best ways to use the shareasale api
DESCRIPTION
Slides from my presentation at ShareASale's Think Tank 2013 held in Denver, CO on how to use ShareASale's Affiliate APITRANSCRIPT
Best Ways to Use the APIShareASale Think Tank 2013Eric [email protected]
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
