This book is primarily about using PHP to create web applications using Amazon E-Commerce Service 4.0. The target audience is intermediate developers who are creating web applications. That might include people making simple sidebar applications for web sites all the way up to more serious storefronts and even backend inventory systems. Basic understanding of XML and PHP is required, though developers should easily be able to translate the concepts and code samples to other programming languages.

Coverage includes:

• An overview of the Amazon.com site architecture
• Strategies for parsing XML responses from Amazon
• Developing applications using PHP4, PHP5, XSLT, REST, and SOAP
• Caching and error recovery
• Developing with Amazon Seller Services -- the Amazon Inventory Management System and the Merchants@ API
• Creating internationalized web applications that take advantage of Amazon's international presence (e.g. amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, etc... )
• Reference manuals for Amazon E-Commerce Service, Amazon Inventory Management System, and the Merchants@ API

Browse Node traversal: Run the script

Search song titles on International Amazon sites: Run the script
(Note: some web browsers will not respect the META tag which sets the character set to ISO-8859-1 in which case the display may appear garbled)

Pagination example: Run the script

Sorting + pagination example: Run the script

Variations + pagination example: Run the script

Item attributes example: Run the script

Product Details Paperback: 492 pages Publisher: J9t Publications and Lulu.com (April 12th, 2005) ISBN: 141162551X Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 inches Shipping Weight: 1.5 lbs List Price: $30.00 Your Price: $14.85 amazon.com Download the Table of Contents (67 Kbyte PDF) view larger cover image

The book code samples have been revised to work with Amazon's new digital signature requirement. Various fixes are also included. Download the revised code samples here. The revisions were generally minor and include:

• All examples tested under PHP 5.2.11


• Updated everything to use the 10-01-2009 WSDL and REST versions


• All examples now have the digital signature code included


• A few minor bug fixes

Judging from reader feedback over the past years, this book has helped a lot of people navigate the original Amazon Web Services API (that API was later re-named "Amazon E-Commerce Service" and is now called the "Product Advertising API"). A fair amount of the content in this book is now outdated and Amazon has significantly improved their documentation in the intervening years. It's time to make this book "out of print". Cheers everyone.

-Jason