I was pretty tired of copy/pasting ugly code to share Amazon affiliate links. So I decided to use the power of WordPress shortcodes to create a tight plugin with valid XHTML code, painless usage and maximum benefits !
Amazon Widgets Shortcodes preview
- Amazon Widgets Shortcodes on WordPress.org plugins repository
- State : stable and ready to use
Features
- Amazon Internationalization : Canada, France, Germany, Japan, UK and USA
- Locales support : Belorussian, English, French and Italian (opened to contributors)
- Nice integration in the Rich Text Editor TinyMCE
- Copy/Paste Amazon HTML code
- Strong usage documentation
- RSS filtering : republish your content without your widgets inside
- Supports Amazon context links and Amazon product preview
Supported widgets
- Carrousel
- Deals
- MP3
- My Favorites
- Product Preview
- Product Links
- Slideshow
- Product Cloud
- Wishlist
Amazon Widgets Shortcodes integration in Text Editor
Commentaires
Can this be placed into a sidebar widget. I am using WooThemes FreshNews. THe sidebar max is 300px wide . . I’d like to include randomly all the books that my pastor is reading on his blog . . . If you have any help on this please share. I am a newbie but can fiddle with code enough to make it work. If I’m not sure of what you’re solution is I’ll ask so feel free to let me know what yo think first.
Thanks for sharing your gifts to the WP community,
KC
Actually you can’t place it in a sidebar widget.
It will be the case in the 2.0 version as it will integrate both a quick insert (from widgets history inserts) and later, a collection manager.
But it won’t be available within weeks as it’s quite a huge work.
Do I need to use the visual editor in WordPress to get this to work? I really don’t like the visual editor, so it’s normall switched off.
Nope it’s not required. The tool provided with the visual editor is just here to help you building the shortcode.
There is a documentation (displayed within the post screen if the correct option is enabled) which describes you each shortcodes and parameters.
Hello, and thanks for the very helpful plugin. I hope to donate and support your work soon.
My question is about padding around a product widget. Is there an easy way within the plugin or by using a div layer some way to have the text wrap around a product widget but also pad the area by 10px?
Thanks very much!
Hi Oncle, nice to meet you. Thanks for sharing nice plug-in. I didn’t get to make it works with « Amazon Deals ». Some doubts and comments:
1) How do I know the Widget ID# from Amazon? Let’s suppose I want to use the widget « Recommended Product Links », how do I know its ID#?;
2) Talking about this « Recommended Product Links » widget, in your plug-in Amazon Deals/Main Option, IMHO it should have the options to select a product line (books, camera, garden, etc) and also add the Keyword. So, I can add the « Recommended Product Links » widget in the right way;
3) When copying and pasting the HTML code (Iframe) into the copy/paste code tab and « apply the magic », it is showing the following error: « Could not parse Amazon HTML code. It may be invalid or it is a bug of the plugin (then, please report it). » So, I’m reporting it. ;0)
Thanks in advance.
Hello,
all widgets are wrapped in a layer with a specific class (as well as alignment informations) so it’s up to you to customize padding and margin.
Isn’t it enough?
1) You don’t really need to check for the Widget ID: if you use the Rich Text Editor, simply paste the ugly HTML code provided by Amazon and it will identify it for you.
Otherwise, the documentation included in the plugin settings page will be to help you locating and configuring any widget.
2) I’d like to implement such a thing. Product line varies from an area to another and I’d like to rely on hardcoded values.
That’s why I’m working on linking to Amazon API to make everything even more easier … without leaving WordPress.
3) Could you drop me the code you tried to paste (maybe through the contact form, to avoid the HTML to be filtered in the comments), and for which widget? It would help me to fix the problem
Thanks!
Hello, I did indeed find the layer that day and was very pleased to see this. Unfortunately, I neglected to come back here and retract the comment. My apologies This is the best Amazon plugin for WordPress today.
Regards,
George
Hi Oncle Tom, thanks for your reply.
I’ve sent you the code through the contact form as requested.
Have a nice day. ;0)
Dear all,
I install « Amazon Widgets Shortcodes » on my WordPress Blog and i include some amazon product (ASIN) on page. Resule it show pretty on FF,GC,Opera,IE 8 but Not IE (6,7). Please anyone help me.
