10- Xml Quick Guide English

XML MercadoLibre – Quick Guide Updated: Dic’ 2007 By Affiliate Corp Team

Welcome!

Welcome to MercadoLibre (MeLi) XML guide. We hope you have a very successful experience using the MeLi XML feeds.

This quick guide wants to introduce and clarify the main doubts about MeLi XML feed and provide you the basic steps in order to understand how to integrate your applications with XML and increase your earning with MeLi Affiliate Program (in Latin America community, known as “Programa MercadoSocios”)

Be sure it’s a very initial guide, than your feedback and suggestions are more than welcome. :)

Building Queries - Items

Use the following URL structure to list items in XML: http://www.mercadolibre.com.xx/jm/searchXml?

After the “?” enter the search parameters (at least we have to use as_word or as_categ_id)

In the following example we searched the word “dvd” within the category Electronics in Mexico: http:// www.mercadolibre.com.mx/jm/searchXml?as_word = dvd&as_categ_id =1000

See a list of parameters here: http://guia.mercadolibre.com.ar/xml-parameters-english-version-21774-VGP

Countries Urls For high level performance, use the subdomain xml.mercado.., example http:// xml .mercadolibre.com.XX/jm/searchXml? http://www.mercadolibre.cl/jm/searchXml? MLC Chile http://www.mercadolibre.com.co/jm/searchXml? MCO Colombia http://www.mercadolibre.com.ve/jm/searchXml? MLV Venezuela http://www.mercadolibre.com.mx/jm/searchXml? MLM Mexico http://www.mercadolibre.com.ar/jm/searchXml? MLA Argentina http://www.mercadolivre.com.br/jm/searchXml? MLB Brasil URL Base ID Country

Building Queries - Category Tree

Use the following URL to list the category tree: http:// www.mercadolibre.com.xx/jm/categsXml?as_site_id =XXX

The parameter site_id is required and let you choose a MeLi country (MLA, MLM, MLV, etc.). You can list the whole tree of a country (level 1 to 6) or choose a specific category to list. (ex. All levels under “Electronics” in MLM)

In the following example we list all categories for Mexico: http://www.mercadolibre.com.mx/jm/categsXml?as_site_id=MLM&as_max_level=6

See a list of parameters here: http://guia.mercadolibre.com.ar/xml-parameters-english-version-21774-VGP

Feed Sections Document data General information # of Items found Search data, filters and sort Categories with results (QCat) Item data 6 5 4 1 2 3

Item Data in Detail

< item id = #######

< title > Shows the title of the item

< link > The url landingpage of the item

< image_url > The url of the image

< seller_type > MLIDER </ seller_type > Seller type

< auction_type > BIN </ auction_type > Auction type (buy it now or auction)

< mpago > Y </ mpago > Accepts MercadoPago (Y/N)

< currency > U$S </ currency > Currency $ or U$S

< price > 439.99 </ price > Price

< bids > 0 </ bids > Amount of bids obtained

< hot > N </ hot > It has more than 4 bids

< hits > 554 </ hits > Visits

< auct_end > Thu, 14 Apr 2005 03:17:09 GMT </ auct_end > Auction end

< listing_features >

< photo > Y </ photo > Does it have a picture?

< highlight > Y </ highlight > Is it highlighted?

< bold > Y </ bold > Does it have bold entries?

</ listing_features >

</ item >

Tip: Optimization: XML + Databases

In order to use the resources (CPU, transmission, etc.) efficiently it is advisable to use databases.

What do we achieve with this?

We make only one consultation per category

We have all the items loaded in our database

We can make customized searches

We can list/show items in a 100% customized way

We use less transmissions

Our site is faster, as we get the data locally instead of having to look for them in an external server

More Tips

Use gzip (gzip=Y)

Use noQCat (noQCat=Y)

Limit the amount of items requested to MercadoLibre if necessary ( Example with 30 items: as_qshow=30)

Download category tree XML once a week

If you have problems with XML charset, it may be changed with the charset parameter (E.g. charset=UTF-8).

Sort by seller type and Mpago=Y to improve buyer experience. (meet PMS Rank )

FAQ

How to get more than 10 items per query?

Just order your local manager for a user and password.

Is there any daily limit of calls to MeLi servers?

No, there isn’t. You can set your parser to make calls in real time if you want. Although for higher performance we suggest using database with a schedule synchronism (once a day)

Where I put my tool_id?

You just must replace the triple “X” into the url that appears between the tags <link>. Suppose that your tool_id is “222222”, than it should look like this: