Merchant API: conventions

About this article

This article describes ChannelEngine's Merchant API's conventions, such as URL length limit, request methods, date and time formats, and more. 

Table of contents

URL length limit

HTTP request methods

Output methods

JSON property naming

Date and time formats

Empty fields

Introduction

ChannelEngine’s Merchant API follows a set of conventions so you can interact with it consistently and reliably.

URL length limit

The request URL cannot be longer than 1,048 characters. If you exceed this limit, reduce the number of parameters in the call – or split the request into multiple calls.

HTTP request methods

HTTP methods indicate the action you want to perform on a resource. The Merchant API supports the below HTTP methods. Note that available methods differ across resources.

Output methods

The Merchant API supports the following message formats, depending on the request type.

JSON property naming

Properties in the request bodies passed to the Merchant API and in responses returned by the Merchant API are in the UpperCamelCase format. E.g.: ChannelOrderSupport; MerchantOrderNo.

Query parameters in requests passed to the Merchant API are in the lowerCamelCase format. E.g.: toUpdatedAtDate; onlyWithCancellationRequests.

Date and time formats

ChannelEngine stores date and time values as a string in the ISO 8601 format. E.g.:

{"AcknowledgedDate": "2021-12-31T13:45:00.000Z"}

Empty fields

Do not pass empty strings in a field that is not intended for use. An empty string is still a value and it is validated. This can lead to a 400 bad request error.