Add-On Releases - Amazon Store Integration

Finally, I've gotten around to putting together a version of the Amazon Store integration mod for vBulletin 3.6.

This mod allows you to add an Amazon store to your vBulletin. You can set it to search for a particular keyword, for different types of items - CDs, DVDs, Clothing, etc. A sample of the store in action is available here: http://www.lidragracing.com/amazon_store.php.

You will need to sign up for Amazon Web Services to get an AWS key in order for this to work. In addition, you need to have PHP 5 installed on your server.

Installation is very simple, upload 3 files, import the xml file and then add a link to the store in your navigation bar. See the attached file "ECS Amazon Store.txt" for the exact installation instructions.

Give it a try, let me know what you think. Make sure you click "Mark as Installed" if you've installed it.

Also, if you intall it and use it, please post the URL you have it installed at so I can see how it's being used.

{edit}

To upgrade to a newer version, re-upload the php files and then import the xml product file. Afterwards go to the admin control panel to check to make sure all of the fields are filled in properly.

[BadgerDog]

I've been running this for a few years, including donating to the developer ...

It's worked fine, then a member reported it stopped working..

I updated to the November version and obtained a new secret key and it searches fine, but when I click the link to go to the Amazon site, as an example only, I consistently get:

===========================
Not Found

The requested URL /amazon_item_1_B000F2C8IU___Four-Albums-of-Military-Song-from-Oscar-Brand.html was not found on this server.
==========================

Edit: follow up... just noticed that the link above when shown in my browser page is actually prefixing my own site to the front of it. ie: http://www.mysite.com, which of course explains the ERROR message. However, why is this mod picking up our site URL and tacking it on the front and not putting an AMAZON link on the front?

Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks for any help ..

Regards,
Badger

[mikelbeck]

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

I've been running this for a few years, including donating to the developer ...

It's worked fine, then a member reported it stopped working..

I updated to the November version and obtained a new secret key and it searches fine, but when I click the link to go to the Amazon site, as an example only, I consistently get:

===========================
Not Found

The requested URL /amazon_item_1_B000F2C8IU___Four-Albums-of-Military-Song-from-Oscar-Brand.html was not found on this server.
==========================

Edit: follow up... just noticed that the link above when shown in my browser page is actually prefixing my own site to the front of it. ie: http://www.mysite.com, which of course explains the ERROR message. However, why is this mod picking up our site URL and tacking it on the front and not putting an AMAZON link on the front?

Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks for any help ..

Regards,
Badger

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to this...

Are you still having this problem? What's the URL of your site?

[BadgerDog]

Originally Posted by mikelbeck

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to this...

Are you still having this problem? What's the URL of your site?

No problem Sir ...

Also got your PM... very gracious of you to follow up ... appreciate it ... :up:

The problem turned out to be ours and not that of your mod. With 10,000+ members and growing, we had to upgrade to a new server. When we did that and moved everything over, apparently one of our settings was incorrect. A friend who is a Unix guru fixed it on our server and he said:

The main AllowOverride wasn't set for the overall web server, that was preventing some of the commands in the .htaccess file from executing properly.

I hope you understand what he means, because I sure don't ...

Anyway, it's working fine now, but something that would really help us out would be the addition of which Amazon country site the user wants to go to in order to buy the product he finds in the "search" criteria.

Right now, we set it in AdminCP to be Canada, where we're located, however, if the member is from the U.S., he searches the United States site and finds the item. Unfortunately, when he clicks on the found item in the search, the mod takes him to the Canada Amazon site and not the U.S. Amazon site where he wants to buy it from. If he then goes to the bottom of the Amazon page and selects the U.S. site to get him back there, we LOSE the commission credit for the sale as his link back to the U.S. while on Amazon drops our commission code information.

Is there any way to have the mod go to the appropriate Amazon site (retaining the commission information in our link), when the member clicks on an item that he's searched and found in a different country than what is stored in the AdminCP settings for the mod?

Thanks for your support. Great mod and if we could get it to go to the right country selected from searches, I think it would get more members using it. As it is now, we're missing a lot of opportunity to support our "not for profit" site by members who aren't in Canada, which is more than 70%.

Regards,
Badger

[FitgirlWorld]

NOT WORKING for me... and here is the problem..

I copy the contents of the htaccess -new file and paste it in the curent htaccess file in the forum root directory and

BAM

the forums stop working and dont exist.

I remove the code I pasted and they start working again..

what am I doing wrong?

thanks

[FitgirlWorld]

got it!

problem was VBSEO mod rewrite..

had to make some changes

[Greek76]

Has anyone tested this for 3.8?

[Alfa1]

I wonder about this as well. Does this work on 3.8.5 or is there any alternative?

[mikelbeck]

I've got a version of this working on VB 4. Would anybody be interested in it?

[hiker]

Originally Posted by mikelbeck

I've got a version of this working on VB 4. Would anybody be interested in it?

Yes

[chick]

I have it working on 3.8.6 BUT the only issue seems to be (I have the 'allow search' turned off) BUT at the very bottom of the store page under the products no matter what I try it still says 'We did not find any matches for your request' even though no one searched and all products show up.

I can't for the life of me find where this is coming from!

Anyone?