Here are my blog: http://jzsilver.roietonline.net/jewelryblog/
Decha Kunla
Bonjour Oncle,
I´m trying for the first time to build up a website, I got Essence Red Thème, and when I create an Amazon affiliate´s link in a page (apparently successfully) when you open it it gives a very bad error warning. What can I do to insert my Amazon affiliate´s links, and would this plugin be the solution for me?
In which case, how to use it?
Merci de votre aide, tout conseil sera bienvenu,
r
I have installed and used your plug-in and I really like it. So much, in fact, that I would like it to be accessible across multiple blogs on my WordPress (MU) site.
The only issue I am having is that the plug-in doesn’t « remember » the Amazon Tracking ID value when a new blog is created.
For example, if the site’s main blog has the Amazon Tracking ID value entered within the form:
http://mysite.com/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=awshortcode-options
…and then I create a new blog called « test, » the Amazon Tracking ID input (and any other customization) is missing from:
http://mysite.com/test/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=awshortcode-options
(Note: I am using the mysite.com/test WPMU setup rather than the test.mysite.com setup.)
I had the same issue with the Akismet plug, because it too requires an input of the WordPress API key for each blog. The solution that Akismet provides to get around the issue is outlined in the main akismet.php file (line 14):
// If you hardcode a WP.com API key here, all key config screens will be hidden
So, by insert one line of code:
$wpcom_api_key = ’41example50′;
…Akismet « remembers » the input across all new blogs.
In a WPMU (multi-user) environment, this is not only a matter of convenience, but necessity, because all new users with new blogs will not be savvy enough to figure out how to create and configure ID’s (for Amazon Tracking, or Akismet).
Having explained the problem I am facing in trying to use this plugin in a large setup with many blogs, is there a workaround similar to the one that Akismet provides? In other words, is there some Amazon Shortcodes .php file where I can insert my Amazon Tracking ID once, so that the user will not see the Dashboard warning message:
« Amazon Widget Shortcodes has been activated.
You need to setup your Amazon Tracking ID in order to see your shortcodes display Amazon Widgets »
with every new blog that is created?
I assume the solution is not too difficult, since the issue is analogous to that with the Akismet plug-in. I hope you can see the solution! Thanks in advance. I guess my problem is that I like the plug-in so much I want to use it on too many blogs.
Hi,
I can’t tell many things as layout is provided by your theme. I basically only include CSS class to elements, nothing more.
Could you copy/paste your bad error warning? It could help me much better to advise you what to do
Your request sound legitimate to me. Indeed each WPMU website act as a new instance, independant of the master one.
I’m not fond of modifying the original plugin file because in case of update, you have to manually repeat your customization again.
So if I understand well, you want each new blog to have the same Amazon ID as your master blog?
Cher Oncle Tom,
Merci, voici le error message:
___________________________________________
Forbidden
You don’t have permission to access /<iframe src= »http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
——————————————————————————–
Apache/2.2.11 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.11 OpenSSL/0.9.8i DAV/2 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 Server at vivirconbienestar.info Port 80
_______________________________________
Yes, that is correct. Precisely.
Cher Oncle Tom,
I had the idea of just downloading your product and yes, MAGIC, apparently it’s working, whereas the simple LINK for Admin does not work at all.
So MERCI BEAUCOUP.
Je reviendrai si j’ai un problème, mais ça a l’air de marcher like a charm!
VOUS ÊTES GÉNIAL
Hi. I like the idea of this plugin and would also donate it, but it does not work.
- having installed and put the caroussel widget html into the editor plugin. so i see the amazon code in the window and press update but the Carousel widget does not appear whereas the ‘Amazon Product’.
version wp 2.8.6 and widget 1.5.2
what is the problem. pls help me
thx markus
« …I did indeed find the layer that day and was very pleased to see this »
I have looked everywhere I could think of on how to customize the padding and margin and cannot figure it out. What file did you edit? And where?
Greg
Look under Settings / Amazon Widget Shortcodes
and click on the documentation button for more info.
The class definitions are there and in the plugin editor.
Howdy,
It appears that this plugin does not work with wordpress 2.9, it’s creating the player code for slideshows, but the objects fail to be display.
Pretty easy to spot on a clean 2.9 installation.
Matt
Thanks for the report. I’ll check it out within the week, with the others problem too.
Hey Matt,
I’ve tried to add slideshows on a fresh WordPress 2.8 and 2.9 and I got this working. Could you paste your shortcode (just the shortcode) and tell me which Amazon Area do you use (UK, US etc.)
