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GET/category_tree/{category_tree_id}

This method retrieves the complete category tree that is identified by the category_tree_id parameter. The value of category_tree_id was returned by the getDefaultCategoryTreeId method in the categoryTreeId field. The response contains details of all nodes of the specified eBay category tree, as well as the eBay marketplaces that use this category tree.

Note: This method can return a very large payload, so gzip compression is supported. To enable gzip compression, include the Accept-Encoding header and set its value to gzip as shown below:

  Accept-Encoding: gzip

Input

Resource URI

GET https://api.ebay.com/commerce/taxonomy/v1/category_tree/{category_tree_id}

This method is supported in Sandbox environment. To access the endpoint, just replace the api.ebay.com root URI with api.sandbox.ebay.com

URI parameters

ParameterTypeDescription
category_tree_idstringThe unique identifier of the eBay category tree. The category tree ID for an eBay marketplace can be retrieved using the getDefaultCategoryTreeId method.

Occurrence: Required

HTTP request headers

All requests made to eBay REST operations require you to provide the Authorization HTTP header for authentication authorization.

The table below shows additional HTTP request headers that are either required, conditionally required, or strongly recommended for this method. Other standard HTTP request headers- opens rest request components page (not in this table) can also be used, but they are optional.

HeaderTypeDescription
Accept-EncodingstringThis header indicates the compression-encoding algorithms the client accepts for the response. This value should be set to gzip.

For more information, refer to HTTP request headers.

Occurrence: Optional

OAuth scope

This request requires an access token created with the client credentials grant flow, using one or more scopes from the following list (please check your Application Keys page for a list of OAuth scopes available to your application):

https://api.ebay.com/oauth/api_scope

See OAuth access tokens for more information.

Request payload

This call has no payload.

Request fields

This call has no field definitions.

Output

HTTP response headers

This call has no response headers.

Response payload

Response fields

Output container/fieldTypeDescription
applicableMarketplaceIdsarray of MarketplaceIdEnum

A list of one or more identifiers of the eBay marketplaces that use this category tree.

Occurrence: Always

categoryTreeIdstring

The unique identifier of this eBay category tree.

Occurrence: Always

categoryTreeVersionstring

The version of this category tree. It's a good idea to cache this value for comparison so you can determine if this category tree has been modified in subsequent calls.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNodeCategoryTreeNode

Contains details of all nodes of the category tree hierarchy, starting with the root node and down to the leaf nodes. This is a recursive structure.

Note: The root node of a full default category tree includes the categoryId field, but its value should not be relied upon. It provides no useful information for application development.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.categoryCategory

Contains details about the current category tree node.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.category.categoryIdstring

The unique identifier of the eBay category within its category tree.

Note: The root node of a full default category tree includes the categoryId field, but its value should not be relied upon. It provides no useful information for application development.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.category.categoryNamestring

The name of the category identified by categoryId.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.categoryTreeNodeLevelinteger

The absolute level of the current category tree node in the hierarchy of its category tree.

Note: The root node of any full category tree is always at level 0.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodesarray of CategoryTreeNode

An array of one or more category tree nodes that are the immediate children of the current category tree node, as well as their children, recursively down to the leaf nodes.

Returned only if the current category tree node is not a leaf node (the value of leafCategoryTreeNode is false).

Occurrence: Conditional

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.categoryCategory

Contains details about the current category tree node.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.category.categoryIdstring

The unique identifier of the eBay category within its category tree.

Note: The root node of a full default category tree includes the categoryId field, but its value should not be relied upon. It provides no useful information for application development.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.category.categoryNamestring

The name of the category identified by categoryId.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.categoryTreeNodeLevelinteger

The absolute level of the current category tree node in the hierarchy of its category tree.

Note: The root node of any full category tree is always at level 0.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.childCategoryTreeNodesarray of CategoryTreeNode

An array of one or more category tree nodes that are the immediate children of the current category tree node, as well as their children, recursively down to the leaf nodes.

