Several sample Format Template are included with the Associate Engine script. Some of the Format Templates are designed to display a list or grid of products, while other Format Templates are designed to display a single product's details.
Shown below are the Format Templates designed to display a single product's details.
To use a particular Format Template, use the format parameter. For example, the following link uses the detail6.html format template to show the top selling DVD:
The value of the format parameter specifies what format template to use. Note: Do not include the filename ending (e.g.: .html or .fmt) in the format parameter value.
Format Template files are stored in the ae-format directory. You can open the format templates that end with .html using your HTML editor. You can open the format templates that end with .fmt using a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad. Note: If your HTML editor checks for valid HTML, then the .fmt format files will not open properly in your HTML editor.
Product Details Page; asinsearch.format
If you want a product's details to be shown locally on your website using Associate Engine, set the asinsearch.format configuration variable. For example, setting asinsearch.format to "details6" would be equivalent to adding &format=details6 to the end of your product links. If you leave asinsearch.format set to "", clicking on a product link will cause the user to go to the product's details page at Amazon's website.
Samples
Below are some sample formats. Each result below is created by using a <script> tag of the following format. The only difference between each example is the value of the format parameter (e.g. format=list1, format=list2, etc.).
The <script> tag does a keyword search (type=search) for "Harrison Ford" (keyword=harrison+ford) in DVD's (mode=dvd) and returns 1 result (pagesize=1) formatted using the specified format template (format=FORMATNAME)
