Media Manager Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the difference between version 2.1 and 2.0?

A: In 2009 Amazon made a significant change to their AWS Product Marketing API on top of which Media Manager and MTAmazon are built. Media Manager 2.1 contains the fixes and changes necessary to make Media Manager work once again with Amazon.

In updating the software to work with Amazon's new API, Media Manager was overhauled to utilize the CPAN module Net::Amazon. For most people this is meaningless, so let me explain. Net::Amazon is a library, a small bit of software that talks to Amazon's APIs on behalf of Media Manager. The library is maintained by a third party and far more flexible and performant than anything that has previously shipped with Media Manager.

Q: What are the changes between version 1.0 and 2.0?

A: Media Manager 2.0 is a dramatic evolution from its predecessor. Media Manager now integrates far more seamlessly with Movable Type then ever before.

In this rearchitecture of the software, however, I redefined what the goals of the software are and adjusted the scope and feature set of the product to meet those goals. For example, Media Manager 1.0 was an evolution of BookQueue and BookQueueToo, which by their name should indicate that they presumed you were managing books alone. As a result Media Manager 1.0 allowed users to set the "status" of an item as either "reading," "read" or "unread."

That is flawed assumption, especially in light of the fact that those statii are irrelevant to CD's not to mention patio furniture - both of which are available through Amazon. What follows is a list of features that have been REMOVED:

• item statuses - users are encouraged to use Movable Type's built in tagging system to manage the state of an item
• reviews - now that Movable Type allows users to insert assets directly in their posts, there is no need to support the concept of a "review."
• ratings - ratings were associated with reviews in previous versions and since reviews are gone, so are ratings
• list import - i suspect many users did not make use of this feature so the ability to import items from an Amazon Wishlist has been removed
• finished on date - yeah, sorry about this one for now

Q: Is Media Manager 1.0 forward compatible with Media Manager 2.0?

A: Items found in Media Manager 1.0 will automatically be ported into the new Media Manager 2.0 and Movable Type 4.0 system. However, not all data will be carried over. Reviews, ratings, and statii will NOT be ported over. Not yet anyways.

Q: Will my Media Manager 1.x template tags work with MT4 and MM2.0?

A: No they will not. To simplify the code base and bring focus to the Media Manager application, all legacy template tags have been removed. Movable Type's core template tag set should be sufficient for anything most users need to do.