These release notes describe changes in the latest version of Amazon E-Commerce Service (ECS), a summary of known issues, and last-minute information that could not be included in the documentation.
For all locales, OfferListingId and ExchangeId are now returned by all operations that return OfferListings. Previously, non-US locales did not return OfferListingId. Affected: ItemSearch, ItemLookup, ListLookup and SimilarityLookup. (ECS 4.0)
For all locales, OfferingId and ExchangeId are now returned by all operations that set “offer=ALL”. Previously, non-US locales did not return OfferingId. Affected: KeywordSearch, AsinSearch, BrowseNodeSearch, TextStream, PowerSearch, UpcSearch, AuthorSearch, ArtistSearch, ActorSearch, DirectorSearch, ManufacturerSearch, ListmaniaSearch, WishlistSearch, SimilaritySearch and BlendedSearch. (ECS 3.0)
For all locales, Amazon.com OfferListing is now included in return values for operations that set “MerchantId=All”. Previously, Amazon.com was not included in return values for non-US locales. Affects: ItemSearch, ItemLookup, ListLookup, SimilarityLookup. (ECS 4.0)
For all locales, Amazon.com Offer is now included in the ThirdPartyProductDetails element for all operations that set “offer=All.” Previously, Amazon.com was not included in return values for non-US locales. Affects: KeywordSearch, AsinSearch, BrowseNodeSearch, TextStream, PowerSearch, UpcSearch, AuthorSearch, ArtistSearch, ActorSearch, DirectorSearch, ManufacturerSearch, ListmaniaSearch, WishlistSearch, SimilaritySearch and BlendedSearch. (ECS 3.0)
The HealthPersonalCare search index is now supported in the UK locale.
The German and Japanese translations of OfferingType and Condition strings needed to be revised in ECS version 3.0.
These strings were translated in the December 30, 2004 release and, in this release, have been changed back into English.
US-formatted prices were sometimes returned in response to queries in the UK locale.
Prices are now formatted correctly.
In ECS version 4.0, <Nickname> was not returned in the JP locale.
<Nickname> is now returned in the JP locale.
In the latest release of version 3.0, <SellerNickname> returned “Not Available.”
<SellerNickname> now returns appropriate results.
In some operations, when ResponseGroup was set to “Offers”, “Offers” was not returned.
When the UPC was used in an ItemLookup, “Offers” was not returned even though it was specified in ResponseGroup. The “Offers” data set is now returned when specified in ItemLookupResponse.
Invalid OfferListingId values in CartCreate and CartAdd operations returned a generic InternalError.
These errors are now messaged as InvalidParameter errors.
Marketplace offers are not returned when one or more of the letters in an ASIN were lower case and MerchantId=All.
ASINs are now case insensitive.
OfferSummary values were empty for non-US locales.
OfferSummary now returns appropriate data.
ItemLookup returned all Variations in a single page, however, only the first ten items contained offers.
ItemLookup now returns offers for all items when the VariationPage parameter is set to “All” or omitted, because the default is “All.” If you specify the number of pages as an integer, ItemLookup returns that many pages with ten offers on each page.
Prices were incorrectly formatted in ECS 3.0.
Price formats have been corrected so that, for example, 1039.99 (in pounds) is now displayed as 1,039.99, and EUR 1524,90 is displayed as EUR 1.524,90.
In a blended search and keyword search, the number of results reported varied considerably from the actual number of results.
A blended search, for example, could report that there were many results where, in reality, all but two of them might be excluded results. This misrepresentation of the results has been corrected.
BlendedSearch did not include the video search index.
BlendedSearch now searches the VHS index.
Blended searches sometimes returned irrelevant results.
Blended search results have been improved.
The BrowseNodeLookup request produced errors when multiple BrowseNodeId parameters were included in one request even though multiple parameters were allowed in the schema.
BrowseNodeLookup now supports multiple BrowseNodeId parameters.
MultiOperation does not support BrowseNodeLookup.
MultiOperation combines the results of multiple operations. When BrowseNodeLookup was combined with any operation, the results of BrowseNodeLookup were missing. BrowseNodeLookupResponse is now included in MultiOperationResponse so that BrowseNodeLookup results are returned.
CustomerContentLookup did not return CustomerReviews.
CustomerContentLookup now returns CustomerReviews.
