Using cURL for Amazon Associates reports... possible?

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Using cURL for Amazon Associates reports... possible?

I've got a couple of affiliate sites and would like to bring together the earnings reports from several Amazon sites into one place, for easier viewing and analysis.

I get the impression that cURL can be used to get external webpage content, which I could then scrape to obtain the necessary info. However, I've hit a wall in trying to log in to the Associates reports using cURL. Has anyone done this and do you have any advice?

You can do this, but youll need to make use of cookies with curl: http://www.electrictoolbox.com/php-curl-cookies/ But id be willing to bet some cash that Amazon offers an API to get the data you want, although the last time i dealt with their web services it was a nightmare but proably because i was using the PHP SOAP extension and Amazon SOAP API.

prodigitalson 2010-08-17 00:20:27

I've tried looking into using curl with cookies, but I'm stumped by what I think might be a session variable generated by Amazon. As far as I can find, there doesn't seem to be any API access to this information, so I'm pretty sure you'd lose that bet.However I'd love to be proved wrong on that point.

Don H 2010-08-19 22:21:31

"As far as I can find, there doesn't seem to be any API access to this information, so I'm pretty sure you'd lose that bet. However I'd love to be proved wrong on that point." I dont use AS much.. whats the name/title of the interface application a human user uses to view this data and the name of the "account type"? Maybe I can prove you wrong if i know what im looking for :-)

prodigitalson 2010-08-20 03:30:00

Hmm. I'm not sure I understand the question. The reports are found at http://associates.amazon.com/ and http://associates.amazon.co.uk, etc.

Don H 2010-08-20 21:44:24

Here's an app for the iphone that manages it somehow: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/affiliate-reports-for-amazon/id360611910?mt=8

Don H 2010-08-26 03:21:39

If you're still around prodigitalson, I'd be willing to bet $20 that there is no API access for this information. I'd happily lose.

Don H 2010-08-26 03:22:44

Yeah i couldnt find anything. Im going to assume that iPhone app is doing precisely what you tried to do... that is use a library like cURL to login and then scrape reports for data and present it in its own interface. Its a shame the app isnt open source you could disect and translate the code from *C to whatever.

prodigitalson 2010-08-26 17:47:15

Thank you for looking, I really appreciate it. I'll keep poking away at the curl idea for now.

Don H 2010-08-27 01:13:03

ansaurus

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Using cURL for Amazon Associates reports... possible?

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