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Published: October 18 2007, 4:28:00 PMUpdated: November 28 2020, 4:01:39 PM
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Detailed Description


There are three main ways to access the eBay platform through an API (i.e., there are three eBay API types) :

Trading API
Shopping API
Market Data (Research) API

Trading API


The Trading API calls are documented here :
  http://developer.ebay.com/DevZone/XML/docs/Reference/eBay/index.html

The Trading API can be called a "heavy-weight" API since it requires token-based authentication over https with the calls formulated in SOAP or XML. 

Because of the authentication and encryption aspects of the Trading API, this API is the only API suitable for private information (ex. transaction data).  Thus, it is the broadest API with the largest number of calls (well over 100).


Shopping API


The new Shopping API calls are documented here :

  http://developer.ebay.com/DevZone/shopping/docs/CallRef/index.html

There currently 14 Shopping API calls, with more coverage expected. The Shopping API is well suited to display of public data (ex. items for sale) that may be seen in a typical buying application (ex.shopping comparison site).

The Shopping API allows you to send or receive data in a variety of formats (XML, JSON, SOAP, name-value pairs), so it is very suitable for environments like JavaScript where XML parsers are slow or unavailable.


Market Data (Research) API


Finally, eBay offers a Market Data program available at
  http://developer.ebay.com/DevZone/shopping/docs/CallRef/index.html

This program offers insight into pricing and purchasing patterns of goods in the eBay marketplace.  We currently are looking at ways to broaden the availability of access to the data in this program.

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