Thank you, I appreciate your interest in the pre-release version and I'm honored by your continued support. I really do mean that. A product is nothing without a good customer base!
OK, some notes. Obviously this is not completed. It does work, it just doesn't have all the features I believe will make it a good first release product yet.
The first thing you will want to do is copy the files to the respective folders on your site. These are pretty straight forward.
The /phpZon directory goes in the /wp-content/plugins/ folder.
The images in the /images folder should be copied to your existing /images folder at the root of your site. I'll presume now you have this, as the /images folder would need to be there if you have phpBay Pro installed for Wordpress.
Activate the plugin
Go to the phpZon Settings page.
Enter fields for the affiliate settings. If you do not have an associates id or webservices id, you will need to click the link to go directly to these pages on amazon. the web services id is like a developer id. These should be instant approvals. Amazon is not like ebay with signups.
Settings. Most of these are inactive right now. They will be available in later builds.
DO CLICK on the image size and set to PZ_SMALL. the other image sizes are non-function yet.
DO CLICK on use mod_rewrite if you want the images to use this option and appear from your site, rather than Amazon. This feature does work.
DO CLICK on one of the options for SEO URLs. All three of these work and one of the three options needs to be set. if you use SEO URLs options, you will need to add some code to your site's .htaccess file.
.htaccess file
If using phpBay Pro, and SEO URLS, you probably are already familiar with this. We need to add some additional code here for phpZon.
Your current .htaccess file with code for phpBay Pro may look like:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^images/e/(.*)$ http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/pict/$1 [R,L]
RewriteRule ^item-(.*)_(.*)_(.*)_(.*).html$ auction.php?title=$1&item=$2&country=$3&ccid=$4
RewriteRule ^item-(.*)_(.*)_(.*).html$ auction.php?title=$1&item=$2&country=$3
RewriteRule ^item-(.*)_(.*).html$ auction.php?title=$1&item=$2
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
We just need to insert a few extra lines, and THEN (this is important!), you will need to replace ENTER_YOUR_ASSOCIATE_ID_HERE with your actual amazon associate id (not the web services id, but the associate id).
So, here's what you need to add:
RewriteRule ^images/i/(.*)$ http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/$1 [R,L]
RewriteRule ^product-(.*)_(.*)_us.html$ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/$2/ENTER_YOUR_ASSOCIATE_ID_HERE/ [R,L]
RewriteRule ^product-(.*)_(.*)_ca.html$ http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/$2/ENTER_YOUR_ASSOCIATE_ID_HERE/ [R,L]
RewriteRule ^product-(.*)_(.*)_de.html$ http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/$2/ENTER_YOUR_ASSOCIATE_ID_HERE/ [R,L]
RewriteRule ^product-(.*)_(.*)_fr.html$ http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/$2/ENTER_YOUR_ASSOCIATE_ID_HERE/ [R,L]
RewriteRule ^product-(.*)_(.*)_uk.html$ http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/$2/ENTER_YOUR_ASSOCIATE_ID_HERE/ [R,L]
RewriteRule ^product-(.*)_(.*)_jp.html$ http://www.amazon.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/$2/ENTER_YOUR_ASSOCIATE_ID_HERE/ [R,L]
But before you do, be sure to replace (for each line), ENTER_YOUR_ASSOCIATE_ID_HERE with your actual associates ID. My amazon associates ID is: hyperdownsoft-20
So here's what my complete .htaccess file looks like for Wordpress, with both code for phpBay Pro and phpZon:
===================================================
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^images/e/(.*)$ http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/pict/$1 [R,L]
RewriteRule ^item-(.*)_(.*)_(.*)_(.*).html$ auction.php?title=$1&item=$2&country=$3&ccid=$4
RewriteRule ^item-(.*)_(.*)_(.*).html$ auction.php?title=$1&item=$2&country=$3
RewriteRule ^item-(.*)_(.*).html$ auction.php?title=$1&item=$2
RewriteRule ^images/i/(.*)$ http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/$1 [R,L]
RewriteRule ^product-(.*)_(.*)_us.html$ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/$2/hyperdownsoft-20/ [R,L]
RewriteRule ^product-(.*)_(.*)_ca.html$ http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/$2/hyperdownsoft-20/ [R,L]
RewriteRule ^product-(.*)_(.*)_de.html$ http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/$2/hyperdownsoft-20/ [R,L]
RewriteRule ^product-(.*)_(.*)_fr.html$ http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/$2/hyperdownsoft-20/ [R,L]
RewriteRule ^product-(.*)_(.*)_uk.html$ http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/$2/hyperdownsoft-20/ [R,L]
RewriteRule ^product-(.*)_(.*)_jp.html$ http://www.amazon.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/$2/hyperdownsoft-20/ [R,L]
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
===================================================
All I had to do, was insert the phpZon amazon .htaccess code below the code I have for phpBay Pro (but before the Wordpress code), then replace ENTER_YOUR_ASSOCIATE_ID_HERE with hyperdownsoft-20
Not too bad, but for now, this is the quickest and most painless method to accomplish this.
After that, just visit one of your pages or posts. Click on HTML for the editor (just like with phpBay Pro), and you should see the phpZon button.
It will insert: [phpzon]Keyword(s), NumListings, SearchIndex, BrowseNodeId[/phpzon]
Only the first three options are active right now.
Keywords - keep it short and simple. For example:
Pink Floyd CD
Makita Cordless Drill
Levi's Mens Jeans
National Treasure DVD
NumListings - The number of listings you want. This is not functional. I need to scour the amazon API docs on this setting. For now, just pretend it works!
SearchIndex - This is like the top level category for amazon categories. May not be the best way to describe it, but if you want to pull products from Amazon's DVD category, then you would set SearchIndex to "DVD"
You don't have to use a SearchIndex at all. In fact, if you set it blank or just not use it, it will be set to "Blended" automatically by the script.
Here is a listing of Amazon's SearchIndex values:
http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSECommerceService/2008-08-19/DG/index.html?APPNDX_SearchIndexValues.html
For my test site, I'm keeping it simple right now. This is what the current phpzon tag looks like:
[phpbay]pink floyd, 10[/phpbay]
With just the minimal two settings there, I might get results for dvds, cds, posters, t-shirts. Because the SearchIndex is set to "Blended" when one isn't specified and that tells Amazon to pull from some results from various categories to comprise a listing.
Now, if I wanted just DVDs for Pink Floyd, I could set the third parameter to: DVD
[phpzon]pink floyd, 10, DVD[/phpzon]
Now my resutls are dvds.
You have to be careful here, though, because not all countries support each SearchIndex.
http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSECommerceService/2008-08-19/DG/index.html?APPNDX_SearchIndexValues.html
For example, if we were using the keyword of: bluejeans
and wanted to pull from the Apparel Search Index, we might use:
[phpzon]blue jeans, 10, Apparel[/phpzon]
This would be fine, if the country is set to United States (in the phpZon options page), but if we were using France or Canada as our country, then this SearchIndex is not supported for these two countries, as noted in the amazon link above.
So you can narrow the results to a specific SearchIndex, but first make sure that SearchIndex is supported by the country you have set in the phpzon settings page.
Good luck!