File: README — Documentation for amazon-ecs (0.5.1)

amazon-ecs

Generic Amazon E-commerce REST API using Hpricot with configurable default options and method call options. Uses Response and Element wrapper classes for easy access to REST XML output. It supports ECS 4.0.

It is generic, so you can easily extend Amazon::Ecs to support other not implemented REST operations; and it is also generic because it just wraps around Hpricot element object, instead of providing one-to-one object/attributes to XML elements map.

If in the future, there is a change in REST XML output structure, no changes will be required on amazon-ecs library, instead you just need to change the element path.

Version: 0.5.1

Links:

INSTALLATION

$ gem install amazon-ecs

EXAMPLE

require 'amazon/ecs'

	# set the default options; options will be camelized and converted to REST request parameters.
 Amazon::Ecs.options = {:aWS_access_key_id => [your developer token]}

 # options provided on method call will merge with the default options
 res = Amazon::Ecs.item_search('ruby', {:response_group => 'Medium', :sort => 'salesrank'})

 # some common response object methods
 res.is_valid_request?     # return true if request is valid
 res.has_error?            # return true if there is an error
 res.error                 # return error message if there is any
 res.total_pages           # return total pages
 res.total_results         # return total results
 res.item_page             # return current page no if :item_page option is provided

 # traverse through each item (Amazon::Element)
 res.items.each do |item|
   # retrieve element text value, following the XML output structure
   item.get('asin')
   item.get('itemattributes/title')

   # or you can also do it this way, to retrieve the title
   atts = item.get('itemattributes')
   atts.get('title')

   # return first author or a string array of authors
   atts.get('author')          # 'Author 1'
   atts.get_array('author')    # ['Author 1', 'Author 2', ...]

   # return an hash of children text values with the element names as the keys
   item.get_hash('smallimage') # {:url => ..., :width => ..., :height => ...}

   # note that '/' returns Hpricot::Elements array object, nil if not found
   reviews = item/'editorialreview'

   # traverse through Hpricot elements
   reviews.each do |review|
     # Getting hash value out of Hpricot element
     Amazon::Element.get_hash(review) # [:source => ..., :content ==> ...]

     # Or to get unescaped HTML values
     Amazon::Element.get_unescaped(review, 'source')
     Amazon::Element.get_unescaped(review, 'content')

     # Or this way
     el = Amazon::Element.new(review)
     el.get_unescaped('source')
     el.get_unescaped('content')
   end
 end

Refer to Amazon ECS documentation for more information on Amazon REST request parameters and XML output: docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEcommerceService/2006-09-13/

To get a sample of Amazon REST response XML output, use AWSZone.com scratch pad: www.awszone.com/scratchpads/aws/ecs.us/index.aws

LICENSE

(The MIT License)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.