Direct access to specific request forms
Where you have library web pages dedicated to a specific issue, and you have designed a Request form to allow questions to be submitted about that specific issue, you can link the appropriate Request form directly to that page. By linking in the URL for the specific Request form, clicking on the link will present the client with the appropriate form to fill out.
For example, in your web page describing the library’s new books, you could include a link like this:
Click here to suggest any other titles you would like added to our collection
and the URL associated with that link would be the one for your RefTracker Request form for New books.
The URL that you need to use to access this page is shown in the System>Request forms Preview screen for that form, and is:
http://<yourRefTrackerDomain>/reft100.aspx?key=<formKey>&cllcid=<clientLocationKey> |
where
formKey is the code for the required Request form as shown in the RefTracker Request form summary screen, and
clientLocationKey is the code recorded in the RefTracker Locations function for the client Location that the client is accessing the system from, if the form is restricted to use in that location. If you have specified a Location limitation for a specific request form, then you must supply the cllcid parameter set to the ID of the Location to which the form has been restricted, in the URL, for the form to be able to be displayed in your web pages.
There are many more parameters that can be used when inserting URL’s in your web pages.
Click here for information about passing information known by your web page into RefTracker fields using URL parameters.
Click here for information about controlling the display of headers, footers and menus.
When you place one of these URL’s in your web pages, and a user clicks on it, the URL that they are shown on display of the form will be a URL that uses a temporary message table index so that the user cannot tamper with the URL.
RefTracker forms in iframes
RefTracker forms can also be used within an iframe using the form’s direct access url as the “src” attribute of an iframe html tag. For example:
<iframe src="http://<yourRefTrackerDomain>/reft100.aspx?key=<formkey>&extmode=1" style="width: 100%; height: 1000px; border: none;"></iframe> |
or
<iframe src="http://<yourRefTrackerDomain>/reft100.aspx?key=<formkey>&sheader=1" style="width: 100%; height: 1000px; border: none;"></iframe> |
N.B. ensure the style “width: ” attribute is set to 100%. This ensures the iframe will resize correctly to the available screen space.
However, some browsers (like Safari) do not allow third party cookies in iframes. As RefTracker uses cookies when allowed, it has a JavaScript based option to address this situation (as the iframe means that RefTracker’s cookie will be detected as a third party cookie).
When JavaScript is not allowed by a browser that does not allow third party cookies, the client will be advised that the form cannot be loaded within the iframe and the client will be asked to click a link that will open the form outside the iframe. Here is how the page advising the link to be clicked appears (as it might appear on an iPhone).
When JavaScript is allowed by a browser that does not allow third party cookies, RefTracker provides an optional mechanism to automatically show the RefTracker form in a separate window, instead of in the page with the iframe, when it detects it is running in a browser that does not allow third party cookies.
This works very nicely if the RefTracker form is the only thing on the page (as would be the case if this technique is being used to add a header/footer). However if the RefTracker form is being displayed in a page with other information on that page (as would be the case if the iframe containing the RefTracker form is just a small part of the page), the other information would never show, and this option should NOT be used.
So, only if you have nothing else on the page except the RefTracker form, and you want to use this option, you need to add the following parameter to the URL string used in your src attribute to specifically indicate that you want to have the form automatically display in a separate window when it is used in a browser that does not allow third party cookies.
&iframebreakout=1
For example: http://currentrelease.altarama.com/reft100.aspx?key=Basic&iframebreakout=1 used as the URL to bring up this form in an iframe, will ensure that when that page is viewed on an iPad, or any other device using a browser that does not allow third party cookies, the RefTracker form will display automatically rather than displaying a page like the one in the screen print above that requires that the user click the link to see the form.
Please note that if you are using iframes simply to provide a different header and footer, we provide a better way to do that than by using iframes – we recommend that you contact your RefTracker support representative for assistance with using custom headers and footers for your RefTracker system instead of iframes – the result will be worth the time investment!
For more examples and a full range of options for embedding forms please visit Additional functionality for hiding and displaying Headers/Footers.