Kitgenix Affiliate Link Manager

Overview

This plugin provides a lightweight admin UI to manage short affiliate redirect links and track simple click counts. It exposes a short URL path (default /go/{slug}) and redirects visitors to destination URLs while incrementing an internal click counter.

Primary entry and metadata are in kitgenix-affiliate-link-manager.php.

Requirements

WordPress: tested up to 6.9, minimum supported 6.0 (see plugin header in plugin file).
PHP: 8.1+ (activation blocks older versions).

Installation

Copy the plugin folder into wp-content/plugins/ or install via the provided zip.
Activate the plugin from the Plugins screen. On activation the plugin checks PHP/WordPress versions and flushes rewrite rules.
After activation you'll be redirected once to the plugin settings page. As a fallback for hosts that don't reliably persist activation-time rewrite flushes, the plugin also schedules a one-time rewrite flush on the next request (via transient kitgenix_affiliate_link_manager_do_rewrite_flush with a ~2 minute TTL).

Quick start

Open the Kitgenix top-level admin menu → Affiliate Links.
Add a new link using the form: provide Name and Destination URL. Optionally set a custom slug (leave blank to auto-generate).
Visit the generated short URL shown in the list (example: /go/my-link by default).

Admin UI

The admin UI is implemented in includes/admin/class-settings-ui.php. It registers a submenu under a shared Kitgenix top-level menu (helper in root plugin file).

Main features:

Links tab — create, edit, delete links. Edit opens a JS modal but works via non-JS edit link too.
Settings tab — change prefix (default go) and redirect type (307/302 temporary, or 301 permanent).
Support tab — shows counts and donation/review links.

Settings

Settings are stored as an array option named kitgenix_affiliate_link_manager_settings. The settings class is includes/core/class-settings.php.

Available values:

prefix — short URL prefix (default: go). This controls rewrite rule: ^{prefix}/([^/]+)/?$.
redirect_status — HTTP status code for redirects: 307 (temporary, recommended), 302 (temporary), or 301 (permanent). Default: 307.

The settings are registered in includes/admin/class-admin-options.php. Sanitization and nonce-protected saving are implemented in Admin_Options::sanitize().

Short URLs & Redirects

Rewrite rules and redirect handling lives in includes/core/class-redirector.php.

Key behavior:

Query var registered: kitgenix_affiliate_slug.
Rewrite rule: the plugin adds a rule that maps /{prefix}/{slug} to index.php?kitgenix_affiliate_slug={slug}. The prefix is sanitized using WP helpers.
On template_redirect, the plugin checks the query var and attempts to find a matching post of type kitgenix_aff_link. If found, it validates the destination URL, increments clicks, and redirects using wp_redirect with the configured status. If not valid, a 404 template is rendered.

Search engine compliance: when placing the short URL into your content, tag the link as sponsored/nofollow (for example: rel="nofollow sponsored") for affiliate disclosures. The admin UI also lets you store a per-link rel value (nofollow / sponsored / both) for convenience.

Short URL builder helper: Settings::build_short_url($slug) returns the full home URL for the configured prefix.

Data storage (post type & meta)

Affiliate links are stored as a custom post type declared in includes/core/class-affiliate-link-post-type.php.

Important constants:

Name	Value / Description
`Affiliate_Link_Post_Type::POST_TYPE`	`kitgenix_aff_link` — custom post type used to store links (<=20 chars).
`Affiliate_Link_Post_Type::META_DESTINATION`	`_kitgenix_affiliate_destination_url` — destination URL meta key.
`Affiliate_Link_Post_Type::META_CLICKS`	`_kitgenix_affiliate_clicks` — integer click counter meta key.
`Affiliate_Link_Post_Type::META_REL`	`_kitgenix_affiliate_rel` — stored rel value for the short link (allowed: `nofollow`, `sponsored`, `nofollow sponsored`).

CRUD helpers:

Affiliate_Link_Post_Type::upsert_link(array $data) — create or update a link. Validates title and destination URL; prevents slug collisions; handles DB insert errors (including utf8mb4 charset issues).
Affiliate_Link_Post_Type::delete_link(int $post_id) — moves the post to Trash using wp_trash_post.
Affiliate_Link_Post_Type::get_destination_url(int $post_id) — read destination meta.
Affiliate_Link_Post_Type::get_rel_value(int $post_id) — read and sanitize rel meta (defaults to nofollow sponsored).
Affiliate_Link_Post_Type::increment_clicks(int $post_id) — increments the clicks meta.

