No-Kill Pop Box; Part III
By
William
Bontrager
This article provides the
means to use cookies so your No-Kill Pop Box is displayed only once to a
visitor for a pre-determined number of days.
Part 1. "No-Kill Pop Box (Instead of Popups)"
The basic code for creating a Pop Box.
Part 2. "No-Kill Pop Box; Part II"
Comparisons with focus on differences of the No-Kill
Pop Box and Pop-ups/unders. Code for delayed opening
of the No-Kill Pop Box and to open and close the
No-Kill Pop Box with links.
The
demo page
contains the complete code necessary to implement the No-Kill Pop Box with
cookies.
If you haven't read the other two articles in this series, I urge you to
do so now. Unless you are a proficient JavaScript programmer, the rest of
this article may make little sense until familiarity with the other two articles
is attained.
The global variable and functions that were added since the second of this
article series are:
1. A global variable named DaysToLive
Here, specify the number of days you want the
cookie to live, a maximum of 3652 days, representing
10 years. If you want the cookie to disappear when
the browser is closed (called "session cookies"),
specify 0 (zero) days.
2. Function SetCookie()
This is the function that sets the cookie when the
No-Kill Pop Box is displayed.
3. Function GetCookie()
This function is used to determine whether or not
the cookie exists in the browser.
4. Function OpenPopBoxIfOkay()
This function is called when a page first loads. It
uses function GetCookie() to determine whether or
not the No-Kill Pop Box should be displayed.
Function OpenPopBoxIfOkay() must be called or the
No-Kill Pop Box won't ever be displayed and no
cookie will be set. The function can be called
using any of the following methods:
i. In the BODY tag itself with
onLoad="OpenPopBoxIfOkay()"
Example:
<BODY onLoad="OpenPopBoxIfOkay()">
The above calls the function as soon as the
page completes loading.
ii. Somewhere in the BODY area with
<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"><!--
OpenPopBoxIfOkay();
//--></script>
The above calls the function when the browser
loads the code.
iii. Somewhere in the BODY area with
<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"><!--
setTimeout('OpenPopBoxIfOkay()',3000);
//--></script>
The above calls the function 3 seconds after
the browser loads the code. The number 3000
in the above codes represents 3000 milliseconds
delay. Adjust that number as appropriate for
your installation.
You'll notice that the demonstration
for this article contains a WillMaster Possibilities subscription form.
When a form is put into the No-Kill Pop Box and the form submitted, the "thank
you" page will be a new page, like it would be if the form was submitted
from a normal page -- the "thank you" page will not display inside the No-Kill
Pop Box.
Because the No-Kill Pop Box is displayed only the one time, the "thank you"
page can be the same page the form was submitted from. When the "thank you"
page loads, the No-Kill Pop Box won't display because it has already been
displayed once. In effect, the form user is sent to the same page the form
was submitted from -- except the page no longer displays the form.
Note: Browsers with cookies disabled, will show the form
every time the page loads. (I've never done a survey
to determine how many cookies-disabled browsers visit
our sites. I'm thinking the number is low, but I
can't be certain.)
The first three parts of this series
have provided the code necessary to use No-Kill Pop Boxes in a professional
manner.
Will Bontrager
About the Author:
William
Bontrager Programmer/Publisher, "WillMaster Possibilities"
ezine
mailto:possibilities@willmaster.com
Are you looking for top quality scripts? Visit
Willmaster
and check out his highly acclaimed Master Series scripts. Some free, some
for a fee.
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