Announcing the launch of 'Project Tina' the website that will act as the hub for all things related to the TinA (Tina Is not Apf) Amazon Web Services script.  Tina is PHP conversion / adaptation of MrRat's Amazon Products Feed script which for the last five years has been the leader in the field of not only Amazon Web Services scripts, but of Web Services scripts period.

Like APF which was steered single-handedly by MrRat throughout its life - Tina is primarily a one man operation. The conversion of MrRat's Perl APF script to PHP has been undertaken by Dean Marshall who previously created and maintained a PHP 'bridge' application to link the Perl script with the PHP Content Management Systems Joomla and Mambo.

PHP Amazon Store Script 

To Dean the need for a PHP implementation of the highly successful Amazon script was apparent - initially this was to make integration with Mambo and Joomla easier, more efficient and simply smoother for the end users. A number of requests from users of other CMSs and blogging platforms confirmed the idea that PHP was the way to go. Perl is a very flexible and very powerful language but it isn't user friendly and simply doesn't have the critical mass of PHP.  More and more PHP is the language of choice for end users who perhaps 'dabble' in a bit of programming and who would like to offer customisations or simply make tweaks for their own use.  I discussed with MrRat whether he felt he wished to add PHP to his own list of programming skills and he felt that it wasn't something that was for him - it didn't fit with his own requirements from an employment point of view. The decision seemed obvious - I can read / dabble with perl (I'm certainly no monk or wizard) and I can hack out a bit of PHP so the port began.

TinA - The Choice of License

From the beginning of the conversion, port, rewrite call it what you will the license of the final script was a concern. MrRat's APF is GPL and the new script is quite clearly built from this source. Clearly it is derivative - but following discussion with MrRat we decided that the rewrite would be such a major task that the new work should be considered a stand-alone product. Before anyone gets all legal on us let's clarify one thing - the original author and copyright owner agrees with this position. This is important because:

1. It means that a license is granted to build from the original work under whatever license we choose
2. Even if the GPL derivative thing was deemed to have happened the only person who could bring any enforce or threat of enforcement has stated that he will not do so.

Aims of the project

1. To continue in the spirit of MrRat's APF - to make it easy for people to integrate an Amazon store into their web site for the purpose of adding a revenue stream to their existing website.
2. To build a business around this endeavour and in so doing ensure the future security of the project.
3. To build a business friendly eco-system around the new script and develop a market for third party add-on services and products around the core script.
4. To compete with some of Amazon's recent innovations and offer similar functionality to web masters running their own Amazon Associate store software.
5. To offer all of this functionality and yet keep the operation of the script as simple as possible - as we say over at Mambo 'power through simplicity'.