The BrowseNodes system of Amazon.com is a numerical value related in almost a three-dimensional web where one BrowseNode can be its own parent, with or without one or more ancestor, and can be endowed with one or more child BrowseNodes, spanning further and further down the hierarchy tree. Node A might be, for example, Shoes. Node B might be Women. Node C, a child of BrowseNodes A and B, might be Women’s Shoes.
On a two-dimensional page display, BrowseNode lookup is done by 'drilling-down' each child BrowseNode sequently until it reaches a no_exact_matches error where it stop displaying any values. At this point you can retrace your steps by hitting the 'Back' button on your browser to drill down another child BrowseNode line, or start afresh from a new SearchIndex, the Amazon store you want products from.
What you can be doing in the sequence above, is essentially going down a each product category tree to harvest the BrowseNodes or product category pages that you want your niche shopping site to have.
BrowseNode Lookup
Our BrowseNode Lookup service, though fully functional, is still on trial and will need a few more touches before it can be fully utilized as a standalone system. Currently it is set only to display BrowseNodes formatted ready for inclusion in ASM2's script/nodes/*.inc files.
The start page is void of any BrowseNodes except for upper portion of the page which displays the SearchIndices of Amazon.com in a menu structure.
Apparel
Click on the Apparel SearchIndex, for example, and the page will display the following main BrowseNodes for Apparel.
The text which is displayed bold is actually the anchor which you click on to drill-down down the category line to the child BrowseNodes of each BrowseName on display.
Apparel > Departments
Click on Departments and the child BrowseNodes for Departments will be displayed...
Apparel > Departments > Women
The main product categories for Women's Apparel is displayed below...
What do you harvest?
Of course, if your store specializes in Women's Apparel, then you would probably pick the "Women" => 1040660, category from the Apparel > Departments BrowseNodes and all of Women's child BrowseNodes (from Activewear to Work Apparel & Uniforms) for inclusion in your $nodes[Apparel] section of the script/nodes/us.Inc file.
Do this by copying it off the display screen and pasting it to your *.inc file.
