kernow-ruby-aaws 0.5.4 → 0.7.1

data/README

@@ -1,17 +1,17 @@
-$Id: README,v 1.17 2008/10/03 12:00:19 ianmacd Exp $
+$Id: README,v 1.23 2009/06/15 12:07:51 ianmacd Exp $
 
 
 Introduction
 ------------
 
-Ruby/AWS is a Ruby language library that makes it relatively easy for the
-programmer to retrieve information from the popular Amazon Web site via
+Ruby/AWS is a Ruby language library that aims to make it relatively easy for
+the programmer to retrieve information from the popular Amazon Web site via
 Amazon's Associates Web Services (AWS). In addition to the original amazon.com
 site, the local sites amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.fr, amazon.ca and
 amazon.co.jp are also supported.
 
 Development of Ruby/AWS has been quite swift since the appearance of the first
-alpha version, 0.0.1, in late March 2008. Although Ruby/AWS shares almost no
+alpha version, 0.0.1, in late March of 2008. Although Ruby/AWS shares almost no
 code with its now obsolete predecessor, Ruby/Amazon, many lessons were learnt
 whilst developing that library, and the experience gained has been rolled into
 Ruby/AWS.
@@ -25,40 +25,50 @@ History and compatibility with Ruby/Amazon
 ------------------------------------------
 
 In the beginning, there was Ruby/Amazon. This library was built around version
-3.x of the Amazon Web Service API and first saw the light of day in 2004. That
-version of the Amazon API was known at the time as AWS 3.x.
+3.x of the Amazon Web Service API and first saw the light of day in January
+2004. The version of the Amazon API in use at the time was known as AWS 3.x.
 
 Amazon later renamed AWS to ECS, or E-Commerce Service, for the launch of
-version 4 of the API, a complete overhaul that provided no backward
+version 4 of their API, a complete overhaul that provided no backward
 compatibility with previous versions. The previous version of the API was
 thenceforth sometimes referred to as ECS 3.
 
 Demonstrating the wisdom and consistency for which large companies are
-globally revered, Amazon changed its mind once again in late 2007, reverting
-to the familiar name of AWS. This time, however, it was said to stand for
-Associates Web Service.
-
-Since Amazon started offering AWS, the number of Amazon Web APIs has grown.
-AWS is now just one of many. It is therefore no longer appropriate to call
-this library by a name so general as Ruby/Amazon, because it interfaces only
-with AWS. Therefore, the library will be known henceforth as Ruby/AWS.
+renowned, Amazon changed their mind once again in late 2007, reverting to the
+familiar name of AWS. This time, however, it was said to stand for Associates
+Web Service, rather than Amazon Web Service.
+
+Since Amazon first made AWS available, the number of Amazon Web APIs has
+grown and AWS is now just one of many. It is therefore no longer appropriate
+to call this library by a name so general as Ruby/Amazon, because it
+provides an interface to just one of the Amazon Web APIs. Therefore, the
+monicker for this library is Ruby/AWS.
+
+Unfortunately for Ruby/AWS, Amazon changed the name once again in May 2009,
+referring to it now as the Product Advertising API. Changing Ruby/AWS's name
+would create more confusion than it would mitigate, however, so I'm not about
+to do so. Similarly, I will continue to refer to the Amazon API in question as
+AWS.
 
 Ruby/AWS is built around version 4 of the Amazon AWS API, which is
 fundamentally different to version 3, both in terms of how requests are made
-and data returned. The underlying structure of the XML response is radically
-changed from previous versions.
+and the data returned. The underlying structure of the XML response has
+radically changed from previous versions.
 
-It has therefore not been possible in Ruby/AWS to retain any level of API
+It has therefore not been practical for Ruby/AWS to retain any level of API
 compatibility with Ruby/Amazon. Unfortunately, this means that any code
-written for Ruby/Amazon will need to be rewritten to work with Ruby/AWS.
+written for Ruby/Amazon will need to be rewritten to work with Ruby/AWS. The
+good news is that, in most cases, this isn't as much work as it might sound.
 
