REST API Endpoints

OVERVIEW

The REST API is one of several extension points in Hotcakes Commerce.  The other extension points are primarily push models, where Hotcakes will push transactions out to other applications.  The REST API allows you to do the opposite, where you can pull information into Hotcakes from other applications and data sources.

REQUIREMENTS

The following pre-requisites will be necessary to accomplish the goals of this article:

• General understanding of REST and API’s
• Understanding of C# and/or JavaScript

GETTING STARTED

If you haven’t already done so, you should probably have a development environment ready to development against, complete with Hotcakes installed and configured.

REST API AREAS

There are a number of areas in the REST API that allow you to display or manage various aspects of your store.  In fact, there are way too many to put their respective endpoints onto a single page.  Therefore, we have put them into specific areas below so that you can drill down to the ones that you need.

Endpoint Area	Description
Affiliate Referrals	(In the same area as Affiliates) Affiliate referrals is a way to associate or credit referred sales to a specific affiliate in your affiliate program.
Affiliates	Hotcakes Commerce offers a comprehensive way to manage affiliates to help your store get referral business.
Catalog Roles	Catalog roles allow you to make parts of your catalog only appear exclusively to specific groups of people.
Categories	Categories allow merchants to group products of various types together to display them in a logical way to customers.
Categories Images
Category Product Associations	Associating a product and a category is the same thing as adding a product to a category. When done correctly, this makes products easier for customers to find.
Customer Accounts	Customer accounts allow merchants to be able to manage orders, price groups, and more on the behalf of the customer. They also provide the basis that other features are implemented, such as wish lists.
Gift Cards	Gift cards allow you to sell trusted referrals to your customers to get more business.
Manufacturer	Manufacturers allow merchants to specify how products might be displayed in your catalog, search/category facets, as well as show customers who the manufacturer for a product is.
Orders	Orders are the foundation of most e-commerce sites, where requested products of varying types are processed by the merchant. This could include payment, shipping, and more.
Order Transactions	This area of the API allows you to create and manage the payment transactions for orders in your store.
Price Groups	Price groups allow merchants to group customers together to give special pricing to one or more customers or groups of customers.
Product Files	These endpoints allow you to manage the files that are associated with products, such as software or user manuals.
Product Images	Use these endpoints to manage the "additional images" that are associated with products in the catalog.
Product Inventory	Inventory is the primary way to enable your store to respond appropriately when a product should only be sold in limited quantities.
Product Options	Product options are choices that get assigned to products and allow customers to select the specific product they're looking for. Common examples of this could include sizes, colors, and more.
Product Properties	Product properties allow merchants to create and assign default properties that groupings of products should have. For example, all books have a ISBN and software has a version number.
Product Relationships	Related products can have the intended effect of enticing your customers to buy similar products when looking at another product.
Product Reviews	A product review is an easy way to generate customer content for both other customers, merchants, and for SEO. This tells everyone how well or poorly a product may be performing.
Products	Products are the core of any e-commerce website since they are what merchants are trying to sell and customers are trying to buy.  This area of the API allows you to manage your product catalog.
Product Types	Product types allow merchants to group products of various types together to allow for easier management of how they're displayed, as well as to apply common attributes across a large section of your catalog.
Product Variant SKUs	SKU's allow products to be uniquely tracked across systems. Variants of a product can have a SKU as well. This area allows you to manage that.
Product Volume Discounts	Volume discounts can be set so that when customers purchase larger numbers of a product, they can instantly get discounts.
Search Manager	The search manager is the engine that allows products to be properly indexed and found by customers.
Taxes	Taxes will be required of most stores, regardless of where and what you sell. If your store uses a manual tax table or schedule, this area of the API allows you to manage how that is done.
Tax Schedules	Tax schedules allows a merchant to group various taxes together for your specific needs.
Utilities	These endpoints will allow you to perform tasks unrelated to the catalog, and mostly to supplement other endpoints and functions.
Vendor	Vendors allow merchants to specify how products and shipping might be applied in your catalog, as well as show customers who the vendor for a product is.
Wish List Items	Wish lists are a common way for customers to save products for later purchase by themselves or others.