This is the  mosAPF_readme.txt file as distributed with the mosAPF plugin. The document details the parameters the plugin makes available and the results that you can expect these parameters to generate.

Unlike other documentation on this site where I replace curly braces with square brackets - on this page square brackets are already in use. Therefor I have had to replace opening a and closing curly braces with pound / hash symbols. I hope that this doesn't cloud the meaning too much.

If you are in any doubt please read the actual mosAPF_readme.txt file as distributed with the plugin. 

NOTES:

    My intention with this mambot is to allow for simple operations AND more complex operations without any major difficulties.

    The idea of allowing the site visitor to select his own preferred locale is the tricky part - although this is an option that not everyone will enable - and in fact so far requires the use of the APF Search Module.

    The biggest difficulty is in allowing for the visitor to the site to select his own locale whilst still allowing the site operator to specify content to be included.

     'Including' keyword searches is easier to implement as long as the SearchIndex is valid in the visitors chosen 'locale' (country

    'Including' specific products or specific browsenodes is problematic as ASINs and BrowseNodes are unique to their own locale - therefore these functions require the site operator to make allowances for each locale that the site is to support

Links and Includes:

The plugin (previously known as mosbots or mambots) will create links to the APF Bridge generated store or incorporate APF Bridge output into content items:
  Links - create links to APF pages in your content
  Includes - incorporate store pages into your content

A few quick notes on the syntax (format) of these demonstration plugin entries listed below.

Entries in angle brackets indicate that the angle bracktes <> and their contents should be replaced by the an entry of the type specified
for example <locale> should be replaced by either us, uk, jp, de, fr or ca (the locales or countries supported by Amazon's web services.

Entries in square brackets [] are optional. eg in most cases a locale can be dictated by the webmaster by including locale="uk" but the webmaster may consider leaving the locale open to the site visitor.

Entries with brackets build on this feature of allowing the output of the plugin (mambot/mosbot) to be customised to the visitor's preferred locale.
For example if you want to incorporate the details of a product into your page you could find the ItemId of the item in your locale and force the one product to be shown to everyone.

Far better would be to find that product, or its equivalents, in each locale and list them (uk:xxx)(us:yyy)(ca:zzz).

Visitors who have specified Canada as their prefered store will be shown the product you selected for canada.
visitors who specified 'us' as their locale will be shown the product you chose for the us locale.


Here is a clever idea - suggested (and implemented) by Dan Rich

DisplayNum:

Any function that is passed a comma-separated list of ItemIds can also, optionally, specify the number of elements to actually display. This subset of DisplayNum elements will be drawn at random from the full set of ItemIds passed.
example: ItemId='aaa,bbb,ccc,ddd,eee,fff,ggg,hhh,iii,jjj,kkk,lll' DisplayNum='4'
The plugin will pick 4 ItemIds at random from the list.

LINKS

SearchLink - Creates a link to Search results

#[APF Action='SearchLink' Keywords='<keywords here>' SearchIndex='<SearchIndex[,SearchIndex]>' [locale='<locale>'] LinkText='<Some Link Text>'#

ProductsLink - Creates a link to a page of specific items

#APF Action='ProductsLink' ItemId='<ASIN_1 here>[,<ASIN_2 here> .. ,<ASIN_10 here>]' [locale='<locale>'] LinkText='<Some Link Text>'#

#APF Action='ProductsLink' ItemId='(uk:xxxxxx)(us:zzz)' [locale='<locale>'] LinkText='<some link text>'#

ItemLink - Creates a link to a specific item

#APF Action='ItemLink' ItemId='<ASIN_1 here>' [locale='<locale>'] LinkText='<Some Link Text>'#

#APF Action='ItemLink' ItemId='(uk:xxxxxx)(us:zzz)' LinkText='<Some Link Text>'#

BrowseLink - Creates a link to a specific browsenode

#APF Action='BrowseNodeLink' SearchIndex='' BrowseNode='' BrowseNodeName='' LinkText='' [locale='']#

#APF Action='BrowseNodeLink' SearchIndex='' BrowseNode='(uk:xxx)(us:yyy)' BrowseNodeName='' LinkText=''#

INCLUDES

SearchInclude - Return the results of a search (even allows for a second search index in case the first is invalid in users preferred locale.

    For example - 'TFT Monitor' would be PCHardware in US, but Electronics in UK.

#APF Action='SearchInclude' Operation='ItemSearch' SearchIndex='<SearchIndex>[,secondarySearchIndex]' Keywords='<keywords+here>' [locale='<locale>']#

ProductsInclude -

#APF Action='ProductsInclude' ItemId='<itemid_1>[,<itemid_2>,<itemid_3> ... ,<itermid_10>]' [locale='<locale>']#

#APF Action='ProductsInclude' ItemId='(uk:xxxxxx,yyyyyy)(us:zzz,yyyy)' [locale='<locale>']#

notes: specifying a locale will 'force' that specific locale - no user override will be allowed
ItemId='(uk:xxxxxx,yyyyyy)(us:zzz,yyyy)'


ItemInclude -

#APF Action='ItemInclude' ItemId='<itemid_1>' [locale='<locale>']#

#APF Action='ItemInclude' ItemId='(uk:<itemid_1>)(us:<itemid_1>)' [locale='<locale>']#

BrowseNodeInclude -

#APF Action='BrowseNodeInclude' SearchIndex='<SearchIndex>' BrowseNode='<BrowseNode>' BrowseNodeName='<BrowseNodeName>' [locale='<locale>']#

#APF Action='BrowseNodeInclude' SearchIndex='<SearchIndex>' BrowseNode='(uk:xxxxxx)(us:zzz)' BrowseNodeName='<BrowseNodeName>' #