Class: Amazon API Access with PHP and XML (amazon, catalog, API, webservice)

Name:	Amazon API Access with PHP and XML Support forum
Base name:	`amazon`
Description:	A PHP XML class to access Amazon API they released
Search tags:	amazon, catalog, API, webservice
Version:	`-`
Required PHP version:	`-`
License:	The PHP License
All time users:	4656 users
All time rank:	274
Week users:	15 users
Week rank:	365

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Supplied by:

Name: Uioreanu Calin <e-mail contact>

Published packages: 1

Country: Germany - PHP jobs in Germany

Home page: ???

Age: ???

All time rank: 338

Week rank: 380

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Groups:

XML	XML parsing and generation	View top rated classes
E-Commerce	Online stores, shopping baskets and payment methods	View top rated classes
Web services	Web data clipping, SOAP or XML-RPC clients and servers	View top rated classes

Hello,

Now everybody heard of Amazon.com. What not everybody knows that Amazon released an API to access its huge catalogs. What this basically means is that each developer can access the information from Amazon following some simple protocols and every site owner can enhance his own website with content and features from Amazon.

The Amazon API comes as a simple Webservice. Here are the first Web services that they have exposed:
- Product Display : The ability to search for and retrieve product information from the Amazon.com catalog.
- Shopping Cart : The ability to add Amazon.com products to shopping carts, wish lists, and registries from third party locations.

No matter of your intentions, you will first need to register and obtain a valid developer token. You can get your token here at this address: http://www.amazon.com/webservices

The current listed implementation of Amazon webservices uses Keyword searches. It has basically the same results as searching the books catalog online. As any developer/webmaster can see in the "Amazon.com Web Services Developers Kit v 1.0" document, a lot of other Amazon features are exposed. This would imply extending the base structure I present here.

There are multiple approaches from a developer's point of view. The simplest one deals with SOAP and web services classes already implemented in PHP. You could also extend the PEAR's XMLParser object to parse Amazon results. The reason I did not choose these directions is because they require additional extensions installed with PHP. What I currently use is the XML parsing package that comes embedded in PHP, so it is slightly more general.

What basically happens in this implementation is that the search word entered by the used is embedded into a XML url that is then retrieved from Amazon.com. Then PHP builds a nice display for the information received.

I should let the code talk for itself. Here is the main controller, with a small search form for Amazon:

http://www.php9.com/php/source/amazon.phps

As you see, the actual code is very small. Then here is the class used in the controller to parse the XML returned by Amazon.

http://www.php9.com/php/source/amazon_class.phps

Then the configuration file. I need to remember you that you need to change the DEVELOPER_TOKEN constant with the one you will obtain from Amazon. The current license key belongs to me. You also need to change the ASSOCIATE_ID constant with a one from Amazon. You also need to do the same change in the file php9-data-to-html.xsl, the engine for the XSLT transformation.The current constant set belongs to me also.

http://www.php9.com/php/source/amazon_config.phps

And here is the layout template used to build the output from the XML document retrieved from Amazon. It is parsed every time a book record is retrieved, so the output rendering is the fastest possible.

http://www.php9.com/php/source/amazon_layout.phps

And here is the XSLT document used to build the HTML product page document from the XML document retrieved from Amazon.

http://www.php9.com/php9-data-to-html.xsl

Here you have the full package zipped.

http://www.php9.com/php/source/amazon.zip

And of course a demo: http://www.php9.com/amazon.php

As the project improved a lot during the latest months, I created a freshmeat project here:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/amazon_webservice_api/

and a class collection in the extensive package provided by Manuel Lemos:
http://www.phpclasses.org/browse.html/package/642.html

Feel free to use it and improve. I am open to suggestions.

The class has been updated to use Amazon Webservices Version 2 (search order, number of results).

Freshmeat project:

Project record:	`amazon_webservice_api`
Popularity score:	750.43 (1.22%)
Popularity rank:	4,776 (PHP Classes: 25)
Vitality score:	0.00 (0.00%)
Rating:	8.28 (Votes: 2) Please rate this class in Freshmeat

User ratings:

Ratings Utility Consistency Documentation Examples Tests Videos Overall Rank

All time: Good (87.5%) Sufficient (77.5%) - Good (80.0%) - - Not sure (59.5%) 640

Month: Not yet rated by the users

Applications that use this class:

Link	Description
Add search teasers from Amazon to your site search	This article is intended for every web developer or webmaster interested in having Amazon.com search results as teasers on his search results page. Requirements are small experience with web services, and basic programming skills
Amazon PHP API Demo	A small demo using the light search in Amazon catalog
another site using the Amazon PHP class by Alan Samoun	site for the Earle Baum Center of the Blind (EBC), a nonprofit regional community center, serving the blind and visually impaired from Nothern California.
Camcorders shop	Coming from the same codebase as the digicams shop, a simple camcorders shop is available. Have a look around it
digicams@php9.com	the simplest digicams shop using Amazon API
Doug Sahm dotcom a.k.a Amigos De Musica	A nice dedicated musical shop and not only by Joop Toeset (xscom)
dvd shop	the simplest DVD shop using Amazon API
Garden Grow	a combination of the Amazon API PHP class and PHP Open Directory Project (phpODP). Looks like a perfect match between amazon webservices and another well known PHP Project
Pinhole Visions - The Art of Pinhole Photography	The Pinhole Visions web site exists to support pinhole photography as both an art form and a learning activity. The site uses amazon.php class for the homepage top selling books listing. A cache class by Gregg D. Kemp is active also.
ReadBrazil.com Brazil books	Amazon PHP API Demo using also the Smarty templating system in PHP
the simplest shop in the world	shopping site featuring prices and features comparison, easy to use and intuitive categorisation, product reviews and best prices
Top Science Books	the simplest Top Science books shop using Amazon API
top-books-shop	the simplest top books shop of the world

If you know an application of this package, send a message to the author to add a link here.

Related links:

Link Description

digicams shop: the simplest digicams shop using Amazon API PHP Class live xml feed from amazon using a html caching layer

Files:

File	Role	Description
`amazon.php`	Example	controller script Amazon API
`amazon_class.php`	Class	webservice class definition for Amazon Parser
`amazon_config.php`	Conf.	configuration variables for Amazon Parser
`amazon_layout.php`	Example	display template for Amazon API
`amazon_search_config.php`	Conf.	configuration file for the Amazon search teasers
`amazon_search_layout.php`	Example	the layout for the Amazon Search teaser
`amazon_search_teaser.php`	Example	Search teaser in case you want results from Amazon on your site internal search

Download all files: amazon.tar.gz amazon.zip

NOTICE: if you are using a download manager program like 'GetRight', please Login before trying to download this archive.

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Class: Amazon API Access with PHP and XML

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