Retrieves mappings between categories and characteristics sets that are available for an eBay site. Retrieves all mappings or just those that match category IDs passed in the call.
See:
Working with Attribute-Based Features
Retrieving Category-to-Meta-Data Mappings
Listing an Item with Attribute and/or Product Data
See also the reference documentation for these calls:
| Output Detail Controls Samples Change History Top Errors for GetCategory2CS |
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"?>
<GetCategory2CSRequest 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>
<CategoryID> string </CategoryID>
</GetCategory2CSRequest>
| 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 |
| 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:
|
| 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 mappings 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 categories for which the mappings have changed since the specified version. If not specified, all category-to-characteristics set mappings are returned. This value changes each time changes are made to the mappings. The current version value is not necessarily greater than the previous value. Therefore, when comparing versions, only compare whether the value has changed. |
| CategoryID | string | Optional |
ID of a category for which to retrieve mappings. If not specified, the call retrieves a map for all categories. Max length: 10. |
| Input Detail Controls Samples Change History Top Errors for GetCategory2CS |
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"?>
<GetCategory2CSResponse 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>
<MappedCategoryArray> CategoryArrayType
<Category> CategoryType
<CatalogEnabled> boolean </CatalogEnabled>
<CategoryID> string </CategoryID>
<CharacteristicsSets> CharacteristicsSetType
<AttributeSetID> int </AttributeSetID>
<AttributeSetVersion> string </AttributeSetVersion>
<Name> string </Name>
</CharacteristicsSets>
<!-- ... more CharacteristicsSets nodes here ... -->
<ProductFinderIDs> ExtendedProductFinderIDType
<ProductFinderBuySide> boolean </ProductFinderBuySide>
<ProductFinderID> int </ProductFinderID>
</ProductFinderIDs>
<!-- ... more ProductFinderIDs nodes here ... -->
<ProductSearchPageAvailable> boolean </ProductSearchPageAvailable>
</Category>
<!-- ... more Category nodes here ... -->
</MappedCategoryArray>
<SiteWideCharacteristicSets> SiteWideCharacteristicsType
<CharacteristicsSet> CharacteristicsSetType
<AttributeSetID> int </AttributeSetID>
<AttributeSetVersion> string </AttributeSetVersion>
<Name> string </Name>
</CharacteristicsSet>
<ExcludeCategoryID> string </ExcludeCategoryID>
<!-- ... more ExcludeCategoryID nodes here ... -->
</SiteWideCharacteristicSets>
<!-- ... more SiteWideCharacteristicSets nodes here ... -->
<UnmappedCategoryArray> CategoryArrayType
<Category> CategoryType
<CategoryID> string </CategoryID>
</Category>
<!-- ... more Category nodes here ... -->
</UnmappedCategoryArray>
</GetCategory2CSResponse>
| 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 | Always |
Current version of the mappings for the site. This value changes each time changes are made to the mappings. 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. |
| MappedCategoryArray | CategoryArrayType | Conditionally |
Contains data about categories that are mapped to characteristics sets. Use this data to determine: - The names and IDs of the characteristics sets - The availability of the Pre-filled Item Information feature for listings in that category (i.e., whether the category is catalog-enabled) - For catalog-enabled categories, the available product search methods - The current version information for the complete mapping - The version information for each characteristics set DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
| MappedCategoryArray.Category | CategoryType | Always,
repeatable: [1..*] |
Contains details about one category. For GetCategories, this node is not returned when no detail level is specified.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
MappedCategoryArray.Category .CatalogEnabled |
boolean | Conditionally |
If true, the category is associated with catalog content and the corresponding catalog is identified by the characteristic set ID. See CharacteristicsSets. As the Pre-filled Item Information feature uses the Item Specifics feature, the set of catalog-enabled categories is a subset of the categories that are mapped to characteristic sets. Not returned if false.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
MappedCategoryArray.Category .CategoryID |
string | Always |
Distinct numeric ID for a category on eBay. In GetItem and related calls, see CategoryName for the text name of the category. Use GetCategories to look up the category parent ID. For GetPopularKeywords, -1 represents the root category. For GetItem, Half.com items return the Half.com category ID in PrimaryCategory. This ID is not necessarily returned in GetCategories. Max length: 10. DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
MappedCategoryArray.Category .CharacteristicsSets |
CharacteristicsSetType | Conditionally,
repeatable: [0..*] |
Returned from GetCategory2CS calls. A list of one or more characteristics sets mapped to the category. Use this information when working with Item Specifics (Attributes) and Pre-filled Item Information (Catalogs) functionality. Output only.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
MappedCategoryArray.Category .CharacteristicsSets .AttributeSetID |
int | Conditionally |
Numeric value that identifies the characteristic set in a language-independent way. Identifies the characteristic set that is mapped to a catalog-enabled category associated with the product. Unique across all eBay sites.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
MappedCategoryArray.Category .CharacteristicsSets .AttributeSetVersion |
string | Conditionally |
Version of the characteristics set. Not to be confused with AttributeSystemVersion, which can be used to retrieve changes to attribute meta-data. In item-listing requests, if you specify the version of the attribute set that you have stored locally, eBay will compare it to the current version on the site and return a warning if the versions do not match. If an error occurs due to invalid attribute data, this warning can be useful to help determine if you might be sending outdated data. The current value of version is not necessarily "greater than" the previous value.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
MappedCategoryArray.Category .CharacteristicsSets.Name |
string | Conditionally |
The well-known name of the characteristic set (e.g., "Tickets" or "Books").
