Frequently Asked Questions About Piranha Feed

Here are answers to frequently asked questions about Piranha Feed. If your question is not covered here, please feel free to write to us at webmaster@ebookcompiler.com.



Installation Questions


What facilities do I need on my web host to use Piranha Feed?

PHP 4, and MySQL.


I noticed Piranha Feed is an encrypted script, do I need an encoder (example: Zend's encoder) on my site?

No.


How hard is it to install Piranha Feed?

It should be easy. Here are the steps:
  1. After you purchase you will be given access to a ZIP file containing your personalized copy of code. Download this file and unpack it using WINZIP.
  2. You need to get the MySQL connection parameters (4 text parameters: your MySQL user name, password, database name and host name) from your web host. You then modify the configuration file (using Notepad or a similar text editor) to contain these 4 parameters.
  3. You need to go to http://aws.amazon.com/ and sign-up for an account if you do not already have one. As part of your account, Amazon will give you an "Access Key ID". You then modify the configuration file (using Notepad or a similar text editor) to contain this value.
  4. Upload Piranha Feed to your web site, and run the installation script. This sets up the MySQL database tables.
  5. You can now use Piranha Feed on any of your pages. There are many methods of integration depending on exactly how you want to use it, but in most cases you simply add between 1 and about 5 lines of code to those pages you want to integrate with.
Much more detailed instructions, plus working examples of each of the different types of integration, are included in the package.



Questions About Search Results


Can I configure the number of results returned from Amazon?

Yes.

There are actually two numbers you can control:
  1. The maximum number of results to return from each product category (example; Books or Software).
  2. The maximum number of results to return when doing an all category search, before stopping searching new categories (example: if we've already found 8 items, should we continue getting more results from the current search?)
Note: There is currently a limitation that Piranha Feed will only display, per product category, the number of items that Amazon returns from a single query. This number may vary from time-to-time (it is under Amazon's control, not ours, and they could change it whenever they want).
  • In Amazon's web services interface, this maximum seems to be 10. This would mean for each page with Piranha generated results:
    • If using just one category (e.g. Books), you could display upto 10 products on the page.
    • If using all multiple categories (Books, Software, Electronics, etc. etc.), you could display up to 10 products per category, so if you enabled 20 categories that would allow 20X10 = 200 products at maximum to be displayed.

Can I control which categories of Amazon products are searched for an "all" product category search?

Yes.

There is a setting in the configuration file to control this.

You could use this setting, if you wanted to configure your results for "all" products to include (for example) Books, Software, Video Games, Magazines and Electronics, but not (for example) the Kitchen, Baby or Garden products.



Questions About Controlling the Appearance


Can I display Amazon book covers and product images using Piranha Feed?

Yes.

You have a choice of displaying the medium or small product image or no image at all. (Note: for some products Amazon does not have a product image, so these products will never include a visible image).


Can I control the placement of the images?

Yes. You can set the images to be displayed to left, right or above the text describing the product.


Can I control which pieces of text to display?

Yes. You can individually control whether to display each of:
  1. The Title
  2. A Description (note: full product descriptions are not available in the "lite" XML feed, so we "synthesize" a description using the media type (example: Paperback), and other information (example: Author) that Amazon do provide.
  3. The Price
Additionally, advanced users (some PHP programming knowledge required) are given access to the data, before its displayed, via a number of functions which can be used to reformat the information if they want.


Can I make the Amazon links open with TARGET=_top (current window) or TARGET=_blank (a new window)

Yes.

There is a setting in the configuration file to control this.


Can I control the background color for Amazon results?

Yes.

There is a setting in the configuration file to control this.

NOTE: Some Amazon product images include white (or perhaps other color) backgrounds/edges, so they may appear to have a colored border around them if you do change the background color.


Can I control the text colors, fonts etc., for Amazon results?

Yes.

There are settings in the configuration file to control this.


Can I turn off, or modify the appearance of the product category headings?

Yes.

There are settings in the configuration file to control this.


Can I control the number of items to display per row in the results?

Yes.

There is a setting in the configuration file to control this.



Questions About Payment


Is my credit card secure ?

Absolutely. We sell our product via CLICKBANK.COM who provide rock-solid, totally safe, and totally secure credit card payment facilities. (technically, if you purchase online, you are purchasing from CLICKBANK and their name appears on your bill, however we support you and the product)

ClickBank processes thousands of credit card transactions every single day and for absolute security and privacy, never store your credit card number on their servers - all credit card information is sent directly to the banking network at the moment of sale.

If you have any questions about a purchase, or the security of a purchase, you can:
  • Contact ClickBank online

  • Or fax ClickBank on 1-208-342-3934 (USA fax number)

  • Write to Clickbank by postal mail, using the following address:

    Click Sales Inc 917 S. Lusk Street, Suite 200 Boise ID 83706 USA

What if I have problems paying ?

It is extremely unlikely you will have any problems paying, but if you do, your first point of contact should be our company.

Our full contact details are show at http://www.scriptrocket.com/contact.php



Other Questions


Is Piranha Feed endorsed by Amazon?

No, and we would not expect them to specifically endorse our script.


I have a question which is not answered here?

If your question is not covered here, please feel free to write to us at webmaster@ebookcompiler.com.