Amazon Ads Connector for C#

Amazon Ads Connector can be used to get Amazon advertisements using Amazon Advertisements API, download various advertisement-related reports.

In this article you will learn how to quickly and efficiently integrate Amazon Ads data in C#. We will use high-performance Amazon Ads Connector to easily connect to Amazon Ads and then access the data inside C#.

Let's follow the steps below to see how we can accomplish that!

Download Documentation

Create ODBC Data Source (DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

Step-by-step instructions

To get data from Amazon Ads using C# we first need to create a DSN (Data Source) which will access data from Amazon Ads. We will later be able to read data using C#. Perform these steps:

  1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack.

  2. Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):

    Open ODBC Data Source
  3. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

    ZappySys API Driver
    Create new User DSN for ZappySys API Driver
    • Create and use User DSN if the client application is run under a User Account. This is an ideal option in design-time, when developing a solution, e.g. in Visual Studio 2019. Use it for both type of applications - 64-bit and 32-bit.
    • Create and use System DSN if the client application is launched under a System Account, e.g. as a Windows Service. Usually, this is an ideal option to use in a production environment. Use ODBC Data Source Administrator (32-bit), instead of 64-bit version, if Windows Service is a 32-bit application.
  4. When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "Amazon Ads" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "Amazon Ads" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

    AmazonAdsDSN
    Amazon Ads
    ODBC DSN Template Selection
  5. Now it's time to configure the Connection Manager. Select Authentication Type, e.g. Token Authentication. Then select API Base URL (in most cases, the default one is the right one). More info is available in the Authentication section.

    Amazon OAuth Security Profile has be created in Amazon Developer portal. [API reference]

    Steps how to get and use Amazon Ads credentials : OAuth Authentication [OAuth]
    1. Firstly, login into Amazon Developer portal in https://developer.amazon.com.
    2. Then click Sign in.
    3. If you don't have an account, press Create your Amazon Developer account button to create one.
    4. Once logged in, click on your profile icon on the right-top of the window and hit Settings: Amazon developer profile settings
    5. Then click Security Profiles and proceed with creating a new Security Profile:
    6. Create Amazon developer security profile
    7. After that, click Web Settings subtab, then hit Show Secret button to reveal the Client Secret (you will need it later), and click Edit to add a Redirect URL:
    8. Reveal client secret in Amazon developer security profile
    9. Continue by setting Allowed Return URLs (you can have your own or use https://zappysys.com/oauth): Set return URLs in Amazon developer security profile
    10. Done! Now you can use Client ID, Client Secret, and Redirect URL when configuring OAuth Authentication parameters: Use client ID and client secret to connect to REST API Amazon services

    Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

    AmazonAdsDSN
    Amazon Ads
    OAuth Authentication [OAuth]
    https://advertising-api.amazon.com/v2
    Required Parameters
    ClientId Fill-in the parameter...
    ClientSecret Fill-in the parameter...
    AuthorizationUrl Fill-in the parameter...
    ReturnUrl Fill-in the parameter...
    Scope Fill-in the parameter...
    Profile (click 'Generate Token' before this) Fill-in the parameter...
    Optional Parameters
    RetryMode RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
    RetryStatusCodeList 429
    RetryCountMax 5
    RetryMultiplyWaitTime True
    ODBC DSN Oauth Connection Configuration

  6. Once the data source connection has been configured, it's time to configure the SQL query. Select the Preview tab and then click Query Builder button to configure the SQL query:

    ZappySys API Driver - Amazon Ads
    Amazon Ads Connector can be used to get Amazon advertisements using Amazon Advertisements API, download various advertisement-related reports.
    AmazonAdsDSN
    Open Query Builder in API ODBC Driver to read and write data to REST API
  7. Start by selecting the Table or Endpoint you are interested in and then configure the parameters. This will generate a query that we will use in C# to retrieve data from Amazon Ads. Hit OK button to use this query in the next step.

