######################################################################
    Net::Amazon 0.35
######################################################################

NAME
    Net::Amazon - Framework for accessing amazon.com via SOAP and XML/HTTP

SYNOPSIS
      use Net::Amazon;

      my $ua = Net::Amazon->new(token => 'YOUR_AMZN_TOKEN');

        # Get a request object
      my $response = $ua->search(asin => '0201360683');

      if($response->is_success()) {
          print $response->as_string(), "\n";
      } else {
          print "Error: ", $response->message(), "\n";
      }

ABSTRACT
      Net::Amazon provides an object-oriented interface to amazon.com's
      SOAP and XML/HTTP interfaces. This way it's possible to create applications
      using Amazon's vast amount of data via a functional interface, without
      having to worry about the underlying communication mechanism.

DESCRIPTION
    "Net::Amazon" works very much like "LWP": First you define a useragent
    like

      my $ua = Net::Amazon->new(
          token     => 'YOUR_AMZN_TOKEN',
          max_pages => 3,
      );

    which you pass your personal amazon developer's token (can be obtained
    from <http://amazon.com/soap>) and (optionally) the maximum number of
    result pages the agent is going to request from Amazon in case all
    results don't fit on a single page (typically holding 20 items). Note
    that each new page requires a minimum delay of 1 second to comply with
    Amazon's one-query-per-second policy.

    According to the different search methods on Amazon, there's a bunch of
    different request types in "Net::Amazon". The user agent's convenience
    method "search()" triggers different request objects, depending on which
    parameters you pass to it:

    "$ua->search(asin => "0201360683")"
        The "asin" parameter has Net::Amazon search for an item with the
        specified ASIN. If the specified value is an arrayref instead of a
        single scalar, like in

            $ua->search(asin => ["0201360683", "0596005083"]) 

        then a search for multiple ASINs is performed, returning a list of
        results.

    "$ua->search(artist => "Rolling Stones")"
        The "artist" parameter has the user agent search for items created
        by the specified artist. Can return many results.

    "$ua->search(browsenode=>"4025", mode=>"books" [, keywords=>"perl"])"
        Returns a list of items by category ID (node). For example node
        "4025" is the CGI books category. You can add a keywords parameter
        to filter the results by that keyword.

    "$ua->search(exchange => 'Y04Y3424291Y2398445')"
        Returns an item offered by a third-party seller. The item is
        referenced by the so-called *exchange ID*.

    "$ua->search(keyword => "perl xml", mode => "books")"
        Search by keyword, mandatory parameters "keyword" and "mode". Can
        return many results.

    "$ua->search(wishlist => "1XL5DWOUFMFVJ")"
        Search for all items in a specified wishlist. Can return many
        results.

    "$ua->search(upc => "075596278324", mode => "music")"
        Music search by UPC (product barcode), mandatory parameter "upc".
        "mode" has to be set to "music". Returns at most one result.

    "$ua->search(similar => "0201360683")"
        Search for all items similar to the one represented by the ASIN
        provided. Can return many results.

    "$ua->search(power => "subject: perl and author: schwartz", mode =>
    "books")"
        Initiate a power search for all books matching the power query. Can
        return many results. See Net::Amazon::Request::Power for details.

    "$ua->search(manufacturer => "o'reilly", mode => "books")"
        Initiate a search for all items made by a given manufacturrer. Can
        return many results. See Net::Amazon::Request::Manufacturer for
        details.

    "$ua->search(blended => "Perl")"
        Initiate a search for items in all categories.

    "$ua->search(seller => "A2GXAGU54VOP7")"
        Start a search on items sold by a specific third-party seller,
        referenced by its ID (not seller name).

    "$ua->search(textstream => "Blah blah Rolling Stones blah blah")"
        Find items related to keywords within a text stream.

    The user agent's "search" method returns a response object, which can be
    checked for success or failure:

      if($resp->is_success()) {
          print $resp->as_string();
      } else {
          print "Error: ", $resp->message(), "\n";
      }

    In case the request for an item search succeeds, the response contains
    one or more Amazon 'properties', as it calls the products found. All
    matches can be retrieved from the Response object using it's
    "properties()" method.

    In case the request fails, the response contains one or more error
    messages. The response object's "message()" method will return it (or
    them) as a single string, while "messages()" (notice the plural) will
    return a reference to an array of message strings.

    Response objects always have the methods "is_success()", "is_error()",
    "message()", "total_results()", "as_string()" and "properties()"
    available.

