This portion of the ECS documentation describes the XML output that implements the conceptual data model. We will assume that you are familiar with the basics of XML and understand the terminology of child/parent elements.
| Description | ||
|---|---|---|
| Items/ | ||
| Request/ | Header that returns the input parameter values that were used to generate the response to this request. | |
| TotalResults | Number of products in the current collection, if the request was a search resulting in potentially more than one result. | |
| TotalPages | For search requests, the number of pages (at ten products per page) of products in the current collection. | |
| Item/ | One instance for each product sold. Every product in the Amazon database had a unique Item/ element. Within this element are product characteristics, customer reviews, product variations, pricing and availability information, links to similar products and accessories, browsable product categories, and more. |
Each product in the Amazon database has its own Item/ element. These elements can occur in three different places:
Items/Item/ - Returned by ItemSearch, ItemLookup and SimilarityLookup. The product element returned from searching ECS.
Item/Variations/Item/ - Returned when the current item is a parent product, which cannot itself be purchased, only its children (variations) can be purchased (e.g., you cannot buy a T-shirt, the parent product, but you can buy a large, red T-shirt, the child/variation product).
List/ListItem/Item/ - Returned when a wish list or Listmania list is returned from a ListLookup operation.
So, in effect, the Item/ element occurs as the product element returned from database searches, but can also be repeated as a child element of List/ListItem/ for lists or Item/Variations/, if variations exist.
Every product record can contain the elements listed in the table below.
Note that the only required element for every product is the ASIN. The ASIN identifies products uniquely in ECS. Because each Amazon Web site has its own database, the ASIN for a specific product will be different on each site.
Child elements in an Item/ element
| Description | ||
|---|---|---|
| Item/ | ||
| ASIN | The Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) is the unique identifier for each product in the database for the current Amazon Web site. | |
| Errors/ | Details of any errors that occurred in the retrieval of this product record. | |
| DetailPageURL | URL for the Amazon page which describes this product. | |
| SalesRank | Ranking of sales volume against other products on the current Amazon Web page. The most popular product sold has rank 1, a sales rank value less than 100 is very popular, and low-volume products will have ranks with very high numbers. | |
| SmallImage/ | URL and dimensions (in pixels) of a small image (thumbnail) of the product. | |
| MediumImage/ | URL and dimensions (in pixels) of a medium-sized image of the product. | |
| LargeImage/ | URL and dimensions (in pixels) of a large image of the product. | |
| ItemAttributes/ | Parent element that contains elements that describe the product's characteristics and features. Over 200 distinct subfields specify attributes from weight and dimensions to color, stone clarity (jewelry) to the number of tracks on a music CD. A single product typically has a dozen or so of these fields specified, for a complete, computer-searchable description. | |
| OfferSummary/ | Summarizes the number of merchants offering this product for sale, along with the lowest price for new, used, refurbished or collectible versions of this product. | |
| Offers/ | ECS provides information for the products sold by many vendors, not just Amazon. For each vendor that sells the current product, offer information specifies prices and availability, allowing you to get competitive pricing information and research new, used, refurbished and collectible inventories for this product. | |
| VariationSummary/ | Summary of product variations, if applicable. | |
| Variations/ | Some products are available in multiple colors/sizes/styles. This is most common for apparel, jewelry and sporting goods. For such products, the parent object contains the information that is common to all variations of the product. The product variations are stored as child objects, in the Variations/ element. So if the current product is, for example a T-shirt, the Variations/ might include a Small red T-shirt and a Medium-sized blue T-shirt. When a product has variations, it has no offers (cannot be purchased itself), since only the variations are specific products available for sale. | |
| CustomerReviews/ | One of the most useful features of the Amazon Web sites is their interactivity--customers from around the world contribute reviews of products and these reviews (and the customers' product ratings) can be retrieved from ECS for display by you application or Web site. | |
| EditorialReviews/ | Editorial reviews are culled from a variety of professional and published sources. As available, they provide additional information about products. | |
| SimilarProducts/ | When researching a product, it's always useful to see a list of similar products. Amazon keeps links to similar products to allow a more comprehensive browsing experience. | |
| Accessories/ | List of products that are accessories to this product (e.g., if this product is a camera, accessories could include a camera bag and lenses). | |
| Tracks/ | Songs (tracks) on this music recording (if applicable). | |
| BrowseNodes/ | Each product in the Amazon database has been categorized in a variety of standardized, browsable ways. This element contains a list of product categories to which this product belongs. | |
| ListmaniaLists/ | Another innovative feature of Amazon's Web sites is the ability for customers to create their own lists of favorite items, on any subject of their choosing. Customers have contributed lists of books on a wide variety of topic areas, grilling equipment that they liked, safe toys, etc. Each product that is mentioned in a list is linked to that list, to allow easy browsing of customer categorizations and comments. |
The Item/ element's major child elements are:
Related products in the Amazon product database can be located:
Through searching, using search indexes, browse nodes, keywords or various other searches (e.g., title, etc.)
Through links to accessories and similar products using response groups (e.g., Accessories, Similarities, CartSimilarities, etc.)
Through Listmania Lists (found through ListSearch or ListLookup)
For each Amazon store, there is a search index that allows searching within that store.
In addition, every product has been categorized by one or more areas called browse nodes. Browse nodes are hierarchical product categories that return the following data structure:
| BrowseNode/ | ||
| BrowseNodeId | Used for searching by browse node | |
| Name | ||
| Children | ||
| Ancestors |