I recently purchased linkx from JMB Software for a project I am working on. On a regular basis I hit their support forum, as the script is very powerful and has many features that allow you to customize the script to do practically anything. It seems like every damn thing I want the script to do it does with some modifications to the Smarty template.

This is about the fourth link list script I have gone through. The last one I used, every time I asked if it could do a certain feature, I got the “Pay me $80 and I can add it.” One feature I wanted on that other script was to remove the details page to avoid duplicate content. Five minutes looking at the source code and I had it figured out. $80 WTF?

I took a gamble and asked on the support forum if i could include php includes in the Smart template for my new script LinkX. Twelves hours later I got this reply,

Yes, that can be done but will require the use of some raw PHP code. Something like this should do the trick:

<?php
$_x_tmp = preg_replace(’~[^a-z0-9]~i’, ”, strtolower($this->vars[’this_category’][’name’]));
include(”/full/path/to/$_x_tmp.txt”);
?>

This will convert the category name to all lower case letters and remove all non-alphanumeric characters. It will then include the file based on the category name. So, for example, if you have a category named ‘Public Health and Safety’ you would need to create a file named publichealthandsafety.txt and place it in the directory you specify in the include() call.

This may sound complicated, but it’s really not. Took me 10 minutes to get what I wanted. Now I can use php includes to make my categories different without creating new category templates. Add that to another answer of how to use a banner program and call by category name, and I have categories that have unique text, rotating banners, and niched multi pass site ads at the bottom of my category pages. Pretty damn impressive for a $60 program.

Thanks JMB, I love you guys, your service, and your script.

You can check out linkx here. (Yes, it’s my affiliate code).