-One small piece of good news is that the /etc/amazonrc and ~/.amazonrc files
-used with Ruby/Amazon _are_ compatible with Ruby/AWS. The only change required
-for Ruby/AWS is the addition of a 'key_id' parameter, which should contain
-your AWS Access Key ID.
+Another bit of good news is that the /etc/amazonrc and ~/.amazonrc files used
+by Ruby/Amazon _are_ compatible with Ruby/AWS. The only change required for
+Ruby/AWS is the addition of the 'key_id' and 'secret_key_id' parameters, which
+should contain your AWS Access Key ID and its secret counterpart. That fact
+notwithstanding, as of version 0.5.0, Ruby/AWS also supports a more flexible,
+locale-specific configuration syntax.
 
 Amazon finally decomissioned v3 of the AWS API on 2008-03-31. As a result, the
-original Ruby/Amazon library no longer functions.
+original Ruby/Amazon library no longer functions and is therefore obsolete.
 
 
 AWS Access Key ID
@@ -68,35 +78,40 @@ You can obtain an AWS Access Key ID here:
 
   https://aws-portal.amazon.com/gp/aws/developer/registration/index.html
 
-Subscription IDs are deprecated by Amazon and, in any case, not supported by
-Ruby/AWS. Please obtain and use an AWS Access Key ID instead.
+You may see mention of Subscription IDs at the above location. Subscription
+IDs are deprecated by Amazon and, in any case, not supported by Ruby/AWS.
+Please obtain and use an AWS Access Key ID instead.
 
 
 API version
 -----------
 
-Ruby/AWS currently requests the 2008-06-26 revision of the AWS API when
+Ruby/AWS currently requests the 2009-03-31 revision of the AWS API when
 performing its operations:
 
-  http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSECommerceService/2008-03-03/DG/
+  http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSECommerceService/2009-03-31/DG/
+
+However, a different version can be requested via the 'api' parameter in the
+user configuration file.
 
 
 Status and functionality
 ------------------------
 
-Ruby/AWS is currently alpha code. Amongst other things, this means:
+Ruby/AWS is currently beta software. Amongst other things, this means:
 
-- You will probably encounter _many_ bugs. You will certainly encounter a few.
-  If you tell me about them, I will endeavour to fix them.
+- You will encounter bugs, but hopefully not too many and none too serious.
+  Tell me about them and I will endeavour to fix them.
 
-- The documentation is incomplete, but steadily getting better. Version 0.0.1
-  had virtually none, so consider yourself lucky.
+- The documentation isn't what it could be, but it's hopefully enough to get
+  you up and running.
 
-- Not all features are currently implemented. Others may not be _fully_
-  implemented. Yet others may not be _properly_ implemented.
+- Not all features are currently implemented. Others may not yet be _fully_
+  implemented. Some, I probably haven't even thought of yet. Again, if
+  something's missing, tell me, and if it makes sense, I'll add it.
 
-  Nevertheless, the AWS v4 API is now more or less fully supported, with only
-  tiny gaps in the functionality of some operations.
+  In spite of this shortcomings, the AWS v4 API is more or less fully
+  supported, with only small gaps in the functionality of some operations.
 
   Currently implemented operations are:
   
@@ -123,29 +138,43 @@ Ruby/AWS is currently alpha code. Amongst other things, this means:
     CartModify
     CartClear
 
-  Version 0.4.0 also adds:
+  Version 0.4.0 added the remaining shopping-cart operation, which I had first
+  thought superfluous:
 
     CartGet
 
-  Multiple operations and batch requests are also supported, but not well
-  tested. Beware of bugs. There appear to also be (undocumented)
-  Amazon-imposed restrictions on the use of multiple operations and batch
-  requests, so some experimentation on your part will probably be required to
-  determine what works and what doesn't.
+  Multiple operations are supported, but not well tested (by me, anyway).
+
+  As of version 0.5.0, batch operations are fully supported, using the
+  Operation#batch method.
+  
+  Beware of bugs in this area. Quite apart from any mistakes I've made in the
+  implementation, there appear to also be (undocumented) Amazon-imposed
+  restrictions on the use of multiple operations and batch requests, so some
+  experimentation will be required on your part to determine what works and
+  what doesn't.
+
+  The 2008-08-19 version of the AWS API added the following operations:
+
+    VehiclePartLookup
+    VehiclePartSearch
+    VehicleSearch
+
+  These are supported by Ruby/AWS from version 0.5.0 onwards.
   
