best ways to use the shareasale api

Best Ways to Use the APIShareASale Think Tank 2013Eric Nageleric@ericnagel.com

What is the ShareASale API?

● API = Application Programming Interface○ An application programming interface (API) specifies

how some software components should interact with each other.

○ It’s a way for your website to talk directly to the ShareASale system

● Affiliate API● Merchant API

Where to find the ShareASale API

Affiliate API Under Tools

Merchant API Under Tools

Affiliate API: AuthenticationThe Authentication HashAuthentication Hash : SHA-256 Hash in 64 character Hex format of the string "YourAPIToken:CurrentDateInUTCFormat:APIActionValue:YourAPISecret" (without quotes)

For example, for following values:Token: NGc6dg5e9URups5o

API Secret: ATj7vd8b7CCjeq9yQUo8cc2w3OThqe2e

String to Hash: NGc6dg5e9URups5o:Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:44:22 GMT:bannerList:ATj7vd8b7CCjeq9yQUo8cc2w3OThqe2e

UTC Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:44:22 GMT

API Action: bannerList

The correct HTTP Headers would be:x-ShareASale-Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:44:22 GMT

x-ShareASale-Authentication: 78D54A3051AE0AAAF022AA2DA230B97D5219D82183FEFF71E2D53DEC6057D9F1

Affiliate API: Authentication

IP RestrictionsThese are the IPs that will be accessing the data. Since the script will reside on your server, use your server’s IP.

Start > Runcmdping domain.com

Gives you the IP

Affiliate API: Authentication

HUH????Don’t worry.1. Click “View Sample code in PHP”2. Copy3. Paste4. Change values

Affiliate API: Sample<?php

$myAffiliateID = '';

$APIToken = "";

$APISecretKey = "";

$myTimeStamp = gmdate(DATE_RFC1123);

$APIVersion = 1.8;

$actionVerb = "activity";

$sig = $APIToken.':'.$myTimeStamp.':'.$actionVerb.':'.$APISecretKey;

$sigHash = hash("sha256",$sig);

$myHeaders = array("x-ShareASale-Date: $myTimeStamp","x-ShareASale-Authentication: $sigHash");

Get these values from the API page

We’ll get to this

$ch = curl_init();

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://shareasale.com/x.cfm?affiliateId=$myAffiliateID&token=$APIToken&version=$APIVersion&action=$actionVerb");

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,$myHeaders);

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);

$returnResult = curl_exec($ch);

Affiliate API: Sample

Nothing todo here.

Affiliate API: Sampleif ($returnResult) {

//parse HTTP Body to determine result of request

if (stripos($returnResult,"Error Code ")) {

// error occurred

trigger_error($returnResult,E_USER_ERROR);

}

else{

// success

echo $returnResult;

}

}

else{

// connection error

trigger_error(curl_error($ch),E_USER_ERROR);

}

curl_close($ch);

?>

This is where you take over and put in your custom coding to do whatever you want with the data.

Affiliate API● Activity Details● Activity Summary● Merchant Timespan Report● Today's Stats● Monthly Summary● Void Trail● Traffic● API Token Count● Get Products● Invalid Links

● Datafeed Merchants● Coupon/Deal Merchants● Merchant Status● Merchant Creatives● Merchant Gift Cards● Edit Trail● Payment Summary● Merchant Search● Merchant Search by Product● Ledger Report

Example

Use Activity Details to download transaction data daily and store in your tracking system or email you your commissions.

Trans ID|User ID|Merchant ID|Trans Date|Trans Amount|Commission|Comment|Voided|Pending Date|Locked|Aff Comment|Banner Page|Reversal Date|Click Date|Click Time|Banner Id

37697968|132296|8723|10/16/2012 11:41:05 AM|323.7|71.21|Sale - 620946||||WCG-45500|http://www.wineclubreviewsandratings.com/cellars-wine-club/sparkling-champagne-club-review||2012-10-16 00:00:00.0|11:34:11 AM|43027

Example

Use Coupon / Deal Merchants to download coupons to show on your website

Deal Id|Merchant Id|Merchant|Start Date|End Date|Publish Date|Title|Image(big)|Tracking URL|Image(small)|Category|Description|Restrictions|Keywords|Coupon Code|Edit Date

12104|8684|Checks Unlimited|2009-06-15 00:00:00.0|2050-12-31 00:00:00.0|2008-08-23 18:09:10.0|Personal checks, additional 10% off reorder check pricing.|http://|http://www.shareasale.com/u.cfm?d=12104&m=8684&u=132296|http://||Personal checks only - additional 10% off reorder check pricing default online.|||PJKA|2009-06-18 12:26:34.0

Other Affiliate API Uses

● Get Products○ Search by keyword

to return products for a datafeed site

● Invalid Links○ Make sure you’re not

wasting your traffic

● Merchant Status○ Be alerted when

merchants go offline● Merchant Creatives

○ Get the latest banners from merchants who run seasonal offers

What Do I Do Now?

● Process the data○ See fgetcsv(), split(), explode()○ Save to database○ Send an email

● Automate your script○ Set up a “cron” to have the script run on a regular basis

● More help?○ http://www.ericnagel.com/how-to-tips/shareasale-api.html

■ 4 years old, but it still works.○ http://www.ericnagel.com/how-to-tips/shareasale-prosper202.html

■ If you use Prosper202

Tips

● You have limited API calls. Use them wisely.○ 200 / month = less than 7 per day

i. Activity Detailsii. Trafficiii. Get Productsiv. Invalid Linksv. Coupon / Deal Merchantsvi. Merchant Status

Tips

● While you’re writing your script to process the data, download the data once, then use the local file for processing. This way, only 1 API call will be used.○ $cURL = 'https://shareasale.com/x.cfm?

action=couponDeals&affiliateId=132296&token=az7bFTu3LwioXNRA&XMLFormat=0';// $cURL = 'sas.csv';$fp = fopen($cURL, "r");

TipsSince we’re talking about APIs, why not combine a merchant’s direct API with the ShareASale API?● Get data from merchant’s own API● Change links to ShareASale Deeplinks● …● Profit

http://www.wyzant.com/AffiliateProgram/

Resources● http://blog.shareasale.com/author/ryan/

○ Ryan Frey writes about using all the ShareASale techie things

● http://www.ericnagel.com/tag/shareasale○ I have a few blog posts about ShareASale - keep digging

● http://www.programmableweb.com/api/shareasale-affiliate○ Programmable Web is all things API

Questions?

Eric Nagel

Email: eric@ericnagel.comWebsite: www.ericnagel.comTwitter: @ericnagel