Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Update Your Sites By Having A REST
REST (Representational State Transfer) allows for distributed computing with data transactions available using HTTP, URLs and XML. What this means is that you can call information from a data source over HTTP, using a correctly formed URL and get your results delivered to you in XML format, which you can work with using something like ASP.net or PHP to format and display on a web page.
Because URLs are central to how we use the web already, the URL-driven approach of REST makes accessing web services really easy to understand. In essence, you construct a URL where the parameters define the data you want, and the data store sends back the results as XML which you can the process and display as you wish. An example might look like this:
http://domainabouttoys/webservices.aspx?toyname=disney&maxprice=20
Even a non developer could look at that and have a fairly good idea that it's attempting to retrieve a list of Disney toys under £20 from a data store.. This is great because it makes tapping into data nice and easy, and performance is good because requests are cached.
Amazon's web services are already available using REST (I'm still planning to post a nice example soon), and I've also used XML over HTTP from LateRooms.com to create a hotel site with an always up to date list of hotels. Once you have coded your site, the data is pulled live from the the source which means you can build the site once and forget it. Compare and contrast this with needing to download and upload a product feed file.
Microsoft seem to have bought into how effective this is, and are pushing these methods with the recent announcement of ADO.NET Data Services (previously known as project "Astoria"), which provides the libraries and tools for developers to make their data stores available in this flexible way.
I hope to see REST used more often in affiliate marketing in 2008. If a network already stores all their merchant product feeds in a database, implementing this interface will mean affiliates can use up to date product information without the need for working with large, cumbersome product feed files. Credit must, of course, go to networks already making product feed web services available such as Affiliate Window, who at the moment support SOAP/WSDL for their API. I read an interesting statistic that where REST and SOAP are both available on Amazon Web Services, 85% of users opt for REST.
Find out more about REST
REST and the Real World
REST: Simplicity in Web Services Design
REST vs SOAP with Amazon API
Find out more about ADO.Net Data Services
MS Live Labs
Wikipedia
Because URLs are central to how we use the web already, the URL-driven approach of REST makes accessing web services really easy to understand. In essence, you construct a URL where the parameters define the data you want, and the data store sends back the results as XML which you can the process and display as you wish. An example might look like this:
http://domainabouttoys/webservices.aspx?toyname=disney&maxprice=20
Even a non developer could look at that and have a fairly good idea that it's attempting to retrieve a list of Disney toys under £20 from a data store.. This is great because it makes tapping into data nice and easy, and performance is good because requests are cached.
Amazon's web services are already available using REST (I'm still planning to post a nice example soon), and I've also used XML over HTTP from LateRooms.com to create a hotel site with an always up to date list of hotels. Once you have coded your site, the data is pulled live from the the source which means you can build the site once and forget it. Compare and contrast this with needing to download and upload a product feed file.
Microsoft seem to have bought into how effective this is, and are pushing these methods with the recent announcement of ADO.NET Data Services (previously known as project "Astoria"), which provides the libraries and tools for developers to make their data stores available in this flexible way.
I hope to see REST used more often in affiliate marketing in 2008. If a network already stores all their merchant product feeds in a database, implementing this interface will mean affiliates can use up to date product information without the need for working with large, cumbersome product feed files. Credit must, of course, go to networks already making product feed web services available such as Affiliate Window, who at the moment support SOAP/WSDL for their API. I read an interesting statistic that where REST and SOAP are both available on Amazon Web Services, 85% of users opt for REST.
Find out more about REST
REST and the Real World
REST: Simplicity in Web Services Design
REST vs SOAP with Amazon API
Find out more about ADO.Net Data Services
MS Live Labs
Wikipedia
Labels: REST, web services, xml
Permalink // posted by Rob @ 9:38 AM 
Comments:
<< Home
Is it actually possible to get hold of a product feed that can be viewed in Excel from Amazon.co.uk?
I have done lots of searching on the net and cannot seem to find any good info on product feeds and getting hold of Amazon.co.uk data.
I have had a look through my Amazon Web Services account but still stuggling to find any answers.
Looking forward to your future posts on this.
Cheers
Lee
I have done lots of searching on the net and cannot seem to find any good info on product feeds and getting hold of Amazon.co.uk data.
I have had a look through my Amazon Web Services account but still stuggling to find any answers.
Looking forward to your future posts on this.
Cheers
Lee
Permalink // posted by 
: 7:28 PM
: 7:28 PM
Hi Lee
Thanks for the question. I must admit it's not something I had considered before but I think there's two answers.
