Return Only Available Items
ItemSearch returns available and unavailable items. Unavailable
items are, for example, items that are temporarily out of stock. By setting the
Availability parameter to "Available,”
ItemSearch can filter out most of the items that are
unavailable. The following ItemSearch request returns shirts
that are available.
http://webservices.amazon.com/onca/xml? Service=AWSECommerceService& AWSAccessKeyId=[AWS Access Key ID]& AssociateTag=[Associate Tag]& Operation=ItemSearch& Condition=All& Availability=Available& SearchIndex=Apparel& Keywords=Shirt &Timestamp=[YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ] &Signature=[Request Signature]
"Available" is the only valid value for the parameter. Setting it to any other value returns an error message. By default, the value is not set.
Items that are available are classified on Amazon’s retail web site as:
-
Currently for sale
-
Pre-orders
-
Special orders
-
New releases
-
E-mail me when items become available
-
Items available for in-store pickup
-
Items for sale by third parties
The availability of an item can change rapidly. There is typically a discrepancy
between an item’s availability as reported by ItemSearch and
the item’s true availability, as reported by Amazon’s web site. For this reason, the
availability of items reported by ItemSearch and by Amazon’s
web site can be slightly different. These differences are most evident for items,
such as software, whose availability changes often.
Note
Do not confuse the Availability parameter
with the return element, Availability. The latter is an element in a response
that describes how soon an item can be shipped, such as, "Ships in 48
hours". While this is a helpful value to display, it does not guarantee
that an item is truly available to be purchased. For that determination, test
for an OfferListingId, which is provided by the Offers, OfferFull, and Large
response groups.
