mab_help.html (16122B)
1 <html> 2 <head> 3 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> 4 <title>Brief Guide to get the most out of MAB</title> 5 <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../skin/mab_help.css" type="text/css"> 6 <meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.65.1"> 7 </head> 8 <body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"> 9 <div class="article" lang="en"> 10 <div class="titlepage"> 11 <div> 12 <div><h2 class="title"><a name="d0e1"></a>Brief Guide to get the most out of MAB</h2> 13 14 </div> 15 </div> 16 <div> 17 </div> 18 <hr> 19 </div> 20 <div class="toc"> 21 <dl> 22 <dt><span class="section"><a href="#d0e4">1. Introduction</a></span></dt> 23 24 <dt><span class="section"><a href="#d0e9">2. Using MAB</a></span></dt> 25 <dd> 26 <dl> 27 <dt><span class="section"><a href="#d0e12">2.1. Searching</a></span></dt> 28 <dt><span class="section"><a href="#d0e56">2.2. Displaying Results</a></span></dt> 29 <dt><span class="section"><a href="#d0e119">2.3. Saving Result</a></span></dt> 30 <dt><span class="section"><a href="#d0e124">2.4. Adding Products to shopping cart</a></span></dt> 31 32 <dt><span class="section"><a href="#d0e132">2.5. Settings</a></span></dt> 33 <dt><span class="section"><a href="#d0e169">2.6. Status Bar</a></span></dt> 34 <dt><span class="section"><a href="#d0e210">2.7. Notes on duplicated results</a></span></dt> 35 </dl></dd> 36 <dt><span class="section"><a href="#d0e215">3. Using keyboard shortcuts</a></span></dt> 37 <dt><span class="section"><a href="#d0e319">4. FAQ</a></span></dt> 38 39 </dl> 40 </div> 41 <div class="section" lang="en"> 42 <div class="titlepage"> 43 <div> 44 <div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="d0e4"></a>1. Introduction</h2> 45 </div> 46 </div> 47 48 <div> 49 </div> 50 </div> 51 <p>Mab is an application to search products on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.jp sites, showing results in a handy interface, typical of desktop programs, without distracting you with plenty of images and texts not concerning what you are effectively looking for.</p> 52 </div> 53 <div class="section" lang="en"> 54 <div class="titlepage"> 55 <div> 56 <div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="d0e9"></a>2. Using MAB</h2> 57 58 </div> 59 </div> 60 <div> 61 </div> 62 </div> 63 <div class="section" lang="en"> 64 <div class="titlepage"> 65 <div> 66 <div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e12"></a>2.1. Searching</h3> 67 68 </div> 69 </div> 70 <div> 71 </div> 72 </div> 73 <p>First of all, you find a Search Toolbar to select the site you need and to set criteria's research. Secondly, you have to select the<span><b class="command">Catalog</b></span>(sometimes a catalog can be no available on a certain site). Infact, different sites have different catalogs, for example, “<span class="quote">English Books</span>” is valid only for Amazon.de and Amazon.jp, and “<span class="quote">Baby</span>” only for Amazon.com and so on. After that, you decide the<span><b class="command">Search Type</b></span>which is determined by the catalog you selected. For instance, if you are looking for a CD in the catalog Popular Music, you can't use Author but Artist. Finally, selecting<span><b class="command">Sort</b></span>, you can decide the products to be showed first among those corresponding to set criteria. Don't worry if the combination among the Amazon site, the<span><b class="command">Catalog</b></span>, the<span><b class="command">Search Type</b></span>and the<span><b class="command">Sort Type</b></span>is incorrect, MAB will alert you with an “<span class="quote">alert box</span>”. Clicking on<span><b class="command">Search</b></span>you start the research. If you want additional results, you have to click on<span><b class="command">More</b></span>and you will have them on bottom of the list. If button<span><b class="command">More</b></span>is disabled, no more results correspond to your criteria.