Download & Extend

"Full info" doesn't give full info, image size tiny, no buy button

Project:Amazon Module
Version:6.x-1.3
Component:Miscellaneous
Category:support request
Priority:normal
Assigned:Unassigned
Status:postponed (maintainer needs more info)

Issue Summary

I've installed this module on a client's site, and have run into several issues:

1. The "Small image and full info" option under Display Fields doesn't give very much info at all - just the very basics (title, author, publisher, binding). It doesn't even have price, let alone a description or anything else useful.

2. The image isn't just small, it's practically microscopic - there's really no point in having an image at all if it's so small you can't make out any detail at all. And while choosing the "large image" option gives you an image that's slightly less tiny (though still really too small to be very useful), it leaves you with absolutely no information at all, not even the title. Isn't there some way to have a decent-sized image, or at least have the slightly-less-tiny image with some actual information?

3. There doesn't seem to be any way to add a "Buy now" button or anything like that. At first I thought it actually didn't link back to Amazon at all, which confused me since the configuration page asks for your associate ID, but eventually I realized that the title was a link. This really isn't very user-friendly - I can't see visitors to the site bothering to mouse over everything just to see if there's a hidden link somewhere. If you want them to buy something, there really needs to be a clear and visible way for them to do that. Does anyone know if there's some way to add an actual buy button?

The test page seems to retrieve a lot more info than the "full" info the CCK field does, but there doesn't seem to be any way to actually display any of it. The only means I could see in the documentation of accessing any of it was with the filter codes, but that's obviously not ideal - it it looks like they're intended to be inserted in the body of a node, and that seems like a really awkward and inefficient way to build a page. I want my client to be able to maintain the site herself, but she's not going to be able to do that if she has to type some special combination of arcane codes in on every page - that's the sort of thing using a CMS is intended to avoid! Unless maybe there's some way of building them into the template for that content type?

Similarly, I could probably add a Buy Now button by copying in the HTML for it as part of the body of the node, but again, that kind of defeats the point of using a CMS, and means the client probably won't be able to do it for herself.

Isn't there some way I can set up the site for her so that she can enter a book's ASIN and get an actually useful page out of it, with a reasonable amount of info and a buy button that users will actually recognize?

Comments

#1

I've got some similar problems with the Amazon module, and I'm currently working on fixing them - I think I can probably address a few of your issues as well!

My use case is very similar - I'd like to build out my pages with nothing but the ASIN code - but I'm using the Amazon Filter and it looks like you're using the Amazon field with your content types.

I've changed amazon-item--details.tpl.php (in the root of the amazon module) to include the fields I use. Have you tried editing this?

#2

No, I hadn't tried that as of when I posted, but I did just now - unfortunately, my edits seem to have no effect. And the fields on that template don't seem to match up with what's actually shown. The template file lists smallimage, title, manufacturer, part number and price, but what actually shows (when you select Small Image with Full Details, is smallimage, title, author, publisher and binding. So wherever it's getting the "full details", it's not from that template.

And yes, I'm using the CCK field - I can't figure out how I would be able to use the filter and still have pages be editable by the client. At least as I understand it, using Amazon Filter means entering in all the filter tags separately in the body of every node, correct? i.e. every page would have to have [amazon 0596515804 author], [amazon 0596515804 isbn], [amazon 0596515804 title], etc.? In that case, though, I'm not sure what the amazon-item--details.tpl.php would do - doesn't using the filter module mean you essentially have to manually reconstruct the template you would have liked to see on every page? Or maybe I'm just confused about how the filters work...

If there's a better way to do this than using the CCK field, I'd be happy to switch. I just need it to be something the client can use on her own to enter new books, and in my experience, expecting clients to be able to write or edit code is rarely a recipe for success. :-/

#3

Your response did prompt me to go looking for other template files in the module that might match up with the content displayed by the CCK field, though, and I found amazon/amazon_media/amazon-item-book-details.tpl.php which seemed to be a match. So I copied it to my theme file and started editing...

...But nothing happened. No change I make to that file shows up on the page. Even though I made sure to check the "Rebuild the theme registry on every page load" box in Devel. Maybe there's something else I'm missing...?

Aha - just discovered that if I throw caution to the wind and save over the original template file in the amazon/amazon_media directory, it DOES work!

Well, except for the part where neither "print $amazonpriceformattedprice;" nor "print $lowestpriceformattedprice;" produces any result. I guess not all the data that comes through from Amazon on the test page (/admin/settings/amazon/test) is available to the template file. *sigh*

#4

With regard to the CCK field and the Amazon filter, I actually just use [amazon B123456 full] - rather than all of the individual fields and then the amazon-item--details.tpl.php replaces the amazon tag.

Not sure if that helps your situation - I would imagine the easiest solution for your client might actually be some kind of Javascript bookmarklet that she could click in her bookmarks toolbar on an Amazon page that then populates a node - that's one direction I'd really like to go with my current project.

#5

So, I think the reason your changes didn't show up (even with theme rebuild on) might be that the theme you are using has a parent theme, and the amazon-item-book-details.tpl.php needs to be copied in there. I ran into a similar problem with node.tpl.php with Drupal 6 - http://www.jefflinwood.com/2010/09/quick-tip-theming-custom-node-types-w...

I'm not sure why your prices don't show up - mine showed up, but I'm not using Amazon Media, so it might be a little different. Are they in your database table?

#6

Status:active» postponed (maintainer needs more info)

Is this resolved? If so, please explain how you resolved it and set it to "Fixed"

nobody click here