The "amazontools" module doesn't work for me as expected. For example:

(1) According to the README.txt, "The module also has a block that displays a random item linked to the Amazon detail page for the item". In fact, there are three blocks ("random item", "recommended item", and "reviewd item"); however, none of these blocks change their content. In the previous version (for Drupal 4.6.0), the item was in fact randomly rotated, and I would expect the new version to behave similarily, or at least to change the displayed item sometimes.

The only option to configure I could find is the "minimum score" setting in the "recommended item" block, which I set to "none" and different other settings; this doesn't change the unexpected behaviour and seems to have no effect; also, of course I ran update.php after upgrading from Drupal 4.6.x to 4.7.x. So this seems to me pretty much like a bug.

(2) The "Ratings labels" are always (re-) set to "unrated" when someone edits the node. One has to remember the recent rating and enter it again before saving the edited node. This is pretty irritating and a bit annoying.

(3) The "amazon price" displays a wrong price (this was also the case in the version for 3.6.0, where it was also lableled falsely), at least if using amazon.de. What the module displays as "amazon price", is _not_ the current Amazon price, but the suggest retail price by the manufacturer/publisher; most items at amazon.de are in fact significantly cheaper than displayed by the module. It would make sense, to either display the _both_ prices (like amazon.de usually does), or to display the _real_ Amazon price.

Sidenotes (no bugs, just observations):

* I couldn't figure out yet, what the blocks "recommended item" and "reviewed item" are supposed to do respectively how they are to be used or configured. Besides of the "recommended item" block's "minimum score" setting, I couldn't find any way to influence the displayed item; thus, "reviewed item" is pretty irritating since the block doesn't point to any review.

* Most parts of the module seem not to be translatable by using Drupals translation feature (admin/locale), or at least string search feature doesn't find them (admin/locale/string/search); the only settings that can be translated is (a) the title of the blocks (admin/block/.../configure) and the (b) "Ratings labels" (admin/settings/amazon); alternatively, one can hack the module's source (which gets lost when upgrading the module and thus seems to be not a good idea).

Additional notice:

* According to German laws, the module is illegal; there is an obscure law which forces every website offerig products and services to display (a) the total price, (b) the amount of tax included, and (c) the shipping/handling costs _very_ closely to the product. I won't discuss the sanity of this law, but there have been lots of lawsuits regarding this law in the past months and it might be worth to point this out to potential users of the module (of course stupid laws of some strange countries don't have to be your concern, but I don't know if the developers of the module could be held responsible by someone).

Please let me know, if I can be of any help by enhancing this nice module!

Regards,
-asb

Comments

Prometheus6’s picture

Prometheus6 commented
Assigned: Unassigned » Prometheus6

I just fixed the ratings thing and the random block rotation thing.

Some explanations:
You have two node types. amazon_node is for product data, amazon is for product reviews (conceptually limited to books at this point). Every review is 'related' to a product data node (which are not duplicated).

The Random Book block picks a random book from the product data nodes (amazon_node)
The Reviewed Book block picks a random book from the product review nodes. (amazon)
The Recomended Book block picks a random book with a rating greater than or equal to the one to select in the settings from the product review nodes. (amazon)

I'm leaving this open because I haven't checked the output from the German store yet and the reviewed and recommended blocks really should link to a review. I'm not sure I can help you with the tax and delivery thing. That's all calculated by Amazon; I expect the wrong numbers would leave you as legally vulnerable as no numbers at all.

asb’s picture

asb commented
Title: Unexpected behaviour: random item doesn't change; module displays wrong price; no localisation » module displays wrong price; soggested strings for localisation

> I just fixed the ratings thing and the random block rotation thing.

Thank you. I'll try it, when the module is repackaged and give feedback to you.

> Some explanations: [...]
> The Reviewed Book block picks a random book from the product review nodes. (amazon)

That's exactly what I expected, judging from the name; however, the "reviewed book" block on my installation links directly to the product at Amazon's site ("http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/redirect..."), not to a review at my site. Nodes of the type "amazon" should be available on my site, at least that's what I'm creating all the time when reviewing a book or a DVD ;)

In my Druapl database, there are three "amazon*" tables: amazon_items, amazonitem, and amazonnode. According to phpMyAdmin, amazon_items is empty (amount of data taken on disk: 0 bytes), amazonitem takes 4.614 KB of data (6154 items), and amazonnode takes 227.180 Bytes of data (7275 items).

> I'm not sure I can help you with the tax and delivery thing. That's all calculated by Amazon; I expect the wrong numbers
> would leave you as legally vulnerable as no numbers at all.

This are different topics (maybe I should have filed different issues, but I'm not really sure If I did something wrong or if the code is really buggy; the legal thing was just meant to make you aware of potential problems); the legal stuff here in Germany is braindead as it will get (as you said, shipping costs are calculated by Amazon, and many developers of affiliate tools and shop systems are currently discussing, how they can work around this; I fully understand, that you can't dive into this matter).

The _other_ thing is the wrog price tags which are outputted by the "Amazon associate tools", and this is in no way related to the law thing. Example: The German DVD of "Spirited Away" with ASIN: B00013PFLU. The price currently given at Amazon.de ("Amazon-Preis") is EUR 23,95; the price registered in the field "formattedprice" in the "amazonitem" table is EUR 28,69, and that's what is displayed by the "Amazon associate tools". The fields "listcurrencycode" and "listformattedprice" are empty. This discprepancy can't occur with books, since these have fixed prices in Germany (the law forbids shops to give discounts on books).

Besides this, in the "amazonitem" table are lots more of useful stull, e.g. "availability", and "PriceDate"; maybe you would consider displaying some of this in the Drupal module, maybe optionally?

Suggestions for translated strings in the "Amazon associate tools" module (German), if you plan to add localisation sometime in the future to the module:

* rating: -> "Bewertung"
* binding: -> (if from category books): "Einband"; (else): "Medium" or "Rubrik"
* amazon price: -> "Amazon-Preis"
* author: -> Autor
* availability: -> "Verfügbarkeit
* PriceDate: -> Stand

Thanks & regards,
-asb

asb’s picture

asb commented
Title: module displays wrong price; soggested strings for localisation » rotation of items fixed
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

The updated version from 2006-08-04 now *does* rotate the items in all three blocks. Since this is working as expected, I closed the issue, if you don't mind.

Thanks again, -asb