 - Classes, methods, constants and instance variables may change name in the
-  future. These various objects may appear from nowhere, change shape, grow,
-  shrink or disappear entirely. Indeed, this has already happened once in the
-  evolution from version 0.0.2 to version 0.1.0, breaking existing code in the
-  process.
+  future. New ones may appear from nowhere and existing ones may change shape,
+  grow, shrink or disappear without trace. Such fundamental changes will break
+  existing code, so I will endeavour to keep them to a minimum.
 
 In short, code written to work with this release of Ruby/AWS may stop working
-when you upgrade to the next release. In fact, it may even stop working
-_during_ this release, because it's possible there are circumstances that
-would cause an exception to be raised, that I haven't come across in my
-limited testing of the code.
+when you upgrade to the next. In fact, it may even stop working _during_ this
+release cycle, because it's possible there are fatal conditions that I didn't
+encounter in my limited testing of the code. It's also possible that future
+(possibly unannounced) changes made by Amazon will affect Ruby/AWS in
+ways I can't anticipate.
 
-That said, the Ruby/AWS's API is pretty stable at this point in time. I won't
+That said, the Ruby/AWS API is pretty stable at this point in time. I won't
 break any of the method interfaces without seriously considering the merits of
 doing so.
 
@@ -160,24 +189,66 @@ choose between an installation script and a RubyGems installation.
 Usage
 -----
 
-First of all, create either /etc/amazonrc or ~/.amazonrc. Its contents should
-look something like this:
+First of all, create either /etc/amazonrc or ~/.amazonrc as a plain text file.
+Its contents should look something like this:
 
-  key_id = '0Y44V8G41KCQPGF6PTR2'
+  # Any line that starts with a hash character is a comment.
+  key_id = '0Y44V8G41KCQPGF6XYZ2'
+  secret_key_id = 'k+kuddeoQJzUnImC0Hyy21J4xLWQc1hbvfQ+7F1G
   associate = 'fuzbarorg-21'
+  cache = false
   locale = 'uk'
+  encoding = 'iso-8859-15'
+
+The ability to include your secret key was a feature added in version 0.6.0 of
+Ruby/AWS. If you choose to do so, your requests to AWS will be signed for
+authentication by the Amazon's servers.
+
+Amazon plans to make this practice obligatory as of 15th August 2009, so I
+recommend that you adopt it well ahead of time.
+
+When Amazon checks for a valid signature, it does so by comparing its
+computation of the signature with the one supplied by the user. In doing this,
+Amazon uses the UTF-8 representation of parameter values that you supply, even
+if you use a different encoding.
+
+In order to have Ruby/AWS properly reencode your strings as UTF-8, you need
+to tell it which encoding you are using. The 'encoding' parameter can be used
+for this, but you can omit it if your strings are already UTF-8, because this
+is the default.
+
+As of version 0.5.0 of Ruby/AWS, the following locale-specific configuration
+syntax is also supported:
+
+  [global]
+  key_id = '0Y44V8G41KCQPGF6XYZ2'
+  secret_key_id = 'k+kuddeoQJzUnImC0Hyy21J4xLWQc1hbvfQ+7F1G
   cache = false
+  locale = 'uk'
+  encoding = 'iso-8859-15'
+  # Request a specific version of the API.
+  # api = '2008-03-03'
+
+  [uk]
+  associate = 'fuzbarorg-21'
 
-Because you're embedding your key ID in the file, you should protect it (on
-UNIX and equivalent systems) by making it mode 0600:
+  [us]
+  associate = 'fuzbarorg-20'
+
+This enables the use of a different associate tag for each locale, although,
+oddly enough, no-one has ever requested this feature.
+
+Because you're embedding your personal keys in the file, you should protect it
+(on UNIX and equivalent systems) by making it mode 0600:
 
 $ chmod 600 ~/.amazonrc
 
-If you define 'cache' to be 'true', you may also define 'cache_dir' to point
-to somewhere other the default, /tmp/amazon.
+If you define 'cache' to be 'true', you may want to also define 'cache_dir' to
+point to somewhere other the default cache directory, /tmp/amazon.
 
 If you want to place .amazonrc somewhere other than $HOME, you may set
-$AMAZONRCDIR in the environment, as this location is checked prior to $HOME.
+the $AMAZONRCDIR environment variable, as this location is checked prior to
+$HOME.
 
 If you're using Windows, $HOME is usually undefined, so a number of additional
 locations are checked for .amazonrc.
@@ -194,13 +265,13 @@ $AMAZONRCDIR and $HOME are defined, but only the path specified by $HOME
 contains a file called .amazonrc, it will not be found.
 