</p> 74 75 <div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;"><h3 class="title">Note</h3> 76 <p>Remind that whenever you select All Catalogs, MAB researches on all catalogs available. This will return up to 3 results for up to 15 products categories with items matching your search terms.</p> 77 </div> 78 </div> 79 <div class="section" lang="en"> 80 <div class="titlepage"> 81 <div> 82 <div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e56"></a>2.2. Displaying Results</h3> 83 84 </div> 85 </div> 86 <div> 87 </div> 88 </div> 89 <p>In the results list you will find all the products found during your research session. They can be ordered by clicking on the heading of the columns. Available columns are:</p> 90 <div class="figure"><a name="d0e61"></a> 91 <p class="title"><b>Figure 1. </b></p> 92 93 <div class="mediaobject"><img src="../../skin/images/rows_header.png"> 94 </div> 95 </div> 96 <div class="itemizedlist"> 97 <ul type="disc"> 98 <li> 99 <p><span><b class="command">Ex: </b></span>tells you if all information on your product are still valid. Information on prices, for example, are valid for 24 hours and then eliminate. Other kind of information are valid foe 3 months. When you bump into some expired information, click on the Refresh button to get an updating.</p></li> 100 <li> 101 102 <p><span><b class="command">Status:</b></span>it indicates if an item has been read</p></li> 103 <li> 104 <p><span><b class="command">Product name:</b></span>it indicates the name of the product.</p></li> 105 <li> 106 <p><span><b class="command">Catalog:</b></span>it identifies which Catalog the product belongs to.</p></li> 107 <li> 108 <p><span><b class="command">Country:</b></span>it identifies the Amazon site on which you can find your product.</p></li> 109 110 <li> 111 <p><span><b class="command">Our Price:</b></span>it is the Amazon selling price.</p></li> 112 <li> 113 <p><span><b class="command">Used Price</b></span>: it is the first least expensive used product price.</p></li> 114 <li> 115 <p><span><b class="command">Rating:</b></span>it is the average rate given by all those who made a review.</p></li> 116 <li> 117 118 <p><span><b class="command">Rank:</b></span>it is the best seller products' position in the Amazon list.</p></li> 119 <li> 120 <p><span><b class="command">Released:</b></span>it indicates the releasing year of the product.</p></li> 121 <li> 122 <p><span><b class="command">Label:</b></span>it indicates the label you gave to your product in order to highlight and catalog the results of your research.</p></li> 123 </ul> 124 </div> 125 126 <p>If you want to add or eliminate the columns, you just need to click on the little button on the right hand side of the results' list.</p> 127 </div> 128 <div class="section" lang="en"> 129 <div class="titlepage"> 130 <div> 131 <div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e119"></a>2.3. Saving Result</h3> 132 </div> 133 </div> 134 135 <div> 136 </div> 137 </div> 138 <p>You can save your results on your hard disk only using the installed version of MAB. Files are saved with the extension .mab and are normal XML files that you can open with every editor.</p> 139 </div> 140 <div class="section" lang="en"> 141 <div class="titlepage"> 142 <div> 143 <div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e124"></a>2.4. Adding Products to shopping cart</h3> 144 145 </div> 146 </div> 147 <div> 148 </div> 149 </div> 150 <p>Click on<span><b class="command">Add to cart</b></span>, MAB will add the selected products to your shopping cart, and every time you want to see its content you have always to refer to the Amazon site. Infact, Mab doesn't handle either the login between you and Amazon or the exchange of personal data.</p> 151 </div> 152 <div class="section" lang="en"> 153 154 <div class="titlepage"> 155 <div> 156 <div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e132"></a>2.5. Settings</h3> 157 </div> 158 </div> 159 <div> 160 </div> 161 </div> 162 163 <p>The parameters you can set are.