In CustomerContentLookup, when you set ResponseGroup to CustomerFull, TotalReviews and TotalReviewsPages were not returned.
TotalReviews and TotalReviewsPages are now returned in the CustomerFull ResponseGroup.
CustomerContentLookup sometimes failed to return a WishList.
The CustomerContentLookup operation now consistently returns WishLists.
Some of the sorting values in ItemSearch requests did not work as documented.
All sorting values now work as documented.
ItemSearch requests specifying the “Large” ResponseGroup produced multiple <ListName> elements.
ItemSearch requests specifying the “Large” ResponseGroup now return only one <ListName> element for each List.
The E-Commerce Service (ECS) did not return AmazonMinimumAge or ManufacturerMinimumAge for toys.
ECS now returns these parameters.
A variety of descriptive values, such as CPUSpeed, SubscriptionLength, and SystemMemorySize, were returned without units.
All parameter values are now returned with units.
The error message for a malformed HMAC value was errantly reported as a bad cart ID.
This error message has been corrected to read, “Your request contains an invalid AssociateTag, CartId and HMAC combination. Please verify the AssociateTag, CartId, HMAC and retry. Remember that all Cart operations must pass in the CartId, AssociateTag, and HMAC that were returned to you during the CartCreate operation.”
The ItemNotAccessible error message was incorrect.
The ItemNotAccessible error message has been corrected to say, “This item is not accessible through ECS.” It had read, “This item is not accessible through AWS.”
When the MerchantId parameter was set to “Featured,” the ItemLookup, SimilarityLookup, ListLookup, and ItemSearch operations returned FeaturedBuyBoxMerchant items only.
Now, MerchantId, when set to “Featured,” returns the items that are offered by the merchants listed on the Featured tab on the web page.
The SimilarityLookup operation did not return a NoSimilarities error when multiple products that do have similarities are reported to have no similarities.
The SimilarityLookup operation now appropriately reports NoSimilarities errors.
ListLookup sometimes failed to return a WishList complaining that its list ID is not valid, when, in fact, it is.
Any WishList with a valid ID is now returned.
Invalid XML characters were sometimes returned in responses.
Amazon now returns well-formed XML documents.
Sometimes, responses were not correctly transcoded to UTF-8.
Now all responses are returned in UTF-8 encoding.
When an HMAC value included a plus sign (+), the shopper received an error when trying to purchase their items.
Plus signs in HMAC values are now handled correctly.
Some Associates' link types and click-throughs were reported incorrectly in ECS 4.0
Although ordered items were tracked correctly, some link types and click-throughs were incorrectly reported for Associates using ECS 4.0.
Changes to Language and AudioFormat elements in ItemAttributes
ItemAttributes now returns a Languages element that encapsulates the Name, Type and AudioFormat for that Language.
Changes to Lists element in ListSearch Response
WishList item data such as ListId, ListURL, ListType, TotalItems, TotalPages, DateCreated and CustomerName was returned in separate List elements within Lists. We now return all of the data for each WishList item in a single List element.
Artist support in ItemSearch for UK locale
Artist is now supported as an ItemSearch parameter in SearchIndex : Classical for the UK locale.
Default input content encoding may not be UTF-8
This fix ensures that the default input content encoding is UTF-8.
Import ASINs do not return images
Some import ASINs did not return images. This fix ensures that images are returned for import ASINs.
EditorialReview nesting issue
Each EditorialReview element was nested in it's own EditorialReviews element. This has been fixed so that all EditorialReview elements will not appear as sub-element's of a single EditorialReviews element.
ItemSearch using Manufacturer broken in JP
This fix ensures that ItemSearch using Manufacturer in JP locale now works.
CE ASINs with variations are not returning a list of valid merchants
The ItemLookup operation wasn't retuning a list of valid merchants for CE ASINs with variations. This has been fixed.
Need to add Sort values for DE search indexes
This fix ensures that sort values for DE search indexes are supported.
MultiOperation requests do not encode the UK pound sign correctly
This fix ensures that the UK pound sign is encoded correctly in MultiOperation requests.
ListLookup response for WishList missing elements for UK, DE
This fix (for the UK and DE locales) ensures that DateCreated and CustomerName elements are appearing in the ListLookup response.This also fixes the missing ListItemId, DateAdded,QuantityDesired,QuantityReceived, Seller and OfferAttributes elements.