Sometimes their widgets just get stuck on something and don’t show up. When you reload the page, it may works (again).
Keep me in touch!
Hi Markus,
I’ve tried it right now, on the latest WordPress 2.8 and I got the carousel working. As I wrote just a few minutes ago, sometimes Amazon widgets screw up themselves. On page refresh, they show up correctly.
If it’s still not working, please copy/paste your shortcode here, with your current Amazon Area.
Otherwise, if you have a publish URL I can see the broken widget, I can check on it too.
I’ve implemented something for WordPress Mu in @187917 : when a new blog is registered, 1) the plugin is automatically enabled and 2) it copies your ID from the master blog.
So it can work as soon as the blog is created. No need to let users access to the « Plugin » panel.
It’s not released yet but you can grab it from the development version.
I’ve done only basic testing: creating a blog from the dashboard blog. Be aware and test it further according to your usage/needs.
Enjoy.
Sorry to have let you wait so long.
Indeed, I was not aware of the Recommended Product feature. It’s different of the « Amazon Product » widget the plugin offers.
You are having the error message because in the Recommended Product Links, there are no ASIN code.
I should definitely add support for this feature.
Thanks for your reply Oncle Tom.
I hope you get to add this feature next year. :0)
Have a Happy New Year!
Cheers,
Lucato.
Hi Tom, your plugin’s options page does not work in WP 2.8 — the Save Changes button throws an error because « options.php » is a local reference, and the options-general page doesn’t know what it is.
If you change line 25 of amazon-widgets-shortcodes/admin/view/options.php to the following, this resolves the issue:
<form action="?page=awshortcode-options » method= »post »>
Actually, you can delete this comment. Turns out this was a permissions problem, and nothing wrong with your plugin. Sorry!
Hello Uncle Tom! When clicking on the Amazon Logo in TinyMCE nothing happens. I am using WordPress Version 2.9.1 DE-Edition.
I spent all day looking at Amazon plugins. This one is nearly perfect. I can’t wait to put my Amazon widgets into my WordPress widgets.
« Actually you can’t place it in a sidebar widget.
It will be the case in the 2.0 version as it will integrate both a quick insert (from widgets history inserts) and later, a collection manager. »
I’m excited for v2!! Thank you! Good luck and thanks for all your hard work!!
xoxoxoxox
iza
Great plugin! Thanks. Not being very computer literate I just use the Producr Links facility at the Amazon site to get the html code that I can paste in easily on the copy/paste tab of your plug-in and it works!
One — maybe elementary problem — is that when I use « Text and Image (Enhanced Display) » I can’t get the text to wrap around the graphic. (The graphic is left-justified, with empty space to hr right, and the text starts below it.) How can I fix this, please?
Amazon Shortcodes 1.5.2 is causing my pages to load very slowly since the latest release. I’ve deactivated all plugins except for it and it definately is causing slow page load time.
Strange. Since the latest release of the plugin or WordPress? Because the change I applied is so tiny it can’t cause such problems.
Maybe you have a lot of shortcodes shown on your page? Could you tell me how many do you have?
And what do you consider in the load time: before the HTML is rendered or before the page is considered as loaded by your browser? Because if there are lots of widgets, it means lots of data to download from Amazon (JS, Flash etc.)
If you can come up with a search window that will specifically work within my amazon store you would be a god! I have worked with a great IT guy and he is stumped.
Great plugin. Thanks for writing it.
I do have a suggestion – allow style overrides on the shorttags. Something like
[amazon-product type="image" style="float:left;" image="xyz.jpg"]
That would be really cool.
The plugin works great but only until I put 7 or more products on the page. In such case the page is empty – no content.
If I deactivate the plugin I get the plain page with amazon codes.
If I reactivate the plugin I get the following error message:
The plugin generated 789 characters of unexpected output during activation.
Of course, I get this error regardless of the page content.
I am using WordPress 3.0.
Are you able to supply URLs of a few sites that use your plug-in?
Well, adding a style attribute (so as class, it would be even better) is easily feasible… without breaking anything.
I should test for your case of 7 products on the page. I never encountered such a case. I would even not recommend this to you, as it loads quite a lot of JavaScript from Amazon and it slows down your page.
But well, I’ll give a look.
For URL, I’ve got some, but if you look at the WordPress plugin page, some people already shared their URL to explain their issue. There are at least 100 download per week so there is a grewing userbase.
