Guess what…we’re writing about our experience trying to use the WordPress Plugin AmazonSimpleAdmin (author: Timo Reith)! We decided during this experiment that if we can’t get it to load and work “quickly & easily” (i.e. within a couple of hours) then it’s not a plugin we choose to use. This one was a bit of a struggle but we found some gems and did get it to work.

We initially could not get the syntax to work due to our post having an unordered list (bullets) immediately after the plugin’s syntax line. Once we removed this formatting the plugin started to work. Also, you need to ensure your hosting account supports PHP5 or greater in order for this plugin to work.

One gem we noticed right off is the ability to keep a collection of products with their product ids and image for quick reference. It’s nice to have your own retainable and reusable library. Also, when using a provided template the product image itself incorporates Amazon’s pricing and rating if available. This gives the reader information right on the blog, keeping them on a site (hopefully) longer. The plugin syntax is a lot simpler than the Amazonify plugin.

On the down side the most basic format of the plugin does not allow you to format the product (i.e. alignment, size, text only, image only, etc.). The instructions lead us to believe that the formatting can be accomplished by creating your own template. We did not actually try to create our own templates so we don’t know what is involved,  or what can or can’t be done for formatting.

The loading of the plugin is the same as any other. However, to use it you must go to your WordPress administration panel, under Settings, AmazonSimpleAdmin and set all the options under Setup, Collections, Usage, Cache.

Now you need to know and understand the format required for the plugin. There are two basic options to choose from. The first option is the basic display for a single product or a collection of products. The second option allows the usage of templates for those two formats.

Basic Display Options

The first basic format for single product display is:

The second basic format for displaying a collection of products is:

Basic Display Options using Templates

The first format using templates for single product display is:

The second format using templates for displaying a collection of products is:

where…

• asa = this is the starting “tag” for this plugin. You MUST have this in place and it MUST be enclosed in square brackets as shown above.
• ASIN = is the Amazon product code you wish to display. The product code will be either the ISBN-10 number for books, or the ASIN number for CDs, DVDs, VHS, Electronics, Software or Video Games. Note: make sure you use the 10 digit ISBN number (i.e. ISBN-10) for books instead of the 13 digit ISBN number (i.e. ISBN-13). When we tried the later, nothing was displayed!
• /asa = this is the ending “tag” for this plugin. You MUST have this in place and it MUST be enclosed in square brackets as shown above. Don’t forget the forward slash (i.e. /).
• asa_collection = this is the starting “tag” for this plugin for the collection version where you can display multiple products at one time. You MUST have this in place and it MUST be enclosed in square brackets as shown above.
• collection_label = references the collection list you created for the products you want to display. This list needs to be created in advance under your WordPress administration panel under, Settings, AmazonSimpleAdmin, Collections. During the setup of the collection you define the label for the collection and add all the products you want in the collection. This collection, we believe, can be updated at a later time. We’ll test it when we need to and let you know if it doesn’t work.
• /asa_collection = this is the ending “tag” for the collection syntax of this plugin. You MUST have this in place and it MUST be enclosed in square brackets as shown above. Don’t forget the forward slash (i.e. /).
• asa template_01 = this is the starting “tag” for using a template for a single product. You MUST have this in place and it MUST be enclosed in square brackets as shown above.
• asa_collection template_01 = this is the starting “tag” for using a template for a collection of products. You MUST have this in place and it MUST be enclosed in square brackets as shown above.
  • the default templates that come with this template are book, collection_sidebar_default, collection_sidebar_fav_games, default, demo1, dvd, sidebar_item

Here are some examples of the AmazonSimpleAdmin plugin.

The basic format for single product display:

[asa]0470403764[/asa]

The basic format for displaying a collection of products is (our collection has 3 books):

[asa_collection]BooksForAmazonSimpleAdminPluginExample[/asa_collection]

The format using templates for a single book product display:

[asa book]0470403764[/asa]

The format using templates for displaying a collection of book products (our collection has 3 books):

[asa_collection book]BooksForAmazonSimpleAdminPluginExample[/asa_collection]

Yea, now we’ve covered just the basics of AmazonSimpleAdmin. Your thoughts and questions are welcome.

Cheers!