This is a TUTORIAL on creating a bucket in Amazon S3 where you can store your remote files (if you are subscribing to this service).
If you are subscribing to the Amazon Simple Storage Service, this tutorial page details how to create a 'bucket' on Amazon's system where you can store your files (then link them to Products in your system for members to download). There are three steps to achieve this as follows (described below);
- Creating the Bucket on Amazon.
- Adding files to your Bucket.
- Linking the bucket files to items in the Product Maint.
Bucket creation
First log in to the Amazon AWS Management Console. click here. The Amazon page will prompt you to login using your Amazon login details, then display the S3 tab of the AWS Management Console page. The AWS Console requires Flash; if you see the install prompt below, follow the instructions.
- You should be presented with the following page after logging in. Click on the Create Bucket button.
- You should see the Create Bucket window pop up. Now you are required to enter a name for the bucket.
- Important: there are rules to be followed here.
- The name you choose must be unique across Amazon's platform, as it is used in the access URL.
- Use only lowercase, alphabetical characters. No numbers or special characters, no punctuation.
- Members will see the bucket name in the page URL, so use public friendly words.
- We suggest using your company name in lowercase with no spaces. Once the bucket name is entered, Click Create.
- Once your bucket is successfully created, the page should look like this (the bucket in this example is named internetnextstep)
Note
- If you see an error telling you the bucket name is not unique, try adding characters like "mlm" to your bucket name until it is accepted.
- Remember that members will see the bucket name in the page URL when they access items stored in the bucket.
- You may create sub-folders in the bucket to organize large numbers of files. Make sure to select the correct sub-folder before the file upload.
Adding files to your bucket
- Now we add the files you wish to store with Amazon to the bucket. Click on your bucket name to ensure it is selected, then click Upload.
- This will display the Upload Files window. You need to click on the Add Files button here.
- Select the files you wish to upload in the 'Select file(s) to upload...' window. This window is browsing your computer.
- Then click on the Open button. Note: You can repeat this step for files in different locations.
- After you have selected the files to be uploaded to the bucket, click on the Start Upload button.
- You will see a progress bar appear in the Transfers Area along the bottom of the window; this shows you the upload progress.
- Note: Wait for this bar to fill to 100% before continuing to avoid any error.
- When the transfer has completed, your uploaded files will be shown in the 'Objects and Folders' area.
- Repeat the upload process for all files you wish to store on Amazon.
Linking Amazon bucket files to system Shopping Cart items
In this step, we link the files you have uploaded to Amazon's storage to the item details in Configuration > Shopping Cart > Product Maint. Following from the last action in Step 3 Bucket Creation, you should have the Objects and Folders in the AWS Management Console S3 tab showing.
- Select the file you wish to link, then click the 'Properties' button. You will see the file Properties section appear at the bottom of the page.
- First we set the file permissions, so that users can download the file from Amazon via the system. Go to the Permissions tab in the file properties section at the bottom of the page. Click the + Add more permissions button, and a new Grantee line will appear:
- Click the droplist down arrow and choose "Authenticated Users" from the list as shown above.
- Tick the "Open/Download" option box as shown above
- Click on the Save button to commit to the changes.
Note: It is important that these permissions are set for all files that you want to be downloadable. CAUTION, DO NOT USE THE "EVERYONE" GRANTEE SETTING. If you set the Grantee to "Everyone", the file can be downloaded by anyone if they know the Amazon URL for the file.
- Now click on the 'Details' tab; you will see the URL link text for the file displayed. Highlight the URL text beside the yellow padlock and copy it.
- In a different browser tab or window, log into the system and navigate to: Configuration > Shopping Cart > Product Maint.
- Click on Edit for the product you wish to link to Amazon. Scroll down the Product Edit page to the Product Download section.
- Click on the To edit download detail, please click here button. The Downloadable Product Information window will pop up:
- Paste the URL text you copied from the file on Amazon into the "Enter URL of File" field.
- Set "Downloadable" to Yes (if you wish to enable the download of this file from Amazon).
- Set additional options, such as number of downloads allowed, Email message etc.
- Note: The 'Email' option lets you choose an email message to be sent to the member when they download the item.
- Finally, click on the Submit button to update the settings, then click the "Close Window" underlined blue link at the top left of the window.
Congratulations, you have now linked the Product Maint item to the file stored on Amazon!. Repeat Step 3 to link any additional files to items.