GetProductFinder

Retrieves data that you use to construct valid "product finder" queries (queries against multiple attributes) against catalog products or (in some cases) listed items. The attributes describe search criteria (e.g., Manufacturer), as appropriate for the category. Use the results in combination with GetProductFinderXSL to render the Product Finder in a graphical user interface.

GetProductFinder does not conduct the actual product or listing search. It only returns data about what you can search on. Use the data as input to GetProductSearchResults to conduct the actual search for product information or as input to GetSearchResults to conduct the search for listed items. (Please note that this call may not return valid product finder IDs for some GetSearchResults use cases. See the Knowledge Base article referenced below for details.)

To retrieve single-attribute search criteria (querying against a single attribute, like UPC), use GetProductSearchPage instead (only applicable for catalog searches).

See the eBay Web Services Guide for an overview of Pre-filled Item Information and details about searching for catalog products and for information about searching for listed items.

See:
    The Catalog Product (Product Details) API
    Retrieving Product Finder Meta-Data
    The Product Finder Meta-Data Model
    Searching with a Sell-Side Product Finder
    Searching by Item Specifics (Buy-Side Product Finder)
    Knowledge Base: ProductFinderID for Buy-Side Searches

See also the reference documentation for these calls:

GetProductFinderXSL - Retrieves the Product Finder XSL stylesheet for use with the XML returned from GetProductFinder.
GetProductSearchResults - Searches for Pre-filled Item Information within one or more characteristic sets. Use the response from GetProductSearchPage or GetProductFinder to determine the attributes that can be used as criteria for the search. After a user selects a product by its ID, use the ID as input to GetProductSellingPages. This call also supports batch requests (i.e., searching for several products in the same call).
GetProductSellingPages - Retrieves information that describes how to present catalog product information to a seller. Use this data when listing an item with Pre-filled Item Information.
GetSearchResults - Retrieves item listings based on keywords you specify. The keywords can include wildcards. The response is in the form of an array whose size and contents you specify, using a variety of input fields. You can filter the item listings returned using such criteria as the listing category, location, whether the item is listed in an ebay Store, and listing type. You can include or exclude specified sellers.

GetProductFinder Input

The box below lists all fields that could be included in the call request. To learn more about an individual field or its type, click its name in the box (or scroll down to find it in the table below the box).

See also Samples.

See also the Deprecated Objects link above. Fields presented in this color are deprecated, and fields presented in this color are (or soon will be) non-operational.

The XML prototype does not include requester credentials. This is a documentation limitation only (see Standard Requester Credentials for Making Calls).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetProductFinderRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
  <!-- Standard Input Fields -->
  <DetailLevel> DetailLevelCodeType </DetailLevel>
  <!-- ... more DetailLevel nodes here ... -->
  <ErrorLanguage> string </ErrorLanguage>
  <MessageID> string </MessageID>
  <Version> string </Version>
  <WarningLevel> WarningLevelCodeType </WarningLevel>
  <!-- Call-specific Input Fields -->
  <AttributeSystemVersion> string </AttributeSystemVersion>
  <ProductFinderID> int </ProductFinderID>
  <!-- ... more ProductFinderID nodes here ... -->
</GetProductFinderRequest>

Argument	Type	Occurrence	Meaning

Standard Input Fields [Jump to call-specific fields]

