We have now upgraded webservices v2 to include the remainder of the functionality of webservices v1 plus keeping the flexibility of webservices v2. (so basically webservices v2 is officially superior to webservices v1 and no longer just dependant on your requirements. )

New Fields added to webservices v2

<merchant_id> … The merchant id as supplied by the networks
<program_id> … The program id as supplied by the networks (used by affiliate future merchants)
<deep_link>… A field to contain the deep link…  deeplinks are still included in the built <affiliate_url>

Using the above data you can now easily build your own links using webservices v2 just like you could previously using webservices v1… (usually required by cashback sites or just those who prefer to build their own links)

We have now included the Sort=id parameter to order the data as it was inputted into iCodes.

Lee

Previously webservices v2 included ALL merchants, but used our id’s on merchants you were not joined to or rejected from, below are the changes…

Merchants you have selected as JOINED will contain YOUR affiliate ID’s.
Merchants you have selected as NOT JOINED will contain OUR affiliate ID’s or link directly to the merchant.
Merchants you have selected as REJECTED will not be included.

To only include merchants you are JOINED to (ie also remove NOT JOINED merchants containing our id’s) add the following parameter.

&Relationship=joined

Webservices v2 was not used by some users because they wanted to simply import all data in a single request, and containing only the merchant they were joined to, which is possible with Webservices v1.

So we have included a new Webservices v2 Parameter (Full)….

RequestType=Codes&Action=Full
RequestType=Offers&Action=Full
RequestType=MerchantList&Action=Full

The above requests will give you a full feed on a single page.

Also we have added a new field to the FULL xml output <relationship>

<relationship>joined</relationship>
<relationship>not joined</relationship>
<relationship>rejected</relationship>

Now usng the above you can import exactly what you want in a single request.

The above FULL requests are restricted to a total of 20 per day

We have just released another free voucher and offer site download for you to use with your iCodes webservices account, this new framework script is called ‘Live’ because it runs live using the iCodes feeds, because its live it doesn’t require a database and it doesn’t require any updating, once uploaded there is no maintenance at all to keep it running.

You get all the files to do with what you wish, so you can make it as unique looking as you like or you can modify it as much as you like.

It comes with some new facilities over the other framework script and the main one is the ability for visitors to search for vouchers or offers for keywords found in the titles and descriptions.

You can download the script here.

The Devono Voucher Script has been modified to auto import vouchers and offers from the iCodes feeds, this makes the Devono Voucher Script even more flexible than it already was.

Once the data has been imported from iCodes you can edit it to include your own unique descriptions, or do what ever editing your may require, you can also add images to any voucher or offer to make them stand out and increase click through rates, another advantage of this Voucher Script is that you can also add your own voucher codes or offers for the networks we do not cater for, and they will show on your website in the same format as the auto imported vouchers and and offers.

Visit the Voucher Script website now to read about the extensive range of facilities this script has to offer..

It’s also worth noting that you can earn commission by promoting this script yourself as they also have an affiliate program.

We have now added a search parameter so you can import vouchers or offers by keywords found in the description field. For an exact search use quotes around the “keyword keyword” otherwise it will return all vouchers or offers with ‘keyword’ or ‘keyword’ in the description field.

With this new parameter it makes it even easier for you to populate your niche website with highly targetted vouchers and offers.

To view example requests click on the webservices request links on the right hand menu.

Like webservices v1, webservices v2 now contains your actual affiliate urls and no longer goes via a redirect through iCodes first. The reasons for this change are as follows.

1 – More transparency, you can actually see your own affiliate links containing your id’s

2 – Less weight on our server as we don’t have to process the affiliate link on every click by visitors or search engines.

3 – If we have any server problems your links will still work and so suffer no downtime.

The only real downside for you is that importing the data will take slightly longer as we have to process all the links first to include in your feeds, rather than after a link is actually clicked from your website.

After only a few days we have scrapped the 2 in 3 offers going exclusive to the contributer and replaced it with something more workable.

The new system we are using now is a 24 hour delay mechanism for all offers contributed, the contributer will get those offers they have contributed in their feeds instantly and all other users will not get them in the feeds until 24 hours later.

With this new system everyone will get 100% of the offers but the contributer of the offers will get a head start getting the offers they have added on their sites and indexed in Google before anyone else.

The reason we had to do this is because the contributers are usually the ones with the lowest ranking websites, and so were not benefitting fully from the work they put in, and the higher ranking website owners were unfairly benefitting from the hard work of others but not contributing any offers themseleves. Also some users were auto importing the latest offers every 5 minutes and so getting another unfair advantage over the people who were contributing.

Due to this new system another problem came to light.. those of you who import the past 24 hours of offers would never get any offers in your feeds due to the 24 hour delay, we have now also altered our webservices to auto add 24 hours to whatever you request.. so if you request the past 24 hours offers we will send you offers added in the past 48 hours.. which will then bridge the gap of 24 hours with no offers and hopefully cure that problem.

To reward those who contribute the shared offers to the iCodes database we have coded it so 2 in every 3 offers you contribute go exclusive to you, and the remainder are shared with everyone.

This helps keep the offers feeds more unique to those who contribute the most and will not suffer any duplicate content via the search engines.

The ones who do not contribute offers will obviously get less offers than previously, but if you want more offers you will simply have to contribute like the rest that do.

Voucher Codes are still 100% shared between all the users (and always will be)  irrelevant of who enters them, entering voucher codes is extremely easy as they are mostly semi automated, so all you have to do is go to ‘my voucher codes’ > ‘add voucher code’ > ‘network voucher not entered’ … select a voucher and click enter on the voucher which you want adding to the database, add a title and select a category then press submit and the code will go live instantly in the iCodes database ready for importing to your website.

From the 02/01/2010 the price of an iCodes webservices account will increase from a yearly £49 to £149, so if you hurry you can register an account today 01/01/2010 and you will still get it for £49.

For more info on the price increase please refer to this forum post.