What is a merge code?

Site merge codes are one of the ways Spark Pay online stores lets you put merged data into a page anywhere you want.  This allows your customers to get the exact look and feel you want on your storefront.  The basic format of a site merge is ##MERGENAME##.  Our system replaces that merge with whatever content should go in its place.  For example, the merge code university.americommerce.com would be replaced by www.YourStoreDomain.com.

You can put a merge in ANY place that can take HTML input, including our HTML editors, email templates, custom content files, aspx pages and even your custom html pages that are linked to our system.

The complete list of merge codes can be found here

How is a merge different from a widget?

A site merge is different from another feature Spark Pay online stores has called widgets.  A widget is like a merge in that you can insert them in many different areas on  your site. But a widget is a piece of HTML placed in a certain order and has many settings and styles associated with it.  The image below shows where to navigate to insert and manage widgets.

Once you click "Add Widget", you will see a list of available widgets.

On the other hand, a merge looks like ##MERGENAME##. It may have optional settings, that look like ##MERGENAME [settings]##.  As mentioned before, you can put these anywhere HTML can be entered.

It's important to note that merge codes aren't a programming language, and are easy to use. You can take the principles and run with it...

You must use the specific, pre-existing merge codes for it to work, you can't just make them up.

For a list of available merge codes, see the list here.