eBay Trading APIVersion 1379
 

GetCategoryMappings

Note: This call has been deprecated and will be decommissioned on June 2nd, 2025. This call is being replaced by the getExpiredCategories method of the Taxonomy API.

Use this call to retrieve the mappings of categories that are no longer valid to their corresponding active categories. The category mappings apply to a specific eBay site. In some cases, several old categories are mapped to a single active category.

This call is typically used to update an older item definition with a new category ID prior to listing the item. See Maintaining Category Data for information on how to use this call to handle outdated category data for an eBay site.

Note: GetCategoryMappings only returns information about categories that have been mapped (i.e., combined categories and split categories). It does not return information about expired categories that have no corresponding active categories. When a category expires in this manner, any completed items that were listed in the expired category can still be found, but new listings cannot be created in the category.

Usage Details

Mappings only change when the category hierarchy is updated. If the version returned from GetCategories does not change, you can assume the category mapping meta-data also has not changed. That is, it is not necessary to execute this call when the GetCategories version information has not changed.

After calling GetCategoryMappings, inspect the properties of each new category mapping to get the values for the categories it identifies. Use the old IDs (CategoryMapping.oldId) to identify outdated category IDs defined on items that you have stored on the client side and update the category information for these items based on the new IDs (CategoryMapping.id). If necessary, store the new category data so you can retrieve it without making new GetCategoryMappings calls.

There is no limit to the number of categories that GetCategoryMappings returns. All of the category mappings for a particular site can be returned in one call. However, applications can reduce the volume of data retrieved per call using the CategoryVersion input property. Do this by setting CategoryVersion so the call returns just the categories that have changed since the specified version of the mappings (typically, the last time you updated the mappings). If you do not specify a version, eBay returns all category mappings for the specified site.

The latest version value is not necessarily greater than the previous value that was returned. Therefore, when comparing versions, only compare whether the value has changed.

Testing GetCategoryMappings

If an application supports users registered on multiple eBay sites, test retrieving the category mappings for two or more international sites with GetCategoryMappings. This test should include testing the application's ability to store into a database the category mappings for more than one site in the same table (if that is how the application stores category data).

Also, test retrieving the site's category mapping version and comparing it to the version retrieved in an earlier call. The application should only retrieve category mappings for a site if it is actually necessary (that is, a new category hierarchy version is indicated).

Related Information

See Maintaining Category Data.



Input Output Detail Controls Samples Change History

Input

See also Samples.

The box below lists all fields that could be included in the call request. 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).

See also the Deprecated Objects link above. Fields presented in this color are deprecated, and fields presented in this color are (or soon will be) non-operational.

The XML prototype does not include requester credentials. This is a documentation limitation only (see Standard Requester Credentials for Making Calls). 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetCategoryMappingsRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
  <!-- Call-specific Input Fields -->
  <CategoryVersion> string </CategoryVersion>
  <!-- Standard Input Fields -->
  <DetailLevel> DetailLevelCodeType </DetailLevel>
  <!-- ... more DetailLevel values allowed here ... -->
  <ErrorLanguage> string </ErrorLanguage>
  <MessageID> string </MessageID>
  <Version> string </Version>
  <WarningLevel> WarningLevelCodeType </WarningLevel>
</GetCategoryMappingsRequest>
Argument Type Occurrence Meaning
Call-specific Input Fields [Jump to standard fields]
CategoryVersion string Optional A version of the category mapping for the site. Filters out data from the call to return only the category mappings for which the data has changed since the specified version. If not specified, all category mappings are returned. Typically, an application passes the version value of the last set of category mappings that the application stored locally. The latest version value is not necessarily greater than the previous value that was returned. Therefore, when comparing versions, only compare whether the value has changed.
Standard Input Fields  
DetailLevel DetailLevelCodeType Optional,
repeatable: [0..*]		 Detail levels are instructions that define standard subsets of data to return for particular data components (e.g., each Item, Transaction, or User) within the response payload. For example, a particular detail level might cause the response to include buyer-related data in every result (e.g., for every Item), but no seller-related data.

Specifying a detail level is like using a predefined attribute list in the SELECT clause of an SQL query. Use the DetailLevel element to specify the required detail level that the client application needs pertaining to the data components that are applicable to the request.

The DetailLevelCodeType defines the global list of available detail levels for all request types. Most request types support certain detail levels or none at all. If you pass a detail level that exists in the schema but that isn't valid for a particular request, eBay ignores it and processes the request without it.

For each request type, see the detail level tables in the Input/Output Reference to determine which detail levels are applicable and which elements are returned for each applicable detail level.

