Only API keys on our Conversations PRR platform are eligible to use this API version. Refer to the Platforms section of our Platform & API Concepts documentation to learn which platform your API keys are on.

The Conversations API lets you programmatically retrieve and submit Bazaarvoice Conversations data for use in your applications. To learn more, go to the Conversations API documentation home page.

Contents

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Returns answers and related data.

Examples

Demonstration purposes only. Do not reuse the API passkeys below in your application.

Requesting a single answer

You can request multiple answers by separating the answer IDs with a comma - e.g. filter=id:16256,16257,16258 

Requesting a single answer, including questions

You can request multiple pieces of related information by separating them with a comma - e.g. include=questions, products, categories, authors.

Requesting all answers for a particular product, including questions.

Requesting all answers submitted by a particular author ID

Requesting all native (non-syndicated) answers

Native (non-syndicated) content only. Continue reading for more details.

Requests for this content type that do not include a ProductId, AuthorId, CategoryAncestorId, SubmissionId, or Answer Id filter will only work with API keys that are configured to exclude syndicated content.

We recommend using our Displayable Content Export service to download all of your native and syndicated content. If you still prefer the Conversations API, then you may contact our support team to have your Conversations API keys re-configured.

Parameters

Name Description Required Default Value
ApiVersion The API version, e.g. 5.4. Yes
[FORMAT] Response format (xml or json) Yes
PassKey API key is required to authenticate API user and check permission to access particular client's data. Yes
Attributes Attributes to be included when returning content. For example, if includes are requested along with the &attributes=ModeratorCodes parameter, both the includes and the results will contain moderator codes. In order to filter by ModeratorCode, you must request the ModeratorCodes attribute parameter. No
Callback Callback function name used with JSONP. Value is a string consisting of the following characters: a-z,A-Z,0-9,_ (excluding comma). See the JSONP tutorial for more information. No
ExcludeFamily Boolean flag indicating whether to exclude content from other products in the same family as the requested product. For example, "&filter=productid:eq:1101&excludeFamily=true" limits returned content to just that of product 1101 and not any of the products in the same family. If a value is not defined, content on all products in the family will be returned. No false
Filter Filter criteria for primary content of the query. Multiple filter criteria are supported. No
Include Related subjects to be included (e.g. Products, Categories, Authors, or Questions). No Will only return Answers
Limit Max number of records returned. An error is returned if the value passed exceeds 100. No 10
Locale Locale to display Labels, Configuration, Product Attributes and Category Attributes in. The default value is the locale defined in the display associated with the API key. No
Offset Index at which to return results. By default, indexing begins at 0 when you issue a query. Using Limit=100, Offset=0 returns results 0-99. When changing this to Offset=1, results 1-100 are returned. The maximum supported value is 300000. No 0
Search Full-text search string used to find UGC. For more information about what fields are searched by default, see the Conversations API page.

Note: This invalidates sort options due to the fact that search takes precedence in returned data.
No
Search_[TYPE] Searching option for included content followed by full-text search string. See the Conversations API page for examples of searching for included data.

Note: This invalidates sort options due to the fact that search takes precedence in returned data.
No
Sort Sort criteria for primary content type of the query. Sort order is required (asc or desc). Multi-attribute sorting for each content/subject type is supported. No
Stats

The type of statistics that will be calculated on included subjects. Available content types are: Reviews, Questions, Answers. Note: Not all statistical content types apply to every possible include.

No

Filter options

  • Each filter argument specifies the attribute to filter on followed by a comma-separated list of values. For instance, "Filter=Id:eq:50,75" will match all Answers with Id 50 OR 75.
  • Advanced operators can be used to define filters. For instance, "Filter=Id:lt:100" will match all Answers with an Id value of less than 100. All advanced operators are documented on the Conversations API page.
  • If a filter value contains a comma or a colon, that character needs to be escaped with a backslash (\, or \:). If a filter value contains an ampersand (&), the ampersand must be encoded in the filter value by replacing & with %26.
  • Multiple filters are allowed as URL parameters in which case filters are AND'ed. For instance, "Filter=QuestionId:eq:50&filter=isfeatured:true" will match all featured Answers with QuestionId 50.
  • Time-based filters can be used for SubmissionTime, LastModificationTime and LastModeratedTime. Dates in time-based filters are calculated as the number of seconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC. In a future version, we will be adding support for comparing date/time string values. The following example returns content that was submitted on November 9, 2009: &filter=SubmissionTime:gt:1257746400&filter=SubmissionTime:lt:1257832800

The following table lists the attributes available for filtering.

