getSearchKeywordsRecommendation

Note: All calls in the Finding API have been deprecated and will be decommissioned on February 5, 2025. An alternative to this API is the Browse API, which also has advanced search capabilities.

This call retrieves commonly used words found in eBay titles, based on the words you supply to the call.

Usage Details

You can use getSearchKeywordsRecommendation to find the correct spelling of a keyword and to find the most commonly used words on eBay with respect to the keywords you supply. Specify the keywords you want to use for a search with the keywords field, the response will return the associated words most commonly used on eBay.

You can specify multiple keywords in the request by separating the words with spaces. In a URL-formatted request, use "%20" to represent spaces between words.

Related Information

See also the reference documentation for these calls:

findItemsAdvanced - Finds items by a keyword query and/or category and allows searching within item descriptions.
findItemsByKeywords - Finds items on eBay based upon a keyword query and returns details for matching items.
findItemsIneBayStores - Finds items in eBay stores. Can search a specific store or can search all stores with a keyword query.

Input

Output

See also Samples.

The box below lists all fields that might be returned in the response. To learn more about an individual field or its type, click its name in the box (or scroll down to find it in the table below the box).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<getSearchKeywordsRecommendationResponse xmlns="http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services">
  <!-- Call-specific Output Fields -->
  <keywords> string </keywords>
  <!-- Standard Output Fields -->
  <ack> AckValue </ack>
  <errorMessage> ErrorMessage
    <error> ErrorData
      <category> ErrorCategory </category>
      <domain> string </domain>
      <errorId> long </errorId>
      <exceptionId> token </exceptionId>
      <message> string </message>
      <parameter name="string"> ErrorParameter (string) </parameter>
      <!-- ... more parameter values allowed here ... -->
      <severity> ErrorSeverity </severity>
      <subdomain> string </subdomain>
    </error>
    <!-- ... more error nodes allowed here ... -->
  </errorMessage>
  <timestamp> dateTime </timestamp>
  <version> string </version>
</getSearchKeywordsRecommendationResponse>

Return Value	Type	Occurrence	Meaning

Call-specific Output Fields [Jump to standard fields]

keywords

string

Always

Contains a spell-checked version of the submitted keywords. If no recommended spelling can be identified for the submitted keywords, the response contains a warning to that effect and an empty keywords field is returned.
Max length: 350.

Standard Output Fields

ack	AckValue	Always	Indicates whether or not errors or warnings were generated during the processing of the request. Applicable values: Failure eBay encountered a fatal error during the processing of the request, causing the request to fail. When a serious application-level error occurs, the error is returned instead of the business data. PartialFailure eBay successfully processed the request, but one or more non-fatal errors occurred during the processing. For best results, requests should return without warning messages. Inspect the message details and resolve any problems before resubmitting the request. Success eBay successfully processed the request and the business data is returned in the response. Note that it is possible for a response to return Success, but still not contain the expected data in the result. Warning The request was successfully processed, but eBay encountered a non-fatal error during the processing. For best results, requests should return without warnings. Inspect the warning details and resolve the problem before resubmitting the request. Code so that your app gracefully handles any future changes to this list.
errorMessage	ErrorMessage	Conditionally	Description of an error or warning that occurred when eBay processed the request. Not returned if the ack value is Success.
errorMessage.error	ErrorData	Conditionally, repeatable: [0..*]	Details about a single error.
errorMessage.error.category	ErrorCategory	Conditionally	There are three categories of errors: request errors, application errors, and system errors. Applicable values: Application An error occurred due to a problem with the request, with the most likely source being the application sending the request. For example, the request is missing a required data element or it contains an invalid field. The problem must be corrected before the request can be resent. Inspect the error message to find the cause of the problem. If the problem is due to an application error, modify the application and resend the request. If the error is due to invalid data, the source of the data must be corrected before you resend the resend request to eBay. Request An error occurred due to a problem with the request, with the most likely source being missing or invalid data in the request. The problem must be corrected before the request can be retried. Inspect the error message to find the cause of the problem. If the problem is a result of end-user data, alert the end-user to the problem and provide the means for them to correct the problem. Once the problem is resolved, resend the request to eBay. System Indicates that an error has occurred on the eBay system side. For example, a database or server could be down. Inspect the error message to find the cause of the problem. If the problem is on the eBay side, an application can retry the request as-is a reasonable number of times (eBay recommends twice). If the error persists, contact Developer Technical Support. Once the problem has been resolved, the request may be resent in its original form. Code so that your app gracefully handles any future changes to this list.
errorMessage.error.domain	string	Conditionally	Name of the domain in which the error occurred. domain values: Marketplace A business or validation error occurred in the service. SOA An exception occurred in the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) framework.
errorMessage.error.errorId	long	Conditionally	A unique code that identifies the particular error condition that occurred. Your application can use error codes as identifiers in your customized error-handling algorithms.
errorMessage.error.exceptionId	token	Conditionally	Unique identifier for an exception associated with an error.
errorMessage.error.message	string	Conditionally	A detailed description of the condition that caused in the error.
errorMessage.error.parameter	ErrorParameter (string)	Conditionally, repeatable: [0..*]	Various warning and error messages return one or more variables that contain contextual information about the error. This is often the field or value that triggered the error.
errorMessage.error.parameter [ attribute name ]	string	Conditionally	Various warning and error messages return one or more variables that contain contextual information about the error. This is often the field or value that triggered the error.
errorMessage.error.severity	ErrorSeverity	Conditionally	Indicates whether the reported problem is fatal (an error) or is less- severe (a warning). Review the error message details for information on the cause. If the request fails and the application is the source of the error (for example, a required element is missing), update the application before you retry the request. If the problem is due to incorrect user data, alert the end-user to the problem and provide the means for them to correct the data. Once the problem in the application or data is resolved, re-send the request to eBay. If the source of the problem is on eBay's side, you can retry the request a reasonable number of times (eBay recommends you try the request twice). If the error persists, contact Developer Technical Support. Once the problem has been resolved, you can resend the request in its original form. If a warning occurs, warning information is returned in addition to the business data. Normally, you do not need to resend the request (as the original request was successful). However, depending on the cause of the warning, you might need to contact the end user, or eBay, to effect a long term solution to the problem. Applicable values: Error eBay encountered a fatal error during the processing of the request, causing the request to fail. When eBay encounters an error, it returns error data instead of the requested business data. Inspect the error details and resolve the problem before resubmitting the request. Warning The request was successfully processed, but eBay encountered a non-fatal error during the processing that could affect the data returned. For example, eBay might have changed the value of an input field. In this case, eBay returns a successful response, but it also returns a warning. For best results, requests should return without warnings. Inspect the warning details and resolve the problem before resubmitting the request. Code so that your app gracefully handles any future changes to this list.
errorMessage.error.subdomain	string	Conditionally	Name of the subdomain in which the error occurred. subdomain values: Finding The error is specific to the Finding service. MarketplaceCommon The error is common to all Marketplace services.
timestamp	dateTime	Always	This value represents the date and time when eBay processed the request. This value is returned in GMT, the ISO 8601 date and time format (YYYY- MM- DDTHH:MM:SS.SSSZ). See the "dateTime" type for information about the time format, and for details on converting to and from the GMT time zone.
version	string	Always	The release version that eBay used to process the request. Developer Technical Support may ask you for the version value if you work with them to troubleshoot issues. Note: The version in use is normally the latest release version, as specified in the release notes. Note that eBay releases the API to international sites about a week after the API version is released to the US site.