DetailLevel	DetailLevelCodeType	Optional, repeatable: [0..*]	Detail levels are instructions that define standard subsets of data to return for particular data components (e.g., each Item, Transaction, or User) within the response payload. For example, a particular detail level might cause the response to include buyer-related data in every result (e.g., for every Item), but no seller-related data. Specifying a detail level is like using a predefined attribute list in the SELECT clause of an SQL query. Use the DetailLevel element to specify the required detail level that the client application needs pertaining to the data components that are applicable to the request. The DetailLevelCodeType defines the global list of available detail levels for all request types. Most request types support certain detail levels or none at all. If you pass a detail level that exists in the schema but that isn't valid for a particular request, eBay ignores it processes the request without it. For each request type, see the detail level tables in the Input/Output Reference to determine which detail levels are applicable and which elements are returned for each applicable detail level. (Some detail level tables are still in the eBay Web Services guide. They will be moved to the Input/Output Reference in a future release.) Note that DetailLevel is required input for GetMyMessages. With GetSellerList and other calls that retrieve large data sets, please avoid using ReturnAll when possible. For example, if you use GetSellerList, use a GranularityLevel or use the GetSellerEvents call instead. If you do use ReturnAll with GetSellerList, use a small EntriesPerPage value and a short EndTimeFrom/EndTimeTo range for better performance. Applicable values: • ReturnAll (in) Returns all available data. With GetSellerList and other calls that retrieve large data sets, please avoid using ReturnAll when possible. For example, if you use GetSellerList, use a GranularityLevel or use the GetSellerEvents call instead. If you use ReturnAll with GetSellerList, use a small EntriesPerPage value and a short EndTimeFrom/EndTimeTo range for better performance. (Not all values in DetailLevelCodeType apply to this field.)
ErrorLanguage	string	Optional	Use ErrorLanguage to return error strings for the call in a different language from the language commonly associated with the site that the requesting user is registered with. Specify the standard RFC 3066 language identification tag (e.g., en_US). ID--- country ----- ----- de_AT Austria de_CH Switzerland de_DE Germany en_AU Australia en_CA Canada en_GB United Kingdom en_SG Singapore en_US United States es_ES Spain fr_BE Belgium (French) fr_CA Canada (French) fr_FR France it_IT Italy nl_BE Belgium (Dutch) nl_NL Netherlands zh_CN China en_IN India en_IE Ireland zh_HK Hong Kong See Tags for the Identification of Languages.
MessageID	string	Optional	In most cases, all calls support a MessageID element in the request and a CorrelationID element in the response. If you pass a message ID in a request, we will return the same value in CorrelationID in the response. You can use this for tracking that a response is returned for every request and to match particular responses to particular requests. If you do not pass MessageID in the request, CorrelationID is not returned. Note: GetCategories, GetAttributesCS, GetCategory2CS, GetAttributesXSL, GetProductFinder, GetProductFinderXSL, and GetProductSearchPage are designed to retrieve very large sets of metadata that change once a day or less often. To improve performance, these calls return cached responses when you request all available data (with no filters). When this occurs, the MessageID and CorrelationID fields aren't applicable. However, if you specify an input filter to reduce the amount of data returned, the calls retrieve the latest data (not cached). When this occurs, MessageID and CorrelationID are applicable.
Version	string	Conditional	The version number of the API code that you are programming against (e.g., 549). The version you specify for a call has these basic effects: - It indicates the version of the code lists and other data that eBay should use to process your request. - It indicates the schema version you are using. You need to use a version that is greater than or equal to the lowest supported version. For the SOAP API: If you are using the SOAP API, this field is required. Specify the version of the WSDL your application is using. For the XML API: If you are using the XML API, this field has no effect. Instead, specify the version in the X-EBAY-API-COMPATIBILITY-LEVEL HTTP header. (If you specify Version in the body of an XML API request and it is different from the value in the HTTP header, eBay returns an informational warning that the value in the HTTP header was used instead.) See: HTTP Headers (XML API Only) eBay Schema Versioning Strategy Lowest Supported Version
WarningLevel	WarningLevelCodeType	Optional	Controls whether or not to return warnings when the application passes unrecognized or deprecated elements in a request. An unrecognized element is one that is not defined in any supported version of the schema. Schema element names are case-sensitive, so using WarningLevel can also help you remove any potential hidden bugs within your application due to incorrect case or spelling in field names before you put your application into the Production environment. WarningLevel only validates elements; it doesn't validate XML attributes. It also doesn't control warnings related to user-entered strings or numbers, or warnings for logical errors. We recommend that you only use this during development and debugging. Do not use this in requests in your production code. Applicable values: • High (in) Return warnings when the application passes unrecognized or deprecated elements in a request. • Low (in) Do not return warnings when the application passes unrecognized or deprecated elements in a request. This is the default value if WarningLevel is not specified. See Warning Level.

Call-specific Input Fields
AttributeSystemVersion	string	Optional	A version of the product finder attribute definitions for the site. Typically, an application passes the version value that was returned the last time the application executed this call. Filter that causes the call to return only the Product Finders for which the attribute meta-data has changed since the specified version. The latest version value is not necessarily greater than the previous value that was returned. Therefore, when comparing versions, only compare whether the value has changed.
ProductFinderID	int	Optional, repeatable: [0..*]	A number that uniquely identifies a product finder. For sell-side searches, you can determine the product finder IDs for a category by calling GetCategory2CS. For buy-side searches, you can't use GetCategory2CS to reliably determine the product finder IDs for an eBay category. GetProductFinder may work for some attributes. Alternatively, you can use the pfid parameter from the URL of the Product Finder search page on the site you're interested in. See the Knowledge Base article referenced below for more details. Multiple categories can be mapped to the same product finder ID. You can pass zero or multiple IDs in the request. When IDs are specified, the call only returns product finder meta-data for the specified product finders. When no IDs are specified, the call returns all the current product finder meta-data available on the site. See: Retrieving Product Finder Meta-Data Searching by Item Specifics (Buy-Side Product Finder) Knowledge Base: ProductFinderID for Buy-Side Searches

GetProductFinder Output

The box below lists all fields that might be returned in the response. To learn more about an individual field or its type, click its name in the box (or scroll down to find it in the table below the box).