Name Description
Id
The identifier of the content/subject type.
AdditionalField_[FIELD_NAME]
PRR Additional field to filter by, e.g., filter=AdditionalField_[FIELD_NAME]:eq:[FIELD_VALUE]
Affiliation
The valid affiliation type. For example, to display answers by staff members, use filter=affiliation:eq:Staff. The affiliation value is case-sensitive and can be any value that is set in your configuration.
AuthorId
The identifier of the author who wrote the content.
CampaignId
The identifier of the Campaign associated with the content
CategoryAncestorId
The identifier of the product category ancestor. Syndicated content will not be returned when using this filter.
CategoryId
PRR The identifier of the product category
ContentLocale
Locale of the content to display. If this filter is not defined, all content regardless of its locale is returned. To return specific content by locale, define the value in the filter. A wildcard character “*” can be used to define the value, e.g., “en*” returns all content in English (en_US, en_CA, en_GB, etc.) or you can use a single ContentLocale code (e.g., “fr_FR”). ContentLocale codes are case-sensitive.
ContextDataValue_[DIMENSION_EXTERNAL_ID]
PRR The context data value for the content. DIMENSION_EXTERNAL_ID can be age, gender, etc. e.g. filter=contextdatavalue_age:under21
HasPhotos
Boolean flag indicating whether content has photos
HasVideos
PRR Boolean flag indicating whether content has videos. For more information on inserting the returned VideoUrl into HTML, see the Conversations API page.
IsBestAnswer
Boolean flag indicating whether the Answer is the Best Answer of the question to which it belongs.
IsBrandAnswer
Boolean flag indicating whether the answer is a brand answer. If the value is set to true and the reviewer has a badge associated with it, a BrandLogoImageURL is also returned.
IsFeatured
Boolean flag indicating whether content is featured
LastModeratedTime
The date/time of the latest moderation of the content. See the Introduction for an example of using advanced operators for filtering.
LastModificationTime
The date/time of the latest modification of the content. See the Introduction for an example of using advanced operators for filtering.
ModeratorCode
String value indicating the moderator code for rejected content, e.g., &Filter=ModeratorCode:eq:CR returns UGC that contains the CR (Competitor Reference) code. Multiple codes can be entered in a comma-delimited list, e.g., &Filter=ModeratorCode:eq:CS,IU returns UGC with either the CS (Customer Service Complaint) or the IU (Inappropriate/Unusable Content) code. For a list of all Moderator Codes, see the Conversations API page. Note that the ModeratorCodes attribute parameter must be explicitly requested in order to use this filter. See the Parameters section above.
ProductId
The identifier of the product
QuestionId
Id of the Question on which the Answer was written.
SubmissionId
Submission identifier assigned to the content when it was initially submitted
SubmissionTime
The submission date/time of the content. See the Introduction for an example of using advanced operators for filtering.
TotalFeedbackCount
Number of feedbacks received
TotalNegativeFeedbackCount
Number of negative feedbacks received
TotalPositiveFeedbackCount
Number of positive feedbacks received
UserLocation
Location of the author

Sort options

  • Sort order is required (asc or desc). There is no default.
  • Multi-attribute sorting is supported by using a comma separated list of sort criteria for a content/subject type. e.g. Sort=Id:asc,SubmissionTime:desc

The following table lists the attributes that are available for sorting.

Name Description
Id
The identifier of the content/subject type.
AdditionalField_[FIELD_NAME]
PRR Additional field to sort by, e.g., sort=AdditionalField_[FIELD_NAME]:desc
AuthorId
The Identifier of the author who wrote the content
CampaignId
The identifier of the Campaign associated with the content
CategoryId
PRR The identifier of the product category
ContentLocale
Locale value of the content
ContextDataValue_[DIMENSION_EXTERNAL_ID]
PRR The context data value for the content. DIMENSION_EXTERNAL_ID can be age, gender, etc. e.g. sort=contextdatavalue_age:desc
HasPhotos
Boolean flag indicating whether content has photos
HasVideos
PRR Boolean flag indicating whether content has videos. For more information on inserting the returned VideoUrl into HTML, see the Conversations API page.
IsBestAnswer
Boolean flag indicating if this answer is the best answer of the question to which it belongs.
IsFeatured
Boolean flag indicating whether content is featured
LastModeratedTime
The date/time of the latest moderation of the content
LastModificationTime
The date/time of the latest modification of the content
ProductId
The identifier of the product
QuestionId
Id of the Question on which the Answer was written.
SubmissionId
Submission identifier assigned to the content when it was initially submitted
SubmissionTime
The submission date/time of the content
TotalFeedbackCount
Number of feedbacks received
TotalNegativeFeedbackCount
Number of negative feedbacks received
TotalPositiveFeedbackCount
Number of positive feedbacks received
UserLocation
Location of the author

