Adding Multiple Items to Etsy Cart

[Ian Maroney]

I currently use URLs such as: http://www.etsy.com/add_to_cart.php?listing_id=60429746
to add items to the shopping cart for visitors of the site I have
built using the API.

I have a growing interest in adding a small session-based cart to this
site so that users can shop around a bit before jumping over to etsy
for the sale. Once they're ready to check out, I'd like to be able to
pass etsy the Listing IDs of any items the customer has in the cart
(as well as any quantities?) for a single checkout process.

Is there a method in place I'm missing to do this with?
Something as simple as constructing a URL with additional Listing IDs
in the query string would suffice.

Thanks,
- Ian

[Daniel Dickison]

I was under the impression that using "methods" that are not officially part of the API was not allowed. Though perhaps my reading of the Terms of Use is not accurate, in section "9. Website Human Use Restriction And Use of API".

Would an Etsy rep mind chiming in on this, as being able to add listings to a user's cart is a highly-requested feature for my app.

Daniel

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Etsy API V2" group.
> To post to this group, send email to etsy-...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to etsy-api-v2...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/etsy-api-v2?hl=en.
>

[Ian Maroney]

I interpreted this section more as "Don't try to circumvent the API to retrieve *DATA* that the API is not providing." In the end, I'm simply linking to an existing page and bringing etsy business they might not have otherwise gained (a positive?).

- Ian

[GraGra33]

I'd be interested to hear Etsy's feedback on this.

FWIW, there's been past instances where "assumptions" have been made
outside the provided API and Etsy have closed sites/services. If prior
consent is obtained from Etsy then you'll be safe... Just my 2
cents...

G.

On Mar 29, 2:36 pm, Ian Maroney <ian.maro...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I interpreted this section more as "Don't try to circumvent the API to
> retrieve *DATA* that the API is not providing." In the end, I'm simply
> linking to an existing page and bringing etsy business they might not have
> otherwise gained (a positive?).
>
> - Ian
>
> On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 11:20 PM, Daniel Dickison

> <danieldicki...@gmail.com>wrote:

[Justin Kerr Sheckler]

Hey Everyone,

Correct, our TOU state that your are *not* allowed to "‘screen scrape’ pages on the Etsy Website, even if such data is not available in the Etsy API", which means that it's not OK to use the add_to_cart.php script.

We have a few reasons for this, the most important being that we're going through and renovating the entire website bit-by-bit, and if you rely on tricks like that, your app will eventually break. (URLs that end in ".php" are especially ripe for being redone.) Also, we can't offer you technical support if you're using the site in a way we don't officially support.

The good news is that we're looking into add-to-cart support in the API, and when we're close to a launch, we'll let you know about it here on the list.

Thanks for your understanding

Justin Kerr Sheckler
Developer API Lead
Etsy.com
jus...@etsy.com

[Ian Maroney]

Thanks for the reply.

To clarify, I am in no way "screen scraping." I make no attempts to visit the page and gather any data. Rather, when the visitor to the site sees an item they would like to purchase they click a "Buy Now" link and are redirected to etsy to make the purchase.

Would it be ok to keep these links on the site until the new add-to-cart support is rolled out?

- Ian

[Justin Kerr Sheckler]

Hi Ian,

Yes, "screen-scraping" makes it sound as if we're only concerned with *reading* data off the Etsy site, but in fact, we consider posting data to the site to be much the same thing (which our TOU refers to as "otherwise analyze the Website".)

So, we'd ask that you please not post data to that, or any other URL, in order to add listings to a user's cart.

Don't worry though--we really are investigating a real API-based solution to this.  Hang tight!

Justin Kerr Sheckler
Developer API Lead
Etsy.com
jus...@etsy.com

[Daniel Dickison]

Thanks for the clarification. Looking forward to the add-to-cart APIs!

[GraGra33]

Looking forward to the new feature...

G.