The detailed description of each service offered by Amazon can be found at http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=sc_fe_l_2/102-1695756-7301743?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=15763381&no=3435361&me=A36L942TSJ2AJA.

For this article, I will concentrate on the Amazon E-Commerce Service (ECS) Web service, which is the flagship of Amazon's many Web service offerings. Using the ECS, you can query Amazon.com for its products information, such as prices, product images, customers’ reviews, and more.

To illustrate how to use the Amazon.com ECS web service, I will build a Windows application using Visual Studio 2005. Figure 1 shows what the completed application will look like. The application allows the user to search for products in each of several different categories. You can then drill down to the product specifics, such as ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number), price, publisher, authors, reviews, etc. This is a useful application that allows you to quickly search for items from Amazon.com, without needing to use your Web browser to navigate to the Web site.

Figure 1. The completed application.

Creating the Application
Before you can use the ECS web service, you need to register for a free account. You can register for a new account at https://aws-portal.amazon.com/gp/aws/developer/registration/index.html/102-1695756-7301743.

To build the sample application in this article, you need Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. Figure 2 shows the controls that I have added in the default Form1. For simplicity, I have omitted some of the detailed settings of each control on the form. For the detailed version, I strongly encourage you to download the source code that accompanies this article.

Populate your form as shown in Figure 2. Once the form is populated, add a Web Reference to the Amazon.com ECS web service. Right-click on the project name in Solution Explorer and select Add Web Reference…. Enter the following URL: http://webservices.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/AWSECommerceService.wsdl . Click Go and then name the Web Reference AmazonWS. Click Add Reference to add the Web reference to the project.

Coding the Application
Switch to the code-behind of Form1 and declare the following member variables (within Form1):

    Private amazonResponse As AmazonWS.ItemSearchResponse = Nothing
    Private amazonItems As AmazonWS.Item() = Nothing

Figure 1. Populating the form with the various controls.

Next, define the GetProdInformation() subroutine. This will be the main subroutine that communicates with the ECS. Here, you specify the keyword to search for, the type of response (indicates how detailed the response should be), product category, as well as the particular page to return. Eeach response from ECS will return 10 products; to retrieve the next 10 products, you would set the ItemPage property. Also, remember to set the subscription ID that was assigned to you during the registration process; failure to do so will cause the request to ECS to fail.

    Public Sub GetProdInformation( _
       ByVal keyword As String, _
       ByVal Category As String, _
       ByVal Page As Integer)

        Dim itemSearchRequest As New AmazonWS.ItemSearchRequest
        Dim itemSearch As New AmazonWS.ItemSearch

        '---initialize objects---
        With itemSearchRequest
            '---set the search keyword(s)---
            .Keywords = keyword
            '---set the size of the response---
            .ResponseGroup = New String() {"Large"}
            '---set the SearchIndex or search mode---
            .SearchIndex = Category
            '---set the response page---
            .ItemPage = Page
        End With

        With itemSearch
            '---set the Amazon.com SubscriptionId---
            .SubscriptionId = "your_subscription_id"
            .Request = New AmazonWS.ItemSearchRequest() _
               {itemSearchRequest}
        End With

        Try
            '---invoke the Amazon.com web service
            amazonResponse = _
               My.WebServices.AWSECommerceService. _
               ItemSearch(itemSearch)
            If amazonResponse IsNot Nothing Then
                amazonItems = amazonResponse.Items(0).Item
            End If
        Catch ex As Exception
            Console.WriteLine("No information returned by Amazon.com")
        End Try
    End Sub

    Public Sub SearchForProducts( _
       ByVal keyword As String, _
       ByVal Category As String, _
       ByVal Page As Integer)

        '---clears the controls---
        lstProducts.Items.Clear()
        ImageList1.Images.Clear()
        txtProductDetails.Text = String.Empty
        txtURL.Text = String.Empty

        '---shows the Hourglass cursor---
        Windows.Forms.Cursor.Current = Cursors.WaitCursor

