Some items come in a variety of media formats. For example, a book might
come in hardback, paperback, audio cassette, audio CD, and DVD. A person buying an
item in one format might be interested in the same item presented in a different
format. To return all of the media formats of a single item, Amazon Associates Web
Service provides the AlternateVersions response group. The catch is, the response
group only works with items in the Books or ForeignBooks product categories. That
means, for
ItemSearch
and
ItemLookup, the search index must be Books or, in non-US
locales, ForeignBooks, and, for
ItemLookup, the specified item must be a book or foreign book.
http://ecs.amazonaws.com/onca/xml?
Service=AWSECommerceService&
Operation=ItemSearch&
AWSAccessKeyId=[AWS Access Key ID]&
AssociateTag=ws&
SearchIndex=Books&
Keywords=potter&
MerchantId=All&
ResponseGroup=AlternateVersions&
Version=2006-06-28This request returns books and media in other formats that contain "potter" in their title or product description, as shown in the following snippet of the response:
<AlternateVersions>
<AlternateVersion>
<ASIN>030728364X</ASIN>
<Title>Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)
</Title>
<Binding>Audio Cassette</Binding>
</AlternateVersion>
<AlternateVersion>
<ASIN>0307283658</ASIN>
<Title>Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)
</Title>
<Binding>Audio CD</Binding>
</AlternateVersion>
</AlternateVersions>This response shows that the book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is available on audio cassette and CD.