I’m a developer for a company where we’re using Amazon's great product advertising API (PA-API) for a many years for fetching book information. We’re currently using the Java SDK and API v5.
Issue
We provide our customers directly links with our affiliate to the related hardcopy or ebook on different Amazon stores. We do this by creating a SearchItems documentation request with the ISBN (example 9780399562396) as the keyword and no specific search index. In the past we got a response back with two items and therefore two ASINs, one for the hardcopy and one for the ebook (distinguishable by the itemInfo’s product group). However, since some time we had to recognize that the response only contains normally one item, the hard copy product.
I have already tried different approaches with the great Scratchpad.
Questions
The interesting thing is that when I explicitly include the search index (more information here) “Books” or “KindleStore” the API is responding with the expected item (for "books" with a book and for "KindleStore" with a kindle). We do that by having a look at the ItemInfo.Classifications (more information here) However, if I search in the index “All” or don’t specified it, it returns only one item (normally the hardcopy). Which seems to me quite strange… Should the API/search index even behave like this?
Furthermore, I was not able to figure out how to search in to indexes within the same request and it seems to me that this is not supported at all but I would expect that at least this would then return two items…
Therefore, I would like ask you if somebody has an explanation for us to retrieve with one request both ASINs (kindle + hard copy book) of the same ISBN. Of course it is possible to create two separate requests for each product group, however since the API rates are tied to the shipped item revenue, we would like to avoid unnecessary API requests.
Some examples with and without the usage of the explicit usage of the search index
In the following example I looking for the hardcopy or kindle of the book with ISBN 9780262043649 by doing a SearchItem request.
a) Hardcopy with given search index
Payload
{
"Keywords": "9780262043649",
"Resources": [
"ItemInfo.Classifications",
"ItemInfo.Title"
],
"SearchIndex": "Books",
"PartnerTag": "*********",
"PartnerType": "Associates",
"Marketplace": "www.amazon.com",
"Operation": "SearchItems"
}
Response
{
"SearchResult": {
"Items": [
{
"ASIN": "0262043645",
"DetailPageURL": "https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262043645?tag=getabstractcom&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1",
"ItemInfo": {
"Classifications": {
"Binding": {
"DisplayValue": "Hardcover",
"Label": "Binding",
"Locale": "en_US"
},
"ProductGroup": {
"DisplayValue": "Book",
"Label": "ProductGroup",
"Locale": "en_US"
}
},
"Title": {
"DisplayValue": "Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence (The MIT Press)",
"Label": "Title",
"Locale": "en_US"
}
}
}
],
"SearchURL": "https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780262043649&i=stripbooks&rh=p_n_availability%3A-1&tag=getabstractcom&linkCode=osi",
"TotalResultCount": 1
}
}
b) Kindle with given search index
Payload
{
"Keywords": "9780262043649",
"Resources": [
"ItemInfo.Classifications",
"ItemInfo.Title"
],
"SearchIndex": "KindleStore",
"PartnerTag": "******",
"PartnerType": "Associates",
"Marketplace": "www.amazon.com",
"Operation": "SearchItems"
}
Response
{
"SearchResult": {
"Items": [
{
"ASIN": "B08BT4MM18",
"DetailPageURL": "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BT4MM18?tag=getabstractcom&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1",
"ItemInfo": {
"Classifications": {
"Binding": {
"DisplayValue": "Kindle Edition",
"Label": "Binding",
"Locale": "en_US"
},
"ProductGroup": {
"DisplayValue": "Digital Ebook Purchas",
"Label": "ProductGroup",
"Locale": "en_US"
}
},
"Title": {
"DisplayValue": "Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence",
"Label": "Title",
"Locale": "en_US"
}
}
}
],
"SearchURL": "https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780262043649&i=digital-text&rh=p_n_availability%3A-1&tag=getabstractcom&linkCode=osi",
"TotalResultCount": 1
}
}
c) No specific search index
Payload
{
"Keywords": "9780262043649",
"Resources": [
"ItemInfo.Classifications",
"ItemInfo.Title"
],
"PartnerTag": "*******",
"PartnerType": "Associates",
"Marketplace": "www.amazon.com",
"Operation": "SearchItems"
}
Response
{
"SearchResult": {
"Items": [
{
"ASIN": "B08BT4MM18",
"DetailPageURL": "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BT4MM18?tag=getabstractcom&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1",
"ItemInfo": {
"Classifications": {
"Binding": {
"DisplayValue": "Kindle Edition",
"Label": "Binding",
"Locale": "en_US"
},
"ProductGroup": {
"DisplayValue": "Digital Ebook Purchas",
"Label": "ProductGroup",
"Locale": "en_US"
}
},
"Title": {
"DisplayValue": "Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence",
"Label": "Title",
"Locale": "en_US"
}
}
}
],
"SearchURL": "https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780262043649&rh=p_n_availability%3A-1&tag=getabstractcom&linkCode=osi",
"TotalResultCount": 1
}
}
Research/Further information