Any takers? Free tech support! 😉
It’s really simple to implement. Copy files to server, move one file into wp-admin, set write permissions on cache directory, modify the admin menu, include file into template, modify base config variables, add one-line php into template, add a ton of products through the admin interface, and voila! Your favorite products in your sidebar!
I’m open to feature discussions, stuff to put it more in parity with MTAmazon, etc. The low level search/query handle can process most every type of search, but I haven’t exposed them all to the upper level yet (most people want to show specific products, not random-query-of-amazon products). Plus samples to show you how to add lists of accessories or related items for a particular product. Best of all, its OWN index page for visitors to see details before heading over to Amazon — that is, if you want that feature activated! 😉
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Don’t want you to think this went unnoticed. I dl’d it and will get to it when I get a little free time.
Is there a site running this that gives a demonstration of what it does?
Haven’t quite gotten it to work yet but don’t have a solid block of time. You have my-plugins in one spot instead of cg-plugins and I got a table creation error so did it by “hand”. Now getting undefined function “cg_amazon_lookup()” but that will have to wait until later.
Weird! Maybe I copied up the wrong versions of files (that function doesn’t exist in my revised code!) And my-plugins should be cg-plugins — again, may have copied wrong version — I have to rename my local dir to cg-plugins finally to eliminate future issues…
Will look into it in the morning. Thanks Beel! I appreciate the testing-support!
randy, check out http://www.chait.net for more ‘extreme’ use of it all. Sidebars on left edge, clicking them takes you to the cgaindex pages which have different left sidebar items (accessories & similar) and a Popular Products list at the right. If you click the Products button on the top of the page, it’ll take you to the raw list.
Will post up more info (and fixed version) in the morning. Thanks all for your patience… first release is always the hardest!
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To those of you who have downloaded, please grab it again, and NUKE the old copy: I had left in my own DB access information in one file. Like to see that destroyed (there’s only 5 of you — thanks!).
I also hadn’t finished updating the cga-admin interface to new function names, so it fails to let you add/manipulate the database. And lastly, I was using a direct wpdb access function (everything must go through the db_fns file, for abstraction), with the wrong function name. Copy&paste error.
Let’s try 0.92. 😉 Download away!
http://www.chait.net/index.php?p=147
Thanks everyone!
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Getting there. Went to include the files in the index page and had a conflict with cg-referer so disabled that just to checkout how it looked. Now I am working through why info from xmlcache is pulled into the page and why I am getting:
Fatal error: Cannot instantiate non-existent class: xmlparser in D:\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs\wordpress\cg-plugins\AmazonQueryMgr.php on line 250
You still have some clean-up to do 😉
OK, probably my bad. I have a couple of hacks of yours, including cg-feedread and xmlparser.php is placed in the root directory for that – it was interfering with cg-amazon (as is cg-referer re-declaring functions). Need to find a way to get them all working together.
Awesome! Looking good. I’m glad I took the extra time to work on “wpstyle” compatability for cgaindex.php — It looks like it’s a natural page on your site!
BTW, you’ll want to set the :hover color on the block, as the text is turning white/invisible. Other than that, only someone like me would even know it was two different systems running. 😉
The ‘new’ versions of feedread and referer up on chait.net are the ones ‘synced’ with cg-amazon. You can put the new ones INTO cg-plugins, and include them after cga-config and use $myplugins to include them from the right subdir name…
Let me know if there’s features that seem missing, or ability to style, layout, whatever. I’m in the process of allowing you to override the ‘block’ start/end and ‘info’ generator functions, though I’ll admit I’d rather write a mini tag-replacement system for templating.
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Btw, cg-amazon.css is simply a worker template. Change it all you want. There’s nothing expected, I just wanted to have a sample there for people to play with! Override, comment out, add to your hearts delight!
I figure that some people may want to customize even more specifically, down to the li, li a, whatever… so be it. I just set up the framework, you make it look better. 😉
Glad it seems to be working. How’d you like the cgaindex thing? I’m thinking about adding an Admin-only button/link on a cgaindex product page that says ‘add this to DB’, so that when you click to a product or accessory NOT in your DB you can one-click add it in (well, and then go back and edit the custom category… but at least you have the ASIN copied automatically over for you).
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Just so I make it clear for new people reading this thread (and I’ve noted this on my site):
IF you already use one of the CG libraries (Referer and/or FeedRead) AND you download CG-Amazon, you’ll want to:
1. download the NEW referer/feedread versions that are on my site.
2. put the referer/feedread files INTO the cg-plugins directory that CG-Amazon creates/uses (they all share a directory here, and share a number of common files).
I may go package up one universal CG-LIB archive with all my hackery in one file, and then you can include/activate each plugin/hack at your leisure.
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http://www.chait.net
Definitely let me know about the meta-tag stuff — I’m interested in where I might fit that into stuff for more automated generation for ‘newbie’ users.
Also, just put up revised version with:
– feedback in the admin interface for adding products. tells you ADDED, DUPLICATE, ERROR. No more guesswork! 😉
– cgaindex product pages now show an “Add Product to DB” button at the top if the product you are looking at isn’t yet in your DB. For instance, you browse an accessory or similar item, and now quick-click the Add button, and immediately that product goes into the DB — no more copying and pasting ASINs when browsing related products! (I’ve already found this VERY useful for building up a quick db of related products, without just bulk-adding everything under the sun — which I dislike as a solution!)
– and the prior minor fixes to pathing issues.
Release 0.921 is in the same old location:
http://www.chait.net/index.php?p=147
As always, lemme know if people like/dislike it, or have further feature requests! I aim to please! 😉
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Looking for the “add” button but have not found it yet…
FIRST – FOR NEW USERS:
the line to create the DB in the helpfile was wrong. the correct line is:
/wp-admin/cga-admin.php?create=1″>http://<yoururl>/wp-admin/cga-admin.php?create=1
the =1 was missing in the helpfile originally. uploading a new version.
@beel:
It should be at the top of the cgaindex.php page when viewing a single item that ISN’T in your DB already. Oh, AND you are logged in as a user with user_level>4. This is an admin function, after all! 😉
So, pick an item in your db, then click on the sidebar on a similar item (that isn’t yet in your db), and you should get a button just above the start of the product listing, but under the header. Of course, I didn’t yet double check this with the 1.2 clean site, just with CHAITGEAR, so it is possible the button is getting covered or shifted offscreen.
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