# Alternatives to Ruby/Amazon **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 7, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-ruby-amazon/84772 "2007-02-07T16:28:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Chris_T)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-ruby-amazon/84772/1 "2007-02-07T16:28:56Z")
Anyone using any good alternatives to the Ruby/Amazon library? Seem a couple projects out there, but nothing as extensive. Just heard that ECS 3.0 (which Ruby/Amazon uses) will be switched off soon. Thanks Chris ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Chris_T)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-ruby-amazon/84772/2 "2007-02-07T19:59:24Z")
Dear Chris: Could you provide more details on the Ruby/Amazon solution. (Tolimit SPAM, please send to my email address- removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid). Thanks Bindu — Chris T [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > * * * Don’t pick lemons. See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos. [http://autos.yahoo.com/new\_cars.html](http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html) ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Chris_T)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 10:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-ruby-amazon/84772/3 "2007-02-07T22:05:43Z")
On Feb 7, 2007, at 1:58 PM, Bindu Rao wrote: > Could you provide more details on the Ruby/Amazon > solution. (Tolimit SPAM, please send to my email > address- removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid). > > Thanks > > Bindu I had rolled my own interface to Amazon Web Services and layered Alexa on top. I’d put an Amazon E-Commerce Service on top, too, but this post made me go looking. I found the amazon-ecs gem on rubyforge and the author’s blog post about it. [http://rubyforge.org/projects/amazon-ecs/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/amazon-ecs/) [http://www.pluitsolutions.com/2006/12/07/ruby-amazon-e-commerce-rest-](http://www.pluitsolutions.com/2006/12/07/ruby-amazon-e-commerce-rest-) services-api-amazon-ecs/ Superficially, it looks like Herryanto S. and I are heading in similar directions, but he uses hpricot and I used REXML. (My stuff isn’t released (yet?)) -Rob Rob B. [http://agileconsultingllc.com](http://agileconsultingllc.com) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Chris_T)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 12:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-ruby-amazon/84772/4 "2007-02-08T00:52:03Z")
Rob B. wrote: > > > Thanks > > > Bindu > > > [http://www.pluitsolutions.com/2006/12/07/ruby-amazon-e-commerce-rest-](http://www.pluitsolutions.com/2006/12/07/ruby-amazon-e-commerce-rest-) > > > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > > > That was the one that looked like the most likely candidate to me too. Was also considering rolling my own, though didn’t want to reinvent the wheel if someone’s already done the job better. Can I just ask, are you caching the result, and if so, in the db or the file sysem? ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Chris_T)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 1:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-ruby-amazon/84772/5 "2007-02-08T01:11:05Z")
On Feb 7, 2007, at 6:53 PM, Chris T wrote: > > > > soon. > > > > [http://www.pluitsolutions.com/2006/12/07/ruby-amazon-e-commerce-rest-](http://www.pluitsolutions.com/2006/12/07/ruby-amazon-e-commerce-rest-) > > That was the one that looked like the most likely candidate to me too. > Was also considering rolling my own, though didn’t want to reinvent > the > wheel if someone’s already done the job better. Can I just ask, are > you > caching the result, and if so, in the db or the file sysem? For the ECS, I’m planning to keep a refreshed\_at time in the database and make a new call to Amazon if the data needed is too old. I’m going to wait and see if there needs to be a background task that periodically refreshes data to avoid a request that finds many out-of- date records given the 1/sec/IP limit on webservice requests. -Rob Rob B. [http://agileconsultingllc.com](http://agileconsultingllc.com) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Chris_T)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 12:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-ruby-amazon/84772/6 "2007-02-08T12:00:58Z")
Ryan W. wrote: > To be fair, ECS3 will be around for another 14 months, so it’s not > quite “soon” that it’s going away. 🙂 Doh! That’s what happens when you speed read emails late at night. Just saw the March 31 and didn’t take in the 2008. This relieves the pressure somewhat, and gives us some time to plan out what we should do. To be honest, I always assumed we’d have to replace Ruby/Amazon in the medium term, and there are a few things I’m not wild about with it – and also seems a bit difficult to refactor. On the other hand, it’s working and we’ve got a few more urgent priorities at the moment, like getting the app out of the door! Thanks for sharing where you’re up to. Cheers Chris ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Chris\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Chris_T)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 1:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/alternatives-to-ruby-amazon/84772/7 "2007-02-08T01:12:05Z")
On 2/7/07, Chris T [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Anyone using any good alternatives to the Ruby/Amazon library? Seem a > couple projects out there, but nothing as extensive. Just heard that ECS > 3.0 (which Ruby/Amazon uses) will be switched off soon. I have hacked up Ruby/Amazon to support a (very) few of the ECS calls (the app I use it for is only concerned with looking up used book prices and third-party sellers). I offered (and sent) the code to Ian (the author of Ruby/Amazon), after asking him about it a couple of times, but I never heard back from him on it. At the time, I think he was ambivalent about porting to ECS4, as it wasn’t clear if there might be an ECS5 lurking around the corner. Amazon has said that there are no plans for an ECS5 in the work, and that ECS4 is the version to move to for a while. To be fair, ECS3 will be around for another 14 months, so it’s not quite “soon” that it’s going away. 🙂 If it would help, I’d be glad to send what I have, ugly as it is, to you. I’d love to see someone take it and run with it, but I don’t have enough expertise with all the (probably more common) ECS4 usages to port those cases. I only had to change 2 files to do what I needed, and I have a little sample script for usage. I tried to leave the Amazon/Ruby usage pretty much the same as it was (as much as I could), though under the hood, the way you form ECS4 calls is pretty different from ECS3, and what comes back is…well, nasty. It looks like XML, but real XML people probably have to have oxygen nearby when they look at it. Anyway, I haven’t found a lot of other people interested in this, so if it would help you guys, I could send it to you. Maybe it would get you started. I’d love to see someone move Amazon/Ruby to ECS4, even if it isn’t ultimately Ian that does it, though that would be cool, too.