This is a great plug-in. I just have one issue – how to force the text in the blog post to flow around the Amazon product widget. No matter what alignment I use, the text is above and below the widget but not next to it. I’m using WP 3.0 and the plug-in version 1.5.2. I’ve looked at the plug-in css file and at the rendered code, but I don’t see what to add to my css to make the text flow around the iframe/amazon widget. Any suggestions appreciated!
Just replying to myself to say I figured it out. It was hinted at above, but in detail you have to add code to your own CSS to make the text wrap work. I added these lines to my theme’s style.css file:
.awshortcode-product.alignleft {width:130px; padding-right:4px; float:left;}
.awshortcode-product.alignright {width:130px; padding-left:4px; float:right;}
Messy, but I’ll make it nicer so later. You have to that for each widget type and each alignment. At least that worked for me. Maybe will save someone else some trouble.
Hi
I’ve tried your plugin, but the rollover function does not work. I’m getting the following error message within firebug
jQuery(link).amazonPopoverTrigger is not a function
http://z-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/nav2/gamma/assoc_pp/assoc_pp-previews-41820._V224417644_.js
Line 16
to see the error, have a look at http://bestforfilm.com/dvd-reviews/horror-dvd-reviews/dead-snow-dvd-review/
You can see the amazon product link called Dead Snow [DVD][2009]
Hello,
I don’t add any JavaScript at all: only the ones required by Amazon.
Anyway, on your blog page, I see there are 3 instances of jQuery lodaded, and one with a noConflict way of initialization.
It’s either a problem on Amazon side, or a collision with another bad optimized plugin.
The error that I get is on the one that amazon host. I have even removed all calls the the jquery libs from my site and I still get that error.
Oh well, thanks anyway
Understood. I believe it’s a problem on Amazon side: I checked their Link Enhancer on their website and there is the exact same problem.
Maybe you should contact them to report the error.
Hi Tom,
About a year ago I was responding with you about my wife’s blog, where the Amazon products were showing up in her posts, but the preview pop-up window would not show up when you hover over the product image.
I’ve upgraded to WP 3.0.1 and am using version 1.5.2 of your plug-in, and we can’t figure out why it’s not working. We know we’re using the correct Amazon codes in the page templates, and this has all worked before. Any ideas why a preview pop-up would not be working when all the code seems valid?
Thanks!
David
Hello,
maybe the trouble is due to WordPress 3.0; but it sounds strange to me.
I know a recent problem is caused by a JavaScript error on Link Enhancer… maybe it is the same for Product Preview?
Could you send me a link to a page encountering this problem? Thanks
Hi Tom,
The issue is happening on two sites:
http://aquietsimplelife.com
http://aquietsimplelearninglife.com
Is there any way to use this plugin with amazon’s shoe site, endless.com?
PS i love the plugin
Well, as far as I can see, endless.com product number are ASIN codes so yes, I guess you can. Especially as the associate program mentioned on their website points towards Amazon Associates.
thanks so much for getting back to me so fast, my only problem is that the link/image opens up in amazon rather then endless.com (i know its the same thing, but since im selling shoes endless looks better) Is it possible somehow to have it open on endless.com?
thanks again
Thanks very much for your plugin.
I am having a problem with product display in IE 8 (and probably other versions of IE, I would guess). Using IE 8 you can see the problem on this page:
http://www.writersvoice.net/2010/08/harvey-sachs-beethoven/
I’m guessing that the problem is with the object tag because the problem is isolated to IE.
Do you have any ideas how I can fix this issue?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
It looks like a great plugin! I’ll install to see how it works.
I was planning to make some commercial sites that have some means of creating revenue, and because of this plug-in my life will be easier.
I see from reading through the comments that some IE issues are there, but I guess that’s natural – after all, IE is really a bad browser.
I have heard great things about your plugin. I tried adding a link, as well an an MP3. In the visual editor, I can see the link in a yellow box, but nothing shows up on my page:
http://www.celebratingholidays.com/?page_id=438
Any suggestions?
Hello,
I’ve just checked: Amazon ads display well. I can even launch the player and listen to music.
Thank you for getting back to me. It is great that you support your plugin so well!
It looks like my problem is with Firefox 3.6.12. I can see the Amazon ads fine in Internet Explorer and earlier versions of Firefox. I am trying to troubleshoot but no luck so far
.