No, Amazon doesn't provide static, downloadable product feed files that you can simply download and view in Excel like you can with the product feeds from most networks.
But yes, you can view Amazon's product data in Excel in a couple of ways.
I'm using Excel 2003 and one thing I cab do it is to click Data->Xml->Import and paste in my REST querystring URL (be careful, path limit is 256 characters) or there's also a facility to map XML fields to a workbook and import data.
The beauty of web services is that the information is live though so I wouldn't want to try and replicate what I do with conventional product feeds with it.
What is it you want to view the feeds in Excel for if you don't mind me asking? If there's any other questions you have on this feel free to ask as I want to do some tutorial posts on using Amazon's API and I can try and build your questions in.
Cheers
Rob
Thanks for the question. I must admit it's not something I had considered before but I think there's two answers.
No, Amazon doesn't provide static, downloadable product feed files that you can simply download and view in Excel like you can with the product feeds from most networks.
But yes, you can view Amazon's product data in Excel in a couple of ways.
I'm using Excel 2003 and one thing I cab do it is to click Data->Xml->Import and paste in my REST querystring URL (be careful, path limit is 256 characters) or there's also a facility to map XML fields to a workbook and import data.
The beauty of web services is that the information is live though so I wouldn't want to try and replicate what I do with conventional product feeds with it.
What is it you want to view the feeds in Excel for if you don't mind me asking? If there's any other questions you have on this feel free to ask as I want to do some tutorial posts on using Amazon's API and I can try and build your questions in.
Cheers
Rob
Hi Rob,
Thanks for the reply. Amazon commissions and conversions are the best in the business, I have been seeing more and more people direct linking to Amazon via PPC under their own display URLs.
I think the lack of access to Amazon feeds has left these guys onto a good thing as this is obviously pretty complex to get rid of good data and affiliate urls. Just trying to get a bit of the action!
I have my Amazon Web Services account and think I maybe even have a key they sent me too a while back. Just where to go from there though..
I'll have a go with the XML via Excel as I have just had some recent success with getting product data from "New Web Query" in Excel that has saved me a lot of time on a few things.
Cheers
Lee
Thanks for the reply. Amazon commissions and conversions are the best in the business, I have been seeing more and more people direct linking to Amazon via PPC under their own display URLs.
I think the lack of access to Amazon feeds has left these guys onto a good thing as this is obviously pretty complex to get rid of good data and affiliate urls. Just trying to get a bit of the action!
I have my Amazon Web Services account and think I maybe even have a key they sent me too a while back. Just where to go from there though..
I'll have a go with the XML via Excel as I have just had some recent success with getting product data from "New Web Query" in Excel that has saved me a lot of time on a few things.
Cheers
Lee
Permalink // posted by : 10:19 PM
: 10:19 PM
Hi Lee,
Ok, so if I posted an absolute beginner's guide on using the API for the first time, would that be of interest?
Cheers
Rob
Ok, so if I posted an absolute beginner's guide on using the API for the first time, would that be of interest?
Cheers
Rob
BTW, have to agree about the Amazon commissions. If you look at something like consoles, which aren't subject to the £7 commission cap, the commission can be up to 10% with a direct link which is so much better than any other merchants I'm aware of.
I did used to do PPC direct to Amazon. My experience was that if the product was genuinely well priced compared to competitors, you can do very well but I did find results to be inconsistent.
I did used to do PPC direct to Amazon. My experience was that if the product was genuinely well priced compared to competitors, you can do very well but I did find results to be inconsistent.
Yes, that would be a great help. I have had a tinker with astores but a little tutorial on commissions would be great too as I'm a little unsure as to whether 2.5% for direct linking applies to your PPC and whether this added to your 5%+ commission.
I recall a good post you made about PS3 consoles a while back, I have lots of PS3 domains that I bagged way back that I haven't yet got any use of.
I am not a brilliant coder but have pretty good knowledge of PHP and MySQL. It is great to see your posts do cover some technical bits on affiliate marketing that other posts tend to stick with just the marketing etc, obviously alot of success in AM is down to building flair as well marketing.
Cheers Ed
Post a Comment
I recall a good post you made about PS3 consoles a while back, I have lots of PS3 domains that I bagged way back that I haven't yet got any use of.
I am not a brilliant coder but have pretty good knowledge of PHP and MySQL. It is great to see your posts do cover some technical bits on affiliate marketing that other posts tend to stick with just the marketing etc, obviously alot of success in AM is down to building flair as well marketing.
Cheers Ed
Permalink // posted by : 10:55 PM
: 10:55 PM << Home
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