</p> 164 <div class="itemizedlist"> 165 <ul type="disc"> 166 <li> 167 <p><span><b class="command">Response Type</b></span>: to select the kind of response you want to get from Amazon. A “<span class="quote">lite</span>” response contains essential catalog information such as a product's name or price, and a “<span class="quote">heavy</span>” response contains more complete product information such as sales ranking and customers' reviews. This is the reason why, generally, a research with Response Type set on “<span class="quote">Heavy</span>” is slower. You can get all the information about the selected product with a “<span class="quote">lite</span>” response too, simply clicking on the<span><b class="command">Load Reviews</b></span>icon.</p></li> 168 169 <li> 170 <p><span><b class="command">Limit Result:</b></span>you can use it to set the number of results you want to get every time you click on<span><b class="command">Search</b></span>or<span><b class="command">More</b></span>. The suggested number is 20, a higher number could slightly slow the research.</p></li> 171 </ul> 172 </div> 173 </div> 174 <div class="section" lang="en"> 175 176 <div class="titlepage"> 177 <div> 178 <div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e169"></a>2.6. Status Bar</h3> 179 </div> 180 </div> 181 <div> 182 </div> 183 </div> 184 185 <div class="figure"><a name="d0e172"></a> 186 <p class="title"><b>Figure 2. </b></p> 187 <div class="mediaobject"><img src="../../skin/images/status_bar.png"> 188 </div> 189 </div> 190 <p>It informs you about the researches' results. In the Status Bar you find:</p> 191 <div class="itemizedlist"> 192 <ul type="disc"> 193 194 <li> 195 <p><span><b class="command">Listed products</b></span>: number of products loaded at the moment.</p></li> 196 <li> 197 <p><span><b class="command">New</b></span>: number of new products loaded in the current list.</p></li> 198 <li> 199 <p><span><b class="command">Duplicated</b></span>: number of products never loaded because duplicated.</p></li> 200 <li> 201 202 <p><span><b class="command">Reloaded</b></span>: number of products whose information have been reloaded.</p></li> 203 <li> 204 <p><span><b class="command">Products found</b></span>:number of products found on Amazon on your criteria basis.</p></li> 205 <li> 206 <p><span><b class="command">Products retrieved</b></span>: number of products found by the last research.</p></li> 207 </ul> 208 </div> 209 210 </div> 211 <div class="section" lang="en"> 212 <div class="titlepage"> 213 <div> 214 <div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e210"></a>2.7. Notes on duplicated results</h3> 215 </div> 216 </div> 217 <div> 218 219 </div> 220 </div> 221 <p>Whenever MAB downloads information from Amazon about found products, it eliminates all the products already downloaded. Doing so, you can do many researches without downloading duplicated information. MAB records all retrieved products, so, when a product a product gets eliminated from the results' list, it will be automatically skipped if found following to further researches. To reload a cancelled product, you need to open a new document and do another research. Thanks to this procedure, crossed researches will be always precise and the results' list won't get full of duplicated products.</p> 222 </div> 223 </div> 224 <div class="section" lang="en"> 225 <div class="titlepage"> 226 <div> 227 <div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="d0e215"></a>3. Using keyboard shortcuts</h2> 228 229 </div> 230 </div> 231 <div> 232 </div> 233 </div> 234 <p>The keyboard shortcuts for MAB are as follows:</p> 235 <div class="table"><a name="d0e220"></a> 236 <p class="title"><b>Table 1. </b></p> 237 238 <table border="1"> 239 <colgroup> 240 <col> 241 <col> 242 </colgroup> 243 <tbody> 244 <tr> 245 <td><span><b class="command">enter</b></span> 246 247 </td> 248 <td> Search 249 </td> 250 </tr> 251 <tr> 252 <td><span><b class="command">canc</b></span> 253 </td> 254 <td> Delete selected products 