NEXUS Affiliates

Technical summary

NEXUS plugin for centralized affiliate link and promo code management: full CRUD organized by project and category, click tracking (302 redirect + counter + detailed log), Dead Link Detector with periodic HTTP health checks via cron every 12 hours, coupon suggestions in the Intelligence Hub, QR Code generation and share snippets — 100% internal, no external API (first in the series).

Executed scope

• backend.php backend (519 lines): internal MySQL CRUD — no external API dependency (only one in the series so far).
• Tables (created by affiliates_install()): nexus_affiliates (project, name, url, promo_code, status, category, commission_rate, clicks_count, notes, expires_at, http_code, last_checked_at; indexes idx_project, idx_status, idx_category, idx_expires_at) with silent migrations (ADD COLUMN for expires_at/http_code/last_checked_at) and nexus_affiliate_clicks (affiliate_id, ip, user_agent, referer, clicked_at; idx_affiliate_id, idx_clicked_at).
• Initial seeds: 3 sample records (Cloudflare Enterprise 15%, Hetzner Cloud VPS €10 credit, Shodan Pro Engine 20%) created when the table is empty.
• affiliates_list — filters by project/status/category/search (LIKE on name/promo_code/url/notes), limit ≤ 100; auto expired marking when expires_at passes; short_url built from site_url (/api.php?action=affiliate_redirect&id=X); is_expiring_soon flag (< 3 days); distinct categories and embedded stats.
• affiliates_save — validates required name, URL via FILTER_VALIDATE_URL, status whitelist (active/pending/cancelled/expired) and auto-expires when the date is in the past; insert or update.
• affiliates_delete — removes the record and linked clicks (manual cascade).
• affiliates_check_health (Dead Link Detector) — HEAD request (CURLOPT_NOBODY), follows up to 5 redirects, 8s timeout / 4s connect, NEXUS-Affiliate-HealthCheck/1.0 UA; with ID checks 1 link; without ID checks up to 10 oldest active links (last_checked_at ASC); stores http_code + last_checked_at.
• affiliate_redirect — increments clicks_count, logs detailed click (IP, User-Agent, Referer) in nexus_affiliate_clicks and redirects with HTTP 302 (or returns JSON on AJAX calls).
• affiliates_stats — total, active, pending, cancelled, expired, total clicks, with coupon and dead_links (http_code ≥ 400 or 0).
• Settings (affiliates_settings / affiliates_settings_save) — base_url (validated), enable_tracking, default_category, auto_shorten via DB::setConfig('plugin.affiliates.*').
• Intelligence Hub: nexus-affiliates enricher (priority 20, types affiliate, promo, cupom, cloud, hosting, vpn, vps) — suggestion format (not a severity signal): when the user mentions services (Hetzner, Cloudflare, Shodan...), it suggests up to 3 active coupons with shortened link, promo code and commission.
• Cron (cronjob.json): Affiliate Link Health Check job with a **real cron schedule 0 */12 * * *** (every 12 hours) → affiliates_check_health — first in the series with a cron expression (previous ones used soft-cron ticks).
• API: 9 actions via PluginManager::registerApiAction (affiliates_list, affiliates_get, affiliates_save, affiliates_delete, affiliates_check_health, affiliate_redirect, affiliates_stats, affiliates_settings, affiliates_settings_save).
• Alpine.js UI (tab.php, 712 lines — largest in the series): indigo theme; 2 sub-tabs (Dashboard / Settings); 5 KPI cards (Total Links, Active, Accumulated Clicks, Coupons, Unreachable Links); toolbar with search (300ms debounce) and project/status/category filters; Test Link Health button; cards with status badge (Active/Pending/Cancelled/Expired), HTTP badge (green 2xx / blue 3xx / red 4xx or 0) and "⏰ Expires soon" alert (< 3 days); QR Code actions (api.qrserver.com), copy shortened link, test redirect, generate Markdown snippet and edit/delete; create/edit modal; settings with usage guide.
• Fastr: 2 commands — /afiliados (PT) and /affiliates (EN) → affiliates_list.
• No external API — 100% internal: MySQL + cURL (only for health check and redirect).

Stack and tools

• PHP 8 (no framework)
• MySQL 8 (nexus_affiliates + nexus_affiliate_clicks)
• Alpine.js + Tailwind CSS (premium light, indigo ring)
• NEXUS plugin system (PluginManager + cronjob.json)
• cURL (HEAD health check + 302 redirect)

Operational tags

• Affiliates
• Coupons
• Marketing
• Link Building
• Click Tracking
• QR Code
• Plugin NEXUS

Operational outcome

• Centralized affiliate link and coupon registry organized by project and category (Geral, NEXUS, Security, etc.).
• Conversion tracking: NEXUS shortened link with click counter and detailed log (IP, User-Agent, Referer).
• Dead Link Detector: automatic check every 12 hours plus manual, flagging broken links with an HTTP badge.
• Coupon suggestions in chat/tasks via Intel Hub (service mentions → coupon with link and commission).
• QR Codes and Markdown snippets ready for sharing in one click.
• 100% internal: no external API cost, own data in MySQL.