!! This tutorial has not been updated since movable type version 2. It is most likely obsolete !
This tutorial is best used after completing the MT Macro Tutorial, which can be found here.
A quick reminder of the requirements for this to work:
Movable Type, version 2.5 or higher (duh ... lol)
Plugin: MTMacro
Plugin: MTAmazon
Plugin: MTIFEmpty
Just add this line to your template module --
Then, if you want to link to an amazon item, you just use this syntax around the text --
[code]
(FYI ... I've made the ctag amazonsimple instead of just amazon so that if you want to use the following more complex amazon macro, you can use the ctag amazon for it instead. Clear as mud. I know!)
Do you want to get REALLY fancy? Want your links to look like this when you hover over them: This
Well you're over halfway there already. All you need to do add is this overlib javascript. When you've got it uploaded --
Add this code right beneath your body tags:
[code]
Add this in your right above the /head tag:
[code][/code]
Then add this macro to the bottom of your existing macro template module (that way you don't have to redo your index templates -- it's already applying your initial macro module, so you're just adding an additional macro!)
[code]
\'>Buy It Now!', STICKY, TIMEOUT, 4000, CAPTION, '
\'>Buy It Now!', STICKY, TIMEOUT, 4000, CAPTION, '
If you have an amazon developers token & associate id, replace this:
[code] devtoken="D1OD28DRHLN04R" associateid="silverberry20"[/code]
with your own information! If you don't have this info -- you can get it here -- or you can leave my info there!
Now if you want to link to an amazon item and have all the cool info, pictures, sales price, release date and pretty much anything MT Amazon has to offer, you just write your entry something like this:
Using an ASIN
[code]I am really loving the new
or you can do it with a KEYWORD
[code]I am really loving the
If you've got it set up correctly -- it should look something like this:
I am really loving the new
I am really loving the
I have to say this is pretty cool way of presenting the apearing/disappearing Amazon data, but it will not work for me. Oh, the 'simpleamazon' works, but not the fancy one. I presume I mis-typed or mis-placed something. I'll have to re-examine my code to check it.
Of course, what I really want to do is more along the lines of what you have for your movie review pages (larger static image of the book) and add a clickable link to Amazon to "buy it now." Unfortunately, from my tests it looks like I cannot put the MTAmazon tags directly inside the text of the entry (hmmm... what about in a macro?) but can only put them in the template itself. This appears to be a problem.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Kyle
I love this tutorial. thank you so much! :) The ONLY thing I notice is that the price of the product doesn't show up? Is there any way to correct that?
Well, I changed the AmazonSalePrice tag to AmazonListPrice, so now it is displaying the list price, at least. :whip:
I use this macro trick too and love it.
I have found that when I use it, “sometimes” my blog entries become blank when building them. I believe this happens when building them and the amazon plugin queries the Amazon database and times-out.
For whatever reason if it can’t query Amazon, instead of just leaving the entry text, the entire entry becomes blank. :yell:
Sometimes if I re-save the entry it’s fine. But then the problem is if I ever rebuild my entire blog, I don’t know which individual entries got blanked out via the Amazon code. I have to go back and find all my entries with 'amazon' macros in them and either remove it or try re-saving.
Any suggestions?