Implementing an Amazon Associates Web Service Request

The following C# code implements an ItemSearch request in which the customer enters values for SearchIndex and Keywords. Comments are inline.

	Note
	The GettingStartedGuideSample.com.amazonaws.ecs package is auto-generated when you use the .NET "Add Web Reference…" dialog.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using GettingStartedGuideSample.com.amazonaws.ecs;

namespace GettingStartedGuideSample
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      // Set default args if two are not supplied
      if (args.Length != 2)
      {
        args = new string[] { "DVD", "Matrix" };
      }

      // Get searchIndex and keywords from the command line
      string searchIndex = args[0];
      string keywords = args[1];

      // Create an instance of the Amazon Associates Web Service service
      AWSECommerceService ecs = new AWSECommerceService();

      // Create ItemSearch wrapper
      ItemSearch search = new ItemSearch();
      search.AssociateTag = "[Your Associate ID]";
      search.AWSAccessKeyId = "[Your ID]";
      search.Version = "2008-04-07";

      // Create a request object
      ItemSearchRequest request = new ItemSearchRequest();

      // Fill request object with request parameters
      request.ResponseGroup = new string[] { "ItemAttributes" };

      // Set SearchIndex and Keywords 
      request.SearchIndex = searchIndex;
      request.Keywords = keywords;

      // Set the request on the search wrapper
      search.Request = new ItemSearchRequest[] { request };


      try
      {
        //Send the request and store the response 
        //in response
        ItemSearchResponse response = 
          ecs.ItemSearch(search);

The following Perl code implements an Keywords request in which the customer enters values for SearchIndex and Keywords. Comments are inline.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use LWP::UserAgent qw($ua get);
use MIME::Base64;
use XML::XPath;
use Date::Format;

# Retrieve command line args for SearchIndex and Keywords
die "Usage: $0 <space-separated entry for Search Index and Keywords>\n"
    unless @ARGV;
my $searchIndex = $ARGV[0];
my $keywords = $ARGV[1];

# Define the parameters in the REST request.
# Customer cannot change the following values.
my $EndPoint = "http://ecs.amazonaws.com/onca/xml";
my $service = "AWSECommerceService";
my $accesskey = "[INSERT YOUR ACCESS KEY ID HERE]";
my $operation = "ItemSearch";
my $version = "2008-04-07";

# Assemble the REST request URL.
my $request =
    "$EndPoint?" .
    "Service=$service&" .
    "AWSAccessKeyId=$accesskey&" .
    "Operation=$operation&" .
    "Keywords=$keywords&" .
    "SearchIndex=$searchIndex&" .
    "Version=$version" ;

# Send the request using HTTP GET.
my $ua = new LWP::UserAgent;
$ua->timeout(30);
my $response = $ua->get($request);
my $xml = $response->content;

The following PHP code implements an ItemSearch request in which the customer enters values for SearchIndex and Keywords. Store this sample code in a file named SimpleStore.php. Comments are inline.

<?php

//Enter your IDs
define("Access_Key_ID", "[Your Access Key ID]");
define("Associate_tag", "[Your Associate Tag ID]");

//Set up the operation in the request
function ItemSearch($SearchIndex, $Keywords){

//Set the values for some of the parameters.
$Operation = "ItemSearch";
$Version = "2008-04-07";
$ResponseGroup = "ItemAttributes,Offers";
//User interface provides values 
//for $SearchIndex and $Keywords

//Define the request
$request=
     "http://ecs.amazonaws.com/onca/xml"
   . "?Service=AWSECommerceService"
   . "&AssociateTag=" . Associate_tag
   . "&AWSAccessKeyId=" . Access_Key_ID
   . "&Operation=" . $Operation
   . "&Version=" . $Version
   . "&SearchIndex=" . $SearchIndex
   . "&Keywords=" . $Keywords
   . "&ResponseGroup=" . $ResponseGroup;

//Catch the response in the $response object
$response = file_get_contents($request);
$parsed_xml = simplexml_load_string($response);
printSearchResults($parsed_xml, $SearchIndex);
}
?>

The first part of this implementation constructs the ItemSearch request. The first parameters in the list are those that the customer cannot alter, including the endpoint, the service name, the Access Key ID, Associate Tag, Amazon Associates Web Service version number, and operation name.

The last two parameters, SearchIndex and Keywords, are values set by the customer through the user interface. A SearchIndex is similar to a product category, such as Books, Automobile, or Jewelry. Keywords is a word or phrase. The request selects items in the specified search index that have the Keywords value in their title or description.

The last two parameter values are entered by a customer using a web application, for example:

<table align='left'>
<?php 
    print("
      <form name='SearchTerms' action=SimpleStore.php method='GET'>
      <tr><td valign='top'>
        <b>Choose a Category</b><br>
          <select name='SearchIndex'>
            <option value='Books'>Books</option>
            <option value='DVD'>DVD</option>
            <option value='Music'>Music</option>
          </select>
      </td></tr>
      <tr><td><b>Enter Keywords</b><br><input type='text' name='Keywords' size='40'/></td></tr>
      <input type='hidden' name='Action' value='Search'>
      <input type='hidden' name='CartId' value=$CartId>
      <input type='hidden' name='HMAC' value=$HMAC>
      <tr align='center'><td><input type='submit'/></td></tr>
      </form> ");
?>
</table>

This example uses a table to format a web page, which is composed of an HTML form. An HTML select statement provides a drop-down list of value choices for SearchIndex. An HTML input statement provides a text box for the customer to enter the Keywords value.

The request is sent using the PHP command, file_get_contents.