    "total_results()" returns the total number of results the search
    yielded. "properties()" returns one or more "Net::Amazon::Property"
    objects of type "Net::Amazon::Property" (or one of its subclasses like
    "Net::Amazon::Property::Book", "Net::Amazon::Property::Music" or
    Net::Amazon::Property::DVD), each of which features accessors named
    after the attributes of the product found in Amazon's database:

        for ($resp->properties) {
           print $_->Asin(), " ",
                 $_->OurPrice(), "\n";
        }

    In scalar context, "properties()" just returns the *first*
    "Net::Amazon::Property" object found. Commonly available accessors to
    "Net::Amazon::Property" objects are "OurPrice()", "ImageUrlLarge()",
    "ImageUrlMedium()", "ImageUrlSmall()", "ReleaseDate()", "Catalog()",
    "Asin()", "url()", "Manufacturer()", "UsedPrice()", "ListPrice()",
    "ProductName()", "Availability()", "SalesRank()", "CollectiblePrice()",
    "CollectibleCount()", "NumberOfOfferings()", "UsedCount()",
    "ThirdPartyNewPrice()", "ThirdPartyNewCount()", "similar_asins()". For
    details, check Net::Amazon::Property.

    Also, the specialized classes "Net::Amazon::Property::Book" and
    "Net::Amazon::Property::Music" feature convenience methods like
    "authors()" (returning the list of authors of a book) or "album()" for
    CDs, returning the album title.

    Customer reviews: Every property features a "review_set()" method which
    returns a "Net::Amazon::Attribute::ReviewSet" object, which in turn
    offers a list of "Net::Amazon::Attribute::Review" objects. Check the
    respective man pages for details on what's available.

  Requests behind the scenes
    "Net::Amazon"'s "search()" method is just a convenient way to create
    different kinds of request objects behind the scenes and trigger them to
    send requests to Amazon.

    Depending on the parameters fed to the "search" method, "Net::Amazon"
    will determine the kind of search requested and create one of the
    following request objects:

    Net::Amazon::Request::ASIN
        Search by ASIN, mandatory parameter "asin". Returns at most one
        result.

    Net::Amazon::Request::Artist
        Music search by Artist, mandatory parameter "artist". Can return
        many results.

    Net::Amazon::Request::BrowseNode
        Returns category (node) listing. Mandatory parameters "browsenode"
        (must be numeric) and "mode". Can return many results.

    Net::Amazon::Request::Keyword
        Keyword search, mandatory parameters "keyword" and "mode". Can
        return many results.

    Net::Amazon::Request::UPC
        Music search by UPC (product barcode), mandatory parameter "upc".
        "mode" has to be set to "music". Returns at most one result.

    Net::Amazon::Request::Blended
        'Blended' search on a keyword, resulting in matches across the
        board. No 'mode' parameter is allowed. According to Amazon's
        developer's kit, this will result in up to three matches per
        category and can yield a total of 45 matches.

    Net::Amazon::Request::Power
        Understands power search strings. See Net::Amazon::Request::Power
        for details. Mandatory parameter "power".

    Net::Amazon::Request::Manufacturer
        Searches for all items made by a given manufacturer. Mandatory
        parameter "manufacturer".

    Net::Amazon::Request::Similar
        Finds items similar to a given one.

    Net::Amazon::Request::Wishlist
        Find item on someone's wish list.

    Net::Amazon::Request::Seller
        Searches for a third-party seller on Amazon by seller ID. This
        search is different than the previous ones, since it doesn't return
        Amazon items, but a single seller record. Don't use the
        "properties()" method on the response, use "result()" instead, which
        returns a Net::Amazon::Result::Seller object. Check the manpage for
        details.

    Net::Amazon::Request::Exchange
        Searches for items offered by third-party sellers. Items are
        referenced by their so-called *Exchange ID*. Similar to
        Net::Amazon::Request::Seller, this request doesn't return a list of
        Amazon properties, so please use "result()" instead, which will
        return a *single* Net::Amazon::Result::Seller::Listing item. Check
        the manpage for details on what attributes are available there.

    Check the respective man pages for details on these request objects.
    Request objects are typically created like this (with a Keyword query as
    an example):

        my $req = Net::Amazon::Request::Keyword->new(
            keyword   => 'perl',
            mode      => 'books',
        );

    and are handed over to the user agent like that:

        # Response is of type Net::Amazon::Response::ASIN
      my $resp = $ua->request($req);

    The convenient "search()" method just does these two steps in one.

