How To Make Amazon Web Services XSLT Calls

Amazon Web Services XSLT is an extremely powerful tool and can be somewhat overwhelming for the uninitiated. The following excerpts from the Amazon Web Services developer's kit should help:

Keyword Searches via XML

A keyword is a general search term that is used to find products in the Amazon.com catalog.

The Call

  • http://xml-na.amznxslt.com/onca/xml3?t=[Your Associate ID]&dev-t=[Developer’s token goes here]&KeywordSearch=[subject keyword goes here]&mode=[product line goes here]&type=[lite or heavy]&page=[page # goes here]&f=[url of your xsl stylesheet]

The following search types follow the same AWS call format as the KeywordSearch.

  • AuthorSearch - mode = books
  • ArtistSearch - mode = music and classical
  • ActorSearch - mode = dvd and vhs
  • DirectorSearch - mode = dvd and vhs
  • ManufacturerSearch - all modes. (Same as publisher for books)

Browse Node Searches via XML

The browse structure is the way that Amazon.com organizes products into subjects and categories on Amazon.com's site so that customers can find the product they want easily and efficiently.

To find browse IDs at Amazon.com, the best way is to visit the "browse" area of the various product lines at our Web site. When you find a subject area that you would like to generate XML for, look at the web page URL. The browse ID should appear after the string "/tg/browse/-/". Here are some examples of URLs that contain browse IDs:

Please be aware that some nodes cannot be used with a BrowseNodeSearch.

The Call

  • http://xml-na.amznxslt.com/onca/xml3?t=[Your Associate ID]&dev-t=[Developer’s token goes here]&BrowseNodeSearch=[browse node goes here]&mode=[product line goes here]&type=[lite or heavy] &page=[page # goes here]&f=[url of your xsl stylesheet]

To find Browse nodes at Amazon.com then please try this site:

ASIN and ISBN Searches via XML

The Call

  • http://xml-na.amznxslt.com/onca/xml3?t=[Your Associate ID]&dev-t=[Developer’s token goes here]&AsinSearch=[ASIN/ISBN goes here]&type=[lite or heavy]&f=[url of your xsl stylesheet]

Power Searches via XML

A power search is used to retrieve book information using a complex query. You can use the power search to send Amazon.com complex descriptions of books you are looking for. The syntax for a power search is shown below:

  • author: ambrose
  • author: ambrose and binding: (abridged or large print) and pubdate: after 11-1996
  • subject: history and (spain or mexico) and not military and language: spanish
  • (subject: marketing and author: kotler) or (publisher: harper and subject: "high technology")
  • keywords: "high tech*" and not fiction and pubdate: during 1999
  • isbn: 0446394319 or 0306806819 or 1567993850

You can use the following properties of a book in your search:

  • Title
  • Subject
  • Author
  • Keyword
  • ISBN
  • Publisher
  • Language
  • Publication date (pubdate)

You can use the words and, or, and not to link different parts of a book description. You can also group properties together using parentheses if that seems necessary to convey the precise meaning of your description.

  • http://xml-na.amznxslt.com/onca/xml3?t=[Your Associate ID]&dev-t=[developer’s token goes here]&PowerSearch=[search query goes here]&mode=books&type=[lite or heavy]&page=[page # goes here]&f=[url of your xsl stylesheet]

Product Lines

Baby
mode=baby
Books
mode=books
Classical Music
mode=classical
DVD
mode=dvd
Electronics
mode=electronics
Outdoor Living
mode=garden
Kitchen & Housewares
mode=kitchen
Magazines
mode=magazines
Popular Music
mode=music
Computers
mode=pc-hardware
Camera & Photo
mode=photo
Software
mode=software
Toys & Games
mode=toys
Tools & Hardware
mode=universal
Video
mode=vhs
Computer & Video Games
mode=videogames

What's Next?

What is your site's theme or subject? What would interest your surfers? This is the hard part and you will have to do some research at Amazon to create a catalog of browse nodes and keywords. To give you some idea as to how other Amazon associates are using Amazon Web Services XSLT here are a few model sites:

AmericaMagazine.org

GreekLandscapes.com

More Tutorials