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eBay API client for Node.js

Background

This was built to power the "eBay Picks" section of AntiquesNearMe.com. It can currently query the FindingService, MerchandisingService, and Shopping API via JSON-GET requests, and the Trading API via XML-POST. Other services can be added as needed. (Pull requests welcome!)

To use

npm install ebay-api

var ebay = require('ebay-api');

(See the examples)

A word on the eBay APIs

eBay has an enormous collection of APIs built over the years. Enter the labyrinth here: http://developer.ebay.com or here: https://www.x.com/developers/ebay/products

Sign up for an API key here: https://publisher.ebaypartnernetwork.com/PublisherToolsAPI (You'll need a key to run the examples.)

Make sure to obey the eBay API License and Terms when using this library.

Why use Node.js to do this?

Node.js is great at running HTTP requests asynchronously. If each request takes 5 seconds to run and 5 seconds to parse, for example, dozens of requests can run in parallel and only take 10 seconds total, instead of 10 seconds for each. (This module uses restler for the HTTP handling and the async library for flow control.)

Node.js speaks JSON natively, so the response data from the JSON APIs can be very easily parsed in code, or dumped into MongoDB.

Javascript is a little insane and a lot of fun.

Methods

ebayApiGetRequest(options, callback)

Make an individual request to a GET service. options must contain:

  • serviceName: e.g. 'FindingService'
  • opType: e.g. 'findItemsAdvanced'
  • appId: your eBay API application ID

and can optionally contain:

  • params: (see examples and API documentation)
  • filters: (see examples and API documentation)
  • reqOptions: passed to the request, e.g. with custom headers
  • parser: function which takes the response data and extracts items (or other units depending on the query). Defaults to parseItemsFromResponse. To return the raw data, pass in a function like function(data, callback) { callback(null, data); }.
  • sandbox: true/false (default false = production). May need to add additional endpoint URLs to the code as needed.

callback gets (error, items) or (error, data) depending on the parser.

paginateGetRequest(options, callback)

Make a multi-page request to a GET service, running them in parallel and combining the results.

options contains the same parameters as ebayApiGetRequest, plus:

  • pages: # of pages to query
  • perPage: items per page

parser here needs to return an array, so the results can be concatenated and passed to callback.

Note: Because the pages all run in parallel, they can cause spikes on CPU and network activity. In the future, I might switch this to using an async queue (instead of forEach) with a variable concurrency. (A forEachSeries can also be used, but negates the purpose of running the requests asynchronously.)

callback gets (error, items)

parseItemsFromResponse(data, callback)

Default parser, takes the response from an API request and parses items or other units per request type. Each response type is a little different, so this needs to be built out further. Is used as the default parser option for paginateGetRequest.

callback gets (error, items) where items are the items parsed from data.

ebayApiPostXmlRequest(options, callback)

Make an individual request to a POST-XML service. options must contain:

  • serviceName: e.g. 'FindingService'
  • opType: e.g. 'findItemsAdvanced'

and can optionally contain:

  • (for authentication)

    • devName
    • cert
    • appName

  • params (for the XML input)

    • (Note: for GetCategories and possibly other services, pass the auth token as params.authToken, not RequesterCredentials.eBayAuthToken as indicated in the API documentation.)
    • See buildXmlInput() for ways to structure this.

  • reqOptions: headers and other options to pass to the request

    • IMPT: Some parameters for these endpoints, such as SITE-ID and authToken, should go into the headers, not into params. See the API documentation.

  • sandbox: true/false (default false = production). May need to add additional endpoint URLs to the code as needed.

  • rawXml: boolean. If true, passes the raw XML response back to callback. false means XML is converted to JSON (for consistency with other APIs). Default is false/JSON.

callback gets (error, data). (There is not currently a default parser for these endpoints.)

Helpers

flatten(obj)

Simplifies the JSON format of the API responses:

  • Single-element arrays and objects are flatted to their key:value pair.
  • The structure of the format { @key:KEY, __value__:VALUE } is flattened to its key:value pair.

Its purpose is to make the data easier to handle in code, and to model/query in MongoDB.

Runs synchronously, returns flattened object.

ItemFilter(name, value, paramName, paramValue)

A class constructor to simplify creating filters. (See the examples)

checkAffiliateUrl(url)

If you want your affiliate codes included in returned items (see the examples for how to do that), use this to verify that the URLs are of the right format. e.g. checkAffiliateUrl(item.viewItemURL)

Returns boolean.

getLatestApiVersions(callback)

Get the version numbers of the APIs that make their version available.

Examples

See the /examples directory. There are two examples, one with a single-page findItemsByKeywords request, the other a paginated findItemsAdvanced request. It should be reasonably apparent from the examples how these functions are used. To run the examples, you need to add your own app key (I don't want my keys to be disabled for abuse!) - you can get one here.

Possible Roadmap

  1. Add more services and generally expand the functionality.
  2. Add more links related to relevant eBay documentation.
  3. Add a generic Mongoose model. (Mine is currently too filled with custom business logic to be included.)
  4. Switch from async.forEach to async.queue for more fine-grained concurrency control.
  5. Suggestions...?

Credits

Created by Ben Buckman of New Leaf Digital, an independent dev/consulting shop specializing in Node.js, Drupal, mapping, system architecture, and general "full stack" development. Ben writes a dev blog about Node.js and many other subjects.

Ben's other hat is co-founder and CTO of Antiques Near Me, and this library was created for use there.

Enjoy!