You can setup a coupon feed for HTTP delivery and format XML and have it converted by OneNetwork to a RSS feed. You simply provide the generated coupon feed URL and the network will generate a new feed URL.

The RSS feed URL can be used with any RSS reader.

Only the "Title", "link" and "description" tags are related to the particular promotions in the RSS feed.

"author" is set to "http://www.onenetworkdirect.com" for all entries and the "pubDate" is always the date and time when the feed was requested.

The "guid" tag has the same value as the "link" tag (the Affiliate Link URL to the promotion), the "isPermaLink" attribute is also set and always has the value "false". For example:

<guid isPermaLink="false">http://send.onenetworkdirect.net/z/XXXXX/CDYYYYY/</guid>

Unlike the "coupon_title" tag in the XML feed, the "title" in the RSS is not embed in a CDATA block.

The "description" is embed in a CDATA block of course. It contains pretty much all the coupon data formated in HTML. The HTML layout is similar, but different to the value of the "html_code" tag in the XML version of the feed. You basically have the same DIV block as in the XML feed, but wrapped in another DIV block, with hard coded layout properties and the promotion description a second time, also outside the DIV block with the class "coupon", wrapped in a paragraph tag with hard-coded formatting. The format of the description is the following:

<DIV style='margin:4px;background-color:#FFFFCC;border:1px solid #666600;'>
<P style='margin:4px;color: #666600; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; 
font-size: large;'>
DESCRIPTION
</P>

...

DIV Block from "html_code" in original XML feed

...

</DIV>

I did not see the option to change the background color or border for the outer DIV wrapper, or the ability to change font of the description block at the beginning. Since it is specified and hard coded, be aware that your own CSS style sheet settings won't be applied. The outer DIV has no class, like inner one from the original XML feed, so it is hard to almost impossible to overwrite the layout settings via your own style sheet. This limitation probably renders the RSS option by OneNetWork virtually useless for most affiliates.

- top -

Product Data Feeds

Filter by Country (select one, multiple or all)
Filter by Language (select one, multiple or all)
Filter by Currency (select one, multiple or all)

You can select ALL or only the Columns that you want to included in the feed. Following fields are available.

Column Name XML Tag	Name	Format	Notes
program_id	Program ID within OND	Int	required, cannot be excluded from feed
merchant	Merchant	string	Name of the merchant
country	Country	string	Not the standard 2 characters country code, but the full name of the country, like "United States" for the US.
language	Language	string	Language, but not the standard 2 characters code, but the full name, like "English" for English language.
product_id	Product ID	string	unique identifier for a product
product_name	Product Name	string	the name of the product
product_brand	Product Brand	string	if available
short_description	Short Description	string	short description, less than 128 characters
long_description	Long Description	string	detailed description, no HTML, no line breaks
keywords	Keywords	string	Individual Keywords/Keyword phrases are separated by comma
msrp	MSRP	number	(manufaturer suggested retail price), numeric with "." as the digital point and without any currency.
price	Price	number	numeric with "." as the digital point and without any currency
currency	Currency	string	three letter standard abbreviation for the currency, e.g. USD for US Dollars, EUR for Euros, GBP for British Pounds or CAD for Canadian Dollars.
boxshot	Boxshot URL	string	see notes below the table
large_boxshot	Large Boxshot (280x280)	string	see notes below the table
medium_boxshot	Medium Boxshot (175x175)	string	see notes below the table
small_boxshot	Small Boxshot (100x100)	string	see notes below the table
os_platform	OS Platform	string	optional, Operating System or Platform supported by the software product
corp_logo	Corp Logo	string	typically the 120x60 pixels merchant logo image in GIF format that is also used within the OneNetwork affiliate network interface.
link	Link URL	string	required, includes the default affiliate URL to be used by affiliates on their web sites. "landing_page" specifies where this link is pointing to on the merchants web site.
trial_url	Trial URL	string	see notes below the table
cart_link	Cart Link	string	optional URL, includes the affiliate tracking URL that automatically adds the product to the shopping cart already. It is not available for all products and should only be used if you are doing enough of a pre-sale that the customer is ready to purchase.
product_detail_link	Product Detail Link	string	optional field. URL to the product page at the merchants web site WITHOUT affiliate ID for tracking. It is meant for internal uses by affiliates and not for the publishing on the affiliate web site, because the link does not track referrals.
lead	Lead	string	optional fields with an URL as value
other	Other	string	also an URL, if a value was provided. It is not clear, if this URL must have the affiliate ID included or not. I suggest to check that for each case manually first, before you make use of this value.
promotion_type	Promotion Type	string	in most cases set to "Standard Product", unless the merchant specifies otherwise, such as a limited time promotion of a product or a special discounted item.
payout	Payout	string	see notes below the table
lading_page	Landing Page Type	string	not an URL, it is a simple descriptor of the type of page a user lands on, if he clicks on the URL that was provided via "link" value in the feed. This is typically "Product Detail".
category	Category	string	see notes below the table

