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Common Request Parameters

The following table describes the request parameters that can be used by all Amazon Associates Web Service operations.

ParameterDefinitionReq'd?Valid Values
AssociateTag An alphanumeric token that uniquely identifies an Associate. This token is the means by which Amazon identifies the Associate to credit for a sale. If a request is made without identifying an Associate, Associate fees are not paid by Amazon. If the AssociateTag is included in the CartCreate request, the value for AssociateTag is automatically included in the PurchaseURL, which is returned by CartCreate. To obtain an Associate Tag, go to http://aws.amazon.com. For more information, see Associate Tag.No An alphanumeric token distributed by Amazon that uniquely identifies an Associate. Use this value in all requests to receive credit for the customer's purchase.
AWSAccessKeyId An alphanumeric token that uniquely identifies a seller. To get an AWSAccessKeyId, go to http://aws.amazon.com.. Yes Access Key ID distributed by Amazon
ContentType Specifies the format of the content in the response. Generally, ContentType should only be changed for REST requests when the Style parameter is set to an XSLT stylesheet. For example, to transform your Amazon Associates Web Service response into HTML, set ContentType to text/html. See Style. No text/xml (Default) text/html
MerchantId

An alphanumeric token distributed by Amazon that uniquely identifies a merchant. The value can be:

  • All—Items sold by all merchants are included in the response.

  • Specific merchant—A specific merchant ID. Amazon distributes Merchant IDs to vendors.

  • Amazon (Default)—Amazon is a specific merchant ID. It is called out separately because it is the default value of the parameter. That is, when you do not specify a merchant ID in a request, only items sold by Amazon are returned. If a request returns no results, try changing the value of MerchantId to "All".

  • FeaturedBuyBoxMerchant—Merchant identified as the Buy Box Winner, which is the vendor associated with the item listed in the Buy Box on an item's detail page. The Buy Box contains the default seller on an item detail page that the customer buys from when they click an Add to Cart button.

No

All

Amazon (Default)

BoxMerchant

FeaturedBuyBox

Specific Merchant ID

Operation Specifies the Amazon Associates Web Service operation to execute. Yes An Amazon Associates Web Service operation, for example, ItemLookup
Service Specifies the Amazon Associates Web Service service. There is only one value for all Amazon Associates Web Service operations. Yes AWSECommerceService
Style Controls the format of the data returned in Amazon Associates Web Service responses. Style only pertains to REST requests. Set this parameter to "XML," the default, to generate a pure XML response. Set this parameter to the URL of an XSLT stylesheet to have Amazon Associates Web Service transform the XML response. See ContentType. No

XML (Default)

URL of an XSLT stylesheet.

Validate Prevents an operation from executing. Set the Validate parameter to True to test your request without actually executing it. When present, Validate must equal True; the default value is False. If a request is not actually executed (Validate=True), only a subset of the errors for a request may be returned because some errors (for example, no_exact_matches) are only generated during the execution of a request. No False (Default) True
Version The version of the Amazon Associates Web Service software and WSDL to use. By default, the 2005-10-05 version is used. Alternately, specify a software version, such as 2006-02-15. For a list of valid version numbers, refer to the Amazon Associates Web Service Release Notes. Note that the latest version of Amazon Associates Web Service is not used by default.No Valid WSDL version date, for example, 2006-02-15. The default is 2005-10-05.
XMLEscaping Specifies whether responses are XML-encoded in a single pass or a double pass. By default, XMLEscaping is Single, and Amazon Associates Web Service responses are encoded only once in XML. For example, if the response data includes an ampersand character (&), the character is returned in its regular XML encoding (&). If XMLEscaping is Double, the same ampersand character is XML-encoded twice (&). The Double value for XMLEscaping is useful in some clients, such as PHP, that do not decode text within XML elements. No Single (Default) Double

AssociateTag

The AssociateTag parameter is optional in Amazon Associates Web Service requests unless you use it to create a remote shopping cart. Once a cart is associated with an Associate Tag, you must use it in every other cart operation related to that shopping cart. Otherwise, you will receive an error.

If you do not include an Associate Tag in the CartCreate request, you will not receive credit as an Associate for the purchase of the items in the customer's shopping cart. If you create a remote shopping cart and later want to add an Associate Tag, you will have to do so manually in the PurchaseURL value.

AssociateTag is locale-specific, that is, for each locale in which you want to earn Associate revenue, you must get an Associate Tag. If you try to use a US-locale Associate Tag, for example, in the JP locale, you will not earn Associate revenue.

Be careful when specifying an AssociateTag because errors are not returned for incorrect values.

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