Getting Started

This page contains frequently asked questions from developers using ChannelAdvisor's API.

How do I sign up for the ChannelAdvisor Developer Network?

We are happy to grant you credentials to the APIs.  However, they are not very useful unless you have a CA customer grant you access to their account.

You can request a DeveloperKey and password here: http://ssc.channeladvisor.com/support/reqDevKey.php.  If you have a CA account, we can grant you access to it when we send you the Developer Keys.  You cannot gain access to someone else's account from this page. 

A valid user of the CA account will need to do that from this page ( http://ssc.channeladvisor.com/support/grantAPI.php) because of the authorization check box and

the fact that the user must be logged in to ChannelAdvisor to access this page.

If there are any concerns over access, we will contact the customer for confirmation prior to granting any access.

I am an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) who wishes to provide an integrated solution to ChannelAdvisor customers. What do I need to do?

Contact Greg Smith(greg.smith -at- channeladvisor dot com) as a first step in determining if your functionality is a fit for our customers.

I'm a developer and think I can help your customers, but I'm not sure what they want. Do you have a list of projects that your customers might be interested in?

Check out our Partner Opportunities page for a list of projects that our customers have expressed interest in.

How does authentication work in ChannelAdvisor's API?

ChannelAdvisor assigns each developer or organization a Developer Key and password.  These two pieces of information are required in every call to a ChannelAdvisor API.  For any call accessing ChannelAdvisor account data, an AccountID is required as well.  Developers must present permission from the seller to access their account's data.  Sellers seeking access to their own account data through APIs are welcome as well.  Our code samples show the usage of the Developer Key and password.

See this article for more details: http://developer.channeladvisor.com/display/cadn/Understanding+Security

Over time, this will evolve into a web-based mechanism where sellers themselves are able to grant and revoke permissions to access data associated with their account.

How do return types work in ChannelAdvisor's API?

APIResult

What's a Web Service?

Here are some useful articles to get you started. In general pay attention to the articles about SOAP and WSDL (don't worry, you'll learn soon enough):

• Wikipedia's description of Web Services
• O'Reilly's Web Services Primer

Can your API do this?

How do I retrieve a list of orders from ChannelAdvisor?

The GetOrderList function in the Order Service enables you to do this.  A working sample is here: http://developer.channeladvisor.com/display/cadn/GetOrderList+by+ExportedState

Can I write software to add and update inventory items in ChannelAdvisor automatically?

Yes. The SynchInventoryItem method in the Inventory Service can be used to send detailed inventory information to ChannelAdvisor.

I have my own eCommerce Store front-end, but want to use ChannelAdvisor's checkout. How do I do this?

The methods of the Cart Service, particularly CreateCart, allow you to send shopping cart information to ChannelAdvisor. This method returns a CheckoutURL which you can use to redirect your buyers to.

I want to submit sales for channels outside of ChannelAdvisor.  How does that work?

The SubmitOrder function in the Order Service allows this behavior.

Coding and Web Service Interoperability

Can ChannelAdvisor's API be used with Perl?

Yes. While trying to make this work, we found these articles helpful:

• Integrating a PERL/SOAP client with a .NET XML Web Service.
• 5 Tips for .NET Programming in Perl
• Hello adCenter Sample in Perl - Although this sample is for Microsoft's adCenter, it will help you a great deal learning about interoperating between Perl and .Net Web Services.
• Parsing a result object from SOAP::Lite
• How to call a .NET-based Web Service from the SOAP::Lite Perl Library

Can ChannelAdvisor's API be used with Java?

Yes. This article contains details about using Apache SOAP for connecting to a .NET XML Web Service.

Can ChannelAdvisor's API be used with Python?

You can, but it's challenging (or at least if, like us, you are not a Python expert). At the very least, you can put the XML in there and make it work. Here is the best article we found for using SOAP with Python:

• Python SOAP Libraries

I could use any language to connect to ChannelAdvisor. Which should I use?

At ChannelAdvisor, we prefer C#, but really any .Net based language will be the easiest to connect to ChannelAdvisor's Developer Network.
Java would be our next recommendation, followed by PHP.

This page contains code samples for connecting to ChannelAdvisor.

What SOAP Framework is used to build ChannelAdvisor's Web Services?

ChannelAdvisor uses Microsoft's .NET technology to create its Web Services.