| Note: This tutorial uses the FindItems call in the Shopping API, This call is being deprecated and will not be available after October 2011. The functionality provided by the FindItemsAdvanced call will be supported in the new Finding API. If you're building new search applications, we recommend you start with the Finding API. |
In this tutorial you use PHP to write a FindItems call to search for eBay listings based on a keyword. You specify that the response to your call is in XML format.
This tutorial shows how easy it is to use the eBay Shopping API. For notes about the tutorial and the eBay Partner Network, please see Notes and Next Steps. For additional resources, please see Additional Resources.
When you complete the tutorial, you will have code that looks like this when it runs:
There are three steps:
Step 1: Set up and make the FindItems call
The complete code in PHP_SearchGS_NV_XML.zip requires that you substitute your production appid for "MyAppID". In this tutorial, the equivalent of the sample in that zip file is MySample.php.
Please join the eBay Developers Program. Note your Production appid so you can substitute it in this tutorial where it says "MyAppID." This tutorial uses production data.
Please install Apache HTTP Server and install PHP 5. PHP 5 includes the SimpleXML extension. In this tutorial, the PHP sample file will be stored at the following location: C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs.
This tutorial uses the following URL to make an eBay Shopping API call:
http://open.api.ebay.com/shopping?appid=MyAppID&version=517&siteid=0&callname=FindItems&QueryKeywords=ipod&responseencoding=XML.
To use this URL in the tutorial, you must substitute your production appid for "MyAppID" and remove all spaces and new-line characters.
To create the initial code for your Shopping API call:
<?php ?> <html> <head> <title> eBay Search Results for <?php echo $query; ?> </title> </head> <body> <h1>eBay Search Results</h1> <?php echo $results;?> </body> </html>
| Standard Parameter | Sample value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| appid | MyAppID | The appid you obtain by joining the eBay Developers Program. |
| version | 517 | The API version that your application supports. |
| siteid | 0 | The numeric value for the eBay site with the items you want information about, e.g. the siteid of the US site is 0. |
| callname | FindItems | The name of the call you are using, e.g. FindItems. |
| responseencoding | XML | Specifies that the output format is XML. |
| Call-Specific Parameter | Sample value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| QueryKeywords | ipod | A query that specifies a search string. |
<?php. This code contains the FindItems input parameters from the step above, including the query keyword and your appid.
This code is part of the code for a FindItems call:
error_reporting(E_ALL); // turn on all errors, warnings and notices for easier debugging $query = 'ipod'; // A query $SafeQuery = urlencode($query); $endpoint = 'http://open.api.ebay.com/shopping'; // URL to call $responseEncoding = 'XML'; // Format of the response // Construct the FindItems call $apicall = "$endpoint?callname=FindItems&version=517&siteid=0&appid=MyAppID&QueryKeywords=$SafeQuery&responseencoding=$responseEncoding";
In this step you will add code to store and then display the items returned.
As described in Step 1, the URL used for your Shopping API call is http://open.api.ebay.com/shopping?appid=MyAppID&version=517&siteid=0&callname=FindItems&QueryKeywords=ipod&responseencoding=XML.
The responseencoding=XML parameter causes the response data
to be in XML format.
In this step you will add code to store and then display the items returned.
$apicall is set to a URL value),
add the following code:
// Load the call and capture the document returned by the Shopping API
$resp = simplexml_load_file($apicall);
// Check to see if the response was loaded, else print an error
if ($resp) {
$results = '';
// If the response was loaded, parse it and build links
foreach($resp->Item as $item) {
$link = $item->ViewItemURLForNaturalSearch;
$title = $item->Title;
// For each result node, build a link and append it to $results
$results .= "<a href=\"$link\">$title</a><br/>";
}
}
// If there was no response, print an error
else {
$results = "Oops! Must not have gotten the response!";
}
The MySample.php file is complete. Open the file in a browser (http://localhost/MySample.php).
The result should look similar to the following:
Congratulations! You have used the eBay Shopping API to search for items on eBay and to display the search results to a user.
For information about the business benefits of using the eBay Developers Program and for other important information, please see the Quick Start Guide.
This section contains notes about the tutorial and suggestions.
You can earn money with the eBay Partner Network (eBay Affiliate Program)! Send users to eBay, and earn money for new active users (ACRUs) and successful transactions. For more information, visit the eBay Partner Network. This tutorial contains affiliate-related code. The code is commented-out because affiliate functionality is not available in the Sandbox environment.
For information about the URL parameters for affiliate tracking, see the Affiliate URL Parameters and HTTP Header Values table.
The sample provided with this tutorial was built and tested on a Windows 2000 Server platform using PHP 5.2.1 for Win32 and Apache 2.2.4 for Windows.
See FindItems in the Call Reference for descriptions of all the input and output parameters and additional information.
Try different input parameters to change the search criteria, or modify the application to display additional fields.
More information about the eBay Shopping API is available at these locations:
© 2011 eBay Inc. All rights reserved.
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All other brands are the property of their respective owners.