 If you want the user configuration file to be called something other than
-.amazonrc, you may define $AMAZONRCFILE in the environment.
+.amazonrc, you may define the $AMAZONRCFILE environment variable.
 
-Once you have your configuration file, you can get started on your code.
+Once you have your configuration file, you can get started writing your code.
  
-Here's some basic code, indicating how to perform an ItemSearch, probably the
+Here's a basic example, showing how to perform an ItemSearch, probably the
 most common type of AWS operation. Please see the ./examples subdirectory for
-more examples of working code.
+more examples of contrived, but working code.
 
 --
 
@@ -252,18 +323,20 @@ XML to Ruby mapping
 -------------------
 
 Here, I will discuss the mapping of the XML returned from AWS to native Ruby
-objects and data.
+objects and data. Note that the XML shown below was that returned at the time
+of writing and may look different to what you would see today if you were to
+execute the same request.
 
-When the following code:
+When this code:
 
-resp = req.search( is, rg )
+  resp = req.search( is, rg )
 
 was called in the previous section, the following URL was composed and sent to
 AWS as an HTTP GET operation:
 
 http://ecs.amazonaws.co.uk/onca/xml?AWSAccessKeyId=01234567890123456789&AssociateTag=calibanorg-21&Operation=ItemSearch&ResponseGroup=Small&SearchIndex=Books&Service=AWSECommerceService&Title=Ruby&Version=2008-03-03
 
-The following (truncated) AWS XML response was received:
+The following (abbreviated) AWS XML response was received:
 
 <ItemSearchResponse>
   <OperationRequest>
@@ -334,7 +407,7 @@ the following statements would all be true:
 - ItemAttributes, Author, Manufacturer, ProductGroup and Title would all be
   dynamically defined subclasses of AWSObject.
 
-- An instance of the ItemAttributes class would be instantiated, with instance
+- An instance of the ItemAttributes class would be created, with instance
   variables @author, @manufacturer, @product_group and @title.
 
 - To each of these instance variables would respectively be assigned an array
@@ -343,13 +416,15 @@ the following statements would all be true:
   would all be single element arrays, because there's only one instance of
   each kind of tag in the XML.
 
-- These lowest level objects would have no instance variables, because the
-  corresponding XML elements contain no children, just a value. These objects
-  are therefore directly assigned the value of the corresponding XML element.
+- The Author, Manufacturer, ProductGroup and Title objects would have no
+  instance variables of their own, because the corresponding XML elements
+  have no children, just a value. These objects are therefore directly
+  assigned the value in question.
 
-So, if resp is the top level AWSObject created and returned by calling
-Amazon::AWS::Search::Request#search on the Request object, and we'd like to
-know the ASIN of the first item found, we can refer to this as follows:
+So, if resp is the top level AWSObject created and returned by calling the
+Amazon::AWS::Search::Request#search method of the Request object, and we'd
+like to know the ASIN of the first item found, we can refer to this as
+follows:
 
   resp.item_search_response[0].items[0].item[0].asin
 
@@ -357,101 +432,105 @@ Looking at each component of this chain in turn:
 
 - resp is an AWSObject with a single instance variable, @item_search_response.
   This is because the entire XML response is contained within a single
-  <ItemSearchResponse> tag pair, so there's nothing else at the top level.
+  <ItemSearchResponse> element, so there's nothing else at the top level.
 
 - resp.item_search_response is assigned an array of ItemSearchResponse
-  objects. Because there's only a single <ItemSearchResponse> tag pair in the
+  objects. Because there's only a single <ItemSearchResponse> element in the
   whole document (containing the rest of the XML), the array contains only a
   single element.
 
 - resp.item_search_response[0] has an instance variable, @items, which is
   assigned an array of Items objects. Here again, only a single element is
-  created, because there's only one <Items> tag pair in the XML.
+  created, because there's only one corresponding <Items> element in the XML.
 
 - resp.item_search_response[0].items[0] has an instance variable, @item, which
-  is an array containing the item(s) returned by the search. It is a
+  is an array containing the actual item(s) located by the search. It is a
   multi-element array, however, because more than one item was found, as
   represented by the multiple <Item> elements in the XML.
 