A new operation is available in this release, BrowseNodeLookup, which returns a new response group, BrowseNodeInfo.
Seller rating should not exist in ItemLookup and ItemSearch
The AverageFeedbackRating and TotalFeedback elements were not returning valid information for ItemLookup and ItemSearch operations. These are no longer supported in ItemSearch and ItemLookup. Users can retrieve AverageFeedbackRating and TotalFeedback from the SellerLookup operation.
RegionCode element not returned for Region Code 0
This fix ensures that ECS returns the RegionCode element for Region Code 0.
DVD and VHS requests return TheatricalRelease
When an ItemSearch request is made within the DVD, VHS, or Video SearchIndexes, the target is returned with the TheatricalRelease, if one exists.
Documentation does not include list of possible Availability strings
The documentation does not include include a list of possible Availability strings. Without them, it is difficult to verify the availability of an item.
Bad ASINs, Exchanges, Lists, etc. within sets of results are not messaged as an unavailable data issue
Results from services like Similarities or WishList don't map to valid ASINs or Exchanges. As a result, a short number of responses are returned on that page.
Documentation needs information on the About field
The About element will only be returned for merchants. The About element will be returned for Marketplace Sellers in the future.
Documentation does not reflect response group changes
The SOAP samples in the documentation do not show that the response groups are no longer versioned.
Documentation does not reflect ListInfo response group changes
The documentation does not mention the limited information available.
Parent ASINs do not contain browse nodes
ItemSearch and ItemLookup operations do not return a browse node for parent ASINs. A parent ASIN is an item for which variations are available.
Documentation does not include URLs for finding list IDs for each locale
On the List Operations article page, there is a a box that shows the URL formats for finding list IDs for registries, wish lists, and listmania lists. The URLs shows are for the US only.
CustomerName and DateCreated are not returned by ListLookup
The ListLookup operation does not return the CustomerName or DateCreated elements.
ReleaseDate not returned for some items
The ReleaseDate element is usually only returned for books, music, VHS, and DVD items. Few other products have a release date in the Amazon catalog.
Toys search index missing from DE
The Toys search index is not currently implemented for the DE locale (Amazon.de).
Parent ASINs are not clearly labeled as such
Parent ASINs (items that have variations) are not clearly labeled as such. Currently, you must request the VariationSummary response group to determine whether or not an item is a parent ASIN.
"ZShops" search index is currently "zShops"
The "ZShops" search index is currently implemented as "zShops" (lowercase "z"). It will be changed to the capitalized form in a later release. This behavior applies to the SellerListingSearch operation.
Featured merchants' items do not appear in the SellerListingSearch
The documentation does not reflect that featured merchants' items do not appear in the SellerListingSearch.
Values of SellerListing response group are not localized
Some values of the SellerListing reponse group are not localized for the JP locale.
OfferInfo not a valid response group value
The documentation lists OfferInfo as a valid response group value when it is not a valid value for a response group.
OfferFull not listed as valid value in Help documentation
The OfferFull response group is not listed in the documentation as a valid value for the About parameter in a Help operation.
Browse nodes do not appear for parent ASINs with variations
Browse nodes currently do not appear for parent ASINs for variations.
Out of range ProductPage returns no error in ListLookup
When using the ListLookup operation, specifying a ProductPage parameter above the range of possible values does not return an error. Instead, ECS returns the highest available page. For example, if there are six pages of results available, setting ProductPage to "7" returns page six instead of producing an error.
ListLookup response for WishList missing elements for UK, DE
In the UK (Amazon.co.uk) and DE (Amazon.de) locales, a WishList lookup is missing the DateCreated and CustomerName elements, and the ListURL element appears at the bottom of the XML response instead of the top. Also, for each Item node in the WishList, the listitemId, DateAdded, QuantityDesired, QuantityReceived, Seller, and OfferAttributes elements do not appear. Under the OfferListing node, the OfferListingId and ExchangeId elements are missing.
CustomerID missing from reviews
ECS does not return the customerId responsible for reviews for all response groups containing CustomerReviews.
CE ASINs with variations are not returning a list of valid merchants
CE ASINs with variations are not returning a list of valid merchants using ItemLookup.
