Associate Engine : Revisions History : v4.01.01  
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v4.01.01-beta (January 1, 2004)

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Upgrade instructions

This beta version has been superceeded by v4.04.04. Install it instead.


General Revisions

  1. CRITICAL FIX: Blended searches work again. Amazon.com changed the way blended search work and caused blended searches in Associate Engine to broke. Blended seearches work again in this new version of Associate Engine. Also, blended searches are now performed as an XML query and are thus faster.

  2. NEW FEATURE: Non-virtual URL's auto-redirect to virtual URL's. If Virtual Directory is being used, and if Associate Engine is accessed via a non-virtual URL's, Associate Engine auto-redirects to the equivalent virtual URL. For example, the non-virtual URL /cgi-bin/ae.pl?type=best&mode=music automatically redirects to /amazon/mode_music/type_best.html

    This auto-redirect feature can be turned off by setting the new configuration variable virtual.redir to no.

    This feature can be turned off on a case-by-case basis by adding the new parameter virtual.noredir to the URL, e.g.: /cgi-bin/ae.pl?type=best&mode=music&virtual.noredir

  3. NEW FEATURE: ALT attributes added to product images. In a product's image, the ALT attributes of the image is now set to the product's name.

  4. NEW FEATURE: PowerSearch sub-parameters. Sub-parameters of a PowerSearch can now be specified seperately and they will be "glued" together to create the search query; see: details. This feature enables you to let the user select values of PowerSearch sub-parameters while the rest of the PowerSearch is constant. For example, you could do a PowerSearch such as: (subject: history and spain) and (author: VALUE) where VALUE is an author name entered by the user. This PowerSearch would search for a book that has a subject about history and spain and is by the user-specified author. Previously, an external script was required to "glue" the sub-parameters together into one powersearch parameter.

  5. NEW FEATURE: "Buy from" international links can be turned off. The new configuration variable addto.buyfrom has been added so that the "Buy from" international links can be turned off. To turn off links, set to no (defult is yes).

  6. NEW FEATURE: (amazon.co.uk installations) "Buy from amazon.co.uk" buttons now appear. For amazon.co.uk installations, "Buy from amazon.co.uk" buttons now appear. Previously, only the linked product title/imge would appear.

  7. NEW FEATURE: Configuration report warns of non-ASCII characters. The configuration report now warns if any of the files read contains non-ASCII characters. A file may not be understood by Associate Engine if it contains non-ASCII characters. The presence of non-ASCII characters typically indicates that the file was edited using a non-text editor. Files should only contain ASCII and should only be edited using a plain text editor or an HTML editor.

  8. IMPROVEMENT: Stylized "Buy from" and "Add to" text buttons. The new configuration variables addto.textstyle and addto.textstyle.style enable stylization of the "Buy from" and "Add to" text buttons (not the graphical buttons). When addto.textstyle is yes, the style specified by addto.textstyle.style is applied, that is, the style attribute of the <input> is set by addto.textstyle.style. The default style is: background-color:#FFCF60; color:#000060; cursor:hand; width:120pt;

  9. IMPROVEMENT: Pre-defined searches carry-forward in More/Previous links. When using a pre-defined search (e.g.: seach=arnold), the More/Previous links use that pre-defined search rather than using what the pre-defined search is set to. This results in shorter More/Previous links and it does not expose what the pre-defined search is set to. In the previous version, the More/Previous links would use the expansion of the pre-defined search. (e.g.: used type=search&mode=dvd&keyword=Arnold+Schwarzenegger&first=11 instead of the shorter search=arnold&first=11).

  10. IMPROVEMENT: Configuration report now tests receiving data from internet. To assist in troubleshooting, the configuration report now reports whether data can be received from the internet (specifically: http://www.c3scripts.com/index.html).

  11. FIX: Comments in ae.ini handled correctly. Lines that contain comments and also contain " marks are now handled correctly. Previously, the value was set incorrectly or was set to the default value.




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