 The creation of so many single element arrays is unfortunate. It makes user
 code verboser, uglier and consequently harder to read.
 
-Some such arrays do, in fact, have the potential to be multi-element, because
-the corresponding XML tag _can_ appear multiple times in the AWS response. A
-book, for example, _may_ have more than one <Author>. Many other types of
-array, however, are necessarily single element arrays. The same book, for
-example, is unlikely to have more than one <Title>.
+You might wonder why Ruby/AWS doesn't just assign the single element itself,
+rather than the array that contains it.
 
-As another concrete example, an ItemSearch will probably return many <Item>
+The answer is that most of these single-element arrays actually do have the
+potential to be multi-element, because the corresponding XML tag _can_ appear
+multiple times in an AWS response. A book, for example, _may_ have more than
+one <Author>. Many other types of array, however, are necessarily single
+element arrays. That same book, for example, is unlikely to have more than one
+<Title>. This is context-dependent and difficult to define programatically.
+
+As another concrete example, an ItemSearch will probably yield many <Item>
 elements in the <ItemSearchResponse>, but these will invariably be nested in a
-single <Items> tag. The @items instance variable of the ItemSearchResponse
-object will therefore always have a size of 1.
+single <Items> element. The @items instance variable of the ItemSearchResponse
+object will therefore always be a single-element array.
 
-In other words, the following statements are always true when an ItemSearch
-successfully finds items:
+In other words, the following statements are both invariably true when an
+ItemSearch successfully locates items:
 
 - resp.item_search_response[0].items.size == 1
 
 - resp.item_search_response[0].items[0].item.size >= 1
 
 The awkwardness of using such single element arrays is alleviated in Ruby/AWS
-by the use of the AWSArray subclass. This ever-so-slightly magic class of
-array allows element 0 of single-element arrays to be dereferenced using the
-base array name, i.e. without a subscript.
+by the use of the AWSArray subclass. An instance of this class differs from a
+standard array by allowing element 0 of a single-element array to be
+dereferenced using just the array name, i.e. without a subscript.
 
-In other words, a reference to foo.bar will actually return foo[0].bar, so
-long as foo.size == 1. Note that this only works because the array instance
-itself, foo, has no bar method, so the intention is unambiguous and foo can
-pass the call of bar down to foo[0]. foo.size, on the other hand, will
-_always_ refer to foo and never to foo[0], because Array#size _is_ an existing
-method.
+In other words, a reference to foo.bar will actually return foo[0].bar when
+foo.size == 1. Note that this can only work because the array itself, foo, has
+no bar method, so the intention is unambiguous and foo can delegate the
+invocation of the method to foo[0]. foo.size, on the other hand, will _always_
+invoke foo's bar method, never delegating to foo[0], because of the existence
+of the Array#size method.
 
 This allows the ASIN of the first item returned in the above XML to be
 referred to using the following shorthand:
 
   resp.item_search_response.items.item[0].asin
 
-It's worth reiterating that it's still necessary to refer to item[0] using a
-subscript in this example, because the <Items> tag in the XML contains
-multiple <Item> tags, making item.size > 1.
+It's worth reiterating that it's still necessary in this example to refer to
+item[0] using a subscript, because the <Items> element in the XML contains
+multiple <Item> elements, making item.size > 1.
 
 Use this syntactic shorthand to your advantage, but understand when you're
-likely to be dealing with a single element array and when a multiple. This
-will become apparent as you gain familiarity with AWS v4.
+likely to be dealing with a single element array vs. a multiple. This will
+become apparent as you gain familiarity with AWS v4.
 
-An exception will be thrown if an unknown method is called on a multi-element
-array, as it can't be known which element the method invocation should be
-passed to. This will almost certainly be the result of an incorrect assumption
-that an array contains only a single element when it actually contains
-multiple.
+An exception will be raised if an unknown method is called on a multi-element
+array, as it can't be known to which array element the method invocation
+should be delegated. This will almost certainly stem from an incorrect
+assumption that an array contains only a single element when, in actual fact,
+it contains multiple elements.
 
-A further important detail to note is that not all AWS operations in the same
+A further important detail to note is that not all AWS operations of the same
 class return the same data. For example, an ItemSearch using the Books search
-index will return items that, amongst other things, create an ItemAttributes
+index will return items that, amongst other things, have an ItemAttributes
 object containing further objects of class Author, ISBN, etc. An ItemSearch
-using the DVD search index, however, will have no Author or ISBN, but _will_
-have a Director and probably one or more Actor objects.
+using the DVD search index, by contrast, will have no Author or ISBN, but
+will likely have a Director and probably one or more Actor objects.
 