ISPU items are not accessible via AWS Cart methods
When inserting the ISPU items into the remote cart via OfferListingId, the cart rejects the item with the 'not accessible' error.
Quoted phrase searching is not working in ItemSearch with Keywords
Quoted phrases in the Keywords field for ItemSearch are not accepted as a whole phrase. Instead, they are broken up into individual terms and results are returned for subsets of the phrase. For example, the parameter Keywords="the last time" should only return results for "the last time", rather than "the", "last" or "time".
ECS not returning customer reviews for some products
ECS 4.0 does not return customer reviews for some products where 3.0 does return reviews. Note that ECS 4.0 does return reviews for some products.
All availability messages not documented
The documentation does not cover all possible availability messages, including all the translations.
CartCreate and CartAdd Help content does not specify required Items params
The Help operation and missing_parameter error for CartCreate and CartAdd are not very useful. They say that "Items" is required; however, they don't specify the sub-parameters of Items that must be present. This makes it difficult to determine what Items parameters are required by calling the API.
Apparel item missing images
Certain apparel items are missing images. This issue does not affect all apparel items.
MultiOperation requests do not encode the UK pound sign correctly
MultiOperation requests do not encode the UK pound sign correctly for MultiOperation requests, not in the individual requests.
PurchaseUrl should not appear unless there are items in the cart
The documentation says that no purchase URL returned if there's an empty cart; however, CartClear returns a purchase URL, as does CartGet after doing a CartClear.
TotalPages and TotalReviews for reviews
CustomerReviews do not say how many review pages are returned.
No TotalReviews and TotalReviewsPages for CustomerContentLookup's CustomerFull ResponseGroup
For CustomerContentLookup, ECS is not returning TotalReviews or TotalReviewPages. It's not possible to determine how many reviews a customer has written.
Browse does not return a full list of nodes
The list of nodes returned by BrowseNode for some ASINs is sometimes less than the retail page.
Cart merge fails for authenticated users on non-US sites
If a user is already logged into the UK, DE, or JP website, their cart merge will fail.
Boolean values can't be [Y,N]
The values {true, false, 1, 0} are possible, but {true, false} is recommended because they are specified as canonical.
Import ASINs do not return images
Some import ASINs do not return images: for example, www.amazon.co.jp may have a large image, but ECS does not return one.
Documentation missing the order of precedence for ItemSearch
The documentation should explain the order of precedence for ItemSearch parameters. For example, if a request includes both BrowseNode and Keywords, then ECS first retrieves products from a specific browse node and then searches for keywords within the browse node.
ErrorMessage for ItemNotAccessible
The current message for the ItemNotAccessible error code is: "This item is not accessible through AWS." It should be this: "This item is not accessible through ECS."
SimilarityLookup for two ASINs that returns no results does not return an error
The SimilarityLookup operation does not return a NoSimilarities error when no intersecting similarities are found for multiple products that do have similarities. The NoSimilarities error is correctly returned either when the SimilarityLookup request is for one ASIN that has no similarities or when the SimilarityRequest is for two ASINs, only one of which has similarities.
Manufacturer ItemSearch returns no products while 3.0 does
ECS 4.0's manufacturer ItemSearch does no return products when the same search returned products using 3.0.
Default input content encoding may not be UTF-8
The default input content encoding for ECS 4.0 is ISO-8859-1. The default content input encoding should be UTF-8.
UK search index tools missing
The UK tools index does not currently exist in ECS 4.0, which is inconsistent with 3.0.
A parameter to support batch request is missing
A parameter like MergeBatchResponses is missing from ECS 4.0 in order to make some batch responses easier to use.
Need to add Sort values for DE search indexes
Several DE search indexes are not configured to be sortable.
Sample stylesheet out of date
A few aspects of the supplied sample stylesheet are incorrect: 1) The service name has changed from AWSProductData to AWSECommerceService. 2) The namespace used in the sample style sheet no longer exists. The current namespace is versioned 2004-08- 01, instead of 2004-03-19
TextStreamSearch may not work for all search indexes
All SearchIndex values are not available to TextStreamSearch, which includes stores like Tools, Software, and Jewelry.
ItemSearch using Manufacturer broken in JP
Using ItemSearch for Manufacturer in the JP locale does not work.
Manufacturer is a valid search term for Software
The documentation does not reflect that Manufacturer is a valid search term for Software.