    SELECT * FROM Orders
    Configure table/endpoint parameters in ODBC data source based on API Driver
    Some parameters configured in this window will be passed to the Amazon Ads API, e.g. filtering parameters. It means that filtering will be done on the server side (instead of the client side), enabling you to get only the meaningful data much faster.
  8. Now hit Preview Data button to preview the data using the generated SQL query. If you are satisfied with the result, use this query in C#:

    ZappySys API Driver - Amazon Ads
    Amazon Ads Connector can be used to get Amazon advertisements using Amazon Advertisements API, download various advertisement-related reports.
    AmazonAdsDSN
    SELECT * FROM Orders
    API ODBC Driver-based data source data preview
    You can also access data quickly from the tables dropdown by selecting <Select table>.
    A WHERE clause, LIMIT keyword will be performed on the client side, meaning that the whole result set will be retrieved from the Amazon Ads API first, and only then the filtering will be applied to the data. If possible, it is recommended to use parameters in Query Builder to filter the data on the server side (in Amazon Ads servers).
  9. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Video Tutorial

Read data in C#

Using ODBC DSN

  1. Create a new Console project and use this code to read the data:

    "AmazonAdsDSN";
    Make ZappySys Driver call in c#

  2. Press F5 to run the code and read the data:
    ZappySys Driver Output in c#

  3. Here is the code in text format:

    using System;
    using System.Data.Odbc;
    
    namespace ConsoleApp {
        class Program {
            static void Main() {
                var dsn = "AmazonAdsDSN";
                using (var conn = new OdbcConnection(String.Format("DSN={0}", dsn)))
                {
                    conn.Open();
                    var cmd = new OdbcCommand("SELECT * FROM Products", conn);
                    
                    //Increase the timeout duration from the default 30 seconds, which may be insufficient in certain scenarios
                    cmd.CommandTimeout=600; // 600-Seconds
                    
                    var rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
                    while (rdr.Read())
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < rdr.FieldCount; i++)
                        {
                                Console.Write("{0}\t", rdr[i]);
                        }
                        Console.WriteLine();
                    }
                }
                Console.ReadKey();
            }
        }
    }
    

Using a full ODBC connection string

If you want to avoid being dependent on a DSN and creating multiple DSNs for each platform (x86, x64), then you can use a fully qualified connection string. Simply go to your DSN and copy the Connection String:

  1. Open ODBC data source configuration and click Copy settings:
    ZappySys API Driver - Configuration [Version: 2.0.1.10418]
    ZappySys API Driver - Amazon Ads
    Amazon Ads Connector can be used to get Amazon advertisements using Amazon Advertisements API, download various advertisement-related reports.
    AmazonAdsDSN
    Copy connection string for ODBC application
  2. The window opens, telling us the connection string was successfully copied to the clipboard: Successful connection string copying for ODBC application
  3. Then in your C# code, pass the connection string as an argument when calling the OdbcConnection object's constructor, for example:

    var connectionString = @"DRIVER={ZappySys API Driver};ServiceUrl=https://advertising-api.amazon.com/v2;Provider=Custom;OAuthVersion=OAuth2;AuthUrl=[$AuthorizationUrl$];ClientId=[$AppId$];Scope=[$Scope$];TokenUrl=https://api.amazon.com/auth/o2/token;ScopeSeparator={space};ContentType=application/x-www-form-urlencoded;";
    
    using (var conn = new OdbcConnection(connectionString))
    {
        // your code goes here
    }

Limitations of using a full connection string

Despite using a full ODBC connection string may be very convenient it comes with a limitation: it's length is limited to 1024 symbols (or sometimes more). It usually happens when API provider generates a very long Refresh Token when OAuth is at play. If you are using such a long ODBC connection string, you may get this error:

"Connection string exceeds maximum allowed length of 1024"

But there is a solution to this by storing the full connection string in a file. Follow the steps below to achieve this:

  1. Open your ODBC data source.
  2. Click Copy settings button to copy a full connection string (see the previous section on how to accomplish that).
  3. Then create a new file, let's say, in C:\temp\odbc-connection-string.txt.
  4. Continue by pasting the copied connection string into a newly created file and save it.
  5. Finally, the last step! Just construct a shorter ODBC connection string using this format:
    DRIVER={ZappySys API Driver};SettingsFile=C:\temp\odbc-connection-string.txt
  6. Our troubles are over! Now you should be able to use this connection string in C# with no problems.
This feature requires ODBC PowerPack v1.9.0 or later.

Actions supported by Amazon Ads Connector

Learn how to perform common Amazon Ads actions directly in C# with these how-to guides:

Conclusion

In this article we showed you how to connect to Amazon Ads in C# and integrate data without any coding, saving you time and effort. It's worth noting that ZappySys API Driver allows you to connect not only to Amazon Ads, but to any Java application that supports JDBC (just use a different JDBC driver and configure it appropriately).

We encourage you to download Amazon Ads Connector for C# and see how easy it is to use it for yourself or your team.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact ZappySys support team. You can also open a live chat immediately by clicking on the chat icon below.

Download Amazon Ads Connector for C# Documentation

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