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AWS Access Key

To obtain an AWS Access Key from Amazon.com, follow the step below.

What is an AWS Access Key?
The products and categories that Associate Engine displays are based on data from Amazon.com's AWS (Amazon.com Web Services). For Associate Engine to be able to access that data, Amazon.com requires that you obtain an AWS Access Key from Amazon.com. Once you have your AWS Access Key, you enter it into your Associate Engine ae-ini.txt configuration file so that Associate Engine can use it in requests to Amazon.com's AWS.

Tip: Print this page so you can easily follow these steps.
Note: It is assumed that you are already an Amazon.com affiliate.

Go to Amazon Web Services homepage at https://aws.amazon.com/

From the "My Account" drop-down menu at the top-right, click "Security Credentials".

If asked, enter your Amazon Associates login information.

If a pop-up message appears, "You are accessing the security credentials page for your AWS account.", click the "Continue to Security Credentials" button.

Click: "+ Access Keys (Access Key ID and Secret Access Key)".

You should see an "Access Keys" table with columns: Created, Deleted, Access Key ID, Status, Actions.

Click: "Create New Access Key" to create a new key.

Double-click the Access Key ID value to select it, and press Ctrl-C (or right-click and select "Copy") to copy it to the clipboard.

Minimize your web browser (do not close it!), and then start your text editor (e.g.: Windows Notepad) and edit your ae-ini.txt configuration file.

Filename Tip: ae.ini versus ae-ini.txt: If you're configuration file is named ae.ini, you can keep using that old filename or you can rename it to the more modern filename ae-ini.txt (by using .txt ending, you can simply double-click the file in Windows to edit it). After uploading the new ae-ini.txt file, remember to delete the old ae.ini from the server.

Renamed ae.pl: Note: If you renamed ae.pl to something else (e.g.: books.pl) then you must use a similar name for your configuration file (e.g.: books-ini.txt). That is, if the script is named FILE.pl then it looks for FILE-ini.txt

Add a new variable called access.id and paste in your Access Key ID value. You can add new variables anywhere in ae-ini.txt (Tip: Search for "access.id" to see if it already exists; if it does then change its value, otherwise add it). You should end up with a line something like:

access.id "1ECM10QMJC4BZXXP0W02"

Leave ae-ini.txt open in your text editor, and go back to your web browser.

Select and copy the Secret Access Key value (a combination of 40 letters and digits).

Go back to your text editor.

Below the access.id variable, add a new variable called access.secret and paste in your Access Key Secret value (Tip: Search for "access.secret" to see if it already exists; if it does then change its value, otherwise add it). You should end up with a line something like:

access.secret "NsbpCEB3KXYmpJiXItGxkhFsnPlU4HHRpVCwWFSh"

Warning: Do not tell other people your Access Key Secret (FYI: the one shown above is not real).

Save your ae-ini.txt and upload it to your server into the directory where ae.pl is located.

Go back to your web browser and access ae.pl with the ?version parameter (e.g.: domain.com/cgi-bin/ae.pl?version).

The version should appear. If the reported version is less than v10.10.20b, you must upgrade to a new version of ae.pl. Get the latest version of ae.pl.

To verify that the Access Key is being used, view the ae.pl Configuration Report. Scroll down to the 3rd table. You should see the access.id and access.secret that you entered.