Re: [CODE4LIB] Amazon product API will require a crypto signature
PS: If you do need to request a new API key, I reccommend when describing the purpose of your use, you make sure to emphasize adding links to Amazon to library pages. Which shouldn't be a lie, if you are indeed doing that. I consider adding such a link a reasonable 'cost' of using the API for it's other "side effects" too. If they ever required me to _only_ include a link to Amazon and not to other vendors (as Google sometimes tries to do in their terms), then I'd stop using it. Tim Spalding wrote: They're also tightened up the API in various ways, and renamed it the "Amazon.com Product Advertising API." Although I know of no case when Amazon has shut down a library, it would be hard for any to claim their site had "as their principal purpose advertising and marketing the Amazon Site and driving sales of products and services on the Amazon Site." I think it's a terrible mistake for them. Their marginal cost is zero; they don't need to do this. Data openness was a key factor in Amazon's rise. And that was when thee were no other options. With viable other options just emerging—Open Library, Google, at least—now is hardly the time to make it less attractive. Tim On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 9:40 AM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote: The Amazon products API keeps changing it's name, and has just been changed to Amazon "Product Advertising API" -- it's the one you use to look up books in Amazon and get metadata for them, though. It looks from an email I got from Amazon that ss of August 15th, you'll need to cryptographically sign requests to this API, to have them responded to. It looks like kind of a pain. I think a bunch of people on this list may be using this API. Beware. Instructions for how to cryptographically sign requests the way they want can be found here: http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/Query_QueryAuth.html http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/rest-signature.html Like I said, it's looking like a pain to me. There are lots of details to get right. If you URI-escape not _exactly_ the same way they do, it's not going to work. Etc. Jonathan
Re: [CODE4LIB] Amazon product API will require a crypto signature
On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 9:31 AM, Tim Spalding wrote: > I think it's a terrible mistake for them. Their marginal cost is zero; > they don't need to do this. Their marginal cost may be quite low, but I'm fairly sure it's not zero. Cycles, storage, and bandwidth aren't free. Amazon has never struck me as a stupid or capricious company -- witness the fact that they survived the .com bust. They've probably thought rather hard about whether they need to spend developer cycles and client goodwill before making this change. Cheers, -Nate
Re: [CODE4LIB] Amazon product API will require a crypto signature
In fact, I believe that library-sector developers have asked Amazon and been told that their use is allowed. But definitely, there's no guarantee this will always continue be true. The terms of use don't seem to have substantially changed to me, but they could always start enforcing them more strictly -- for new accounts created to use the Product Advertising API, it looks like there actually will be a manual review step where Amazon staff approves you or doesn't, which never existed before. So, while I'm still using it, I'm also keeping in mind what backup plans I have if they ever ask me to stop. Here are the things I use Amazon API for, with alternates: 1) To take an ISBN, and look up more complete metadata for it. Alternatives: A) Google Books Data API (free for everyone; yes, there is a GBS API which is explicitly authorized for non-javascript access. GBS API will also allow you to find OCLCnums and LCCNs that correspond to an ISBN, when GBS has that data, which it often does thanks to the OCLC relationship.) B) WorldCat API (OCLC members) C) Books In Print API, although BiP seems to be making up their mind about whether they'll throw this in for free with an existing BiP online subscription, or charge extra for it. D) OpenLibrary? (Is this true?) 2) Cover images. Alternatives: A) CoverThing B) Google Books C) OpenLibrary 3) To find an ASIN, in order to make a link to the Amazon page. Ironically, this is actually what the API is _for_, and what Amazon would actually WANT you to do, but it's the thing that's least replaceable. If you have the ISBN, and if you assume the ASIN is the same as the ISBN, you don't need an API. This is often true, but not guaranteed to be true, and I think will become less true when the new ISBN-13 namespace starts to be used. In my case, I use the ASIN to identify if Amazon has a search-inside and/or limited-excerpts available, but the API actually doesn't support that, I've been screen-scraping all along for that, once I have the ASIN. Tim Spalding wrote: They're also tightened up the API in various ways, and renamed it the "Amazon.com Product Advertising API." Although I know of no case when Amazon has shut down a library, it would be hard for any to claim their site had "as their principal purpose advertising and marketing the Amazon Site and driving sales of products and services on the Amazon Site." I think it's a terrible mistake for them. Their marginal cost is zero; they don't need to do this. Data openness was a key factor in Amazon's rise. And that was when thee were no other options. With viable other options just emerging—Open Library, Google, at least—now is hardly the time to make it less attractive. Tim On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 9:40 AM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote: The Amazon products API keeps changing it's name, and has just been changed to Amazon "Product Advertising API" -- it's the one you use to look up books in Amazon and get metadata for them, though. It looks from an email I got from Amazon that ss of August 15th, you'll need to cryptographically sign requests to this API, to have them responded to. It looks like kind of a pain. I think a bunch of people on this list may be using this API. Beware. Instructions for how to cryptographically sign requests the way they want can be found here: http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/Query_QueryAuth.html http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/rest-signature.html Like I said, it's looking like a pain to me. There are lots of details to get right. If you URI-escape not _exactly_ the same way they do, it's not going to work. Etc. Jonathan
Re: [CODE4LIB] Amazon product API will require a crypto signature
They're also tightened up the API in various ways, and renamed it the "Amazon.com Product Advertising API." Although I know of no case when Amazon has shut down a library, it would be hard for any to claim their site had "as their principal purpose advertising and marketing the Amazon Site and driving sales of products and services on the Amazon Site." I think it's a terrible mistake for them. Their marginal cost is zero; they don't need to do this. Data openness was a key factor in Amazon's rise. And that was when thee were no other options. With viable other options just emerging—Open Library, Google, at least—now is hardly the time to make it less attractive. Tim On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 9:40 AM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote: > The Amazon products API keeps changing it's name, and has just been changed > to Amazon "Product Advertising API" -- it's the one you use to look up books > in Amazon and get metadata for them, though. > > It looks from an email I got from Amazon that ss of August 15th, you'll need > to cryptographically sign requests to this API, to have them responded to. > It looks like kind of a pain. > > I think a bunch of people on this list may be using this API. Beware. > Instructions for how to cryptographically sign requests the way they want > can be found here: > > http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/Query_QueryAuth.html > http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/rest-signature.html > > > > Like I said, it's looking like a pain to me. There are lots of details to > get right. If you URI-escape not _exactly_ the same way they do, it's not > going to work. Etc. > > Jonathan > -- Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
[CODE4LIB] Amazon product API will require a crypto signature
The Amazon products API keeps changing it's name, and has just been changed to Amazon "Product Advertising API" -- it's the one you use to look up books in Amazon and get metadata for them, though. It looks from an email I got from Amazon that ss of August 15th, you'll need to cryptographically sign requests to this API, to have them responded to. It looks like kind of a pain. I think a bunch of people on this list may be using this API. Beware. Instructions for how to cryptographically sign requests the way they want can be found here: http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/Query_QueryAuth.html http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/rest-signature.html Like I said, it's looking like a pain to me. There are lots of details to get right. If you URI-escape not _exactly_ the same way they do, it's not going to work. Etc. Jonathan