Programming API & Classes

Primary classes and summaries (files):

Core\Settings — read settings, get prefix, get redirect status, build short URLs.
Core\Affiliate_Link_Post_Type — post-type registration and link CRUD helpers.
Core\Redirector — rewrite rules, query var and redirect handling.
Core\Loader — initializes core components and flushes rewrites when prefix changes.
Admin\Admin_Options — registers and sanitizes settings.
Admin\Settings_UI — admin page, links/settings/support tabs, forms, and admin-post handlers.

Notable public methods

Settings::get_prefix() — returns sanitized prefix (default go).
Settings::get_redirect_status() — returns 307, 302, or 301 (default 307).
Affiliate_Link_Post_Type::upsert_link($data) — returns post ID or WP_Error.
Redirector::init() — hooks rewrite/tag and template redirect flow.

WordPress hooks used

Key actions and filters the plugin uses:

admin_menu — kitgenix_ensure_admin_menu() and Settings_UI::register_menu() add menus.
admin_enqueue_scripts — enqueue admin CSS/JS in UI pages (Settings_UI::enqueue_assets).
init — register post type and rewrite rules (Affiliate_Link_Post_Type::register_post_type, Redirector::add_rewrite).
query_vars filter — adds kitgenix_affiliate_slug (see Redirector::add_query_vars).
template_redirect — perform redirect when short URL matched.
plugins_loaded — loader init.
Activation / deactivation hooks: flush rewrite rules are called on activation and deactivation.
Option update hook: update_option_kitgenix_affiliate_link_manager_settings is observed by Core\Loader::maybe_flush_rewrites to flush rewrite rules when prefix changes.

Security & Nonces

All admin form actions use nonces and capability checks:

Link create/update: handled by admin-post.php?action=kitgenix_affiliate_link_save (WordPress hook admin_post_kitgenix_affiliate_link_save) -> Settings_UI::handle_link_save(). Requires manage_options, nonce action kitgenix_affiliate_link_save, and nonce field kitgenix_affiliate_link_nonce.
Link delete: handled by admin-post.php?action=kitgenix_affiliate_link_delete (WordPress hook admin_post_kitgenix_affiliate_link_delete) -> Settings_UI::handle_link_delete(). Nonce: kitgenix_affiliate_link_delete.
Settings saving: protected by kitgenix_affiliate_link_manager_settings_nonce (nonce action kitgenix_affiliate_link_manager_settings_save) and verified in Admin_Options::sanitize(). Settings API group: kitgenix_affiliate_link_manager_settings_group. Redirect status field id: kitgenix_affiliate_redirect_status.

Privacy & external services

This plugin does not add tracking cookies.
WordPress.org Plugins API (wp-admin only): this plugin includes a shared Kitgenix hub component which may call WordPress core’s plugins_api() function to fetch publicly available plugin metadata from WordPress.org.
Caching: the hub stores results for about 1 day using transients kitgenix_hub_wporg_active_installs_v1 and kitgenix_hub_wporg_ratings_v1.
Redirect destinations: short links redirect visitors to the destination URL you configure for a link. These destinations are often third-party domains (affiliate programs).

Assets

Admin assets included in the plugin:

assets/css/admin.css — admin styles for the settings UI.
assets/css/kitgenix-hub.css — top-level Kitgenix hub styles.
assets/js/admin.js — JS used for modal editing, copy-to-clipboard, tab sync, etc.
assets/images/logos/kitgenix-favicon-purple.svg — logo used in admin header.

Uninstall behavior

Uninstall logic is in uninstall.php. When uninstalled via WP, the plugin removes only its option and transient keys but deliberately does not delete affiliate link posts or click data. Files removed:

delete_option( 'kitgenix_affiliate_link_manager_settings' )
delete_site_option( 'kitgenix_affiliate_link_manager_settings' )
delete_transient( 'kitgenix_affiliate_link_manager_do_activation_redirect' )
delete_transient( 'kitgenix_affiliate_link_manager_do_rewrite_flush' )

Note: the rewrite-flush helper transient has a ~2 minute TTL and is intended to expire automatically, but uninstall will remove it if present.

Troubleshooting

Short URLs return 404

Try visiting Settings → Permalinks and click Save to flush rewrite rules, or deactivate/reactivate the plugin to force a flush.
Check the configured prefix in Settings — it must not contain unsafe characters; it will be sanitized to a slug.

Can't save link / database insert errors

If you see DB insert errors referencing Incorrect string value, your MySQL/MariaDB may not support utf8mb4. The plugin catches this and returns a helpful WP_Error; to resolve, either remove emoji from names or convert the DB to utf8mb4.

Destination URL rejected

The plugin validates URLs. Ensure the destination is a valid absolute URL (including scheme, e.g. https://) and not blocked by host filters.

License & Credits

Kitgenix Affiliate Link Manager is released under GPLv3 or later (see plugin header in kitgenix-affiliate-link-manager.php).

Files referenced by this document: