5.215 Data Format

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is the data format used for all communication with MWS. This format makes use of two main structures: collections of key/value pairs called objects and ordered lists of values called arrays. Objects are defined by using curly braces ({}), and arrays are defined by using square brackets ([]). A JSON object or array may contain several different types of values including numbers, booleans (true/false), strings, objects, arrays, or the keyword 'null' representing no value. For example, a simple JSON object might be defined as:

{
  "number": 1,
  "decimalNumber": 1.2,
  "boolean": true,
  "string": "Any string",
  "dateString": "2013-05-23 17:32:02 UTC",
  "object": {
    "key": "value"
  },
  "array": [
    "value1",
    "value2"
  ],
  "nullValue": null
}

Dates in MWS, for both input and output, use the pattern "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss ZZZ". For more details on that pattern, see Joda-Time DateTimeFormat. For a list of valid time zone IDs, see Joda-Time Available Time Zones.

For more information on JSON, see json.org.

The data format of MWS is defined as follows:

Input for a POST or PUT must be in JSON format. Set the Content-Type header to application/json.
Output is in JSON format and always consists of an object with zero or more key/value pairs.
The output may also be "pretty-printed" or formatted for human viewing by sending a URL parameter. For more information, see Global URL Parameters.