Technical
The plugin relies upon the php script aws_signed_request kindly crafted by Ulrich Mierendorff.
The plugin has two utility classes that might be of use to other plugin designers. The first is one for generating the options page (as well as the ‘Add Amazon Link’ meta box). The second is an AJAX facility for performing Amazon product searches and returning an array of product details, including a facility to fill in a HTML template with various attributes of the product using the patterns %TITLE%, %PRICE%, %AUTHOR%, etc. See the plugin source files for more details on how to utilise them.
Translations
The plugin comes with translation support but as yet no translations are included, please refer to the WordPress Codex for more information about activating the translation.
If you want to help to translate the plugin to your language, please have a look at the i18n/amazon-link.pot file which contains all definitions and may be used to create a language specific .po file, if you do then
contact me and I will add it to the plugin ready for the next update.
Disclosure
Amazon requires that all access to the AWS system contain a valid affiliate tag. If you don’t not have an affiliate account for all locales do not worry. If the setting is empty the plugin will automatically insert a valid one by default. However it is recommended that you enrol in the Amazon Affiliate program for all countries that your site targets.
Future Updates
There are a number of things I want to update the plugin to do, some of which have already been done in other plugins, but not quite how I would like. I would like to bring it all together in one plugin.
Features I will be adding to the plugin in the future:
- Allow the wishlist to search for legacy amazon links not just ones embedded in the shortcode.
- Cache product queries to the Amazon sites (by locality).