255 </td> 256 257 </tr> 258 <tr> 259 <td><span><b class="command">esc</b></span> 260 </td> 261 <td> Stops any connection currently in progress 262 </td> 263 </tr> 264 <tr> 265 266 <td><span><b class="command">Alt + f</b></span> 267 </td> 268 <td> Open File menu 269 </td> 270 </tr> 271 <tr> 272 <td><span><b class="command">Alt + e</b></span> 273 </td> 274 275 <td> Open Edit menu 276 </td> 277 </tr> 278 <tr> 279 <td><span><b class="command">Alt + t</b></span> 280 </td> 281 <td> Open Options menu 282 </td> 283 284 </tr> 285 <tr> 286 <td><span><b class="command">Alt + w</b></span> 287 </td> 288 <td> Open Windows menu 289 </td> 290 </tr> 291 <tr> 292 293 <td><span><b class="command">Alt + m</b></span> 294 </td> 295 <td> Get more records from the last search 296 </td> 297 </tr> 298 <tr> 299 <td><span><b class="command">Alt + h</b></span> 300 </td> 301 302 <td> Open Help menu 303 </td> 304 </tr> 305 <tr> 306 <td><span><b class="command">Alt + a</b></span> 307 </td> 308 <td> Go to the Amazon page 309 </td> 310 311 </tr> 312 <tr> 313 <td><span><b class="command">Alt + d</b></span> 314 </td> 315 <td> Add products to shopping cart 316 </td> 317 </tr> 318 <tr> 319 320 <td><span><b class="command">Alt + g</b></span> 321 </td> 322 <td> Go to Google 323 </td> 324 </tr> 325 <tr> 326 <td><span><b class="command">Ctrl + n</b></span> 327 </td> 328 329 <td> New search list 330 </td> 331 </tr> 332 <tr> 333 <td><span><b class="command">Ctrl + w</b></span> 334 </td> 335 <td> Close current list 336 </td> 337 338 </tr> 339 <tr> 340 <td><span><b class="command">Ctrl + s</b></span> 341 </td> 342 <td> Save current list 343 </td> 344 </tr> 345 <tr> 346 347 <td><span><b class="command">Ctrl + r</b></span> 348 </td> 349 <td> Load Reviews 350 </td> 351 </tr> 352 </tbody> 353 </table> 354 </div> 355 356 </div> 357 <div class="section" lang="en"> 358 <div class="titlepage"> 359 <div> 360 <div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="d0e319"></a>4. FAQ</h2> 361 </div> 362 </div> 363 <div> 364 365 </div> 366 </div> 367 <div class="orderedlist"> 368 <ol type="1"> 369 <li> 370 <p><span class="emphasis"><em>How can I carry out a research writing more Asin/ISBN as a Search Term?</em></span></p> 371 <p>You can use up to 10 ASIN/ISBN in one search for "heavy" Response Type, and up to 30 ASINs for "lite" Response Type. ASIN/ISBN in the Search Term input box should be separated by commas.</p></li> 372 <li> 373 <p><span class="emphasis"><em>What are Amazon Web Services and Amazon Associates?</em></span></p> 374 375 <p>Amazon gives to all developers the opportunity to browse the catalog using the Web Services technology. Web services are applications whose logic and functions are accessible using standard Internet protocols and data formats such as XML (Extensible Markup Language), and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol). Using these services, Associates can create applications capable of interacting with Amazon. If you like MAB and you wish to support its development, just before buying something remember to select the item directly from MAB. In this way Amazon Associate can give a fee to support the programmers who use their Web Service.</p></li> 376 <li> 377 <p><span class="emphasis"><em>How can I copy and paste the most relevant information about a selected product?</em></span></p> 378 <p>You have to click on Text Summary. This can be done from the Edit Menu or from the Context Menu. The Context Menu can be activated pressing the right mouse button on the selected product.</p> 379 <div class="figure"><a name="d0e347"></a> 380 <p class="title"><b>Figure 3. </b></p> 381 <div class="mediaobject"><img src="../../skin/images/context_menu.png"> 382 </div> 383 384 </div></li> 385 <li> 386 <p><span class="emphasis"><em>How to see the bigger image about the selected product?</em></span></p> 387 <p>Just click on the small image and the bigger one will be showed in a pop up window.</p></li> 388 </ol> 389 </div> 390 </div> 391 </div> 392 </body> 393 394 </html>