There are 4 fields for product image URLs available "boxshot" and "large_boxshot" seem to be required and always have an URL. It also appears that both URLs are virtually the same all the time. However, "medium_boxshot" and "small_boxshot" only seem to have a value, if there really is another medium and small image of the product available.
"payout" specifies the commission rates for the individual product and amounts are always in US Dollars, even if the currency for the product is not USD (e.g. EUR). The layout is always as follows: $0.00/click $0.00/lead $0.00/impression $0.00+0.00%/sale $0.00+0.00%/sub-sale

It always includes all options, including the ones where no commission is being paid. The value for "payout" of a product with 40% sales commission on the first tier and 10% on the second tier would look like this: $0.00/click $0.00/lead $0.00/impression $0.00+40.00%/sale $0.00+10.00%/sub-sale
"trial_url" includes a link to download a trial version of a software, if available. The link includes the affiliate ID and should be stored in the trial installation of the software and passed on back to the merchant, if the user decides to purchase the software during or after the trial period of the product has ended. This is a strong soft selling point and affiliates should make use of this feature, whenever it is possible and available.
"category" - I have not seen a value for this field for any product within a feed yet. I assume that it is intended for the specification of a product category to that the product belongs to. One Network does not have pre-set product categories, which means that this value would have to come from a merchant directly. As I said, none of the merchants seems to make use of this option as far as I know.

Note to all URL values! It could be that the value is set to "http://" or "https://" instead of left empty, if no URL is available. Make sure that you check for those values also, before you are using it on your affiliate web site.

What the column names are for the delimited feeds are the tag names used for the feeds in XML format.

Note that the data in the feed in XML format are always wrapped in a CDATA block; all fields, without exceptions. The stucture of the XML file looks as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<catalog>
<product>
<program_id><![CDATA[ ]]></program_id>
<merchant><![CDATA[ ]]></merchant>
<country><![CDATA[ ]]></country>
<language><![CDATA[ ]]></language>
<product_id><![CDATA[ ]]></product_id>
<product_name><![CDATA[ ]]></product_name>
<product_brand><![CDATA[ ]]></product_brand>
<short_description><![CDATA[ ]]></short_description>
<long_description><![CDATA[ ]]></long_description>
<keywords><![CDATA[ ]]></keywords>
<msrp><![CDATA[ ]]></msrp>
<price><![CDATA[ ]]></price>
<currency><![CDATA[ ]]></currency>
<boxshot><![CDATA[ ]]></boxshot>
<large_boxshot><![CDATA[ ]]></large_boxshot>
<medium_boxshot><![CDATA[]]></medium_boxshot>
<small_boxshot><![CDATA[]]></small_boxshot>
<os_platform><![CDATA[ ]]></os_platform>
<corp_logo><![CDATA[ ]]></corp_logo>
<link><![CDATA[ ]]></link>
<trial_url><![CDATA[]]></trial_url>
<cart_link><![CDATA[ ]]></cart_link>
<product_detail_link><![CDATA[ ]]></product_detail_link>
<lead><![CDATA[ ]]></lead>
<other><![CDATA[ ]]></other>
<promotion_type><![CDATA[ ]]></promotion_type>
<payout><![CDATA[ ]]></payout>
<lading_page><![CDATA[ ]]></lading_page>
<category><![CDATA[ ]]></category>
</product>
<product>
...
</product>

...

</catalog>

Important URLs in Regular Expression Format

Product Image URLs: http://send\.onenetworkdirect\.net/([0-9]{2})/([0-9]{1,*})/([0-9]{1,*})/
Merchant Logo Image URLs: http://img\.directtrack\.com/digitalriver/campaign_images/([0-9a-f]{32}).gif
Affiliate Link URLs: http://send\.onenetworkdirect\.net/z/([0-9]{1,*})/CD([0-9]{1,*})/

- top -

Transaction Feeds

Return to Network Specific Implementation Guides and Documentations or to Affiliate Datafeeds Resources.

