We’re pleased to announce the public BETA release of a new AvantLink affiliate network tool. The Product Ad Widget is the next generation of our Product Display Builder tool. It has a completely redesigned configuration interface that makes use of the Yahoo User Interface (YUI) JavaScript library.

The Product Ad Widget has three widget display options.

1. Product Display – This is the default html widget that can be integrated using JavaScript or using the server side language of your choice.
2. Content Match Ad Widget – This widget provides the same options as above, but products are returned based on a keyword analysis of the content on the calling website page.
3. Flash Widget – This is a carousel type flash widget that also has an integrated product search option.

Besides having a completely new configuration interface, the Product Ad Widget adds several new functionality components that have been requested over the last six months or so.

• You can now apply the layout and design configuration from a previously saved display widget to your current configuration making for much faster configuration time.
• You can now add products from multiple merchants into one display.
• The ability to easily search for products within a single merchant datafeed or across multiple merchants and easily add the results to your display widget.
• Built in pagination of product results in your widget.
• A new Flash carousel style product widget.
• A couple default style widgets (block and round) that are very easy to customize as well as a no template wrapper option for full page displays and an advanced option that lets you create your own widget HTML.

Also, the Product Ad Widget joins the Datafeed Manager’s raw datafeed files and datafeed web service client as tools that now offer direct use of the Product Content Widget tool. You’ll find more information about this in the sample widgets below.

Here are a few screenshots from the Product Ad Widget configuration interface.

Browsing datafeed categories and products:

Customize and Preview Tab:

Save & Get Source Tab:

Block style Product Ad Widget featuring multiple merchants and using mostly default settings: (To trigger the Product Content Widget, try hovering over a product image and then clicking that image.)

Rounded corner style Product Ad Widget using the list layout style and custom border color: (To trigger the Product Content Widget in this example, simply hover over a product image with your mouse.)

Simple full page style widget using the “No Template Wrapper” option: (Click the screenshot image to view the full page example)

Flash carousel style widget:

To try out the Product Ad Widget tool, login to your affiliate account and look for the Product Ad Widget section on the ‘Tools’ page.

If you experience any issues with the interface or with your resulting Product Ad Widget’s, please send us an email at support -at- avantlink.com

Scott & AvantLink