Amazon Tools is a plugin that allows you to integrate your WordPress blog with Amazon Web Services. Using Amazon Tools you can quickly and easily retrieve product data from Amazon.com and display it on your blog. The plugin also supports integration with Amazon Associates Program, allowing you to earn money by advertising Amazon products. You can use this plugin to do something as simple as building an ad unit that will display products of your choice, or use your blog to review products.
Version: 1.4
Compatibility: WordPress 3.0+
Download (Free): Amazon Tools
Download (Premium): Amazon Tools Premium
Amazon Tools Forum
The Amazon Tools Forum contains tutorials and usage instructions for this plugin. If you are having trouble using the plugin or have any suggestions or feedback please sign up. Currently there is no email verification required so the sign up process should be painless and you can start asking questions, requesting new features, or show off how you are using Amazon Tools right away.
Additional Documentation and Resources
- Using the Amazon Shortcode
- Basic Template Creation
- More coming soon…
Getting Started
Before this plugin can function, you must have an AWS account. You will need to input your AWS access key and secret key in the plugin settings page. The plugin also allows you to specify an ‘associate tag’ which will allow you to earn money from referrals. Sign up for an Associates account to get your associate tag.
Cache and Update Methods
The plugin is designed to minimize the number of Amazon API requests needed to display content. As such, content is cached in the wordpress database. The problem with caching is that it may cause your content to be out of sync with the content on Amazon.com. Because of this, the cache must be updated periodically. You can specify the amount of time before a data element expires and must be updated in the plugin settings. Note that high values for the cache expiry time will increase the chances of the plugin displaying outdated content. Low values will increase the number of API requests.
The plugin currently provides three methods for updating cached data: ‘Initial Request’, ‘Ajax’, and ‘Cron’. The initial request option will cause expired data to be updated before sending it to the user. This ensures that expired content is never displayed, but will impact page load time when an update is triggered.
The ajax method triggers updates with an ajax request after content has already been sent to the user. This allows the cache to be updated without increasing page load time. However, it requires that users have javascript enabled. This won’t be a problem for most sites as the vast majority of users do have javascript enabled. Ajax is the default method used by the plugin.
The cron method allows you to setup a crontab or scheduled task to periodically check for expired content. To use this method, select the ‘cron’ options in the settings page and setup a crontab to periodcally run the update.php script in the Amazon Tools plugin folder.
Templates
The Forum contains more information and tutorials for creating and using templates. You can also use the forum to request help creating templates.
Global CSS
The plugin includes a ‘global’ CSS file that will be included on every page in your blog. This file is editable through the plugin so long as the file is writable by PHP. You are encouraged to use this file instead of the ‘additional css’ field whenever possible; code entered into the additional css field will be output immediately before the template content and will not be cannot be cached by users.
The plugin will attempt to create the global css file in your uploads directory, specifically: wp-content/uploads/amazon-tools/amazon.css In order for the plugin to create the file, the uploads directory must be writable by PHP. If needed, you can manually create the css file, but in order to edit the file using the plugin, it must be writable.
Please feel free to request additional features in the forum.
Changelog
See the Version Notes section of the forum.
Comments
For support questions or suggestions please use the Amazon Tools Forum. Currently, email verification is disabled on the forum so sign up is quick and easy.
I would use this Amazon PLugin but I would be worried about the 15% chance..how is it calculated? Does it take an hours worth of sales and I could see ifgive 15% of them to whoever? It just seems like there is a missing number to calculate 15%. I could see if you got the first 4 of 60 sales. I tried this plugin an like it but I do it the hard way of using another to create the html and I copy it into post on the html tab. This way I know it wont change and I can deactivate the plugin until I wish to add another item.
It isn’t 15% of your sales, it is 15% of the links. Every time the plugin retrieves a product link from the API it sends the associate tag so it can be included in the link. There is a 15% chance that the plugin will send the API request without an associate tag.
However, if you switch to the premium version your associate tag will be used 100% of the time:
http://wpamazon.com/go-premium/
Hi there, Could you tell us what makes Amazon Tools plugin different from Amazon PIP plugin, or WordPress Amazon Associate plugin, or the other 10s of Amazon plugins already out there?
I’m not trying to be a jerk or anything. In fact, judging by all the documentation and resources you’ve posted, Amazon Tools looks like a great plugin. But I do want to know what your vision for it is, and what gap you’ve found in the market that you’re filling with it.
Thanks a lot,
M.K.
Hi M.K.,
That’s a completely valid question and it may be something I need to address directly in the documentation.
Basically what I intended when I started developing Amazon Tools was to create something that is as flexible as possible. My goal is to allow you to do as much with the plugin as would be possible if you were developing an application from scratch using the amazon api directly. I think the templating engine that I’ve developed gives the plugin a degree of versatility that other plugins do not offer. The trade off being a bit of a tougher learning curve.
For instance, using the plugin I can design multiple templates that can either be applied to posts automatically, or displayed using a shortcode in either a post or widget (and soon you’ll be able to use them directly in your theme). I am in complete control of how the templates look and what product information to include in them.
Additional features that I hope will make the plugin even more powerful, such as the foreach and similar shortcodes, are currently in development.
You mentioned Amazon PIP. As far as I can tell, this plugin can do anything Amazon PIP can, with more flexibility. It can also do things things Amazon PIP cannot, such as make ad units. As I mentioned however there is a learning curve trade off. I imagine PIP is a little easier to use at first; it takes some time to figure out the Amazon Tools template features, and you must have some basic design skills in order to create templates.
I hope that addresses your question, if not I can try to clarify.
-Matt