  METHODS
    $ua = Net::Amazon->new(token => $token, ...)
        Create a new Net::Amazon useragent. $token is the value of the
        mandatory Amazon developer's token, which can be obtained from
        <http://amazon.com/soap>.

        Additional optional parameters:

        "max_pages => $max_pages"
            Sets how many result pages the module is supposed to fetch back
            from Amazon, which only sends back 10 results per page. Since
            each page requires a new query to Amazon, at most one query per
            second will be made in "strict" mode to comply with Amazon's
            terms of service. This will impact performance if you perform a
            search returning many pages of results.

        "affiliate_id => $affiliate_id"
            your Amazon affiliate ID, if you have one. It defaults to
            "webservices-20" which is currently (as of 06/2003) required by
            Amazon.

        "strict => 1"
            Makes sure that "Net::Amazon" complies with Amazon's terms of
            service by limiting the number of outgoing requests to 1 per
            second. Defaults to 1, enabling rate limiting as defined via
            "rate_limit".

        "rate_limit => $reqs_per_sec"
            Sets the rate limit to $reqs_per_sec requests per second if rate
            limiting has been enabled with "strict" (see above). Defaults to
            1, limiting the number of outgoing requests to 1 per second.

        "$resp = $ua->request($request)"
            Sends a request to the Amazon web service. $request is of a
            "Net::Amazon::Request::*" type and $response will be of the
            corresponding "Net::Amazon::Response::*" type.

  Accessing foreign Amazon Catalogs
        As of this writing (07/2003), Amazon also offers its web service for
        the UK, Germany, and Japan. Just pass in

            locale => 'uk'
            locale => 'de'
            locale => 'jp'

        respectively to "Net::Amazon"'s constructor "new()" and instead of
        returning results sent by the US mothership, it will query the
        particular country's catalog and show prices in (gack!) local
        currencies.

  EXAMPLE
        Here's a full-fledged example doing a artist search:

            use Net::Amazon;
            use Net::Amazon::Request::Artist;
            use Data::Dumper;

            die "usage: $0 artist\n(use Zwan as an example)\n"
                unless defined $ARGV[0];

            my $ua = Net::Amazon->new(
                token       => 'YOUR_AMZN_TOKEN',
            );

            my $req = Net::Amazon::Request::Artist->new(
                artist  => $ARGV[0],
            );

               # Response is of type Net::Amazon::Artist::Response
            my $resp = $ua->request($req);

            if($resp->is_success()) {
                print $resp->as_string, "\n";
            } else {
                print $resp->message(), "\n";
            }

        And here's one displaying someone's wishlist:

            use Net::Amazon;
            use Net::Amazon::Request::Wishlist;

            die "usage: $0 wishlist_id\n" .
                "(use 1XL5DWOUFMFVJ as an example)\n" unless $ARGV[0];

            my $ua = Net::Amazon->new(
                token       => 'YOUR_AMZN_TOKEN',
            );

            my $req = Net::Amazon::Request::Wishlist->new(
                id  => $ARGV[0]
            );

               # Response is of type Net::Amazon::ASIN::Response
            my $resp = $ua->request($req);

            if($resp->is_success()) {
                print $resp->as_string, "\n";
            } else {
                print $resp->message(), "\n";
            }

CACHING
        Responses returned by Amazon's web service can be cached locally.
        "Net::Amazon"'s "new" method accepts a reference to a "Cache"
        object. "Cache" (or one of its companions like "Cache::Memory",
        "Cache::File", etc.) can be downloaded from CPAN, please check their
        documentation for details. In fact, any other type of cache
        implementation will do as well, see the requirements below.

        Here's an example utilizing a file cache which causes "Net::Amazon"
        to cache responses for 30 minutes:

            use Cache::File;

            my $cache = Cache::File->new( 
                cache_root        => '/tmp/mycache',
                default_expires   => '30 min',
            );

            my $ua = Net::Amazon->new(
                token       => 'YOUR_AMZN_TOKEN',
                cache       => $cache,
            );

        "Net::Amazon" uses *positive* caching only, errors won't be cached.
        Erroneous requests will be sent to Amazon every time. Positive cache
        entries are keyed by the full URL used internally by requests
        submitted to Amazon.

