API Documentation

We provide a RESTful API to access our huge repository of summarized reviews. Send us simple HTTP requests and we will send back basic XML responses, which means you can interact with our API from any language.

Protocol
REST
Data Formats
Currently supported: XML, JSON [.js]
JSON requests also allow use of callback function using 'callback' parameter.
Authentication
To start with, we support HTTP Basic Authentication. Username and password are authentication parameters, required in all the methods.
http://username:password@www.quarkrank.com/products.xml
HTTP status codes
200OKEverything is fine.
400Bad RequestInvalid request. Response will be an error message explaining the reason.
401Not AuthorizedAuthentication credentials are missing or invalid.
404Not FoundResource does not exist or you're requesting an invalid URI.
500Internal Server ErrorOops! we did something wrong. Please contact us at contact@quarkrank.com
Rate Limit
None. Please let us know beforehand if you will be generating huge amount of traffic to our site.
Methods
  1. Get List of Products

    Returns list of products given a category. Possible use to generate product listing.

    http://www.quarkrank.com/products.{xml,js}
    Parameters:
    • category (Required Parameter): one of [camera, cellphone, flatpaneltv, mp3player]
      http://www.quarkrank.com/products.xml?category=camera
    • page (Optional): Page number
      http://www.quarkrank.com/products.xml?category=camera&page=2
    • count (Optional): How many products to return per page. Minimum value can be 10 while maximum can be 30.
      http://www.quarkrank.com/products.xml?category=camera&count=20

    Response: For each product following values are returned
    • Name, QuarkRank, buzz, navigation specifactions (eg. opticalzoom for cameras)
    • Top 5 features and Worst 3 features for this product
    • Matching amazon's asin and shopping.com's product id

    Response example:



  2. Get information for a product
    http://www.quarkrank.com/products/id.{xml,js}

    To get complete detail for a given product.
    This can be used in two ways:

    • Using the sku of the product at quarkrank
    • Using amazon's asin or shopping.com's product ID

    Parameters:
    • id (Required): sku of the product at quarkrank/amazon/shopping.com
    • site (Optional): This is required parameter if you are using amazon or shopping.com id. Value is one of [amazon, shopping]
    • all_features(Optional): How many features to return for this product. Minimum value is 10 and you can ask for all with value "true". Default value is 10.

    Output:
    • Name, QuarkRank, buzz, navigation specifications (eg. opticalzoom for cameras)
    • Top 5 features and Worst 3 features , top 10 features (buzz wize)
    • Matching Amazon's asin and Shopping.com's product id
    • Top 10 snippets for each feature.
      Mapping of feature name to snippets is done using feature id. Each of the feature contains an attribute feature_id
      Each bundle of snippets, is wrapped with element name snippet_[snippet_id]

    Response example:


  3. Product Search

    Returns the matching products for this search string

    http://www.quarkrank.com/products.xml?search=search_string

    Parameters: None
    Output: Matching items with same details as in item listing
    Each "product" item will contain additional attribute product_type which tells category of product


  4. Get snippets for a feature

    Returns the first 100 snippets for this feature

    http://www.quarkrank.com/products/:id/snippets/feature_name.{xml,js}
    Example:
    http://www.quarkrank.com/products/039j9k/snippets/value%20for%20money.xml
Ruby on Rails

ActiveResource can be used to access our RESTful API in Ruby on Rails.

Note : You need to apply this tiny patch to ActiveResource.

Following is the sample usage : class Product < ActiveResource::Base
  self.site = "http://username:password@www.quarkrank.com"

  # => Gets the product listing for a category
  def self.list options={:category=>"camera"}
    find(:all, :params=>options)
  end

  # => Get the item details for a given product
  def self.show sku, site=nil, all_features=false
    params = {}
    params[:site] = site unless site.nil?
    params[:all_features]="true" if all_features
    find(sku, :params=>params)
  end

  # => Search for a given search query
  def self.search query
    find(:all,:params=>{:search=>query})
  end

end


class Snippet < ActiveResource::Base
  self.site= "http://username:password@www.quarkrank.com/products/:product_id"

  # => Gets the snippets for a given product for a given feature (eg. picture)
  # => Example: Features.features("039j9k", "value for money")
  def self.snippets product, name
    find name.gsub(" ","%20"),:params=>{:product_id=>product}
  end
end