If you Google how to create an add-to-cart link using Easy Digital Downloads, you’ll probably come across this article from the folks at EDD. That documentation does a great job walking users through the process of manually assembling a link, complete with query strings, which can be used to add a Download to a user’s cart. For example:
https://www.mysite.com/checkout/?edd_action=add_to_cart&download_id={DOWNLOAD_ID}&edd_options%5Bprice_id%5D=1
Not bad, but cumbersome, even if you know what what all that means. The EDD Pretty Purchase URLs plugin offers a cleaner way. That messy URL now becomes something like:
https://www.mysite.com/get/{name}/{variation}/{quantity}
In the Pretty Purchase URLs plugin, name is the Download’s slug, {variation} is the name of the price variation/option, and {quantity} is the quantity to add. Pretty Purchase URLs knows to find the Download by the slug, adds the Download to a user’s cart with the corresponding price variation and quantity (if set), and redirects the user to the checkout page.
Instead of using the Download’s default slug, which could be relatively long, you can also set a custom “short” slug in the Download Settings.
You can easily copy a Pretty Purchase URL within a Download’s edit screen, like so…
The Pretty Purchase URLs are easier to share, cleaner to read, and provide a more intuitive user experience!