Make a POST request including Action=submit and the author's input. If there are input errors, then the response will be identical to a preview request with errors. If there are no errors, then Bazaarvoice will save the data and return a submission ID. You should save the submission ID for your records.

The Bazaarvoice Authenticity Policy forbids modifications to content by anyone other than the original author. If there are content validation errors and the author is not available to correct them, then Bazaarvoice will not accept that content. For this reason, submission to Bazaarvoice should occur as soon as the author has completed their input. This will allow you to give the author an opportunity to fix any validation errors that would otherwise prevent Bazaarvoice from accepting the submission. If you save content to be submitted at a later time, then you should perform a preview request (see step #2) as soon as the author has completed their input, so that you can give them the opportunity to fix any validation errors at that time.

This example demonstrates how to use the Action parameter to save data in the Bazaarvoice system:

POST /data/submitreview.json HTTPS/1.1
Host: [stg.]api.bazaarvoice.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
X-Forwarded-For: [AuthorIPAddress]
... 

 
















ApiVersion=[LatestApiVersion]&ProductId=[ProductId]&Action=submit&Rating=[Rating]&ReviewText
=[ReviewText]&Title=[TitleText]&UserNickname=[Nickname]&Passkey=[YourApiKey]

Ellipses (...) in above example indicate that your app may generate other headers.

📘

Cross Origin Submission

The Conversations API supports Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) to allow JavaScript applications to perform submissions from the browser. The X-Forwarded-For header is not necessary when using CORS. Refer to the CORS tutorial to learn more.

Author identification

When submitting content using the Conversations API you will need to identify the author. This is accomplished by submitting an author ID or author email address to Bazaarvoice through one of the authentication methods summarized below:

1. Bazaarvoice-mastered

   • Bazaarvoice-mastered authentication, also referred to as 'hosted authentication', allows authors to submit content without prior authentication. In this authentication method Bazaarvoice generates an author ID that is associated with an email address provided during content submission.

2. Client-mastered

   • Client-mastered authentication, also referred to as 'site authentication', requires authors to log in using your authentication system before submitting content to Bazaarvoice. In this authentication method the author ID comes from your system and Bazaarvoice stores a copy of it to identify the author.

Learn more at the authentication documentation section.

Authenticity information

All content submitted to the Bazaarvoice platform is evaluated by our risk-based filtering systems to limit fraudulent content and spam from being posted on clients' websites. We require you to submit the author's IP address and a device fingerprint to facilitate this evaluation.

🚧

Per the Bazaarvoice Authenticity Policy, you must send a device fingerprint and author IP address attached to each submission. If you fail to send a device fingerprint and author IP address with your submission, Bazaarvoice may take any action deemed necessary in Bazaarvoice’s sole discretion to protect the integrity of the network. Such actions may include but are not limited to: rejection of your content, halting syndication of your content on the Bazaarvoice network, revocation of your API key, or revocation of your API license.

Author IP address

The IP address of a computer initiating an HTTP request (the client) is automatically communicated to the computer receiving the request (the server). If your Conversations API submissions originate from a web-browser or mobile app, we will automatically receive the author's IP address.

However, if you are performing the submission from your server to our server, then you must use the X-Forwarded-For header to communicate the author's IP address to us. Otherwise, we will receive your server's IP address for every submission, which increases the likelihood that your submissions will be flagged as inauthentic.

In the following example, the IP address 192.0.2.1 represents the IP address of the content author:

POST /data/submitreview.json HTTPS/1.1
Host: stg.api.bazaarvoice.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
X-Forwarded-For: 192.0.2.1
...

 




 










 










Rating=5&Title=This+is+a+review+TitleText&ReviewText=This+is+review+text.+This+is+review+text.+This+is+review+text.+This+is+review+text.+This+is+review+text.+This+is+review+text.+This+is+review+text.+&UserNickname=bvtester&ProductId=io_bb_callback&UserId=1234567&ApiVersion=[LatestApiVersion]&Action=submit&Passkey=[YourApiKey]  

Ellipses (...) in above example indicate that your app may generate other headers.

Device fingerprint

A device fingerprint is an encoded string containing information about a user agent. The technique for generating a device fingerprint varies based on environment and device reputation partner, but in general will involve the following steps:

1. Configure and load a device fingerprint library in your app.
2. Wait for the script to analyze the user agent and create a device fingerprint.
3. Communicate the device fingerprint to Bazaarvoice or one of our reputation management partners.

Read the Device Fingerprinting section for more information and code samples demonstrating how to perform device fingerprinting.

Author input

Author input is communicated to Bazaarvoice using percent encoded key-value pairs in the query component of an HTTPS GET request or in the body of an HTTPS POST request. The parameter keys can be determined from the API response. As previously discussed above, a submission request with Action= (or no Action=) will return form metadata, including information about each field. The example below shows how a field is represented in the API submission response. The Id value isrecommended (line 8) is the key used for submission:

class="brush: js;">"isrecommended": {  
    "Default": null,  
    "MaxLength": null,  
    "Value": "",  
    "Required": false,  
    "Type": "BooleanInput",  
    "Label": null,  
    "Id": " isrecommended ",  
    "MinLength": null,  
    "Options": [ ]  
},

Depending on the type of input, the author will either enter arbitrary values or choose from pre-determined options. In the previous example the input type is BooleanInput (line 6).

The Conversations API supports the following input types:

This example shows author input being submitted in the body of a HTTPS POST request.

POST /data/submitreview.json HTTPS/1.1
Host: stg.api.bazaarvoice.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
X-Forwarded-For: [AuthorIPAddress]
...

 




 










 










IsRecommended=true&Rating=5&Title=This+is+a+review+TitleText&ReviewText=This+is+review+text.+This+is+
review+text.+This+is+review+text.+This+is+review+text.+This+is+review+text.+This+is+review+text.+This+is
+review+text.+&UserNickname=bvtester&ProductId=123456&UserId=1234567&ApiVersion=[LatestApiVersion]&
Action=submit&Passkey=[YourApiKey]  

Ellipses (...) in above example indicate that your app may generate other headers.

Refer to the Input Type tutorial for general information about input types. For information about a specific field refer to the Field Type tutorial.

Response Format for Submission

{  
   "[CONTENT_TYPE]":{  
      "[NAME]":"[VALUE]",  
      ...  
   },  
   "Data":{  
      "Field":{  
         "[FIELD_NAME]":{  
            "[FIELD_ATTRIBUTE_NAME]":"[FIELD_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE]",  
            ...  
         },  
         ...  
      },  
      "Group":{  
         "[GROUP_NAME]":{  
            "[GROUP_ATTRIBUTE_NAME]":"GROUP_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE",  
            ...  
            "SubElements":\[  
               {  
                  "Type":"[GROUP_SUBELEMENT_TYPE]",  
                  "ID":"[GROUP_SUBELEMENT_VALUE]"  
               },  
               ...  
            ]  
         },  
        ...  
      }  
   },  
   "FormErrors": {  
        "FieldErrors": {  
            "[FIELD_ID]" : "[ERROR_MESSAGE]",  
            ...  
        }  
    },  
   "Form":\[  
      {  
         "Type":"[TYPE]",  
         "ID":"[ID]"  
      },  
      ...  
   ],  
   "TypicalHoursToPost":[TYPICAL_HOURS_TO_POST]  
}