Login

Logs the client application in to the Client Alerts server. Required for the GetUserAlerts call, and not required for the GetPublicAlerts call. The server returns SessionID and SessionData, which are required in subsequent GetUserAlerts calls.

Note: All methods of the Client Alerts API will be decommisioned on May 31, 2023. The alternative for this API is Platform Notifications, which supports all notification event types supported by Client Alerts API.

For anyone that is not familiar with Platform Notifications, we recommend that you read the Platform Notifications Guide to get started.

See also the reference documentation for these calls:

GetUserAlerts - Retrieves alerts privately subscribed to by the user. Input should be in name-value pair format.
Logout - Logs the client application out of the client alerts server. Input should be in name-value pair format. Output will be in JSON.

Input

Output

See also Samples.

The box below lists all fields that might be returned in the response. To learn more about an individual field or its type, click its name in the box (or scroll down to find it in the table below the box).

{
  /* Call-specific Output Fields */
  "SessionData.Value": string,
  "SessionID.Value": string,

  /* Standard Output Fields */
  "Ack": AckCodeType,

  "Build.Value": string,

  "CorrelationID.Value": string,

  "Errors":
      { /* ErrorType */
      "ErrorClassification": ErrorClassificationCodeType,
      "ErrorCode.Value": token,
      "ErrorParameters":
          { /* ErrorParameterType */
          "Value.Value": string
          },
      "LongMessage.Value": string,
      "SeverityCode": SeverityCodeType,
      "ShortMessage.Value": string
      }

  "Timestamp.Value": dateTime,

  "Version.Value": string,
}

Return Value	Type	Occurrence	Meaning

Call-specific Output Fields [Jump to standard fields]

SessionData.Value	string	Always	SessionData is initially returned by the Login call. It is passed in with each GetUserAlerts request, and an updated version is returned in each response. Contains a timestamp which is used to ensure that only fresh alerts are sent.
SessionID.Value	string	Always	Identifier of the session, which also identifies the user and the application. Must be passed in every time GetUserAlerts is called. SessionId does not change over the lifetime of the session. Obtained using the Client Alerts Login call.

