Webgains & Webservices

[scriptmonkey]

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In the past week at least 20 people have asked me if I do a wordpress plugin for webgains merchants, my response has been along the lines of - I would if I could.

Are there any plans to create a webservice/API on webgains?

Or, am I missing something in the affiliate interface?

If there are no plans to create an API or webservice, then is there a way that I could download the data from all merchants, joined or unjoined, so that I can create my own webservice to power a plugin?

[Hero]

Or, am I missing something in the affiliate interface?

Reports-->More reports-->Web services
Webgains

any questions, please let us know

[scriptmonkey]

Nice, but, I was thinking more along the lines of a product-based API rather than a reporting one.

I have plugins for awin, zanox and linkshare, and I'm currently battling through the creation of one for affiliatefuture, it would be lovely to see webgains merchants products available via a webservice.

Search and retrieve products based on such things as categories, keyword search etc.

[Hero]

Search and retrieve products based on such things as categories, keyword search etc.

Ah, right, you're looking for the datafeeds then. Links-->Data feed url generator, for the remote retrieval of datafeeds. You can choose the programs, the categories, the fields, the format, the compression.

thanks

[scriptmonkey]

Thanks for your help Hero, what I'm looking for is this.

On webgains you presumably have a database of all your merchants with datafeed products, I would like to remotely query that database and have the results returned to me as xml, json or SOAP response, which I can then format and insert into my websites.

The route looks like this.

My Server REST or SOAP request -> Webgains Data Server -> Results based on original query back to my server for caching and formatting.

This is obviously the barebones, but, as your datafeed download has the facility to authenticate the user, then I'm fairly certain that a system as I have outlined above would be a piece of cake for your programmers to implement. And, I feel its more a necessity than an option these days.

I do use datafeeds, but, only in the last instance, when there is no other option.

[Hero]

is the XML option not helping?

[scriptmonkey]

Hero, I think we're at slightly crossed wires here. The datafeed download doesn't allow me to dynamically and remotely query the database.

I don't want to download the entire xml file for a search for adidas shoes, which I couldn't do anyway as there isn't a keyword facility on the datafeed download, just the first 20 or so products that can be then displayed on my site, live and in realtime.

I'm aware that I can download a small xml file restricted by category, merchant, etc. but this isn't really the point.

It looks like I will have to go on a joining spree in webgains to all merchants with datafeed and then create my own webservice from my own database.

I'm going in, I may be some time

[Hero]

I think I'm out of my depth here :-)
I'll ask one of our developers to have a look at the thread and contact you for more information

thanks

[scriptmonkey]

Thanks Hero, I wasn't relishing the prospect of joining up to xxx merchants