See also Samples.

See also the Deprecated Objects link above. Fields presented in this color are deprecated, and fields presented in this color are not returned (or soon will not be returned) or are not operational (or soon will be non-operational).

The XML prototype does not include requester credentials. This is a documentation limitation only (see Standard Requester Credentials for Making Calls).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetProductFinderResponse xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
  <!-- Standard Output Fields -->
  <Ack> AckCodeType </Ack>
  <Build> string </Build>
  <CorrelationID> string </CorrelationID>
  <Errors> ErrorType 
    <ErrorClassification> ErrorClassificationCodeType </ErrorClassification>
    <ErrorCode> token </ErrorCode>
    <ErrorParameters ParamID="string"> ErrorParameterType 
      <Value> string </Value>
    </ErrorParameters>
    <!-- ... more ErrorParameters nodes here ... -->
    <LongMessage> string </LongMessage>
    <SeverityCode> SeverityCodeType </SeverityCode>
    <ShortMessage> string </ShortMessage>
  </Errors>
  <!-- ... more Errors nodes here ... -->
  <HardExpirationWarning> string </HardExpirationWarning>
  <Timestamp> dateTime </Timestamp>
  <Version> string </Version>
  <!-- Call-specific Output Fields -->
  <AttributeSystemVersion> string </AttributeSystemVersion>
  <ProductFinderData> string </ProductFinderData>
</GetProductFinderResponse>

Return Value	Type	Occurrence	Meaning

Standard Output Fields [Jump to call-specific fields]

Ack	AckCodeType	Always	A token representing the application-level acknowledgement code that indicates the response status (e.g., success). The AckCodeType list specifies the possible values for Ack. Applicable values: • CustomCode (out) Reserved for internal or future use. • Failure (out) Request processing failed • Success (out) Request processing succeeded • Warning (out) Request processing completed with warning information being included in the response message (Not all values in AckCodeType apply to this field.)
Build	string	Always	This refers to the specific software build that eBay used when processing the request and generating the response. This includes the version number plus additional information. eBay Developer Support may request the build information when helping you resolve technical issues.
CorrelationID	string	Conditionally	In most cases, all calls support a MessageID element in the request and a CorrelationID element in the response. If you pass a message ID in a request, we will return the same value in CorrelationID in the response. You can use this for tracking that a response is returned for every request and to match particular responses to particular requests. If you do not pass MessageID in the request, CorrelationID is not returned. Note: GetCategories, GetAttributesCS, GetCategory2CS, GetAttributesXSL, GetProductFinder, GetProductFinderXSL, and GetProductSearchPage are designed to retrieve very large sets of metadata that change once a day or less often. To improve performance, these calls return cached responses when you request all available data (with no filters). When this occurs, the MessageID and CorrelationID fields aren't applicable. However, if you specify an input filter to reduce the amount of data returned, the calls retrieve the latest data (not cached). When this occurs, MessageID and CorrelationID are applicable.
Errors	ErrorType	Conditionally, repeatable: [0..*]	A list of application-level errors (if any) that occurred when eBay processed the request. See Error Handling.
Errors.ErrorClassification	ErrorClassificationCodeType	Conditionally	API errors are divided between two classes: system errors and request errors. Applicable values: • CustomCode (out) Reserved for internal or future use. • RequestError (out) An error has occurred either as a result of a problem in the sending application or because the application's end-user has attempted to submit invalid data (or missing data). In these cases, do not retry the request. The problem must be corrected before the request can be made again. If the problem is due to something in the application (such as a missing required field), the application must be changed. If the problem is a result of end-user data, the application must alert the end-user to the problem and provide the means for the end-user to correct the data. Once the problem in the application or data is resolved, resend the request to eBay with the corrected data. • SystemError (out) Indicates that an error has occurred on the eBay system side, such as a database or server down. An application can retry the request as-is a reasonable number of times (eBay recommends twice). If the error persists, contact Developer Technical Support. Once the problem has been resolved, the request may be resent in its original form.
Errors.ErrorCode	token	Conditionally	A unique code that identifies the particular error condition that occurred. Your application can use error codes as identifiers in your customized error-handling algorithms. See the "Errors by Number" document.
Errors.ErrorParameters	ErrorParameterType	Conditionally, repeatable: [0..*]	This optional element carries a list of context-specific error variables that indicate details about the error condition. These are useful when multiple instances of ErrorType are returned.
Errors.ErrorParameters [ attribute ParamID ]	string	Conditionally	The index of the parameter in the list of parameter types returned within the error type.
Errors.ErrorParameters.Value	string	Conditionally	The value of the variable (e.g., the attribute set ID)
Errors.LongMessage	string	Conditionally	A more detailed description of the condition that raised the error.
Errors.SeverityCode	SeverityCodeType	Conditionally	Indicates whether the error is a severe error (causing the request to fail) or an informational error (a warning) that should be communicated to the user. Applicable values: • CustomCode (out) Reserved for internal or future use • Error (out) Application-level error • Warning (out) Warning or informational error
Errors.ShortMessage	string	Conditionally	A brief description of the condition that raised the error.
HardExpirationWarning	string	Conditionally	Expiration date of the user's authentication token. Only returned within the 7-day period prior to a token's expiration. To ensure that user authentication tokens are secure and to help avoid a user's token being compromised, tokens have a limited life span. A token is only valid for a period of time (set by eBay). After this amount of time has passed, the token expires and must be replaced with a new token.
Timestamp	dateTime	Always	This value represents the date and time when eBay processed the request. The time zone of this value is GMT and the format is the ISO 8601 date and time format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.SSSZ). See Time Values in the eBay Web Services guide for information about this time format and converting to and from the GMT time zone. Note: GetCategories, GetAttributesCS, GetCategory2CS, GetAttributesXSL, GetProductFinder, GetProductFinderXSL, and GetProductSearchPage are designed to retrieve very large sets of metadata that change once a day or less often. To improve performance, these calls return cached responses when you request all available data (with no filters). When this occurs, this time value reflects the time the cached response was created. Thus, this value is not necessarily when the request was processed. However, if you specify an input filter to reduce the amount of data returned, the calls retrieve the latest data (not cached). When this occurs, this time value does reflect when the request was processed.
Version	string	Always	The version of the response payload schema. Indicates the version of the schema that eBay used to process the request. See "Standard Data for All Calls" in the eBay Web Services Guide for information on using the response version when troubleshooting "CustomCode" values that appear in the response.