Note that DetailLevel is required input for GetMyMessages.

With GetSellerList and other calls that retrieve large data sets, please avoid using ReturnAll when possible. For example, if you use GetSellerList, use GranularityLevel instead, or use GetSellerEvents. If you do use 'ReturnAll' with GetSellerList, use a small Pagination.EntriesPerPage value and a narrow EndTimeFrom/EndTimeTo date range for better performance.

Applicable values:

ReturnAll
(in) Returns all available data. With GetSellerList and other calls that retrieve large data sets, please avoid using ReturnAll when possible. For example, if you use GetSellerList, use a GranularityLevel or use the GetSellerEvents call instead. If you use ReturnAll with GetSellerList, use a small EntriesPerPage value and a short EndTimeFrom/EndTimeTo range for better performance.

(Not all values in DetailLevelCodeType apply to this field.)
ErrorLanguage string Optional Use ErrorLanguage to return error strings for the call in a different language from the language commonly associated with the site that the requesting user is registered with. Below are some examples from different countries.

ID Country
en_AU Australia
de_AT Austria
nl_BE Belgium (Dutch)
fr_BE Belgium (French)
en_CA Canada
fr_CA Canada (French)
zh_CN China
fr_FR France
de_DE Germany
zh_HK Hong Kong
en_IN India
en_IE Ireland
it_IT Italy
nl_NL Netherlands
en_SG Singapore
es_ES Spain
de_CH Switzerland
en_GB United Kingdom
en_US United States
MessageID string Optional Most Trading API calls support a MessageID element in the request and a CorrelationID element in the response. If you pass in a MessageID in a request, the same value will be returned in the CorrelationID field in the response. Pairing these values can help you track and confirm that a response is returned for every request and to match specific responses to specific requests. If you do not pass a MessageID value in the request, CorrelationID is not returned.

Note: GetCategories is designed to retrieve very large sets of metadata that change once a day or less often. To improve performance, these calls return cached responses when you request all available data (with no filters). When this occurs, the MessageID and CorrelationID fields aren't applicable. However, if you specify an input filter to reduce the amount of data returned, the calls retrieve the latest data (not cached). When this occurs, MessageID and CorrelationID are applicable.
Version string Conditional The version number of the API code that you are programming against (e.g., 1149). The version you specify for a call has these basic effects:
  • It indicates the version of the code lists and other data that eBay should use to process your request.
  • It indicates the schema version you are using.
You need to use a version that is greater than or equal to the lowest supported version.
For the SOAP API: If you are using the SOAP API, this field is required. Specify the version of the WSDL your application is using.

For the XML API: If you are using the XML API, this field has no effect. Instead, specify the version in the X-EBAY-API-COMPATIBILITY-LEVEL HTTP header. (If you specify Version in the body of an XML API request and it is different from the value in the HTTP header, eBay returns an informational warning that the value in the HTTP header was used instead.)

See:
    HTTP headers
    eBay Schema Versioning Strategy
    Lowest Supported Version

WarningLevel WarningLevelCodeType Optional Controls whether or not to return warnings when the application passes unrecognized or deprecated elements in a request.

An unrecognized element is one that is not defined in any supported version of the schema. Schema element names are case-sensitive, so using WarningLevel can also help you remove any potential hidden bugs within your application due to incorrect case or spelling in field names before you put your application into the Production environment.

WarningLevel only validates elements; it doesn't validate XML attributes. It also doesn't control warnings related to user-entered strings or numbers, or warnings for logical errors.

We recommend that you only use this during development and debugging. Do not use this in requests performed in the Production environment.

Applicable values:

High
(in) The WarningLevel value is set to High if the user wishes to receive warnings when the application passes unrecognized or deprecated elements in an API call request. Setting the WarningLevel value to High is not recommended in a production environment. Instead, it should only be used during the development/debugging stage.
Low
(in) The WarningLevel value is set to Low if the user does not wish to receive warnings when the application passes unrecognized or deprecated elements in an API call request. This is the default value if WarningLevel is not specified in the call request.

See Warning Level.



Input Output Detail Controls Samples Change History

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).

