[erlang-questions] Amazon API -- Lookup by ISBN

Thu Apr 9 21:33:25 CEST 2015

They give you examples in the documentation, rather than worrying about
what that RFC means you can just try crypto:hmac/3 and see if it works
(hint: it does).

1> base64:encode(crypto:hmac(sha256, <<"1234567890">>, <<"GET\
nwebservices.amazon.com
\n/onca/xml\nAWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE&AssociateTag=mytag-20&ItemId=0679722769&Operation=ItemLookup&ResponseGroup=Images%2CItemAttributes%2COffers%2CReviews&Service=AWSECommerceService&Timestamp=2014-08-18T12%3A00%3A00Z&Version=2013-08-01">>)).
<<"j7bZM0LXZ9eXeZruTqWm2DIvDYVUU3wxPPpp+iXxzQc=">>

This matches their example:
j7bZM0LXZ9eXeZruTqWm2DIvDYVUU3wxPPpp+iXxzQc=

-bob

On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 12:22 PM, <lloyd@REDACTED> wrote:

> Hi Ayo,
>
> Looks cool. I'll give it spin. Thanks.
>
> Meanwhile, taking Darach Ennis suggestion to use the Library of Commerce
> db, I came up with this:
>
> https://gist.github.com/anonymous/dd9846ef1cb2826f59da
>
> Bob Ippolito, I did put effort into trying to build it-- put half a day
> into it and got 98% of the way there before I got stuck. Why stuck? I
> simply could not understand the rather cryptic crypto documentation
> sufficiently to "Calculate an RFC 2104-compliant HMAC with the SHA256 hash
> algorithm". This could speak to my mental shortcomings, lack of experience,
> or heavens, could it be that the documentation could use elaboration and
> better examples? I appreciate your encouragement to work it out and I try.
> But code is just that, code, unless you have the keys to the kingdom.
> Nevertheless, I appreciate your response.
>
> Best to all,
>
> Lloyd
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "ayodele abejide" <abejideayodele@REDACTED>
> Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2015 2:20pm
> To: "Bob Ippolito" <bob@REDACTED>
> Cc: "Lloyd Prentice" <lloyd@REDACTED>, "Erlang Questions" <
> erlang-questions@REDACTED>
> Subject: Re: [erlang-questions] Amazon API -- Lookup by ISBN
>
> I played around with implementing this:
>
> https://gist.github.com/bjhaid/5d3c58aca0dbee0d96fd
>
> PS: It's not tested outside of erl, and was a lunch time hacking.
>
> BR,
>
> Ayo
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 12:44 PM, Bob Ippolito <bob@REDACTED> wrote:
>
> > I'm sure they're just trying to keep tabs on who uses the API so that
> they
> > can implement rate limiting and such to prevent third parties from
> scraping
> > the entire database or adversely affecting performance for everyone else.
> > This actually looks like one of the simpler APIs to implement, since it's
> > just in the query string, and the signature is using standard algorithms.
> > I'm sure you could get it if you put some effort into just building it
> > rather than trying to find an implementation that someone else has
> already
> > built.
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 9:55 AM, <lloyd@REDACTED> wrote:
> >
> >> Thanks all.
> >>
> >> Darach--- looks like the Library of Congress API fits the bill.
> >>
> >> Garrett--- for sake of self-enlightenment I'll take a look at Python
> >> implementations.
> >>
> >> I can understand that Amazon needs to enforce security on their api, but
> >> one would think that the inventor of one-click ordering could come up
> with
> >> a simpler api request implementation. Maybe they're just trying to keep
> >> pesky users like me out of the goodies. Wizards only apply.
> >>
> >> Best wishes,
> >>
> >> Lloyd
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: "Darach Ennis" <darach@REDACTED>
> >> Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2015 8:07pm
> >> To: "Lloyd Prentice" <lloyd@REDACTED>
> >> Cc: "Erlang Questions" <erlang-questions@REDACTED>
> >> Subject: Re: [erlang-questions] Amazon API -- Lookup by ISBN
> >>
> >> If you don't need the rank information you can get the metadata through
> >> composing a URL
> >> against the library of congress database:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> http://lx2.loc.gov:210/lcdb?version=1.1&operation=searchRetrieve&query=bath.isbn=0448421658&maximumRecords=1&recordSchema=mods
> >>
> >> This will deliver an XML document. You can get similar information from
> >> Google's API:
> >>
> >> http://www.google.com/books/feeds/volumes/?q=ISBN%3C0448421658%3E
> >>
> >> Both are simple HTTP GET requests so unless you absolutely need data
> >> unique
> >> to Amazon's DB perhaps that would suffice.
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >>
> >> Darach.
> >>
> >> On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 9:47 PM, <lloyd@REDACTED> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Hello,
> >> >
> >> > I'm striving to look up books in Amazon's db by ISBN. At first blush
> it
> >> > looks easy enough:
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/EX_LookupbyISBN.html
> >> >
> >> > But the last item, Signature, baffles me. Procedure here:
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/rest-signature.html
> >> >
> >> > I'm fine with this until I hit step 4:
> >> >
> >> > -- Sort parameter/value pairs by byte value --- I can see how to do
> this
> >> > manually, but don't know how put Erlang to the task
> >> >
> >> > And I'm really stumped when I hit step 8:
> >> >
> >> > -- Calculate an RFC 2104-compliant HMAC with the SHA256 hash algorithm
> >> >
> >> > Any help? Better yet, does anyone have actual code to make such
> requests
> >> > they're willing to share?
> >> >
> >> > NOTE: Dave Thomas solved this problem way back in 2007. But looks like
> >> > Amazon has changed their request format:
> >> >
> >> > http://pragdave.me/blog/2007/04/15/a-first-erlang-program/
> >> >
> >> > Many thanks,
> >> >
> >> > LRP
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > _______________________________________________
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> >> >
> >>
> >>
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> >
> >
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