semantics3-csharp is a C# client for accessing the Semantics3 Products API, which provides structured information, including pricing histories, for a large number of products. See https://www.semantics3.com for more information.
API documentation can be found at https://www.semantics3.com/docs/
semantics3-csharp can be installed through the Nuget. Nuget: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Semantics3/. Target Frameworks for this library build are .NET Framework 4.0 and .NET Framework 4.5. Change your Target Framework from .NET Framework 4.0 (or 4.5) Client Profile to just .NET Framework 4.0 (or 4.5) in your project properties if need to.
$ Install-Package Semantics3To build and install from the latest source:
$ git clone git@github.com:Semantics3/semantics3-csharp.git- Google.GData.Client >= 2.2.2.0
- Newtonsoft.Json >= 5.0.6
- .NET Framework >= 4.0
In order to use the client, you must have both an API key and an API secret. To obtain your key and secret, you need to first create an account at https://www.semantics3.com/
You can access your API access credentials from the user dashboard at https://dashboard.semantics3.com.
Let's lay the groundwork.
using Semantics3;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;
namespace MyApp
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Products products = new Products("APIKEY",
"APISECRET");
}
}
}Let's run our first request! We are going to run a simple search fo the word "iPhone" as follows:
// Build the query
products.products_field( "search", "iphone" );
// Make the query
JObject hashProducts = products.get_products();
// View the results of the query
Console.Write(hashProducts.ToString());The following requests show you how to interface with some of the core functionality of the Semantics3 Products API:
The example in our "Hello World" script returns the first 10 results. In this example, we'll scroll to subsequent pages, beyond our initial request:
// Build the query
products.products_field( "search", "iphone" );
// Make the query
JObject hashProducts = products.get_products();
// View the results of the query
Console.Write(hashProducts.ToString());
// Goto the next 'page'
int page = 1;
JObject nextProducts = products.iterate_products();
while( nextProducts != null )
{
Console.Write("We are at page"); Console.Write(page);
Console.Write(nextProducts.ToString());
page++;
nextProducts = products.iterate_products();
}Get the picture? You can run URL queries as follows:
// Build the query
products.products_field( "url", "http://www.walmart.com/ip/15833173" );
// Make the query
JObject hashProducts = products.get_products();
// View the results of the query
Console.Write(hashProducts.ToString());Filter by price using the "lt" (less than) tag:
// Build the query
products.products_field( "search", "iphone" );
products.products_field( "price", "lt", 300 );
// Make the query
JObject hashProducts = products.get_products();
// View the results of the query
Console.Write(hashProducts.ToString());To lookup details about a cat_id, run your request against the categories resource:
// Build the query
products.categories_field( "cat_id", 4992 );
// Make the query
JObject hashCategories = products.get_categories();
// View the results of the query
Console.Write(hashCategories.ToString());The code below shows how to use the JObject (from Newtonsoft.Json library) value returned from the Semantics3 API to access the data fields interested in. The JSON response from the API is already parsed into the Newtonsoft.Json Object ready to be consumed easily in your target application.
// Query the API
JObject hashResponse = products.get_products();
if ((int)hashResponse["results_count"] > 0)
{
JArray arrayProducts = (JArray)hashResponse["results"];
// For each product in the results
for (int i = 0; i < arrayProducts.Count; i++)
{
String productTitle = (String)arrayProducts[i]["name"];
List<String> images = new List<string>();
for (int j = 0; j < ((JArray)arrayProducts[i]["images"]).Count; j++)
{
images.Add((String)arrayProducts[i]["images"][j]);
}
// Pricing Information
JArray ecommerceStores = (JArray)arrayProducts[i]["sitedetails"];
for (int k = 0; k < ecommerceStores.Count; k++)
{
String skuInStore = (String)ecommerceStores[k]["sku"];
String productUrlInStore = (String)ecommerceStores[k]["url"];
// Latest offers from the ecommerceStore
for (int s = 0; s < ((JArray)ecommerceStores[k]["latestoffers"]).Count; s++)
{
String sellerName = (String)ecommerceStores[k]["latestoffers"][s]["seller"];
String price = (String)ecommerceStores[k]["latestoffers"][s]["price"];
String currency = (String)ecommerceStores[k]["latestoffers"][s]["currency"];
String availability = (String)ecommerceStores[k]["latestoffers"][s]["availability"];
// Preprocess and use in application ...