Response format

Requesting all Answers along with the Questions they were written on and the Authors who wrote the Answers. The Answers are sorted in descending order by SubmissionTime

http://[stg.]api.bazaarvoice.combazaarvoice.com/data/answers.[FORMAT]?ApiVersion=[latestApiVersion]&passkey=[yourKey]&Include=Questions,Authors&Sort=SubmissionTime:desc

{
    "Includes": { },
    "HasErrors": false,
    "Offset": 101,
    "TotalResults": 1232,
    "Locale": "en_US",
    "Errors": [ ],
    "Results": [
        {
            "AdditionalFieldsOrder": [ ],
            "UserNickname": "2hTZ",
            "Photos": [
                {
                    "Caption": "The honor of a scout will not permit of anything but the highest and the best and the manliest. The honor of a scout is a sacred thing, and cannot be lightly set aside or trampled on. Faithfulness to duty is another one of t",
                    "Sizes": {
                        "thumbnail": {
                            "Url": "http://testcustomer.ugc.bazaarvoice.com/answers/0001/168986/photoThumb.jpg",
                            "Id": "thumbnail"
                        },
                        "normal": {
                            "Url": "http://testcustomer.ugc.bazaarvoice.com/answers/0001/168986/photo.jpg",
                            "Id": "normal"
                        }
                    },
                    "SizesOrder": [
                        "thumbnail",
                        "normal"
                    ],
                    "Id": "168986"
                }
            ],
            "ContextDataValues": { },
            "Videos": [ ],
            "ContextDataValuesOrder": [ ],
            "SubmissionId": null,
            "LastModificationTime": "2011-10-12T14:32:32.000-00:00",
            "QuestionId": "305107",
            "TotalFeedbackCount": 0,
            "TotalPositiveFeedbackCount": 0,
            "TotalInappropriateFeedbackCount": 0,
            "InappropriateFeedbackList": [ ],
            "BadgesOrder": [
                "top250Contributor"
            ],
            "UserLocation": null,
            "Badges": {
                "top250Contributor": {
                    "Id": "top250Contributor",
                    "ContentType": "ANSWER"
                }
            },
            "AuthorId": "data-gen-user-b82iyxmi2k4a8lxcaamzzyh4w",
            "IsFeatured": false,
            "ProductRecommendationIds": [ ],
            "AdditionalFields": { },
            "CampaignId": null,
            "TotalNegativeFeedbackCount": 0,
            "SubmissionTime": "2011-10-12T14:12:26.000-00:00",
            "ContentLocale": "en_US",
            "ModerationStatus": "APPROVED",
            "Id": "273739",
            "AnswerText": "Specimens and drawings may be forwarded for identification to the zoological department of the local state university, to the state fish commission, to the Bureau of Fisheries, Washington, D.C., or to the United States National Museum in the same city.",
            "LastModeratedTime": "2011-10-12T14:15:12.000-00:00"
        }
    ],
    "Limit": 1

}

Response elements

Name Description
Data
Section containing all the data matched by a query grouped by content/subject type. Within each data section there is a map of objects keyed by ids
Errors
Error section is populated instead of other fields if there is an error with a query syntax or problem executing a query.
Limit
The total number of results returned, specified by user in the URL. Defaults to 10 and has a maximum of 100.
Offset
Dataset offset used for pagination (passed as URL parameter in a query request). The maximum supported value is 300000.
Results
Section containing an array of primitive type object references matched by a query.
TotalResults
Total number of records matched.

Error codes

Value Description
ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED

Insufficient privileges to perform the operation

ERROR_PARAM_INVALID_API_KEY

Invalid API Key value

ERROR_PARAM_INVALID_CALLBACK

Invalid JsonP callback function name

ERROR_PARAM_INVALID_FILTER_ATTRIBUTE

Invalid filter attribute name

ERROR_PARAM_INVALID_INCLUDED

Invalid parameter value

ERROR_PARAM_INVALID_LIMIT

Invalid limit value

ERROR_PARAM_INVALID_LOCALE

Invalid locale code

ERROR_PARAM_INVALID_SORT_ATTRIBUTE

Invalid sort attribute name

ERROR_REQUEST_LIMIT_REACHED

Rate limiting error, i.e. too many requests per time interval

ERROR_UNKNOWN

Unknown error (internal server error, for instance)