Detail Controls

DetailLevel

This call does not support varying Detail Levels. You do not need to pass DetailLevel in the request.

Samples

Note: Some item IDs, user IDs, or other data in these samples might no longer be active on eBay. If necessary, you can substitute current eBay data in your requests.

Available samples:

Basic Call ↓ - You want to search for accordions, but are unsure of how to spell the keyword.
Refining a Multi-word Keyword ↓ - Find the best matching keywords based on multiple keywords entered by the user.

Sample: Basic Call

You want to search for accordions, but are unsure of how to spell the keyword.

Description

The user wants to know if eBay sells accordions, and they want to be sure to search using the correct spelling.

Input

getSearchKeywordsRecommendation returns keywords that match words often found in eBay titles and subtitles. The user can pass the word(s) returned in the keywords response field into subsequent find queries.

Note: URL samples have been wrapped for readability. To run the samples, undo the line wrapping and insert your own SECURITY-APPNAME.

URL format. See also the non-wrapped version of this URL. For results in a format other than XML, 
specify a different value for responseencoding.

https://svcs.ebay.com/services/search/FindingService/v1?
   OPERATION-NAME=getSearchKeywordsRecommendation&
   SERVICE-VERSION=1.0.0&
   SECURITY-APPNAME=YourAppID&
   RESPONSE-DATA-FORMAT=XML&
   REST-PAYLOAD&
   keywords=acordian

Here is the same input in XML format. Note that this does not include standard values.

XML format. Also available is the JSON equivalent.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<getSearchKeywordsRecommendationRequest
    xmlns="http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services">
  <keywords>acordian</keywords>
</getSearchKeywordsRecommendationRequest>

Output

XML format. Also available is the JSON equivalent.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<getSearchKeywordsRecommendationResponse
    xmlns="http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services">
  <ack>Success</ack>
  <version>1.12.0</version>
  <timestamp>2016-03-14T01:19:06.937Z</timestamp>
  <keywords>accordion</keywords>
</getSearchKeywordsRecommendationResponse>

Back to list of samples

Sample: Refining a Multi-word Keyword

Find the best matching keywords based on multiple keywords entered by the user.

Description

Enter several words to see the best matching words according to eBay's item titles and subtitles.

Input

The input consists of several misspelled words. eBay responds with the keywords that most closely fit the entered words. Use the keywords returned in the response to formulate subsequent find queries.

URL format. See also the non-wrapped version of this URL. For results in a format other than XML, 
specify a different value for responseencoding.

https://svcs.ebay.com/services/search/FindingService/v1?
   OPERATION-NAME=getSearchKeywordsRecommendation&
   SERVICE-VERSION=1.0.0&
   SECURITY-APPNAME=YourAppID&
   RESPONSE-DATA-FORMAT=XML&
   REST-PAYLOAD&
   keywords=arry+poter+phonix

Here is the same input in XML format. Note that this does not include standard values.

XML format. Also available is the JSON equivalent.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<getSearchKeywordsRecommendationRequest
    xmlns="http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services">
  <keywords>arry poter phonix</keywords>
</getSearchKeywordsRecommendationRequest>

Output

XML format. Also available is the JSON equivalent.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<getSearchKeywordsRecommendationResponse
    xmlns="http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services">
  <ack>Success</ack>
  <version>1.12.0</version>
  <timestamp>2016-03-17T23:46:55.695Z</timestamp>
  <keywords>harry potter phoenix</keywords>
</getSearchKeywordsRecommendationResponse>

Back to list of samples

Change History

Change Date	Description
1.0.0 06/24/2009	(added) New call.