}
// Parsed offers
}
// Loop Ecommerse stores
}
// Loop each product in the api response
}
// If the above query resulted in some resultsInstall this library through Nuget package manager using the instructions above. After installing the library in your project (Make sure your target framework is .NET 4 (or later) and NOT .NET 4(or later) Client Framework , can be changed in Properties->Compile->Advanced Compile Options->Target Framework), here's a sample VB .NET code on using the API. All of the above library functions work the same in VB as the Semantics3 API C# library is CLS Compliant.
Imports Semantics3
Imports Newtonsoft.Json
Imports Newtonsoft.Json.Linq
Module Module1
Sub Main()
Dim products As Products = New Products("API_KEY", "API_SECRET")
' Build the query
products.products_field("search", "iphone")
Dim constructedJson As String = products.get_query_json("products")
Console.Write(constructedJson)
' Make the query
Dim apiResponse As JObject = products.get_products()
Console.Write(apiResponse.ToString())
End Sub
End Module
You can use webhooks to get near-real-time price updates from Semantics3.
You can register a webhook with Semantics3 by sending a POST request to "webhooks" endpoint.
To verify that your URL is active, a GET request will be sent to your server with a verification_code parameter. Your server should respond with verification_code in the response body to complete the verification process.
If your webhook server does not respond to as indicated in the Semantics3 Webhooks documentation, the run_query call will crash. You'll have to surround them in a try catch block.
JObject addWebhookUriQuery = new JObject();
addWebhookUriQuery["webhook_uri"] = "http://mydomain.com/myendpoint";
JObject hashResponse = products.run_query("webhooks", addWebhookUriQuery, "POST");
Console.Write(hashResponse.ToString());To fetch existing webhooks
JObject hashResponse = products.run_query("webhooks", "{}", "GET");
Console.Write(hashResponse.ToString());To remove a webhook
String webhookId = "7JcGN81u";
String endpoint = "webhooks/" + webhookId;
JObject hashResponse = products.run_query( endpoint, "{}", "DELETE" );
Console.Write(hashResponse.ToString());Once you register a webhook, you can start adding events to it. Semantics3 server will send you notifications when these events occur.
To register events for a specific webhook send a POST request to the "webhooks/{webhook_id}/events" endpoint
JObject productSpec = new JObject();
productSpec["sem3_id"] = "1QZC8wchX62eCYS2CACmka";
JObject constraintsSpec = new JObject();
constraintsSpec["gte"] = 10;
constraintsSpec["lte"] = 100;
JObject createEventsQuery = new JObject();
createEventsQuery["type"] = "price.change";
createEventsQuery["product"] = productSpec;
createEventsQuery["constraints"] = constraintsSpec;
String webhookId = "7JcGN81u";
String endpoint = "webhooks/" + webhookId + "/events";
JObject hashResponse = products.run_query( endpoint, createEventsQuery, "POST" );
Console.Write(hashResponse.ToString());To fetch all registered events for a give webhook
String webhookId = "7JcGN81u";
String endpoint = "webhooks/" + webhookId + "/events";
JObject hashResponse = products.run_query(endpoint, "{}", "GET");
Console.Write(hashResponse.ToString());Once you have created a webhook and registered events on it, notifications will be sent to your registered webhook URI via a POST request when the corresponding events occur. Make sure that your server can accept POST requests. Here is how a sample notification object looks like
{
"type": "price.change",
"event_id": "XyZgOZ5q",
"notification_id": "X4jsdDsW",
"changes": [{
"site": "abc.com",
"url": "http://www.abc.com/def",
"previous_price": 45.50,
"current_price": 41.00
}, {
"site": "walmart.com",
"url": "http://www.walmart.com/ip/20671263",
"previous_price": 34.00,
"current_price": 42.00
}]
}| method | Description |
|---|---|
products.get_results_json() |
returns the result json string from the previous query |
products.clear() |
clears all the fields in the query |
products.run_query(endpoint, rawJson, method, callback) |
You can use this method to send raw JSON string in the request |
Use GitHub's standard fork/commit/pull-request cycle. If you have any questions, email support@semantics3.com.
- Srinivasan Kidambi srinivas@semantics3.com
Copyright (c) 2014 Semantics3 Inc.
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