Locales

Amazon is a world-wide venture. Amazon Associates Web Service is as well. As you saw in earlier chapters, Amazon Associates Web Service operates in six locales:

Each of these locales is serviced by an Amazon web site that uses the local language, local customs, and local formatting. For example, when you look at the DE homepage for Amazon, you see the listings in German. If you purchased an item, you would find the price in Euros, and, if you were to purchase a movie, you would find that the movie rating would conform to the movie rating system used in Germany. Amazon Associates Web Service responses contain the same localized information. Amazon Associates Web Service determines the correct locale by examining the endpoint in the request. For example, the endpoints for the DE locale are:

http://ecs.amazonaws.de/onca/xml
https://ecs.amazonaws.de/onca/xml

For a list of the other endpoints, see "Making REST Requests."

Currency, for example is localized, as follows:

<SubTotal>
  <Amount>4082</Amount>
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode>
  <FormattedPrice>$40.82</FormattedPrice>
</SubTotal>

The values for CurrencyCode are similar to the names of Amazon Associates Web Service locales. In the example above, the currency is formatted according to the conventions in the US locale.