Amazon List
An Amazon List is a pagelet that displays a list of one or more Amazon products. There are a wide range of layout options available. Users can click on a product to view, and then purchase it.
Some ideas for how you could use an Amazon List:
- Display your Amazon wish list. Visitors who appreciate your site can select a product and then buy it for you.
- Create a quick list for friends of ideas for your birthday. (Who knows they might actually buy you one!)
- Write a review of a product you've recently acquired and use an Amazon List to point visitors to it for their own purchase.
Setting Up an Amazon List
To get started with an Amazon List:
- Click the "Pagelets" item in the toolbar and select "Amazon List."
- Click the new pagelet to select it, and open the Selection Inspector. The top half of the Inspector holds general pagelet attributes; the bottom contains the controls for the list itself.
- Click the flag icon and set the store to the most appropriate for your site.
Now you need to add some Amazon products to the list. They can be:
- Individually picked and added to the Inspector. This is known as a "pick by hand" list
- Taken from a list on Amazon's website. e.g. a wish list, Listmania, or wedding registry. This is known as a "from Amazon" list.
"Pick by hand" list:
- From the "List" popup button select "Pick by hand."
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Add a product to the list. Click the "plus" button below the table and in the "Product" field enter one of these:
- URL - use your web browser to view a product on Amazon's website and then copy its address.
- ASIN - every product in Amazon's catalog has an ASIN code which uniquely identifies it. This is listed among the product's details on Amazon's website.
- ISBN - all books have an ISBN code on their reverse.
Alternatively, you can drag the URL of (or a link to) an Amazon product into the table from your web browser.
- Repeat step 2 for each product.
- If you wish, enter a comment about the product in the "Comment" field under the table.
"From Amazon" list:
- From the "List" popup button select "From Amazon."
- In the "List" field enter the ID or public URL of an Amazon wish list, Listmania or wedding registry. For more information on this, please see the "Locating an Amazon List's Public URL" article.
- Choose the number of products you wish to limit the list to. Enter 0 and Sandvox will load as many products as it can.
- If using a wish list, you can also select how to sort the list.
Congratulations! You should now have an Amazon List pagelet set up with one or more products.
Appearance Settings
You can customize how the list appears.
To change an Amazon List's appearance:
- Click the pagelet to select it.
- Open the Selection Inspector.
- Click the "Appearance" tab in the Inspector.
Layout
There are eight different layouts available:
Thumbnails and text aligned to the left-hand side of the pagelet.
Thumbnails and text aligned to the right-hand side of the pagelet.
Products are aligned in an alternating pattern.
Everything is centered down the middle of the pagelet and the thumbnail size is adjustable.
Products are arranged in a grid, two across the width of the pagelet.
A simple bulleted list with no thumbnails.
Products are displayed in Amazon's standard "advertisement" style.
Similar to the previous layout, but only a single box is shown. A random product from the list appears each time the page is refreshed.
Displayed Details
You can also select the product details that will be displayed in the page. Choose from:
- Thumbnails
- Titles
- Creators (e.g. Author, artist, manufacturer)
- Comments
- Prices
Note that some options may be disabled depending on how you have set the rest of the pagelet up. In particular, pricing is not available if you have a "pick by hand" list and are using any of first six layout styles.
Link to full list
If you are using a "from Amazon" list, the "Link to full list" option becomes available. This provides a small link at the bottom of the pagelet which visitors can click to view the whole list on the appropriate Amazon site.
Product Previews
Check the box and when visitors hover over an item in the list for a moment, the full product details will "pop up" over the page. This option is only available for the US store and will only appear on the published site; not within Sandvox itself. Also, if you have more than one Amazon List in your site and check the box for one, it may effectively enable it for the other pagelet.
List Maintenance
If you use an Amazon List pagelet to display your Amazon wish list, Sandvox does not display any products that you have received. However, they are still loaded, just not displayed. This affects the maximum number of products that can appear in the pagelet. Therefore it is a good idea to occasionally remove items that you have received from your wish list using Amazon's website.
Default Lists
When you create a new Amazon List pagelet, it is automatically loaded with an example "from Amazon" list. The presets are:
