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Content API Overview

  • Article

Content API is a RESTful API that lets advertisers programmatically manage their Microsoft Merchant Center catalogs. Content API is an alternative to managing your catalog using the Microsoft Merchant Center web page or by using FTP/SFTP. Content API has the following advantages:

  • Provides the ability to update product offers incrementally rather than uploading the entire data feed. Being able to update a subset of your products is more efficient than having to upload the entire feed by using FTP/SFTP.

  • Provides the ability to make changes to product pricing and availability to reflect close to real-time market conditions. For example, if your product goes out of stock, you can quickly update its Availability field using the Content API.

  • Provides the ability to batch together large numbers of items to process in a single request. A batch operation can include inserts, deletes, and updates. Using batch operations is a more efficient use of resources than using single operation calls (for example, a single insert operation).

  • Provides the ability to download catalog status reports.

  • Provides the ability to manage your catalogs programmatically.

Who Should Use the API?

You should consider using the Content API if:

  • You are currently using the Google Content API.

  • Your feed includes a large number of products.

  • You are able to integrate the Content API with the rest of your inventory management systems.

If your catalog is small, or you have a limited ability to integrate with your inventory systems, you may be better off using one of the other methods for uploading your catalog (see About Microsoft Shopping Campaigns feed files).

In This Section

Topic Description
Release Notes Describes the changes to Content API for each release.
Get Started Provides the steps for getting started using Content API.
Testing your Code in Sandbox Provides options for testing your app before releasing it into production.
API Best Practices Provides best practices for using Content API.
Managing your Products Provides details for how to use the Products resource to add, get, update, and delete product offers.
Managing your Catalogs Provides details for how to use the Catalogs resource to add, get, update, and delete API enabled catalogs.
How Do I Get the Status of Product Offers? Provides details for how to use the Status resource to get the status of product offers in a catalog.
Code Examples Provides C# code examples that show how to use Content API resources.
Content API Reference Provides details about the programming elements of Content API.