There are no new features in this release.
Certain locale prices do not include tax
Prices in the UK, DE, and JP OfferSummary do not include applicable taxes. For correct prices that include applicable taxes, please see the Price element in the product's Offer/OfferListing element.
OfferListingId should be returned for Amazon.com offers
This fix ensures that the OfferListingId will be returned for Amazon.com offers.
Remove maxOccurs attribute for ChildTransactionItems element
The maxOccurs attribute is not required for the ChildTransactionItems element. It has been removed.
DVD and VHS requests return TheatricalRelease
When an ItemSearch request is made within the DVD, VHS, or Video SearchIndexes, the target is returned with the TheatricalRelease, if one exists.
Documentation does not include list of possible Availability strings
The documentation does not include include a list of possible Availability strings. Without them, it is difficult to verify the availability of an item.
Bad ASINs, Exchanges, Lists, etc. within sets of results are not messaged as an unavailable data issue
Results from services like Similarities or WishList don't map to valid ASINs or Exchanges. As a result, a short number of responses are returned on that page.
Documentation needs information on the About field
The About element will only be returned for merchants. The About element will be returned for Marketplace Sellers in the future.
Documentation does not reflect response group changes
The SOAP samples in the documentation do not show that the response groups are no longer versioned.
Documentation does not reflect ListInfo response group changes
The documentation does not mention the limited information available.
Parent ASINs do not contain browse nodes
ItemSearch and ItemLookup operations do not return a browse node for parent ASINs. A parent ASIN is an item for which variations are available.
Documentation does not include URLs for finding list IDs for each locale
On the List Operations article page, there is a a box that shows the URL formats for finding list IDs for registries, wish lists, and listmania lists. The URLs shows are for the US only.
CustomerName and DateCreated are not returned by ListLookup
The ListLookup operation does not return the CustomerName or DateCreated elements.
ReleaseDate not returned for some items
The ReleaseDate element is usually only returned for books, music, VHS, and DVD items. Few other products have a release date in the Amazon catalog.
Toys search index missing from DE
The Toys search index is not currently implemented for the DE locale (Amazon.de).
Parent ASINs are not clearly labeled as such
Parent ASINs (items that have variations) are not clearly labeled as such. Currently, you must request the VariationSummary response group to determine whether or not an item is a parent ASIN.
"ZShops" search index is currently "zShops"
The "ZShops" search index is currently implemented as "zShops" (lowercase "z"). It will be changed to the capitalized form in a later release. This behavior applies to the SellerListingSearch operation.
Featured merchants' items do not appear in the SellerListingSearch
The documentation does not reflect that featured merchants' items do not appear in the SellerListingSearch.
Values of SellerListing response group are not localized
Some values of the SellerListing reponse group are not localized for the JP locale.
OfferInfo not a valid response group value
The documentation lists OfferInfo as a valid response group value when it is not a valid value for a response group.
OfferFull not listed as valid value in Help documentation
The OfferFull response group is not listed in the documentation as a valid value for the About parameter in a Help operation.
Browse nodes do not appear for parent ASINs with variations
Browse nodes currently do not appear for parent ASINs for variations.
Out of range ProductPage returns no error in ListLookup
When using the ListLookup operation, specifying a ProductPage parameter above the range of possible values does not return an error. Instead, ECS returns the highest available page. For example, if there are six pages of results available, setting ProductPage to "7" returns page six instead of producing an error.
ListLookup response for WishList missing elements for UK, DE
In the UK (Amazon.co.uk) and DE (Amazon.de) locales, a WishList lookup is missing the DateCreated and CustomerName elements, and the ListURL element appears at the bottom of the XML response instead of the top. Also, for each Item node in the WishList, the listitemId, DateAdded, QuantityDesired, QuantityReceived, Seller, and OfferAttributes elements do not appear. Under the OfferListing node, the OfferListingId and ExchangeId elements are missing.
CustomerID missing from reviews
ECS does not return the customerId responsible for reviews for all response groups containing CustomerReviews.
CE ASINs with variations are not returning a list of valid merchants
CE ASINs with variations are not returning a list of valid merchants using ItemLookup.
ISPU items are not accessible via AWS Cart methods
When inserting the ISPU items into the remote cart via OfferListingId, the cart rejects the item with the 'not accessible' error.