See also the Deprecated Objects link above. Fields presented in this color are deprecated, and fields presented in this color are not returned (or soon will not be returned) or are not operational (or soon will be non-operational).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetCategoryMappingsResponse xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
  <!-- Call-specific Output Fields -->
  <CategoryMapping oldID="string" id="string"> CategoryMappingType </CategoryMapping>
  <!-- ... more CategoryMapping nodes allowed here ... -->
  <CategoryVersion> string </CategoryVersion>
  <!-- Standard Output Fields -->
  <Ack> AckCodeType </Ack>
  <Build> string </Build>
  <CorrelationID> string </CorrelationID>
  <Errors> ErrorType
    <ErrorClassification> ErrorClassificationCodeType </ErrorClassification>
    <ErrorCode> token </ErrorCode>
    <ErrorParameters ParamID="string"> ErrorParameterType
      <Value> string </Value>
    </ErrorParameters>
    <!-- ... more ErrorParameters nodes allowed here ... -->
    <LongMessage> string </LongMessage>
    <SeverityCode> SeverityCodeType </SeverityCode>
    <ShortMessage> string </ShortMessage>
  </Errors>
  <!-- ... more Errors nodes allowed here ... -->
  <HardExpirationWarning> string </HardExpirationWarning>
  <Timestamp> dateTime </Timestamp>
  <Version> string </Version>
</GetCategoryMappingsResponse>
Return Value Type Occurrence Meaning
Call-specific Output Fields [Jump to standard fields]
CategoryMapping CategoryMappingType Conditionally,
repeatable: [0..*]		 Mapping between an old category ID and an active category ID. Returned when category mappings exist and the value of CategoryVersion is different from the current version on the site.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll.
CategoryMapping
  [ attribute oldID ]		 string Conditionally Mapping between an old category ID and an active category ID. Returned when category mappings exist and the value of CategoryVersion is different from the current version on the site.
CategoryMapping
  [ attribute id ]		 string Conditionally Mapping between an old category ID and an active category ID. Returned when category mappings exist and the value of CategoryVersion is different from the current version on the site.
CategoryVersion string Always Version value assigned to the current category mapping data for the site. Compare this value to the version value the application stored with the mappings the last time the application executed the call. If the versions are the same, the data has not changed since the last time the data was retrieved and stored.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.
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
(out) Reserved for internal or future use.
Failure
(out) This value indicates that the call request processing failed.
Success
(out) This value indicates that the call request was processed successfully without any issues.
Warning
(out) 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 string Always This refers to the specific 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 string Conditionally Most Trading API calls support a MessageID element in the request and a CorrelationID element in the response. If you pass in a MessageID in a request, the same value will be returned in the CorrelationID field in the response. Pairing these values can help you track and confirm that a response is returned for every request and to match specific responses to specific requests. If you do not pass a MessageID value in the request, CorrelationID is not returned.

Note: GetCategories is designed to retrieve very large sets of metadata that change once a day or less often. To improve performance, these calls return cached responses when you request all available data (with no filters). When this occurs, the MessageID and CorrelationID fields aren't applicable. However, if you specify an input filter to reduce the amount of data returned, the calls retrieve the latest data (not cached). When this occurs, MessageID and CorrelationID are applicable.
Errors ErrorType Conditionally,
repeatable: [0..*]		 A list of application-level errors (if any) that occurred when eBay processed the request.
Errors.ErrorClassification ErrorClassificationCodeType Conditionally API errors are divided between two classes: system errors and request errors.

Applicable values:

CustomCode
(out) Reserved for internal or future use.
RequestError
(out) 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
(out) 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.
Errors.ErrorCode 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..*]		 This optional element carries a list of context-specific error variables that indicate details about the error condition. These are useful when multiple instances of ErrorType are returned.
Errors.ErrorParameters
  [ attribute ParamID ]		 string Conditionally This optional element carries a list of context-specific error variables that indicate details about the error condition. These are useful when multiple instances of ErrorType are returned.
Errors.ErrorParameters.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.LongMessage string Conditionally A more detailed description of the condition that raised the error.
Errors.SeverityCode SeverityCodeType Conditionally Indicates whether the error is a severe error (causing the request to fail) or an informational error (a warning) that should be communicated to the user.

Applicable values:

CustomCode
(out) Reserved for internal or future use.
Error
(out) 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.

If the source of the problem is within the application (such as a missing required element), 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, 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.


See the Error handling section of the Making a Trading API call guide for more information.
Warning
(out) 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.

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.

Code so that your app gracefully handles any future changes to this list.
Errors.ShortMessage string Conditionally A brief description of the condition that raised the error.
HardExpirationWarning string Conditionally Expiration date of the user's authentication token. Only returned within the 7-day period prior to a token's expiration. To ensure that user authentication tokens are secure and to help avoid a user's token being compromised, tokens have a limited life span. A token is only valid for a period of time (set by eBay). After this amount of time has passed, the token expires and must be replaced with a new token.
Timestamp 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 Time Values section in the eBay Features Guide for information about this time format and converting to and from the GMT time zone.

