Facing the truth

Sebastian Wallroth — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:52:23 +0000

The body mass index (BMI), or Quetelet index, is a statistical measurement which compares a person’s weight and height. The Sweden based DreamBuilders team developed the BMI Calculator Widget and put it to the zanox Application Store. Now everyone can calculate the need of using the stairways instead of the elevator or studies the product recommendations provided by the widget along with the finding. (See my on the screenshot; uh – oh.)

The widget is available in English, Swedish, and German localisation.

Shopotainment Publisher Widget

Sebastian Wallroth — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:48:19 +0000

Shopotainment is a service enabling communication and interaction with and about products through social networks, widgets, RSS-feeds, or the shopotainment portal.

The systems suggests interesting products for recommendation to friends by learning the users preferences. The emerging product world (I have, I want, I bye) can be provided as feed to friends to inspire them.

If the product inspiration fits the liking of the friend, he can buy the product via a direct link (price comparison inclusive) and add the product to his own product world.

Shopotainment provides a Widget via tha zanox Application Store that enriches the product information with links to its users and fans. Website users can use the interaction buttons to express themselves to show whether they have the product already or they want it, and if they like it or not.

zanox Web Services Workshop 1.0

Sebastian Wallroth — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:40:29 +0000

Welcome to the workshop. I want to explore with you the possibilities zanox Web Services offers you.

First let’s have a look at this plain product search example taken from our wiki. It consists of a HTML file containing JavaScript code.



 
  zanox Web Services - Contextual Product Search
 
 
  zanox Web Services - Contextual Product Search

You can copy this code as it is into a text file, then save the file as a.html and view it in a browser. It should look quite similar to this screenshot:

Let’s go through the code.


>
>
>zanox Web Services - Contextual Product Search>
>
>
>zanox Web Services - Contextual Product Search>
 id="zxAdList">> 
 type="text/javascript">

The first lines are the HTML part of the file. In line 7 the huge headline is created and in line 8 a DIV container is placed to be filled with our Web Service output.

// function to add scripts to html header 
function addScript(url) { 
var script = document.createElement('script');
// preventing caching of the Web Service call by adding timestamp
script.src = url + '&t=' + new Date().getMinutes(); 
script.type = 'text/javascript';
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);
}

The function addScript() starting at line 11 takes a given URL. Then it creates in line 12 a new script in our HTML document like if we would add a tag into the HTML code. In line 14 the parameter src is added to the script object and filled with the given URL like if we would extend the script tag to .

The magic part + '&t=' + new Date().getMinutes() adds a timestamp to the URL. This doesn’t influent the script but prevents caching of the Web Service request. If we would strip the magic code, we would recieve always the same products even if we would use different search terms.

In line 16 we add the script to the HTML HEAD section. Do you know why?

Wouldn’t it work also if we would include the script from within the HTML BODY section?: We have to add it to the HTML HEAD section, because we are calling a URL of another domain. The script is placed on your server and calls the zanox Web Service URL. If we would put the script into the HTML BODY this would lead to a security warning or an error. But doing it from within the HTML HEAD section there is no problem.
Why don’t we put the script into the HTML HEAD section manually?: Because we are programing a widget. Widgets are added to the HTML BODY section per definitionem.

// function for zanox product search  
// for detailed parameter description see 
// http://wiki.zanox.com/en/Products_Resource#GET:_Contextual_product_search
   function productSearch(version, applicationid, adspace, region, programs, minPrice, maxPrice, category, page, items, q, callback) {
    var url = 'http://api.zanox.com/json/' + version + '/products?applicationid=' + applicationid;
// adspace=null returns tracking links for all adspaces 
    if (adspace) url += '&adspace=' + adspace;
// sales region; e.g. de, fr, it; null means "all countries"
    if (region) url += '®ion=' + region;
// program ID 
    if (programs) url += '&programs=' + programs;
// zanox product category ID; null means "all categories"  
    if (category) url += '&category=' + category;
// search result is paged 
    if (page) url += '&page=' + page;
// number of products per page 
    if (items) url += '&items=' + items;
// minimum price 
    if (minPrice) url += '&minPrice=' + minPrice;
// maximum price 
    if (maxPrice) url += '&maxPrice=' + maxPrice;
// handler for the search result 
    if (callback) url += '&callback=' + callback;
// search term 
    if (q) url += '&q=' + q;
// adding script to html header 
    addScript(url);
   }

The function productSearch() performes the zanox product search. Basically we are building a URL calling the product search service and handing over several parameters. Please refer to the zanox wiki to see the complete documentation. In line 22 we are starting to build the URL with http://api.zanox.com/json/, adding the folder of the current version, the method product, and the application ID as the first parameter.

Where do I get my application ID?: Go to http://www.zanox.com. Login using the top right form. Activate the tab Web Services (BETA) and grab the application ID from the table or create a new one using the button.

The next parameters are filters for the search. Then in line 40 the handler for the result is defined. Finally in line 44 the prior function addScript() is called to move the Web Services call into the HTML HEAD section which leads to an instant execution of it.