Quoted phrase searching is not working in ItemSearch with Keywords
Quoted phrases in the Keywords field for ItemSearch are not accepted as a whole phrase. Instead, they are broken up into individual terms and results are returned for subsets of the phrase. For example, the parameter Keywords="the last time" should only return results for "the last time", rather than "the", "last" or "time".
ECS not returning customer reviews for some products
ECS 4.0 does not return customer reviews for some products where 3.0 does return reviews. Note that ECS 4.0 does return reviews for some products.
All availability messages not documented
The documentation does not cover all possible availability messages, including all the translations.
CartCreate and CartAdd Help content does not specify required Items params
The Help operation and missing_parameter error for CartCreate and CartAdd are not very useful. They say that "Items" is required; however, they don't specify the sub-parameters of Items that must be present. This makes it difficult to determine what Items parameters are required by calling the API.
Apparel item missing images
Certain apparel items are missing images. This issue does not affect all apparel items.
MultiOperation requests do not encode the UK pound sign correctly
MultiOperation requests do not encode the UK pound sign correctly for MultiOperation requests, not in the individual requests.
PurchaseUrl should not appear unless there are items in the cart
The documentation says that no purchase URL returned if there's an empty cart; however, CartClear returns a purchase URL, as does CartGet after doing a CartClear.
TotalPages and TotalReviews for reviews
CustomerReviews do not say how many review pages are returned.
No TotalReviews and TotalReviewsPages for CustomerContentLookup's CustomerFull ResponseGroup
For CustomerContentLookup, ECS is not returning TotalReviews or TotalReviewPages. It's not possible to determine how many reviews a customer has written.
Browse does not return a full list of nodes
The list of nodes returned by BrowseNode for some ASINs is sometimes less than the retail page.
Cart merge fails for authenticated users on non-US sites
If a user is already logged into the UK, DE, or JP website, their cart merge will fail.
Boolean values can't be [Y,N]
The values {true, false, 1, 0} are possible, but {true, false} is recommended because they are specified as canonical.
Import ASINs do not return images
Some import ASINs do not return images: for example, www.amazon.co.jp may have a large image, but ECS does not return one.
Documentation missing the order of precedence for ItemSearch
The documentation should explain the order of precedence for ItemSearch parameters. For example, if a request includes both BrowseNode and Keywords, then ECS first retrieves products from a specific browse node and then searches for keywords within the browse node.
ErrorMessage for ItemNotAccessible
The current message for the ItemNotAccessible error code is: "This item is not accessible through AWS." It should be this: "This item is not accessible through ECS."
SimilarityLookup for two ASINs that returns no results does not return an error
The SimilarityLookup operation does not return a NoSimilarities error when no intersecting similarities are found for multiple products that do have similarities. The NoSimilarities error is correctly returned either when the SimilarityLookup request is for one ASIN that has no similarities or when the SimilarityRequest is for two ASINs, only one of which has similarities.
Manufacturer ItemSearch returns no products while 3.0 does
ECS 4.0's manufacturer ItemSearch does no return products when the same search returned products using 3.0.
Default input content encoding may not be UTF-8
The default input content encoding for ECS 4.0 is ISO-8859-1. The default content input encoding should be UTF-8.
UK search index tools missing
The UK tools index does not currently exist in ECS 4.0, which is inconsistent with 3.0.
A parameter to support batch request is missing
A parameter like MergeBatchResponses is missing from ECS 4.0 in order to make some batch responses easier to use.
Need to add Sort values for DE search indexes
Several DE search indexes are not configured to be sortable.
Sample stylesheet out of date
A few aspects of the supplied sample stylesheet are incorrect: 1) The service name has changed from AWSProductData to AWSECommerceService. 2) The namespace used in the sample style sheet no longer exists. The current namespace is versioned 2004-08-01, instead of 2004-03-19
TextStreamSearch may not work for all search indexes
All SearchIndex values are not available to TextStreamSearch, which includes stores like Tools, Software, and Jewelry.
ItemSearch using Manufacturer broken in JP
Using ItemSearch for Manufacturer in the JP locale does not work.
Manufacturer is a valid search term for Software
The documentation does not reflect that Manufacturer is a valid search term for Software.