Standard Output Fields

Ack	AckCodeType	Always	A token representing the application-level acknowledgement code that indicates the response status (e.g., success). The AckCodeType list specifies the possible values for the Ack field. Applicable values: CustomCode Reserved for internal or future use. Failure This value indicates that the call request processing failed. Success This value indicates that the call request was processed successfully without any issues. Warning This value indicates that the call request was successful, but processing was not without any issues. These issues can be checked in the Errors container, that will also be returned when one or more known issues occur with the call request. (Not all values in AckCodeType apply to this field.) Code so that your app gracefully handles any future changes to this list.
Build.Value	string	Always	This refers to the particular software build that eBay used when processing the request and generating the response. This includes the version number plus additional information. eBay Developer Support may request the build information when helping you resolve technical issues.
CorrelationID.Value	string	Conditionally	If you pass a value in MessageID in a request, we will return the same value in CorrelationID in the response. You can use this for tracking that a response is returned for every request and to match particular responses to particular requests. Only returned if MessageID was used.
Errors	ErrorType	Conditionally, repeatable: [0..*]	A list of application-level errors or warnings (if any) that were raised when eBay processed the request. Application-level errors occur due to problems with business-level data on the client side or on the eBay server side. For example, an error would occur if the request contains an invalid combination of fields, or it is missing a required field, or the value of the field is not recognized. An error could also occur if eBay encountered a problem in our internal business logic while processing the request. Only returned if there were warnings or errors.
Errors.ErrorClassification	ErrorClassificationCodeType	Conditionally	API errors are divided between two classes: system errors and request errors. Applicable values: CustomCode Reserved for internal or future use. RequestError An error has occurred either as a result of a problem in the sending application or because the application's end-user has attempted to submit invalid data (or missing data). In these cases, do not retry the request. The problem must be corrected before the request can be made again. If the problem is due to something in the application (such as a missing required field), the application must be changed. If the problem is a result of end-user data, the application must alert the end-user to the problem and provide the means for the end-user to correct the data. Once the problem in the application or data is resolved, resend the request to eBay with the corrected data. SystemError Indicates that an error has occurred on the eBay system side, such as a database or server down. An application can retry the request as-is a reasonable number of times (eBay recommends twice). If the error persists, contact Developer Technical Support. Once the problem has been resolved, the request may be resent in its original form. Code so that your app gracefully handles any future changes to this list. See Errors by Number.
Errors.ErrorCode.Value	token	Conditionally	A unique code that identifies the particular error condition that occurred. Your application can use error codes as identifiers in your customized error-handling algorithms. See Errors by Number.
Errors.ErrorParameters	ErrorParameterType	Conditionally, repeatable: [0..*]	Some warning and error messages return one or more variables that contain contextual information about the error. This is often the field or value that triggered the error. You can usually predict where these will occur by looking at the "replaceable_value" indicators in our Errors by Number page. See Errors by Number.
Errors.ErrorParameters.Value.Value	string	Conditionally	This is the value of the request parameter noted in the ParamID attribute. So, if the ParamID value was ItemID, the value in this field would be the actual value of that ItemID.
Errors.ErrorParameters.ParamID	string	Conditionally	Some warning and error messages return one or more variables that contain contextual information about the error. This is often the field or value that triggered the error. You can usually predict where these will occur by looking at the "replaceable_value" indicators in our Errors by Number page.
Errors.LongMessage.Value	string	Conditionally	A more detailed description of the condition that raised the error. See Errors by Number.
Errors.SeverityCode	SeverityCodeType	Conditionally	Indicates whether the error caused the request to fail. If the request fails and the source of the problem is within the application (such as a missing required element), please change the application before you retry the request. If the problem is due to end-user input data, please alert the end-user to the problem and provide the means for them to correct the data. Once the problem in the application or data is resolved, you can attempt to re-send the request to eBay. If the source of the problem is on eBay's side, you can retry the request as-is a reasonable number of times (eBay recommends twice). If the error persists, contact Developer Technical Support. Once the problem has been resolved, the request may be resent in its original form. When a warning occurs, the error is returned in addition to the business data. In this case, you do not need to retry the request (as the original request was successful). However, depending on the cause or nature of the warning, you might need to contact either the end user or eBay to effect a long term solution to the problem to prevent it from reoccurring in the future. Applicable values: CustomCode Reserved for internal or future use. Error The request that triggered the error was not processed successfully. When a serious application-level error occurs, the error is returned instead of the business data. Warning The request was processed successfully, but something occurred that may affect your application or the user. For example, eBay may have changed a value the user sent in. In this case, eBay returns a normal, successful response and also returns the warning. Code so that your app gracefully handles any future changes to this list. See: Errors by Number Error Handling
Errors.ShortMessage.Value	string	Conditionally	A brief description of the condition that raised the error. See Errors by Number.
Timestamp.Value	dateTime	Always	This value represents the date and time when eBay processed the request. The time zone of this value is GMT and the format is the ISO 8601 date and time format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.SSSZ). See the "dateTime" type for information about this time format and converting to and from the GMT time zone.
Version.Value	string	Always	The version of the API call that eBay used to process the request. Note: Note that some calls are not always updated with each WSDL release, so it is possible that version numbers will differ by API call. If a field in the response returns the token "CustomCode", it usually means that the field is a code type (a token or enumeration), and that in your request URL (or HTTP header) you specified a version that is older than the version in which the token was added to the call. See Schema Versioning Strategy.

Samples

New to making API calls? Please see Making a Call.

Note: Some item IDs, user IDs, or other data in these samples might no longer be active on eBay. If necessary, you can substitute current eBay data in your requests.

Sample: Basic

Requests a Client Alerts session ID and SessionData.

Description

Uses Client Alerts token to establish a Client Alerts session for a user.

Input

Input includes the Client Alerts token, which obtained using the Trading API call GetClientAlertsAuthToken. Remember to URL-encode the token.

URL format. See also the non-wrapped version of this URL.

http://clientalerts.ebay.com/ws/ecasvc/ClientAlerts?
   callname=Login&
   ClientAlertsAuthToken=A****...****n

Output

Returns SessionID and SessionData, which are used in subsequent GetClientAlerts and Logout calls.

JSON format.
{
	"Ack":"Success",
	"Login":
	{
		"SessionID":"M*********D"
	}

	{
		"SessionData":"M***********a"
	}

	}
}

Change History

Change Date	Description
569 2008-06-11	(added) New call.