// function for computing of the search result 
   function handler(data) {
    if (data.productsResult) {
     var productItems = data.productsResult.productItem;
// accessing the existing div element with the ID "zxAdList" 
     var theList = document.getElementById('theList');
// looping through the product results 
     for (var i = 0; i < productItems.length; i++) {
      var productItem = productItems[i];
      var link = '';
      if (productItem.url.adspace instanceof Array) {
// selecting tracking link related to the first adspace
      link = productItem.url.adspace[0].$; 
      }
      else {
       link = productItem.url.adspace.$;
      }
// creating a list item PRODUCT NAME at ADVERTISER only PRODUCT PRICE
      var item = document.createElement("li");
      item.innerHTML = "" + productItem.name + " at " + productItem.program.$ + " only " + productItem.price.toFixed(2) + " " + productItem.currency + "";
// appending item to theList
      theList.appendChild(item);
     }
    }
   }

The function handler(data) catches the result delivered in the container data.productsResult. The products are stored in the array data.productsResult.productItem In line 51 we are creating a handler for the list where we want to put the single product items in. Beginning in line 53 we are looping through the products.
For every product we have the following data. (This is the example from the zanox Web Services documentation in our wiki.)

 version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
 xmlns="http://api.zanox.com/namespace/2009-02-01/">
 >
    id="76485b5f7021f7bc03b853fbf5debb53">
   >Example product>
   >2008-06-01T17:00:00Z>
   >Description of the example product item>
   >Example Inc.>
    id="333">Example Inc. advertising program>
   >EUR>
   >39.90>
    id="10000">>
   >3817610347>
   >
    >http://www.example.com/productimage/71/BTP/4X_20425_3028.jpg>
    >http://www.example.com/productimage/71/bp/4X_20425_3028.jpg>
    >http://www.example.com/productimage/71/BM/4X_20425_3028.jpg>
   >
   >
     id="1">http://www.zanox-affiliate.de/ppc/77171C831740488ULP=[[000697]]>
     id="2">http://www.zanox-affiliate.de/ppc/77172C832740488ULP=[[000697]]>
     id="3">http://www.zanox-affiliate.de/ppc/77173C833740488ULP=[[000697]]>
   >
   >
  >
>

Please keep in mind that only the attributes

productItem id

name

modified

manufacturer

program id

currency

category id

are always available.

Also the image urls are not supervised by zanox. Sometimes there are no ones. Sometimes the url format is wrong. Sometimes instead of a product image an image with a text like “No image” is delivered.

The description sometime includes (bad) HTML code.

// creating an unordered list 
 
   var theList = document.createElement("ul");
   theList.setAttribute("id","theList");
// accessing the existing div element with the ID "zxAdList" 
   var zxAdList = document.getElementById('zxAdList');
// adding theList to zxAdList
   zxAdList.appendChild(theList);

In lines 72 to 77 we are creating a unordered list and appending it to the DIV container established in line 8. (This list is filled with LI items in lines 64 to 67.)

78
79

// performing the zanox search 
   productSearch('2009-02-01', 'BE94C4947839E8AB4D67', null, null, '660', null, null, null, 0, 5, 'red towel', 'handler');

In line 79 the function productSearch() is called handing over the parameters

Version – the zanox Web Services version – 2009-02-01

Application ID - place your application ID here; the current is mine (you CAN use, but it’s ME earning the money then ) – BE94C4947839E8AB4D67

AdSpace ID - you can append the transactions to a dedicated advertising space of yours – null

Region – filters the result set to products for one country here, e.g. France or Kenia – null

Programs – filters the result set to one advertiser – 660

Minimum price – filters the result set to products mre expensive than this – null

Maximum price – filters the result set to products cheaper than this – null

Category – filters the result set to one zanox product category – null

Page – the result set is splitted into pages; only the products of the page set here will be displayed – 0

Items – number of products per page – 5

Search term – what we are searching for – red towel

callback – access key to the result set – handler

Playtime! You can play with some filters now. Try this:

productSearch('2009-02-01', 'BE94C4947839E8AB4D67', null, 'de', '660', null, null, null, 0, 25, 'Rolling Stones', 'handler');

productSearch('2009-02-01', 'BE94C4947839E8AB4D67', null, 'se', '660', 8, 20, null, 0, 5, 'Sweater', 'handler');

productSearch('2009-02-01', 'BE94C4947839E8AB4D67', null, 'fr', '660', 200, 500, null, 0, 10, 'South Korean Samsung Electronics plans to launch a new generation refrigerator, equipped with RFID, which detects when its contents are running low or approaching expiration dates', 'handler');

Finally we are closing the file …

80
81
82

>
 >
>

... and the workshop. See you next time!

How to monetize your blog, part I

Daniel Neubauer — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:09:59 +0000

This tutorial shows how to monetize blogs using zanox Web Services.

Part-I of this tutorial will focus on blogger.com.

So everything you’ll need to do is:

Open your Blog Layout at blogger.com (screen 1)

Create a new HTML/Script Gadget (screen 2)

Use the the Widget Source Code from snipplr as content for the HTML/Script Gadget (screen 3)

Replace the ApplicationId in the source example with yours and start writing content.

As you can see at screen 4, the new Gadget shows product data offers as a list of text links, always related to the headline of your blog entry.

Running live example: http://showcaseblog.blogspot.com/

Have fun!

zanox Web Service benefit: Automation

Francesco Votta — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:27:11 +0000

As you saw with the launch of the new zanox Web Services, one of the first benefit you can have our our new zanox Web Services is automation of your interaction with zanox.

A first example could be to retrieving automatically your statistics.

Watch the video to get inspired!

Web Services & Application Store Blog » Widget production

Facing the truth

Shopotainment Publisher Widget

zanox Web Services Workshop 1.0

zanox Web Services - Contextual Product Search

How to monetize your blog, part I

zanox Web Service benefit: Automation