DeveloperToken is now SubscriptionId
The DeveloperToken request parameter has been changed to SubscriptionId. If you have a developer token that you have been using with previous versions of Amazon Web Services (AWS) (3.0 or earlier, or 4.0 Beta 1), it will no longer work with AWS requests. You must sign up for an Amazon Web Services developer account at the Sign In page. You will receive a subscription ID, which is connected to your AWS developer account and represents a free subscription to AWS.
DVD and VHS requests return TheatricalRelease
When an ItemSearch request is made within the DVD, VHS, or Video SearchIndexes, the target is returned with the TheatricalRelease, if one exists.
Documentation does not include list of possible Availability strings
The documentation does not include include a list of possible Availability strings. Without them, it is difficult to verify the availability of an item.
Bad ASINs, Exchanges, Lists, etc. within sets of results are not messaged as an unavailable data issue
Results from services like Similarities or WishList don't map to valid ASINs or Exchanges. As a result, a short number of responses are returned on that page.
Documentation needs information on the About field
The About element will only be returned for merchants. The About element will be returned for Marketplace Sellers in the future.
Documentation does not reflect response group changes
The SOAP samples in the documentation do not show that the response groups are no longer versioned.
Documentation does not reflect ListInfo response group changes
The documentation does not mention the limited information available.
Parent ASINs do not contain browse nodes
ItemSearch and ItemLookup operations do not return a browse node for parent ASINs. A parent ASIN is an item for which variations are available.
Documentation does not include URLs for finding list IDs for each locale
On the List Operations article page, there is a a box that shows the URL formats for finding list IDs for registries, wish lists, and listmania lists. The URLs shows are for the US only.
CustomerName and DateCreated are not returned by ListLookup
The ListLookup operation does not return the CustomerName or DateCreated elements.
ReleaseDate not returned for some items
The ReleaseDate element is usually only returned for books, music, VHS, and DVD items. Few other products have a release date in the Amazon catalog.
Toys search index missing from DE
The Toys search index is not currently implemented for the DE locale (Amazon.de).
Parent ASINs are not clearly labeled as such
Parent ASINs (items that have variations) are not clearly labeled as such. Currently, you must request the VariationSummary response group to determine whether or not an item is a parent ASIN.
"ZShops" search index is currently "zShops"
The "ZShops" search index is currently implemented as "zShops" (lowercase "z"). It will be changed to the capitalized form in a later release. This behavior applies to the SellerListingSearch operation.
Featured merchants' items do not appear in the SellerListingSearch
The documentation does not reflect that featured merchants' items do not appear in the SellerListingSearch.
Values of SellerListing response group are not localized
Some values of the SellerListing reponse group are not localized for the JP locale.
OfferInfo not a valid response group value
The documentation lists OfferInfo as a valid response group value when it is not a valid value for a response group.
OfferFull not listed as valid value in Help documentation
The OfferFull response group is not listed in the documentation as a valid value for the About parameter in a Help operation.
Browse nodes do not appear for parent ASINs with variations
Browse nodes currently do not appear for parent ASINs for variations.
Out of range ProductPage returns no error in ListLookup
When using the ListLookup operation, specifying a ProductPage parameter above the range of possible values does not return an error. Instead, ECS returns the highest available page. For example, if there are six pages of results available, setting ProductPage to "7" returns page six instead of producing an error.
ListLookup response for WishList missing elements for UK, DE
In the UK (Amazon.co.uk) and DE (Amazon.de) locales, a WishList lookup is missing the DateCreated and CustomerName elements, and the ListURL element appears at the bottom of the XML response instead of the top. Also, for each Item node in the WishList, the listitemId, DateAdded, QuantityDesired, QuantityReceived, Seller, and OfferAttributes elements do not appear. Under the OfferListing node, the OfferListingId and ExchangeId elements are missing.
CustomerID missing from reviews
ECS does not return the customerId responsible for reviews for all response groups containing CustomerReviews.
CE ASINs with variations are not returning a list of valid merchants
CE ASINs with variations are not returning a list of valid merchants using ItemLookup.
ISPU items are not accessible via AWS Cart methods
When inserting the ISPU items into the remote cart via OfferListingId, the cart rejects the item with the 'not accessible' error.