 Because of the disparity in same-class object attributes, Ruby/AWS returns
 *nil* when an attempt is made to dereference a non-existent instance variable.
-This approach was chosen, because it often cannot be known in advance
-precisely which data will be returned by a given search. Returning *nil* for
-non-existent attributes means that the user does not have to pepper their code
-with exception-handling clauses.
+This approach was chosen because, more often than not, it cannot be known in
+advance precisely which data will be returned by a given search operation.
+Returning *nil* for non-existent attributes saves the user from having to
+pepper their code with exception-handling clauses.
 
 For example:
 
-resp.item_search_response[0].items[0].item[0].item_attributes.director
+  resp.item_search_response[0].items[0].item[0].item_attributes.director
 
 will return *nil* for a book, because there was no corresponding Director
 element in the XML returned by AWS.
 
 Similarly:
 
-resp.item_search_response[0].items[0].item[0].item_attributes.foo_bar
+  resp.item_search_response[0].items[0].item[0].item_attributes.foo_bar
 
-will _always_ return *nil* for any item, because no kind of ItemSearch will
-ever yield an item with a FooBar attribute.
+will _always_ return *nil* for _any_ item, because no kind of ItemSearch will
+ever yield an item with a FooBar element.
 
 
 Parameter checking
@@ -462,18 +541,19 @@ particular type of search. For example, an ItemSearch can use a Sort parameter
 with a value of 'titlerank' if the SearchIndex is 'Books'. However, this value
 wouldn't make much sense in the 'Automotive' SearchIndex.
 
-The very presence of a certain parameter can be illegal in a certain contexts.
-For example, specifying the parameter 'Author' with any value would be
+The very presence of a certain parameter can be illegal in certain contexts.
+For example, specifying the parameter 'Author' with _any_ value would be
 nonsensical in the 'PetSupplies' SearchIndex.
 
 To complicate things further, the validity of parameters and their values
 differs not only by search type, but also by Amazon locale (amazon.com,
-amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, etc.) and is prone to change with each minor revision
-of the Amazon AWS API.
+amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, etc.) and is prone to change with minor revisions of
+the Amazon AWS API.
 
-Even worse, even the operations themselves can be illegal in some locales.
-TransactionLookup operations, for example, don't currently work in the UK
-locale, but do work in the US locale.
+Even worse, the operations themselves can be illegal in certain locales.
+TransactionLookup operations, for example, don't work in the UK locale at the
+time of writing, but do work in the US locale. As a rule of thumb, we can say
+that almost everything works in the US locale and _may_ work in others.
 
 Ruby/Amazon attempted to track these complex and dynamic relationships to
 prevent illegal or ineffective operations from being attempted. It was a
@@ -481,54 +561,61 @@ time-consuming and tedious task to track the evolving API (which often changed
 in subtle ways without prior [or even belated] notice from Amazon), find all
 of the corner cases and handle undocumented quirks.
 
-With the highly dynamic nature of the Amazon environment, plus the sheer
-number of operations, parameters, possible legal values and locales in the AWS
-v4 API, this strict approach must track too many combinations and permutations
-to be practical. Ruby/AWS therefore no longer tries.
+With the highly dynamic nature of the Amazon environment and its many locales,
+plus the sheer number of operations, parameters and their possibly legal
+values in the AWS v4 API, this strict approach would be completely
+impractical for Ruby/AWS. It therefore doesn't even try.
 
 Instead, it's now up to you to ensure that you perform legal operations and
-pass in sensible parameters and values for the locale in which you're working.
+pass sensible parameters and values for the locale in which you're working.
+The context is now your responsibility.
 
-Parameter name checking, however, _is_ still performed. For example,
-performing an ItemSearch and passing in a 'Keywrds' parameter would generate
-an exception, because 'Keywrds' doesn't exist as a parameter in any context.
-Here, 'Keywords' was obviously what was intended and a simple typo was made by
-the user.
+The one exception to this rule is search index checking for ItemSearch
+operations. Code that attempts to use an invalid SearchIndex will raise an
+exception. The list of allowable search indices can be found in the
+Amazon::AWS::Operation::ItemSearch::SEARCH_INDICES array.
 
