getNetworks: A Deep Dive

Written by Josh Hutter

Welcome back to Tech Corner, where we take a deep dive into FMTC’s tools and technology. In this article, we are focusing on the getNetworks API call. 

But to understand this API call, we should first ask: What is an affiliate network? 

An affiliate network is a collection of affiliate programs from different merchants to which affiliates can apply.

FMTC is integrated with 19 different networks, including CJ, ShareASale, Awin, Rakuten, and many more. With FMTC, you won’t need to worry about keeping up with multiple networks on your own; we keep fully updated with each one to help streamline that process.

The getNetworks feed contains information about the networks that are integrated into FMTC’s internal system.

A basic call to the getNetworks endpoint looks like this:

https://services.fmtc.co/v2/getNetworks?key=<YOUR_API_KEY>

You can find your API Feed Access Key in your FMTC dashboard under Feed Management > API Keys and Calls. The API key is required for this endpoint. Calls made without it will receive an error message stating that you have an “Invalid Key.” 

Aside from the API key, you can pass one other parameter to the getNetworks endpoint: format. This determines the format in which you will receive from the endpoint. FMTC supports the JSON, XML, CSV, TAB delimited, and the PIPE delimited formats.

Here is a sample JSON response that you will get from the getNetworks endpoint:

<[
{
"cName": "Affiliate Future",
"cSlug": "AF",
"aCountries": [
"US",
"CA",
"UK"
]
},
{
"cName": "Affiliate Future UK",
"cSlug": "AFU",
"aCountries": [
"UK"
]
}
]

Now, what do these values mean?

• cName: The human-readable name of the network, i.e., displays the name of the network.
• cSlug: The unique slug assigned to the network. 
• aCountries: The two-letter country codes for the countries that the network supports. 

As always, our team is ready to help you! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to your Account Manager or send us an email at [email protected]. Curious about other FMTC API endpoints? Feel free to read the following:

• FMTC Tech Corner: getDeals Deep Dive
• FMTC Tech Corner: getMerchants Deep Dive
• FMTC Tech Corner: Get Deals and Get Merchants
• FMTC Tech Corner: The Product Feed