OK, it’s resolved
. I had an ad-block add-on that I had to remove.
One more thing . . . is it possible to open the Amazon links in a new window?
Latest plugin update does not work with wp v 3.0.4 atalahuapa theme (note the following error message has been edited to remove full site code for reasons of security)
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /wp-content/plugins/amazon-widgets-shortcodes/lib/AmazonWidgetsShortcodeConfiguration.class.php on line 46
Warning: require(/wp-content/plugins/amazon-widgets-shortcodes/lib/widgets/a.class.php) [function.require]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /wp-content/plugins/amazon-widgets-shortcodes/lib/AmazonWidgetsShortcodePlugin.class.php on line 142
Fatal error: require() [function.require]: Failed opening required ‘/wp-content/plugins/amazon-widgets-shortcodes/lib/widgets/a.class.php’ (include_path=’.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php’) in /wp-content/plugins/amazon-widgets-shortcodes/lib/AmazonWidgetsShortcodePlugin.class.php on line 142
Well, it’s pretty annoying. I’ve found the problem, and released a hotfix.
Sorry; I went through it during testing.
Excellent thanks for the prompt fix
You’re welcome
hi i installed the amazon wideget short codes,activated and pasted the amazon code but i am getting the message
« You don’t have a sufficient version of Flash Player to display this animation. »
I have installed the latest verison 3.0 but still getting the same message.I was trying to add the amazon deals widget.can you assist please.
thanks
clay
Hello,
this message is unrelated to the plugin itself: sometimes Amazon widgets take ages to load or maybe you have trouble with Flash.
Yes I realise that the fault is probably in the way i installed.Thanks anyway.
Hey, yours is the 4th Amazon plugin I’ve tried today and … I got this nice little error message when I activated:
The plugin generated 798 characters of unexpected output during activation. If you notice “headers already sent” messages, problems with syndication feeds or other issues, try deactivating or removing this plugin.Good luck! My search continues …
Hello,
i´ve had the same problem as Bill Weye, in my case the message was: The plugin generated 802 characters of unexpected output during activation. If you notice “headers already sent” messages, problems with syndication feeds or other issues, try deactivating or removing this plugin. I am using wp 3.1.3
Kind regards, Viktor
i posted a while back for the use w endless.com. What would i have to change in the code to have it open in endless.com rather then amazon.com? They use the same ASIN, so every time i use your widget i have it generate the amazon link and manually edit the address to endless.com. What line could i edit to automattly produce the words endless.com in the amazon product section of the tool. Everything else is the same except that section of the link.
Thank you for any help , you’d save me so much time.
Kind Regards
Ryan
I apologize for the typos and grammar, its very late here and I’ve been working all night. Forgot to proof read it : /
Ryan
Hi,
Ive installed this plugin but how do I get the Amazon deals to show on the home page of the blog please.
@Desley : I don’t really understand the question. Just embed an Amazon Deals shortcode within a page/post displayed on the home.
Good morning and thanks for this great plugin.
Recently I discovered a few minor issues, maybe you could give me advice?
I’m using WordPress 3.2.1 German
1. The list of disabled Amazon widgets get’s saved, but after saving the the admin panel does not check the disabled widget’s checkbox and the disabled widgets are also not removed from the TinyMCEs dropdown list. Maybe it’s a wrong deserialisation from the DB (array is saved correctly)?
2. The option to disable the tracking image is not displayed in the backend nor working correctly. My HTML sourcecode contains the following img srcs http://www.assoc-amazon./e/... The tld is not appended correctly and even when setting the value awshortcode_tracking_image in the database to 0 does not stop the program from outputting the wrong code.
Please give us this little update, I would be very grateful!
Best regards from Germany
Kolja
I am trying to use your plug-in on my website but am having an issue that was previously posted here. I have a page with 215 product links on it and it just shows up as a blank page when I try and view it. her is the url.
http://www.scottcarle.com/wordpress/?p=973
I coppied and pasted a little over 23 of those links to this page and it works fine.
http://www.scottcarle.com/wordpress/?p=1010
when I installed it yesterday My site was at 2.9.1 for wordpress. I upgraded to the latest 3.3 a few minutes ago to see if that would resolve the issue. It didn’t.
I also upgraded my theme a couple of versions up to Atahualpa 3.7.3
I appreciate any advice you can give.
Scott