Associate Engine : Revisions History : v10.08.25
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v10.08.25 (Aug. 25, 2010)

Upgrade instructions

1. Download the Associate Engine .zip distribution file and unzip it into a temporary directory on your computer, such as into c:\ae

2. Upload ae.pl to your webserver's cgi-bin directory (or to whatever directory you normally put script in). Note: If necessary, edit the first line so it indicates where Perl is on your server; default is #!/usr/local/bin/perl Note: Be sure to upload in ASCII mode and set the file permissions (i.e.: CHMOD 755 which is rwxr-xr-x).

3. After upgrading, you may encounter one of these errors:

   • No output or "Internal Server Error"

     If you find that ae.pl stops working after an upgrade (either you see "500 Internal Server Error" or nothing shows up because you're using <script> or SSI tags), then the first thing to always do is re-upload ae.pl in ASCII mode and then re-enable the execute permissions (CHMOD). This is the most common upgrade problem. See solutions.

   • "Request has expired. Timestamp date is ..."

     This error means that your server's clock is too far off of the correct time. Ensure that your server's clock is within 15 minutes of the correct time otherwise ae.pl will report this fatal error. This time accuracy is a requirement of Amazon.com web services. To compare the time from your server's clock with the time from an atomic clock, access your AE Configration Report (ae.pl?cfg=CFGVALUE). If you don't have administrator privileges to adjust your server's clock, then set the configuration variable clock.offset to offset the clock (e.g.: "10" to offset the clock forward by 10 seconds, "-10" to offset the clock back by 10 seconds).

   • "Perl module 'Digest::SHA' is not installed."

     This error means that the Perl module "Digest:SHA" is not installed. Contact your hosting company to install the module. Alternatively, look in the .zip file and upload the entire "Digest" directory (as a whole) to the directory where ae.pl is located. So if ae.pl is in cgi-bin then you should end up with cgi-bin/Digest/SHA/PurePerl.pm

Revisions

NOTE: This update is optional but it is strongly recommended.

1. Fix: Kindle Store browsing and searching works.

   Browsing and searching of the Kindle store (mode=kindlestore) now works. Previously, searches would be done for books even though kindlestore was specified.

2. Fix: Redirect now works properly.

   Redirect now works properly. Header "Status: 302 Found" is now also sent during redirection. Previously, only header "Location: URL" was sent which was insufficient for some web browers (e.g.: IE8).

3. Improve: Cache stale time maximum is one hour if showing prices.

   If product prices are being showing (i.e.: showprices yes), then the cache stale time (cache.stale) is now set to a maximum of 1. This maximum setting of one hour enforces compliance with amazon.com requirements that product prices not be cached for more than one hour.

4. Improve: Cache stale time maximum is 24 hours.

   The maximum value for the cache stale time (cache.stale) is now 24 hours. Amazon.com requires that data not be cached for more than 24 hours.

5. Improve: authorsearch now supports keyword criteria.
   Improve: artistsearch now supports keyword criteria.
   Improve: actorsearch now supports keyword criteria.
   Improve: directorsearch now supports keyword criteria.
   Improve: manufacturersearch now supports keyword criteria.

   When doing an Author Search authorsearch (e.g.: authorsearch=Rowley), can now also specify keyword criteria via the keyword parameter (e.g.: authorsearch=Rowley&keyword=Harry+Potter

6. New: {titleGeneral} template variable added.

   {titleGeneral} template variable has been added. It returns the product title, but unlike {title} which has the product's ASIN, {titleGeneral} does not have the product's ASIN. Because there is no ASIN mentioned, multiple products might return the same value for {titleGeneral}, especially for different binding versions of a product (e.g.: hardcover, softcover, Kindle) that all have the same title.

7. New: Substition modifier "-" returns a filename-compatible string.

   Substituion modifier "-" has been added that converts the variable to a filename-compatible string. For example, {details.authors-} returns the author's name converted to a filename-compatible string (e.g.: "C. Rowley" returns "c-rowley"). Thus, you might use: <a href="/authors/{details.authors-}.html">{details.authors}</a>, and author "C. Rowley" would return: <a href="/authors/c-rowley.html">C. Rowley</a>, where you might have created a webpage about author C. Rowley at /authors/c-rowley.html

Prior to this point was Associate Engine v9.08.17.

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