You can select ALL or only the Columns that you want to included in the feed. Following fields are available:

Column Name XML Tag	Name	Format	Notes
program_name	Program Name	string
order_id	Order ID	string	should be numeric actually, but use string to be safe
transaction_id	Transaction ID	string
item_id	Item ID	string
product_id	Product ID	string
sale_info	Sale Information	string
sale_amount	Sale Amount	currency	includes currency denotion, e.g. $, decimal point is "."
commission	Commission	currency	always in US Dollars
link_id	Link ID	integer
status	Status	string
sale_date	Sale Date	date/time	MM/DD/YY HH:MM am/pm
sale_entry_date	Sale Entry Date	date/time	MM/DD/YY HH:MM am/pm
status_date	Status Date	date/time	MM/DD/YY HH:MM am/pm
status_entry_date	Status Entry Date	date/time	MM/DD/YY HH:MM am/pm
click_date	Click Date	date/time	MM/DD/YY HH:MM am/pm
subid1	SubID 1	string
subid2	SubID 2	string
subid3	SubID 3	string
subid4	SubID 4	string
subid5	SubID 5	string

Notes to Transaction Feeds:

There is no option to specify a data range filter for the transactions. I am doing to little with OneNetwork merchants to be able to see the exact date frame that is used when the feed is generated.
It does not include all transactions for sure. Since I was not able to generate a transaction feed that has content, I am not able to tell the exact format of each of the values within the feed.
I am able to manuallly generate and download reports, like a transaction report. There the dates are always in the format "MM/DD/YY HH:MM am/pm" like "04/01/08 8:29 am" for April 1. 2008 8:29 o'clock in the morning.
I would assume that the same format is used for the dates/times in the transaction feeds. Values use "." as the digital point. The currency symbol for the amount is included in numeric values that express an amount of money, like $3.10 for 3 US Dollars and 10 cents.

- top -

General Notes to OneNetworkDirect Feeds

Return to Network Specific Implementation Guides and Documentations or to Affiliate Datafeeds Resources.

None of the feeds for the delivery via HTTP require the affiliate to login before it returns the data, which means that you should keep the generated feed URLs secret and not give them to anybody else or make public. This is good, because feeds are meant to be used for the automation of a data interface between an affiliate and a network or merchant. Some merchants and networks did not get that part yet unfortunately. I am pleased to see that this is not the case here.

This might be less critical with the product and coupon feeds, because they do not include any sensitive or revealing information with the exception of the payout rates in the product feed, which you could exclude from a feed, if you want to use it in a public widget or something like that, where the feed URL would be included in the script code of the widget and thus exposed to advanced internet users who know where to look for this kind of stuff.

Fortunately, the feed URL itself nor the feed content itself reveal any sensitive information that could compromise the security of your affiliate account, such as your user name and/or your password to the network interface.

All information are encoded in a 32 characters long ID in hexadecimal format, which in itself does not carry any information. It is only a key that tells OneNetworkDirect where it can find the settings for the feed and which affiliate account it belongs to.

In the case of the transaction report feed I suggest to treat the URL like you would treat a password for your network account, unless you want to share with the world what type and how much commission you are making with the selected programs within OneNetworkDirect.

The Feed URLs in Regular Expression Format

Coupon Feed URLs: https://aff\.onenetworkdirect\.com/coupon_feed\.html\?id=([0-9a-f]{32})
Coupon RSS Feed URLs: https://www\.onenetworkdirect\.com/tools/rss\.php\?id=([0-9a-f]{32})
Product Feed URLs: https://aff\.onenetworkdirect\.com/product_catalog\.html\?id=([0-9a-f]{32})
Transaction Feed URLs: https://aff\.onenetworkdirect\.com/transaction_report\.html\?id=([0-9a-f]{32})

By the way, OneNetworkDirect also offers the setup of automated campaign reports that will be send out daily, weekly or monthly to specified email addresses. The reports are in comma delimited format and send as an email attachment.

- top -

Other Data Feed Guides, Articles and Resources for Affiliates and Advertisers