Quoted phrase searching is not working in ItemSearch with Keywords
Quoted phrases in the Keywords field for ItemSearch are not accepted as a whole phrase. Instead, they are broken up into individual terms and results are returned for subsets of the phrase. For example, the parameter Keywords="the last time" should only return results for "the last time", rather than "the", "last" or "time".
ECS not returning customer reviews for some products
ECS 4.0 does not return customer reviews for some products where 3.0 does return reviews. Note that ECS 4.0 does return reviews for some products.
All availability messages not documented
The documentation does not cover all possible availability messages, including all the translations.
CartCreate and CartAdd Help content does not specify required Items params
The Help operation and missing_parameter error for CartCreate and CartAdd are not very useful. They say that "Items" is required; however, they don't specify the sub-parameters of Items that must be present. This makes it difficult to determine what Items parameters are required by calling the API.
Apparel item missing images
Certain apparel items are missing images. This issue does not affect all apparel items.
MultiOperation requests do not encode the UK pound sign correctly
MultiOperation requests do not encode the UK pound sign correctly for MultiOperation requests, not in the individual requests.
PurchaseUrl should not appear unless there are items in the cart
The documentation says that no purchase URL returned if there's an empty cart; however, CartClear returns a purchase URL, as does CartGet after doing a CartClear.
TotalPages and TotalReviews for reviews
CustomerReviews do not say how many review pages are returned.
No TotalReviews and TotalReviewsPages for CustomerContentLookup's CustomerFull ResponseGroup
For CustomerContentLookup, ECS is not returning TotalReviews or TotalReviewPages. It's not possible to determine how many reviews a customer has written.
Browse does not return a full list of nodes
The list of nodes returned by BrowseNode for some ASINs is sometimes less than the retail page.
Cart merge fails for authenticated users on non-US sites
If a user is already logged into the UK, DE, or JP website, their cart merge will fail.
Boolean values can't be [Y,N]
The values {true, false, 1, 0} are possible, but {true, false} is recommended because they are specified as canonical.
Import ASINs do not return images
Some import ASINs do not return images: for example, www.amazon.co.jp may have a large image, but ECS does not return one.
Documentation missing the order of precedence for ItemSearch
The documentation should explain the order of precedence for ItemSearch parameters. For example, if a request includes both BrowseNode and Keywords, then ECS first retrieves products from a specific browse node and then searches for keywords within the browse node.
ErrorMessage for ItemNotAccessible
The current message for the ItemNotAccessible error code is: "This item is not accessible through AWS." It should be this: "This item is not accessible through ECS."
SimilarityLookup for two ASINs that returns no results does not return an error
The SimilarityLookup operation does not return a NoSimilarities error when no intersecting similarities are found for multiple products that do have similarities. The NoSimilarities error is correctly returned either when the SimilarityLookup request is for one ASIN that has no similarities or when the SimilarityRequest is for two ASINs, only one of which has similarities.
Manufacturer ItemSearch returns no products while 3.0 does
ECS 4.0's manufacturer ItemSearch does no return products when the same search returned products using 3.0.
Default input content encoding may not be UTF-8
The default input content encoding for ECS 4.0 is ISO-8859-1. The default content input encoding should be UTF-8.
UK search index tools missing
The UK tools index does not currently exist in ECS 4.0, which is inconsistent with 3.0.
A parameter to support batch request is missing
A parameter like MergeBatchResponses is missing from ECS 4.0 in order to make some batch responses easier to use.
Need to add Sort values for DE search indexes
Several DE search indexes are not configured to be sortable.
Sample stylesheet out of date
A few aspects of the supplied sample stylesheet are incorrect: 1) The service name has changed from AWSProductData to AWSECommerceService. 2) The namespace used in the sample style sheet no longer exists. The current namespace is versioned 2004-08-01, instead of 2004-03-19
TextStreamSearch may not work for all search indexes
All SearchIndex values are not available to TextStreamSearch, which includes stores like Tools, Software, and Jewelry.
ItemSearch using Manufacturer broken in JP
Using ItemSearch for Manufacturer in the JP locale does not work.
Manufacturer is a valid search term for Software
The documentation does not reflect that Manufacturer is a valid search term for Software.
Certain locale prices do not include tax
Prices in the UK, DE, and JP OfferSummary do not include applicable taxes. For correct prices that include applicable taxes, please see the Price element in the product's Offer/OfferListing element.