        Caching isn't limited to the "Cache" class. Any cache object which
        adheres to the following interface can be used:

                # Set a cache value
            $cache->set($key, $value);

                # Return a cached value, 'undef' if it doesn't exist
            $cache->get($key);

PROXY SETTINGS
        "Net::Amazon" uses "LWP::UserAgent" under the hood to send web
        requests to Amazon's web site. If you're in an environment where all
        Web traffic goes through a proxy, there's two ways to configure
        that.

        First, "Net::Amazon" picks up proxy settings from environment
        variables:

            export http_proxy=http://proxy.my.place:8080

        in the surrounding shell or setting

            $ENV{http_proxy} = "http://proxy.my.place:8080";

        in your Perl script will route all requests through the specified
        proxy.

        Secondly, you can pass a user agent instance to Net::Amazon's
        constructor:

            use Net::Amazon;
            use LWP::UserAgent;

            my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
            my $na = Net::Amazon->new(ua => $ua, token => 'YOUR_AMZN_TOKEN');
            # ...

        This way, you can configure $ua up front before Net::Amazon will use
        it.

DEBUGGING
        If something's going wrong and you want more verbosity, just bump up
        "Net::Amazon"'s logging level. "Net::Amazon" comes with
        "Log::Log4perl" statements embedded, which are disabled by default.
        However, if you initialize "Log::Log4perl", e.g. like

            use Net::Amazon;
            use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);

            Log::Log4perl->easy_init($DEBUG);
            my Net::Amazon->new();
            # ...

        you'll see what's going on behind the scenes, what URLs the module
        is requesting from Amazon and so forth. Log::Log4perl allows all
        kinds of fancy stuff, like writing to a file or enabling verbosity
        in certain parts only -- check http://log4perl.sourceforge.net for
        details.

LIVE TESTING
        Results returned by Amazon can be incomplete or simply wrong at
        times, due to their "best effort" design of the service. This is why
        the test suite that comes with this module has been changed to
        perform its test cases against canned data. If you want to perform
        the tests against the live Amazon servers instead, just set the
        environment variable

            NET_AMAZON_LIVE_TESTS=1

WHY ISN'T THERE SUPPORT FOR METHOD XYZ?
        Because nobody wrote it yet. If Net::Amazon doesn't yet support a
        method advertised on Amazon's web service, you could help us out.
        Net::Amazon has been designed to be expanded over time, usually it
        only takes a couple of lines to support a new method, the rest is
        done via inheritance within Net::Amazon.

        Here's the basic plot:

        *   Get Net::Amazon from CVS. Use

                    # (Just hit enter when prompted for a password)
                cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.net-amazon.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/net-amazon login
                cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.net-amazon.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/net-amazon co Net-Amazon

            If this doesn't work, just use the latest distribution from
            net-amazon.sourceforge.net.

        *   Write a new Net::Amazon::Request::XYZ package, start with this
            template

                ######################################
                package Net::Amazon::Request::XYZ;
                ######################################
                use base qw(Net::Amazon::Request);

                ######################################
                sub new {
                ######################################
                    my($class, %options) = @_;

                    if(!exists $options{XYZ_option}) {
                        die "Mandatory parameter 'XYZ_option' not defined";
                    }
    
                    my $self = $class->SUPER::new(%options);
    
                    bless $self, $class;   # reconsecrate
                }

            and add documentation. Then, create a new
            Net::Amazon::Response::XYZ module:

                ##############################
                package Net::Amazon::Response;
                ##############################
                use base qw(Net::Amazon::Response);

                use Net::Amazon::Property;

                ##############################
                sub new {
                ##############################
                    my($class, %options) = @_;
    
                    my $self = $class->SUPER::new(%options);
    
                    bless $self, $class;   # reconsecrate
                }

            and also add documentation to it. Then, add the line

                use Net::Amazon::Request::XYZ;

            to Net/Amazon.pm.

        And that's it! Again, don't forget the *add documentation* part.
        Modules without documentation are of no use to anybody but yourself.

        Check out the different Net::Amazon::Request::* and
        Net::Amazon::Response modules in the distribution if you need to
        adapt your new module to fulfil any special needs, like a different
        Amazon URL or a different way to handle the as_string() method.
        Also, post and problems you might encounter to the mailing list,
        we're gonna help you out.

        If possible, provide a test case for your extension. When finished,
        send a patch to the mailing list at

           net-amazon-devel@lists.sourceforge.net

        and if it works, I'll accept it and will work it into the main
        distribution. Your name will show up in the contributor's list below
        (unless you tell me otherwise).