Note: GetCategories and other Trading API calls are designed to retrieve very large sets of metadata that change once a day or less often. To improve performance, these calls return cached responses when you request all available data (with no filters). When this occurs, this time value reflects the time the cached response was created. Thus, this value is not necessarily when the request was processed. However, if you specify an input filter to reduce the amount of data returned, the calls retrieve the latest data (not cached). When this occurs, this time value does reflect when the request was processed.
Version string Always The version of the response payload schema. Indicates the version of the schema that eBay used to process the request. See the Standard Data for All Calls section in the eBay Features Guide for information on using the response version when troubleshooting CustomCode values that appear in the response.



Input Output Detail Controls Samples Change History

Detail Controls


DetailLevel

The DetailLevel input field influences which call-specific fields may be returned. (All standard output fields are returned regardless of DetailLevel.)

The none column indicates the fields that are returned when you do not specify a DetailLevel.

Detail Level value Summary of Effects
none (no detail level specified) Returns the mapping version (with no mappings). Use this level when you only want to check whether to refresh your locally stored mappings. If the version hasn't changed, you don't need to retrieve the mappings.
ReturnAll Returns the mapping version and all category mappings that have been added as of the version specified in the request (if any).

YThe field is always returned.
(Y)The field is conditionally returned. See the field documentation for clarification of conditions.
-The field is not returned.

Output Field none ReturnAll
CategoryMapping-(Y)
CategoryVersionYY



Input Output Detail Controls Samples Change History

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 Call

Retrieves a list of category changes since the last category update.

Description

Seller m***************r wants to ensure that she is listing items to the correct categories, so she pulls the category mapping changes for the latest category version.

A call to GetCategories reveals the current category version in the CategoryVersion field of the response. By setting the CategoryVersion value in the GetCategoryMappings call to one less than the current version number, you can obtain the most recent category changes for the specified site.

In general, you set the CategoryVersion input field for GetCategoryMappings to the value of the last version number that you retrieved (or saved). This provides all the category hierarchy changes that are effective since your last update.

Input

XML format.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetCategoryMappingsRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
  <RequesterCredentials>
    <eBayAuthToken>A*******3</eBayAuthToken>
  </RequesterCredentials>
  <WarningLevel>High</WarningLevel>
  <DetailLevel>ReturnAll</DetailLevel>
</GetCategoryMappingsRequest>

Output

XML format.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<GetCategoryMappingsResponse 
  xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
  <Timestamp>2019-11-04T18:48:05.105Z</Timestamp>
  <Ack>Success</Ack>
  <Version>1127</Version>
  <Build>E1127_CORE_API6_19082124_R1</Build>
  <CategoryMapping id="1245" oldID="32775"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="177022" oldID="163848"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="177022" oldID="163849"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="16191" oldID="32777"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="12930" oldID="163850"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="48707" oldID="163852"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="16191" oldID="32781"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="40059" oldID="163854"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="40065" oldID="163855"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="184437" oldID="15"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="40065" oldID="163856"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="40065" oldID="163857"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="16191" oldID="32785"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="14" oldID="17"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="96969" oldID="163858"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="33929" oldID="163859"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="16191" oldID="32787"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="157161" oldID="163860"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="2742" oldID="20"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="157161" oldID="163861"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="16191" oldID="32789"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="2719" oldID="21"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="163896" oldID="163863"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="16191" oldID="32791"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="4785" oldID="163864"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="4785" oldID="163865"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="156545" oldID="32793"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="175837" oldID="163866"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="168105" oldID="163867"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="16191" oldID="32795"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="16204" oldID="32797"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="16204" oldID="32799"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="183454" oldID="98337"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="16204" oldID="32801"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="16204" oldID="32803"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="32806" oldID="32807"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="71527" oldID="32808"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="94844" oldID="32809"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="32810" oldID="32811"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="44" oldID="43"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="64578" oldID="32812"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="50552" oldID="32813"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="44" oldID="45"/>

...

  <CategoryMapping id="160646" oldID="163785"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="20104" oldID="32713"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="31726" oldID="163786"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="61574" oldID="32718"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="76" oldID="32736"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="76" oldID="32740"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="76" oldID="32744"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="76" oldID="32745"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="175717" oldID="163823"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="175725" oldID="163825"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="50419" oldID="163827"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="79643" oldID="163830"/>
  <CategoryMapping id="79643" oldID="163831"/>
  <CategoryVersion>121</CategoryVersion>
</GetCategoryMappingsResponse>



Input Output Detail Controls Samples Change History

Change History

Change Date Description