TicTap Contextual Ads Labs

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Thank for testing the latest experimental version of TicTap Contextual Ads. Please contact us (Damon and Alex) for queries. The latest stable release is found here.

Latest Features

*New* - CSS class 'tt_price' added for prices shown in the ads.
*New* - Prices are shown in the ads.
Enable preview popovers for Amazon links in your web page.
You can set the width of the product images.
No more downloading of Javascript files, we host it for you.
TCA covers all Amazon sites - Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.co.jp.
Editorial and customer reviews and similar products are available.

Demo

Remember to hover your mouse over the product links ;)

This is an example of an enhanced Amazon link.

Important Notes

*New* - We've set the new URL path for the TCA Javascripts to http://tca.tictap.com/labs.
It is preferable to set your web page's character encoding to UTF-8, especially if you use non-ASCII characters in your keywords.

Instructions

In order to try out the latest experimental version of TicTap Contextual Ads, you need to paste the following code into your web page.

<div id="tt_amsense" style="display:none"></div> <script type="text/javascript"> var tca_g_JS_path = "http://tca.tictap.com/labs";
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://tca.tictap.com/labs/tca_startup.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript"> tca_run('tictap-20',7,'sony camera',false, false, false,'com',30,true);
</script>

<div id="tt_amsense" style="display:none"></div> is placed at the location where you want your ads to appear.

The Javascript code must be placed after this <div> block, preferably immediately before the </body> tag.

The tca_run() function runs the TCA service. The function declation is tca_run(aff, maxResults, userdef_str, useTitle, useDesc, useKeywords, amazon_locale, image_width, enhanceLinks).

aff: Your Amazon Associate ID. If you leave an empty string, TCA will use TicTap's Associate ID.
maxResults: The number of products to show, up to a maximum of 50.
userdef_str: A string that you use to search for products. Remember to escape single quotes with a backslash. If you intend to use non-ASCII character set, your web page's character encoding should be set to UTF-8 or errors will occur.
useTitle: True or false. Decide if TCA should use the page's <title> string to search for products.
useDesc: True or false. Decide if TCA should use the page's <meta description=".."> string to search for products.
useKeywords: True or false. Decide if TCA should use the page's <meta keywords=".."> string to search for products.
amazon_locale: Set it to 'com' for Amazon.com, 'ca' for Amazon.ca, 'de' for Amazon.de, 'fr' for Amazon.fr, 'co.uk' for Amazon.co.uk, 'co.jp' for Amazon.co.jp.
image_width: The width of the product images, in pixels.
enhanceLinks: True or false. Enhance existing Amazon links in your web page so that the preview popovers are available too. Style the links with CSS!
Depending on what you set for userdef_str, useTitle, useDesc and useKeywords, TCA will combine their keywords to search for products. Our tests show that too many keywords lower the relevance of products returned.
To display products by ISBN or Amazon's ASIN, use this format for your userdef_str: (ISBN1 OR ISBN2 OR ASIN1). The brackets and upper-cased 'OR' are necessary. If you use this option, you must set useTitle, useDesc and useKeywords to false, and you must not add other text to userdef_str.

Style the TicTap ads using CSS as described under the CSS styling options for TCA.

Here is some CSS that you can use straight away. Add it to your page's <head> block.

<style type="text/css">
#tt_amsense{width:170px;border:3px solid red}
.tt_amsense_pdt{padding:7px 1px 7px 3px;background-color:white;border:3px solid blue}
.tt_pdt_link {font-size:77%;}
a.tt_pdt_link:link {text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px dashed;}
a.tt_pdt_link:visited {text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px dashed;}
a.tt_pdt_link:hover {text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid;}
a.tt_pdt_link:active {text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px dashed;}
.tt_amsense_attribution{font-size:77%;background-color:cyan}
.tt_price{color:red;font-weight:bold;} /*
* CSS styles if enhanceLinks is set to 'true' in tca_run().
* Delete them if you do not want the appearance to change.
*/
a.tt_mylink:link {text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px dashed red;}
a.tt_mylink:visited {text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px dashed;}
a.tt_mylink:hover {text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid green;}
a.tt_mylink:active {text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px dashed;}
</style>

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Frequently Asked Questions

Should I use the code in this page for a production website?

Better not. Everything here is experimental and may change anytime.

Can I just enhance my existing Amazon links without displaying TCA ads?

Yes. In tca_run(), set useTitle, useDesc and useKeywords to 'false', userdef_str to '' (empty string), and enhanceLinks to 'true'.

I'm using foreign characters in userdef_str, and TCA doesn't show any items.

First, check that your web page's character encoding is UTF-8. Then make sure you've set the Amazon domain correctly. For example, if you want products in German, use 'de' for amazon_locale.

I set useTitle, useDesc and useKeywords to 'true', and I'm not getting products.

It's possible too many words were used and this will confuse TCA, resulting in no products found or products with low relevance.

Yikes, my Amazon links are altered once I enable enhanceLinks.

Yeah. This happened because you were using Amazon's super long URL. We shortened it as it is easier to work with. Rest assure that we did not hijack your Associate ID, change the product or the underlying HTML code. It works like before.

Questions? Feedback? Please contact us (Damon and Alex).