        '---communicates with ECS---
        GetProdInformation(keyword, Category, cbbPage.Text)

        If amazonItems Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
        Try
            For i As Integer = 0 To amazonItems.Length - 1
                With amazonItems(i)
                    lstProducts.Items.Add(.ItemAttributes.Title)
                End With
            Next

            '---shows the number of pages available---
            cbbPage.Items.Clear()
            For i As Integer = 1 To amazonResponse.Items(0).TotalPages
                cbbPage.Items.Add(i)
            Next
        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox(ex.ToString)
        Finally
            Windows.Forms.Cursor.Current = Cursors.Default
        End Try

    End Sub

    Private Sub btnSearch_Click( _
       ByVal sender As System.Object, _
       ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
       Handles btnSearch.Click

        SearchForProducts(txtSearchKeyword.Text, cbbCategory.Text, 1)

    End Sub

    Private Sub lstProducts_SelectedIndexChanged( _
       ByVal sender As System.Object, _
       ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
       Handles lstProducts.SelectedIndexChanged

        If lstProducts.SelectedIndex < 0 Then Exit Sub

        Dim img As Image = Nothing
        Try
            txtProductDetails.Text = String.Empty

            '---display detailed book information
            With amazonItems(lstProducts.SelectedIndex)

                '---displays the product URL---
                txtURL.Text = .DetailPageURL

                '---displays the ASIN number---
                txtProductDetails.Text &= "ASIN: " & _
                   .ASIN & vbCrLf

                '---displays the product title---
                txtProductDetails.Text &= "Title: " & _
                   .ItemAttributes.Title & vbCrLf

                '---displays the producer---
                txtProductDetails.Text &= "By: " & _
                   Join(.ItemAttributes.Author, ",") & vbCrLf

                '---displays the publisher/manufacturer---
                txtProductDetails.Text &= _
                   "Publisher/Manufacturer: " & _
                   .ItemAttributes.Publisher & vbCrLf

                '---displays the price---
                txtProductDetails.Text &= "Price: " & _
                   .ItemAttributes.ListPrice.FormattedPrice. _
                   ToString() & vbCrLf

                '---displays the average ratings---
                txtProductDetails.Text &= "Ratings: " & _
                   .CustomerReviews.AverageRating.ToString & vbCrLf

                '---displays total reviews---
                txtProductDetails.Text &= "Total Reviews: " & _
                   .CustomerReviews.TotalReviews.ToString & vbCrLf

                '---displays customers' reviews---
                Dim reviews As String = String.Empty
                For i As Integer = 0 To .CustomerReviews.Review. _
                   Length - 1
                   reviews &= vbCrLf & """" & _
                   .CustomerReviews.Review(0).Content & _
                   """" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
                Next
                txtProductDetails.Text &= "Customers Review: " & _
                   reviews

                '---download the product image---
                Dim webReq As Net.HttpWebRequest = _
                   Net.HttpWebRequest.Create(.MediumImage.URL.ToString)
                Dim webResp As Net.HttpWebResponse = _
                   webReq.GetResponse()

                '---displays the image---
                img = Image.FromStream(webResp.GetResponseStream())
                PictureBox1.Visible = True
                PictureBox1.Image = img
            End With
        Catch ex As Exception
            If img Is Nothing Then
                PictureBox1.Visible = False
            End If
        End Try
    End Sub

    Private Sub btnGo_Click( _
       ByVal sender As System.Object, _
       ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
       Handles btnGo.Click
        SearchForProducts( _
           txtSearchKeyword.Text, _
           cbbCategory.Text, _
           CInt(cbbPage.Text))
    End Sub

Summary
In this article, you have seen how you can easily retrieve products information from Amazon.com’s ECS web service. The sample application shown in this article can be adapted for your own use and you can also easily convert it to a Web application. For more ideas on how to incorporate ECS into your own application, check out the reference application at the following site: http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=sc_fe_l_1/102-1695756-7301743?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=3434671&no=3435361&me=A36L942TSJ2AJA.