Returned only if the current category tree node is not a leaf node (the value of leafCategoryTreeNode is false).

Occurrence: Conditional

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.childCategoryTreeNodes.categoryCategory

Contains details about the current category tree node.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.childCategoryTreeNodes.category.categoryIdstring

The unique identifier of the eBay category within its category tree.

Note: The root node of a full default category tree includes the categoryId field, but its value should not be relied upon. It provides no useful information for application development.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.childCategoryTreeNodes.category.categoryNamestring

The name of the category identified by categoryId.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.childCategoryTreeNodes.categoryTreeNodeLevelinteger

The absolute level of the current category tree node in the hierarchy of its category tree.

Note: The root node of any full category tree is always at level 0.

Occurrence: Always

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.childCategoryTreeNodes.childCategoryTreeNodesarray of CategoryTreeNode

An array of one or more category tree nodes that are the immediate children of the current category tree node, as well as their children, recursively down to the leaf nodes.

Returned only if the current category tree node is not a leaf node (the value of leafCategoryTreeNode is false).

Occurrence: Conditional

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.childCategoryTreeNodes.leafCategoryTreeNodeboolean

A value of true indicates that the current category tree node is a leaf node (it has no child nodes). A value of false indicates that the current node has one or more child nodes, which are identified by the childCategoryTreeNodes array.

Returned only if the value of this field is true.

Occurrence: Conditional

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.childCategoryTreeNodes.parentCategoryTreeNodeHrefstring

The href portion of the getCategorySubtree call that retrieves the subtree below the parent of this category tree node.

Not returned if the current category tree node is the root node of its tree.

Occurrence: Conditional

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.leafCategoryTreeNodeboolean

A value of true indicates that the current category tree node is a leaf node (it has no child nodes). A value of false indicates that the current node has one or more child nodes, which are identified by the childCategoryTreeNodes array.

Returned only if the value of this field is true.

Occurrence: Conditional

rootCategoryNode.childCategoryTreeNodes.parentCategoryTreeNodeHrefstring

The href portion of the getCategorySubtree call that retrieves the subtree below the parent of this category tree node.

Not returned if the current category tree node is the root node of its tree.

Occurrence: Conditional

rootCategoryNode.leafCategoryTreeNodeboolean

A value of true indicates that the current category tree node is a leaf node (it has no child nodes). A value of false indicates that the current node has one or more child nodes, which are identified by the childCategoryTreeNodes array.

Returned only if the value of this field is true.

Occurrence: Conditional

rootCategoryNode.parentCategoryTreeNodeHrefstring

The href portion of the getCategorySubtree call that retrieves the subtree below the parent of this category tree node.

Not returned if the current category tree node is the root node of its tree.

Occurrence: Conditional

HTTP status codes

This call can return one of the following HTTP status codes. For an overview of the status codes, see HTTP status codes in Using eBay RESTful APIs.

StatusMeaning
200Success
404Not Found
500Internal Server Error

Error codes

For more on errors, plus the codes of other common errors, see Handling errors.

CodeDomainCategoryMeaning
62000API_TAXONOMYAPPLICATIONThere was a problem with an eBay internal system or process. Contact eBay developer support for assistance.
62004API_TAXONOMYREQUESTThe specified category tree ID was not found.

Warnings

This call has no warnings.

Samples

New to making API calls? Please see Making a Call.

Note: Identifiers, such as order IDs or user IDs, and personal data in these samples might be anonymized or may no longer be active on eBay. If necessary, substitute current, relevant eBay data in your requests.

Sample 1: Get a complete category tree

This sample retrieves the complete content of the specified category tree.

Input

Use the category_tree_id path parameter to specify the category tree to retrieve. It is not necessary to specify an eBay marketplace.

GEThttps://api.ebay.com/commerce/taxonomy/v1/category_tree/0

Output

A successful call returns the complete category tree specified, from the root node to all leaf nodes of the tree. In this sample, the returned category tree contains almost 20,000 categories, so the response shown here has most of the nodes removed for easier viewing.