you would get zero results because the search engine discards those words when searching through
titles. This behavior is also true for:
• author
• author-begins
• author-exact
• title
• title-words-begin
Using Search Bins to Find Items
Topics
•
NarrowBy Attribute (p. 96)
•
Search Bin Example (p. 96)
•
NarrowBy Values (p. 97)
•
Results Refined by Repeating ItemSearch Requests (p. 99)
•
ItemSearch Request Tips (p. 100)
Up to this point, you have seen how you can use operation input parameters and response groups to
filter out unwanted responses. The SearchBins response group provides a different means of refining
results. It enables you to filter results based on values returned in a response.
The SearchBins response group categorizes the items returned by
ItemSearch
into groups, called bins.
The grouping is based on some criteria, depending on the search index. For example, a set of bins can
be based on a set of price ranges for an item. In the case of women’s shoes, for example, SearchBins
might return a bin that contains ASINs for shoes that cost between $0 and $50, a second bin for shoes
that cost $50 to $100, and a third bin for shoes that cost more than $100.
The advantage of using search bins is that the response group divides the items into bins without you
having to return or parse item attributes. You can then submit a second
ItemSearch
request and return
only the items in one bin.
You cannot create bins nor can you specify the criteria used to divide the items into groups. The SearchBins
response group does that automatically.
Some search indices support more than one kind of bin. For example, apparel items can be divided in to
bins according to price range and brand. In this case, the response would return multiple sets of bins,
called SearchBinSets, in which the items would be divided according to different criteria.
The criteria used to divide the returned items into bins is called the NarrowBy value.
API Version 2011-08-01
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Product Advertising API Developer Guide
Using Search Bins to Find Items
