The AntiChris

Ann Zeise over at the Amazon Associates discussion boards pointed out to me that the link format I was using was outdated, and the preferred format is:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/ASIN/?tag=YourID

I’ve updated the addon to not only reflect the proper link format, but also to add it as a preference, so if Amazon changes the preferred format, you can update the string yourself until I get a fix out. Currently, it defaults to:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/#{ASIN}/?tag=#{AFFILIATE_CODE}

All you have to do is update the URL, and put the #{ASIN} and #{AFFILIATE_CODE} markers in the proper place, and it’ll work like it should.

I also added the ability to click on any product link on Amazon and have it generate the affiliate link. You no longer have to be on the actual product page. From what I’ve found, Amazon provides three link formats on their pages:

• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/#{ASIN}/blah
• http://www.amazon.com/#{PRODUCT_TITLE}/dp/#{ASIN}/blah
• http://www.amazon.com/dp/#{ASIN}/blah

If the link clicked doesn’t contain the product title, it will attempt to get it from the link text, unless the link is an image, in which case you will be prompted for the product name. If it does contain the product title, it will use that for the product name. All of these cases, of course, depend on you having set Affiliator to automatically wrap your link in an HTML tag. If you’re just generating the link, it skips this whole process.

I’m going to continue to use this blog for Affiliator update notifications, and you can always find the latest news here:

http://www.theantichris.dreamhosters.com/category/firefox-addons/affiliator/

I’ve also submitted Affiliator to the Mozilla Addons Directory, but it won’t be public until a few people have submitted reviews, so if you like it, head over there and submit a review. The benefit to that is, whenever Affiliator is updated, Firefox will notify you automatically.

Until then, you can get Affiliator 0.1.1 here:

Affiliator 0.1.1
Mozilla Addons Directory page for Affiliator