How do I use ItemFilters with eBay::API::Simple::Finding?

Question

I am playing with getting sold items from ebay using eBay::API::Simple::Finding and I want to use ItemFilters but I can't see where they go. In particular I am looking to use the item filters

(itemFilter.name = SoldItemsOnly, itemFilter.value = true)
and
(itemFilter.name = Condition, itemFilter.value = Used)

I tried just including directly with the following here:

keywords => '"princess cut", "diamond ring", -"14k*"', 
Condition => 'Sold',
SoldItemsOnly => 'true', 
sortOrder => 'PricePlusShippingHighest'

I have been on it quite a while and whilst I am sure it is somehow quite straight forward, I just can't seem to get it

use eBay::API::Simple::Finding;

my $api = eBay::API::Simple::Finding->new( {
   appid   => 'APIKEY',
   siteid  => 'EBAY-AU',
} );

$api->execute( 
    'findCompletedItems', { 
    keywords => '"princess cut", "diamond ring", -"14k*"',  
    sortOrder => 'PricePlusShippingHighest',
    } 
);

if ( $api->has_error() ) {
   die "Call Failed:" . $api->errors_as_string();
}

my $dom  = $api->response_dom();
my $hash = $api->response_hash();

Any help is very appreciated,

As for what I am seeing? The sort is working, the search by keywords is working, but the itemfilters are not working, so it is returning new & used items that have completed, whether sold or unsold

Answer 1

Reading the eBay API docs about findCompletedItems shows that you need to use child elements for ItemFilters. There is a sample that shows this nicely (link).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<findCompletedItemsRequest xmlns="http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services">
   <keywords>Garmin nuvi 1300 Automotive GPS Receiver</keywords>
   <categoryId>156955</categoryId>
   <itemFilter>
      <name>Condition</name>
      <value>3000</value>
   </itemFilter>
   <itemFilter>
      <name>FreeShippingOnly</name>
      <value>true</value>
   </itemFilter>
   <itemFilter>
      <name>SoldItemsOnly</name>
      <value>true</value>
   </itemFilter>
   <sortOrder>PricePlusShippingLowest</sortOrder>
   <paginationInput>
      <entriesPerPage>2</entriesPerPage>
      <pageNumber>1</pageNumber>
   </paginationInput>
</findCompletedItemsRequest>

Looking at the source code of the eBay::API::Simple::Finding module we can see that it uses XML::Simple to construct requests. While in general XML::Simple is discouraged, we will have to work with it.

Taking a deeper look at the docs for the ItemFilter shows that we can provide one <itemFilter> block per filter. That implies that multiple ones are treated as AND automatically.

To make a single item with the way XML::Simple get set up in the API module, we just need a hashref.

{
    itemFilter => {
        name => 'Condition',
        value => 3000,
    },
}

will become

<itemFilter>
  <name>Condition</name>
  <value>3000</value>
</itemFilter>

To get several, we need an array reference behind the itemFilter key.

{
    itemFilter => [
        {
            name => 'Condition',
            value => 3000,
        },
        {
            name => 'FreeShippingOnly',
            value => 'true',
        },
    ],
}

This produces this XML.

<itemFilter>
  <name>Condition</name>
  <value>3000</value>
</itemFilter>
<itemFilter>
  <name>FreeShippingOnly</name>
  <value>true</value>
</itemFilter>

So far so good. We can easily hack that into the API module call. Instead of executing the call directly, I have prepared it, and then called the private method _get_request_body, which uses XML::Simple to form and return the request body string. That's neat to check if the request will look ok. I figured that out by reading the code, starting at the one I lined above, and working my way towards the base class, which provides execute.

use eBay::API::Simple::Finding;

my $api = eBay::API::Simple::Finding->new( {
   appid   => 'APIKEY',
   siteid  => 'EBAY-AU',
} );

$api->prepare(
    'findCompletedItems',
    {
        keywords   => '"princess cut", "diamond ring", -"14k*"',
        sortOrder  => 'PricePlusShippingHighest',
        itemFilter => [
            {
                name  => 'SoldItemsOnly',
                value => 'true',
            },
            {
                name  => 'Condition',
                value => 'Used',
            },
        ],
    }
);

print $api->_get_request_body;

Here's the XML that comes out.

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<findCompletedItemsRequest xmlns="http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services">
  <itemFilter>
    <name>SoldItemsOnly</name>
    <value>true</value>
  </itemFilter>
  <itemFilter>
    <name>Condition</name>
    <value>Used</value>
  </itemFilter>
  <keywords>&quot;princess cut&quot;, &quot;diamond ring&quot;, -&quot;14k*&quot;</keywords>
  <sortOrder>PricePlusShippingHighest</sortOrder>
</findCompletedItemsRequest>

It doesn't matter that it' not indented nicely. It is clear that the filters are there.

Since I don't have an API key I cannot run this myself, but I am pretty sure it's going to work.