( Should be approaching suitability for live sites - but this release has had significant changes made and so has a higher chance of new bugs ebing introduced - FOR testing only )

With each iteration there is still the risk that something will break - the risks is still your own until I launch this a a version 1.0 stable.

THIS COMPONENT REQUIRES AN ADDITIONAL EXTERNAL SCRIPT - don't worry it is free and Open Source

Amazon Products Feed (APF) is a script to generate an online store on your site using Amazon's Web Services / E-Commerce Services.
Further details about the Amazon Products Feed further down the page.  The script itself is NOT part of this distribution.
This component alone will NOT generate an online store - you need MrRat's APF script itself http://www.mrrat.com/aws/ .

Purpose of the Amazon Products Feed Bridge Component - (APF_bridge):

A Joomla / $ambo component to incorporate the output from AN EXISTING APF installation directly into your Joomla / $ambo site.
Until now it was necessary to take a page from your site and 'hollow out' the main content area and use this as a template within APF.
This would give your APF store the look of the rest of your Joomla / $ambo site but all of the modules would be 'static' - they would not update.

THIS IS BETA software. This is NOT recommended for use on a live site.
Let me re-state that:  USE THIS RELEASE FOR TESTING / EVALUATING ONLY.
Before you begin I STRONGLY recommend reading this document thoroughly!

Limitations

1. APF Bridge now uses the curl library to retrieve output from the external APF script.
This obviously creates a dependency on your server having the external curl library.
In practice I don't think this will be an issue.

2. As mentioned above - this component links to 'or bridges' another script. You will need Amazon Products Feed (APF) by my friend MrRat

Versions tested with:

I have tested this and previous versions with
    Joomla 1.0.1 to 1.0.10
and have no evidence to suggest that the component is incompatible.

An earlier version of the component introduced some code that didn't work with anything prior to Joomla 1.0 (ie $ambo), I believe I have now solved this issue.
Update for 0.5: I have not tested against ANY Mambo version for some time. If anyone else tries, could they let me know the outcome.
I would be willing to support any user trying to get the component to work on Mambo.

I am confident that the component works as it should with SEF enabled.
I have tested with SEF enabled and disabled.
Advanced (non core SEF components) need to be set to keep the mixed case of the components URL - do not force lowercase or the component will NOT work.

REQUEST FOR HELP:

I am looking for a 'Joomla Mentor' - someone who has a bit more experience than me with PHP and Joomla, someone who can save me an hour or two every time I get stuck. Whenever I couldn't get something to work straight away I invariably find myself going to php.net, or searching for $ambo / Joomla reference materials. Alternatively pulling apart other components. Whilst all of these methods offer good 'learning opportunities' they are slow. It is not that I want to put upon anyone, more that I could save a lot of time on the less obvious stuff.
This request has been in the docs from the start but no-one wants to help expand my understanding of Joomla/PHP :(

Further Information About Amazon Products Feed (APF) - by MrRat

APF is a PERL script that generates an online store offering the FULL product range of:
Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de and Amazon.co.jp
neatly on your own site. It offers incredible flexibility through templates and modification (.mod) files. You have options as to whether purchases are added to the script's own shopping cart or transfered immediately to Amazon's own store.

Download MrRat's APF from http://www.mrrat.com/aws/
Get help and support for APF itself from MrRat's support forums: http://www.absolutefreebies.com/phpBB2/
Get modification (.mod) files to alter the scripts functionality from http://www.apfmods.net/
Get my modification files to add new functionality to APF from http://www.deanmarshall.co.uk/demo/apf_bridge/

Write A Review

If, once you have your APF Bridge store up and running, someone would care to stop by the Joomla Extensions site and write a review of the component that might be nice: Feel free to be honest - tell it how it is (obviously if you experience serious problems give me a chance to sort them out first)
Amazon Products Feed Bridge (APF Bridge) entry on the Joomla extensions site:

About The Author of APF Bridge - Dean Marshall:

First of all - Hi, I hope you like the idea of this 'bridge' component.

A bit of blurb about me - you can stop reading now if you want - none of this is needed to use the APF_Bridge Component ;)

Oh, and I dabble in a bit of programming - I dissected MrRat's APF once upon a time and became quite familiar with its workings.  I have offered a few suggestions over the last year or two, which the big fella has incorporated into the script (and some that he hasn't). I have contributed quite a few FREE modification (.mod) files to the APF community, as well as a few 'for a fee' mod files.

I offer advice on a couple of fora (forums)

http://www.deanmarshall.co.uk/demo/apf_bridge/    - My new (sub)site to promote and support this component.
http://www.absolutefreebies.com/phpBB2/     - MrRat's Support Forums
http://forum.joomla.org/            - Well I guess you know this place ;)

http://www.joomlashack.com/ - I now do a bit of work for JoomlaShack.com