Category Search

Introduction

The Category Search endpoint enables you to explore and discover available product categories within a retailer's hierarchical taxonomy structure. Product categories allow retailers to create a hierarchical structure that helps narrow down products into unique groups or subgroups based on shared characteristics.

This endpoint provides the ability to see what categories are available to serve against a retailer's inventory, making it an essential tool for understanding targeting options and campaign planning. Unlike recommendation endpoints, Category Search allows you to actively explore the retailer's category structure through flexible search parameters.

You can search for categories using category IDs to find specific categories and their relationships, or use text substring matching to discover categories by name. The endpoint supports pagination for large result sets, making it easy to browse through extensive category hierarchies efficiently.

This functionality is particularly valuable for campaign setup, category discovery, and understanding the breadth of targeting options available within a retailer's ecosystem.

Endpoints

Attributes table

📘

Field Definitions

• Writeable (Y/N): Indicates if the field can be modified in requests.
• Nullable (Y/N): Indicates if the field can accept null/empty values.
• Primary Key: The main identifier field required for the endpoint to function correctly. Primary keys are typically ID fields (e.g., retailerId, campaignId, lineItemId) and are usually required in the URL path.

Search Categories

This endpoint enables searching for available categories within a retailer's hierarchical taxonomy structure. You can search by category IDs or text substring, with pagination support for large result sets.

Results are paginated using offset and limit query parameters; if omitted, defaults to 0 and 500, respectively.

https://api.criteo.com/preview/retail-media/retailers/{retailerId}/categories/search?offset=0&limit=50

Sample Request

curl -L -X POST 'https://api.criteo.com/preview/retail-media/retailers/12345/categories/search?offset=0&limit=50' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <MY_ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  -d '{
          "data": {
            "attributes": {
              "categoryIds": [
                "520020"
              ],
              "textSubstring": "headphones"
            },
            "type": "CategoriesSearchRequestV1"
          }
      }'

Sample Response

{
    "metadata": {
        "count": 2,
        "offset": 0,
        "limit": 50
    },
    "data": [
        {
            "id": "673311",
            "type": "CategoryV1",
            "attributes": {
                "text": "Electronics|Audio|Headphones|Wireless",
                "name": "Wireless Headphones",
                "parentId": "683708"
            }
        },
        {
            "id": "4830673",
            "type": "CategoryV1",
            "attributes": {
                "text": "Electronics|Audio|Headphones",
                "name": "Headphones",
                "parentId": "683706"
            }
        }
    ],
    "warnings": [],
    "errors": []
}

Responses

Common Error Scenarios

Invalid Category ID Format

{
    "metadata": null,
    "data": null,
    "warnings": [],
    "errors": [
        {
            "type": "validation",
            "code": "InvalidCategoryId",
            "title": "Validation error",
            "detail": "Category ids can only be positive integer strings."
        }
    ]
}

Invalid Retailer ID

{
    "warnings": [],
    "errors": [
        {
            "traceId": "954eab48899860c9b18880eb0018fd3f",
            "type": "validation",
            "code": "model-validation-error",
            "title": "Model validation error",
            "detail": "The value ':retailerId' is not valid."
        }
    ]
}