###################################################################### Net::Amazon 0.09 ###################################################################### NAME Net::Amazon - Framework for accessing amazon.com via SOAP and XML/HTTP SYNOPSIS use Net::Amazon; my $ua = Net::Amazon->new(token => 'YOUR_AMZN_TOKEN'); my $resp = $ua->search(asin => '0201360683'); # Response is of type Net::Amazon::Response::ASIN my $resp = $ua->request($req); if($resp->is_success()) { print $resp->as_string(), "\n"; } else { print "Error: ", $resp->message(), "\n"; } ABSTRACT Net::Amazon provides an object-oriented interface to amazon.com's SOAP and XML/HTTP interfaces. This way it's possible to create applications using Amazon's vast amount of data via a functional interface, without having to worry about the underlying communication mechanism. DESCRIPTION "Net::Amazon" works very much like "LWP": First you define a useragent like my $ua = Net::Amazon->new( token => 'YOUR_AMZN_TOKEN', max_pages => 3, ); which you pass your personal amazon developer's token (can be obtained from http://amazon.com/soap) and (optionally) the maximum number of result pages the agent is going to request from Amazon in case all results don't fit on a single page (typically holding 20 items). According to the different search methods on Amazon, there's a bunch of different request types in "Net::Amazon". The user agent's convenience method "search()" triggers different request objects, depending on which parameters you pass to it: "$ua->search(asin => "0201360683")" The "asin" parameter has Net::Amazon search for an item with the specified ASIN. Returns at most one result. "$ua->search(artist => "Rolling Stones")" The "artist" parameter has the user agent search for items created by the specified artist. Can return many results. "$ua->search(keyword => "perl xml", mode => "books")" Search by keyword, mandatory parameters "keyword" and "mode". Can return many results. "$ua->search(wishlist => "1XL5DWOUFMFVJ")" Search for all items in a specified wishlist. Can return many results. "$ua->search(upc => "075596278324", mode => "music")" Music search by UPC (product barcode), mandatory parameter "upc". "mode" has to be set to "music". Returns at most one result. The user agent's "search" method returns a response object, which can be checked for success or failure: if($resp->is_success()) { print $resp->as_string(); } else { print "Error: ", $resp->message(), "\n"; } In case the request succeeds, the response contains one or more Amazon 'properties', as it calls the products found. All matches can be retrieved from the Response object using it's "properties()" method. Response objects always have the methods "is_success()", "is_error()", "message()", "as_string()" and "properties()" available. "properties()" returns one or more "Net::Amazon::Property" objects of type "Net::Amazon::Property" (or one of its subclasses like "Net::Amazon::Property::Book", "Net::Amazon::Property::Music" or Net::Amazon::Property::DVD), each of which features accessors named after the attributes of the product found in Amazon's database: for ($resp->properties) { print $_->Asin(), " ", $_->OurPrice(), "\n"; } Also the specialized classes "Net::Amazon::Property::Book" and "Net::Amazon::Property::Music" feature convenience methods like "authors()" (returning the list of authors of a book) or "album()" for CDs, returning the album title. Requests behind the scenes "Net::Amazon"'s "search()" method is just a convenient way to create different kinds of requests objects behind the scenes and trigger them to send requests to Amazon. Depending on the parameters fed to the "search" method, "Net::Amazon" will determine the kind of search requested and create one of the following request objects: Net::Amazon::Request::ASIN Search by ASIN, mandatory parameter "asin". Returns at most one result. Net::Amazon::Request::Artist Music search by Artist, mandatory parameter "artist". Can return many results. Net::Amazon::Request::Keyword Keyword search, mandatory parameters "keyword" and "mode". Can return many results. Net::Amazon::Request::UPC Music search by UPC (product barcode), mandatory parameter "upc". "mode" has to be set to "music". Returns at most one result. Check the respective man pages for details on these request objects. Request objects are typically created like this (with a Keyword query as an example): my $req = Net::Amazon::Request::Keyword->new( keyword => 'perl', mode => 'books', ); and are handed over to the user agent like that: # Response is of type Net::Amazon::Response::ASIN my $resp = $ua->request($req); The convenient "search()" method just does these two steps in one. METHODS $ua = Net::Amazon->new(token => $token, ...) Create a new Net::Amazon useragent. $token is the value of the mandatory Amazon developer's token, which can be obtained from http://amazon.com/soap. Additional optional parameters: "max_pages => $max_pages" sets how many result pages the module is supposed to fetch back from Amazon, which only sends back 10 results per page. "affiliate_id => $affiliate_id" your Amazon affiliate ID, if you have one. It defaults to "webservices-20" which is currently (as of 06/2003) required by Amazon. "$resp = $ua->request($request)" Sends a request to the Amazon web service. $request is of a "Net::Amazon::Request::*" type and $response will be of the corresponding "Net::Amazon::Response::*" type. Accessing foreign Amazon Catalogs As of this writing (06/2003), Amazon also offers its web service for its UK catalog. Just pass locale => 'uk' to "Net::Amazon"'s constructor "new()" and instead of returning results sent by the US mothership, it will query the UK catalog and show prices in (gack!) Pounds. EXAMPLE Here's a full-fledged example doing a artist search: use Net::Amazon; use Net::Amazon::Request::Artist; use Data::Dumper; die "usage: $0 artist\n(use Zwan as an example)\n" unless defined $ARGV[0]; my $ua = Net::Amazon->new( token => 'YOUR_AMZN_TOKEN', ); my $req = Net::Amazon::Request::Artist->new( artist => $ARGV[0], ); # Response is of type Net::Amazon::Artist::Response my $resp = $ua->request($req); if($resp->is_success()) { print $resp->as_string, "\n"; } else { print $resp->message(), "\n"; } And here's one displaying someone's wishlist: use Net::Amazon; use Net::Amazon::Request::Wishlist; die "usage: $0 wishlist_id\n" . "(use 1XL5DWOUFMFVJ as an example)\n" unless $ARGV[0]; my $ua = Net::Amazon->new( token => 'YOUR_AMZN_TOKEN', ); my $req = Net::Amazon::Request::Wishlist->new( id => $ARGV[0] ); # Response is of type Net::Amazon::ASIN::Response my $resp = $ua->request($req); if($resp->is_success()) { print $resp->as_string, "\n"; } else { print $resp->message(), "\n"; } DEBUGGING If something's going wrong and you want more verbosity, just bump up "Net::Amazon"'s logging level. "Net::Amazon" comes with "Log::Log4perl" statements embedded, which are disabled by default. However, if you initialize "Log::Log4perl", e.g. like use Net::Amazon; use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy); Log::Log4perl->easy_init($DEBUG); my Net::Amazon->new(); # ... you'll see what's going on behind the scenes, what URLs the module is requesting from Amazon and so forth. Log::Log4perl allows all kinds of fancy stuff, like writing to a file or enabling verbosity in certain parts only -- check http://log4perl.sourceforge.net for details. INSTALLATION "Net::Amazon" depends on Log::Log4perl, which can be pulled from CPAN by simply saying perl -MCPAN -eshell 'install Log::Log4perl' Also, it needs XML::Simple 2.x, which can be obtained in a similar way. Once all dependencies have been resolved, "Net::Amazon" installs with the typical sequence perl Makefile.PL make make test make install Make sure you're connected to the Internet while running "make test" because it will actually contact amazon.com and run a couple of live tests. The module's distribution tarball and documentation are available at http://perlmeister.com/devel/#amzn and on CPAN. SEE ALSO AUTHOR Mike Schilli, COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE Copyright 2003 by Mike Schilli This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.