-Similarly, the SearchIndex must also actually exist, so 'Music' or 'Beauty'
-would be valid, but 'Furniture' or 'MobilePhones' would not, because Amazon
-does not (currently) offer such indices.
+Of course, even this check exposes the user to the risk that Amazon may later
+add new search indices, which would continue to be unrecognised and ruled
+invalid by Ruby/AWS until an update was issued. Whilst I have chosen to
+implement this very basic level of checking, it may be removed in the future
+if it becomes impractical to keep it current.
 
-In conclusion, we can say that broad checks are performed to determine whether
-a search _could_ conceivably be valid in any context, but it's up to you to
-determine whether the search actually _is_ valid in your particular context.
+In short, the validity of what goes into a search operation is your own
+responsibility: garbage in, garbage out.
 
 Thankfully, with the AWS Developer Guide at your side, it's largely common
 sense which parameters and values can be used with each type of search. It's
-less obvious when these differ by locale, such as 'Beauty' being a valid
-SearchIndex in the 'us' locale, bot not in the 'uk'. AWS unfortunately abounds
-with such inconsistencies.
+less obvious when these differ by locale. For example, the 'Beauty'
+SearchIndex was valid in the 'us' locale, but not in the 'uk' locale until the
+2009-01-06 revision of the AWS API.
+
+Unfortunately, AWS abounds with such inconsistencies and they are prone to
+change at any time. Amazon, themselves, seem to struggle to document all of
+these quirks, a situation probably aggravated by the US focus of the AWS
+staff.
 
-The only way to apprise yourself of such quirks is to read Amazon's latest
-developer documentation (and closely follow the release notes of each minor
-API revision to make sure things haven't changed).
+The only way to apprise yourself of such peculiarities is to read Amazon's
+latest developer documentation (and closely follow the release notes of each
+minor API revision to make sure things haven't changed). If you don't want to
+be exposed to such API changes, use the 'api' parameter in the user
+configuration file to request a particular version of the API.
 
 The AWS Developer Connection pages may also be of use to you. In particular,
 the forum for discussing AWS has proved useful to me over the years:
 
   http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/forum.jspa?forumID=9
 
-For those illegal operations that make it through and are passed to the Amazon
-servers, the good news is that Amazon carries out extensive request-time
-parameter checking in AWS v4 (much better than in v3) and will generate an
-error when an illegal set of parameters and values is given. Ruby/AWS will
-dynamically generate an exception class for the reported type of error and
-raise an exception of that class.
+For those illegal operations that make it through to the Amazon servers, the
+good news is that Amazon carries out extensive run-time parameter checking in
+AWS v4 (much better than in v3) and will generate an error when an illegal set
+of parameters and/or values is given. Ruby/AWS will dynamically generate a
+class for the type of error reported and raise an exception of that class.
 
 Using this approach, Ruby/AWS doesn't have to perform checks that Amazon will
-perform later anyway. This helps keep the code base leaner, the library
-faster, and reduces the chances of Ruby/AWS disallowing operations that will
-one day be allowed in a minor revision of AWS.
+perform, anyway. This helps keep the code base leaner, the library faster, and
+reduces the chance that Ruby/AWS will disallow an operation that becomes valid
+following a minor revision of AWS.
 
 
 Documentation
@@ -539,14 +626,14 @@ command, executed from the directory created when you unpacked the archive:
 
   rdoc -SUx CVS lib
 
-The documentation on how to use this library is currently incomplete, but that
-is steadily being remedied.
+The documentation on how to use this library is currently incomplete, but it
+should be enough to get you started.
 
 You can also use the Ruby/AWS mailing-list:
 
   http://www.caliban.org/mailman/listinfo/ruby-aws
 
-to discuss all Ruby/AWS-related subjects and issues.
+to discuss any Ruby/AWS-related subjects and issues.
 
 
 Examples
@@ -558,8 +645,8 @@ The ./examples subdirectory contains working examples of code.
 Licence
 -------
 
-This software is copyright (C) 2008 Ian Macdonald and distributed under the
-terms of the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, a copy of which is included.
+This software is copyright (C) 2008-2009 Ian Macdonald and distributed under
+the terms of the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, a copy of which is included.
 
 -- 
 Ian Macdonald