Call-specific Output Fields
AttributeSystemVersion	string	Conditionally	Current version of the product search page data for the site. This value changes each time changes are made to the search page data. The current version value is not necessarily greater than the previous value. Therefore, when comparing versions, only compare whether the value has changed. DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.
ProductFinderData	string	Conditionally	A string containing a list of search attributes that can be used in a "Product Finder" style query, along with related meta-data. The meta-data specifies possible values of each attribute, the logic for presenting attributes to a user, and rules for validating the user's selections. For backward compatibility, this data is in the same XML format that was used in the Legacy XML API so that you can apply the same Product Finder XSL stylesheet to it. That is, individual elements are not described using the new eBay XML schema format. For information about each element in the ProductFinderData string, see the product finder model documentation in the eBay Web Services guide (see links below). Because this is returned as a string, the XML markup is escaped with character entity references (e.g., <eBay><ProductFinders>...). See the appendices in the eBay Web Services guide for general information about string data types. DetailLevel: ReturnAll. See: Retrieving Product Finder Meta-Data The Product Finder Meta-Data Model Data Types

GetProductFinder Detail Controls

Detail Control: DetailLevel

The DetailLevel input field influences which call-specific fields may be returned. (All standard output fields are returned regardless of DetailLevel.)

The none column indicates the fields that are returned when you do not specify a DetailLevel.

Detail Level value	Summary of Effects
none (no detail level specified)	Returns the latest version number of the product finder meta-data (with no meta-data). Use this level when you only want to check whether to refresh your locally stored product finder meta-data. If the version hasn't changed, you don't need to retrieve the meta-data.
ReturnAll	Returns the meta-data version and the complete library of product finder meta-data matching the request.

Y	The field is always returned.
(Y)	The field is conditionally returned. See the field description for clarification of conditions.
-	The field is not returned.

Output Field none ReturnAll

AttributeSystemVersion (Y) (Y)

ProductFinderData - (Y)

Output Field	none	ReturnAll
AttributeSystemVersion	(Y)	(Y)
ProductFinderData	-	(Y)

GetProductFinder Samples

An inline sample will be added in a future release. Please refer to the Samples section of the eBay Web Services Guide chapter for GetProductFinder.

GetProductFinder Change History

This section notes changes made since Version 465.

This document was generated with a customized version of the apireferencedocs tool.

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