Generating Amazon Links: Now Like Butter

With the updated Amazon Link Generator you can generate links to Amazon.com complete with your personal AssociateID easier than ever. Anyone who's used it knows that Amazon's own tool for the purpose is kinda klunky, and it's a hassle hacking together your own URLs.

Now, just type your title (or author, or subject) in the Search box, and the tool retrieves Amazon's search results. From there you can click on any result to have the generator create all the links you need for easy cut-and-pasting into your document. If you have an AssociateID, it will be remembered from session to session.

Or, if you're surfing Amazon and you see a book you want to include in a web page, just grab its Url and paste it into the generator. The ASIN will be automatically extracted and links generated in a variety of popular formats.

Behind the curtain, the tool uses Amazon's XML interface to retrieve search results, which it binds to a datagrid which repackages the output with templates. The ASIN extractor uses a simple regular expression to pull out the 10-digit ASIN. Cookies store your personal AssociateID between sessions, and an option is included to delete all cookies set by the tool.

On the design side, table and cell widths and other formatting elements are re-used throughout for consistency. Buttons contain enough descriptive text to be big and easy to hit. Links that open new windows say so. Links and acronym tags and provided for elements that may not be self-explanatory.

Enjoy!