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
MappedCategoryArray.Category .ProductFinderIDs |
ExtendedProductFinderIDType | Conditionally,
repeatable: [0..*] |
The category supports listing with Pre-filled Item Information. Specifies the buy-side and/or sell-side product finder IDs associated with this category, if any.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
MappedCategoryArray.Category .ProductFinderIDs .ProductFinderBuySide |
boolean | Conditionally |
If false or not present, the product finder can be used as input to GetProductSearchResults to search for catalog data (Pre-filled Item Information) that a seller might want to include in a listing. If true, the product finder can be used as input to GetSearchResults to search for listings with Item Specifics on the eBay site. However, if you have trouble using the specified product finder with GetSearchResults, or if you can't find a product finder ID that you saw on the Web site, here is a workaround: 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. DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
MappedCategoryArray.Category .ProductFinderIDs .ProductFinderID |
int | Conditionally |
A product finder ID. GetCategory2CS always (and only) returns this when Category.ProductFinderIDs is returned.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
MappedCategoryArray.Category .ProductSearchPageAvailable |
boolean | Conditionally |
Returned from GetCategory2CS calls. Supports listing with Pre-filled Item Information. If the category supports single-attribute search, this field returns a value of true. Otherwise this field not returned or returned as false.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
| SiteWideCharacteristicSets | SiteWideCharacteristicsType | Conditionally,
repeatable: [0..*] |
A list of one or more characteristics sets mapped to the category, if any. Use this information when working with Item Specifics (Attributes) and Pre-filled Item Information (Catalogs) functionality.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
SiteWideCharacteristicSets .CharacteristicsSet |
CharacteristicsSetType | Conditionally |
Container for site-wide characteristics set information.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
SiteWideCharacteristicSets .CharacteristicsSet .AttributeSetID |
int | Conditionally |
Numeric value that identifies the characteristic set in a language-independent way. Identifies the characteristic set that is mapped to a catalog-enabled category associated with the product. Unique across all eBay sites.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
SiteWideCharacteristicSets .CharacteristicsSet .AttributeSetVersion |
string | Conditionally |
Version of the characteristics set. Not to be confused with AttributeSystemVersion, which can be used to retrieve changes to attribute meta-data. In item-listing requests, if you specify the version of the attribute set that you have stored locally, eBay will compare it to the current version on the site and return a warning if the versions do not match. If an error occurs due to invalid attribute data, this warning can be useful to help determine if you might be sending outdated data. The current value of version is not necessarily "greater than" the previous value.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
SiteWideCharacteristicSets .CharacteristicsSet.Name |
string | Conditionally |
The well-known name of the characteristic set (e.g., "Tickets" or "Books").
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
SiteWideCharacteristicSets .ExcludeCategoryID |
string | Conditionally,
repeatable: [0..*] |
A category that does not support the specified site-wide characteristics set.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
| UnmappedCategoryArray | CategoryArrayType | Conditionally |
Contains data about categories (if any) whose characteristics set mappings have changed since the version specified in the request. When a characteristics set mapping changes, the data appears in both the UnmappedCategoryArray object (to indicate that the change occurred) and the MappedCategoryArray object.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
| UnmappedCategoryArray.Category | CategoryType | Conditionally,
repeatable: [0..*] |
Contains details about one category. For GetCategories, this node is not returned when no detail level is specified.
DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
|
UnmappedCategoryArray.Category .CategoryID |
string | Conditionally |
Distinct numeric ID for a category on eBay. In GetItem and related calls, see CategoryName for the text name of the category. Use GetCategories to look up the category parent ID. For GetPopularKeywords, -1 represents the root category. For GetItem, Half.com items return the Half.com category ID in PrimaryCategory. This ID is not necessarily returned in GetCategories. Max length: 10. DetailLevel: ReturnAll. |
| Input Output Samples Change History Top Errors for GetCategory2CS |
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 attribute system version (with no mappings). Use this level when you only want to check whether to refresh your locally stored attribute meta-data. If the version hasn't changed, you don't need to refresh your local meta-data. |
| ReturnAll | Returns the attribute system version and all mappings of categories to characteristic sets. (The exact data returned also depends on other filters specified in 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. |
| Input Output Detail Controls Change History Top Errors for GetCategory2CS |
An inline sample will be added in a future release. Please refer to the Samples section of the eBay Web Services Guide chapter for GetCategory2CS.
| Input Output Detail Controls Samples Top Errors for GetCategory2CS |
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 499 2007-02-07 |
|
This document was generated with a customized version of the apireferencedocs tool.
© 2005–2009 eBay, Inc. All rights reserved. This documentation and the API may only be used in accordance with the eBay Developers Program and API License Agreement.