  SAMPLE SCRIPTS
        There's a number of useful scripts in the distribution's eg/
        directory. Take "power" for example, written by Martin Streicher
        <martin.streicher@apress.com>: I lets you perform a *power search*
        using Amazon's query language. To search for all books written by
        Randal Schwartz about Perl, call this from the command line:

            power 'author: schwartz subject: perl'

        Note that you need to quote the query string to pass it as one
        argument to "power". If a power search returns more results than you
        want to process at a time, just limit the number of pages, telling
        "power" which page to start at ("-s") and which one to finish with
        ("-f"). Here's a search for all books on the subject "computer",
        limited to the first 10 pages:

            power -s 1 -f 10 'subject: computer'

        Check out the script "power" in eg/ for more options.

  HOW TO SEND ME PATCHES
        If you want me to include your modification or enhancement in the
        distribution of Net::Amazon, please do the following:

        *   Work off the latest CVS version. Here's the steps to get it:

                CVSROOT=:pserver:anonymous@cvs.net-amazon.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/net-amazon
                export CVSROOT
                cvs login (just hit Enter)
                cvs co Net-Amazon

            This will create a new "Net-Amazon" directory with the latest
            development version of "Net::Amazon" on your local machine.

        *   Apply your changes to this development tree.

        *   Run a diff between the tree and your changes it in this way:

                cd Net-Amazon
                cvs diff -Nau >patch_to_mike.txt

        *   Email me "patch_to_mike.txt". If your patch works (and you've
            included test cases and documentation), I'll apply it on the
            spot.

INSTALLATION
        "Net::Amazon" depends on Log::Log4perl, which can be pulled from
        CPAN by simply saying

            perl -MCPAN -eshell 'install Log::Log4perl'

        Also, it needs LWP::UserAgent and XML::Simple 2.x, which can be
        obtained in a similar way.

        Once all dependencies have been resolved, "Net::Amazon" installs
        with the typical sequence

            perl Makefile.PL
            make
            make test
            make install

        Make sure you're connected to the Internet while running "make test"
        because it will actually contact amazon.com and run a couple of live
        tests.

        The module's distribution tarball and documentation are available at

            http://perlmeister.com/devel/#amzn 

        and on CPAN.

SEE ALSO
        The following modules play well within the "Net::Amazon" framework:

        "Net::Amazon::RemoteCart"
            by David Emery <dave@skiddlydee.com> provides a complete API for
            creating Amazon shopping carts on a local site, managing them
            and finally submitting them to Amazon for checkout. It is
            available on CPAN.

CONTACT
        The "Net::Amazon" project's home page is hosted on

            http://net-amazon.sourceforge.net

        where you can find documentation, news and the latest development
        and stable releases for download. If you have questions about how to
        use "Net::Amazon", want to report a bug or just participate in its
        development, please send a message to the mailing list
        net-amazon-devel@lists.sourceforge.net

AUTHOR
        Mike Schilli, <na@perlmeister.com> (Please contact me via the
        mailing list: net-amazon-devel@lists.sourceforge.net )

        Contributors (thanks y'all!):

            Andy Grundman <andy@hybridized.org>
            Barnaby Claydon <bclaydon@perseus.com>
            Batara Kesuma <bkesuma@gaijinweb.com>
            Bill Fitzpatrick
            Brian <brianbrian@gmail.com>
            Brian Hirt <bhirt@mobygames.com>
            Dan Kreft <dan@kreft.net>
            Dan Sully <daniel@electricrain.com>
            Jackie Hamilton <kira@cgi101.com>
            Konstantin Gredeskoul <kig@get.topica.com>
            Lance Cleveland <lancec@proactivewm.com>
            Martha Greenberg <marthag@mit.edu>
            Martin Streicher <martin.streicher@apress.com>
            Mike Evron <evronm@dtcinc.net>
            Padraic Renaghan <padraic@renaghan.com>
            rayg <rayg@varchars.com>
            Robert Graff <rgraff@workingdemo.com>
            Robert Rothenberg <wlkngowl@i-2000.com>
            Steve Rushe <steve@deeden.co.uk>
            Tatsuhiko Miyagawa <miyagawa@livedoor.jp>
            Tony Bowden <tony@kasei.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
        Copyright 2003, 2004 by Mike Schilli <na@perlmeister.com>

        This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
        it under the same terms as Perl itself.

