Tracking affilliate-based purchases

-- HikaShop version -- : 2.1.3
-- Joomla version -- : 2.5.11
-- PHP version -- : 5.3.19
-- Browser(s) name and version -- : Chrome


I am looking to check purchases associated with an Affiliate using the hikashop database and I have found that even though I have many affiliates (partners) setup in Hikashop and the Affiliate program is capturing click counts it is not doing a good job of capturing sales by affiliates. My questions with this are:

1. Does the affiliate program use cookies or just a session in the database to track sales? My main question here is if a person doesn't buy when they use the affiliate link but then returns later to my site and buys - does this purchase get attributed to the affiliate?

2. When I look into the database I see that the user_partner_id is 0 for all the users in the xxx_hikashop_user table. Is there something wrong with my setup?

Thanks

Thanks for answering my question Jerome. I have a couple more questions to clarify your answer.

1. Is there any way to make this process automated on the website. So that when a user "registers" through the checkout process that the partner_id is automatically put in to that user's record?

2. Is there a way to get the partner_id from a user's cookie for other actions - such as when they fill out an RSForms form?

3. How long does the cookie last?

Thanks,
Matt

Thanks for that Jerome, this solves my problem. Although it still doesn't explain why the partner_id is 0 for all our customers who went on to purchase after clicking on an affiliate link? But I should be able to solve this with the code you gave me.

Thanks,
Matt