GetMyMessages

Use this call to retrieve information about the threaded messages sent to a user's My Messages mailbox.

Depending on the detail level, the response can include message counts and headers, resolution status and flagged status, and message text. Note: GetMyMessages requires a DetailLevel in the request. Otherwise, an error is returned.
Note: Alerts are treated as flagged messages with data returned in the Messages container. For high priority messages, the Flagged field has a value of true. When the Flagged field is true, it means the message is displayed with a flag in the seller's My Messages mailbox on eBay. It is strongly recommended that the seller act on the message by the specified date (or within 60 days, if not specified).

GetMyMessages returns more types of messages than GetMemberMessages. GetMemberMessages returns more nodes per message than GetMyMessages.

The output of GetMyMessages is available as a notification. See MyMessages Notification.

For maximum efficiency, make sure your application can first call GetMyMessages with DetailLevel set to ReturnHeaders. Initially, do not specify any message ID. Your application should be able to cache the returned message ID values. Your application also should be able to create new My Messages requests (up to 10 cached message ID values per request).

Usage Details

With a detail level of ReturnHeaders or ReturnMessages, GetMyMessages only accepts 10 unique message ID values, per request.

Controlling the Volume of the Response

Depending on the activity of the user, GetMyMessages can return an overwhelming amount of data. To reduce the volume of the response, you can restrict the number of messages returned by adding different filters to your request:

• Filter by start and end time
  1. (Optional) Call GetMyMessages with DetailLevel set to ReturnSummary to obtain the counts for the new messages.
  2. If total message counts are too high for your application to process (say, above 200), specify StartTime and EndTime values to return messages sent within a specific time range.
  3. Make additional GetMyMessages calls with different date ranges until you have retrieved all new messages.
• Filter using detail levels
  1. (Optional) Call GetMyMessages with DetailLevel set to ReturnSummary to obtain the counts for the new messages.
  2. Use a DetailLevel of ReturnHeaders to return MessageID values and cache them for future use.
  3. Keep calling GetMyMessages with a DetailLevel of ReturnMessages, and 10 MessageID values, until you have retrieved all messages.

  For high-volume use, be careful when using ReturnHeaders without specifying MessageID values, because otherwise eBay returns all messages.

• Filter using folder names
  1. (Optional) Call GetMyMessages with DetailLevel set to ReturnSummary to obtain the counts for the new messages.
  2. If total message counts are too high for your application to process (say, above 200), you can specify a FolderID value to return only messages from the specified folder.
  3. Make additional GetMyMessages calls with different Folder ID values until you have retrieved all the new messages.

  Note that if you set FolderID to 0 (indicating the Inbox), the result often contains a large number of messages. If the number of messages is too large for your application to process (say, above 200), filter your the results using an additional method, perhaps another as described above.

See the Samples section for calls that use these filtering mechanisms.

This call returns the text of the messages embedded in HTML code. You can parse the content from the HTML, or you can pass along the code as-is, depending on your needs.

Optimizing Your Calls

To make the most of your GetMyMessages calls, make one call with DetailLevel set to ReturnHeaders, without including MessageID values. This will return a complete list of message headers with their corresponding message ID values. Cache these ID values and use them in a second call to GetMyMessages with DetailLevel set to ReturnMessages. Using this method, you can retrieve details of up to ten specific messages at a time.

Testing GetMyMessages

You can test GetMyMessages in the Sandbox.

Several API calls allow you to replenish your supply of messages in the Sandbox. See Exchange messages for information on adding new messages. You can contact Developer Support to obtain further testing information.

Related Information

See also the reference documentation for this call:

• GetMemberMessages - Retrieves a list of the messages buyers have posted about your active item listings.

Input

See also Samples.

The box below lists all fields that could be included in the call request. To learn more about an individual field or its type, click its name in the box (or scroll down to find it in the table below the box).

See also the Deprecated Objects link above. Fields presented in this color are deprecated, and fields presented in this color are (or soon will be) non-operational.

The XML prototype does not include requester credentials. This is a documentation limitation only (see Standard Requester Credentials for Making Calls).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetMyMessagesRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
 <!-- Call-specific Input Fields -->
 <EndTime> dateTime </EndTime>
 <ExternalMessageIDs> MyMessagesExternalMessageIDArrayType
 <ExternalMessageID> MyMessagesExternalMessageIDType (string) </ExternalMessageID>
 <!-- ... more ExternalMessageID values allowed here ... -->
 </ExternalMessageIDs>
 <FolderID> long </FolderID>
 <IncludeHighPriorityMessageOnly> boolean </IncludeHighPriorityMessageOnly>
 <MessageIDs> MyMessagesMessageIDArrayType
 <MessageID> MyMessagesMessageIDType (string) </MessageID>
 <!-- ... more MessageID values allowed here ... -->
 </MessageIDs>
 <Pagination> PaginationType
 <EntriesPerPage> int </EntriesPerPage>
 <PageNumber> int </PageNumber>
 </Pagination>
 <StartTime> dateTime </StartTime>
 <!-- Standard Input Fields -->
 <DetailLevel> DetailLevelCodeType </DetailLevel>
 <!-- ... more DetailLevel values allowed here ... -->
 <ErrorLanguage> string </ErrorLanguage>
 <MessageID> string </MessageID>
 <OutputSelector> string </OutputSelector>
 <!-- ... more OutputSelector values allowed here ... -->
 <Version> string </Version>
 <WarningLevel> WarningLevelCodeType </WarningLevel>
</GetMyMessagesRequest>

 If the following output selectors are used: 

...
 <OutputSelector>ViewItemURL</OutputSelector>
 <OutputSelector>BuyItNowPrice</OutputSelector> 
... 

 ...the response might look like the following 

  <Item>
 <BuyItNowPrice currencyID="USD">0.0</BuyItNowPrice>
 <ListingDetails>
 <ViewItemURL>http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tag-Heuer-Mens-Watch/182879833261</ViewItemURL>
 </ListingDetails>
 </Item>  

Output

See also Samples.

The box below lists all fields that might be returned in the response. To learn more about an individual field or its type, click its name in the box (or scroll down to find it in the table below the box).

See also the Deprecated Objects link above. Fields presented in this color are deprecated, and fields presented in this color are not returned (or soon will not be returned) or are not operational (or soon will be non-operational).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetMyMessagesResponse xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
 <!-- Call-specific Output Fields -->
 <Messages> MyMessagesMessageArrayType
 <Message> MyMessagesMessageType
 <Content> string </Content>
 <ExpirationDate> dateTime </ExpirationDate>
 <ExternalMessageID> string </ExternalMessageID>
 <Flagged> boolean </Flagged>
 <Folder> MyMessagesFolderType
 <FolderID> long </FolderID>
 </Folder>
 <HighPriority> boolean </HighPriority>
 <ItemEndTime> dateTime </ItemEndTime>
 <ItemID> ItemIDType (string) </ItemID>
 <ItemTitle> string </ItemTitle>
 <ListingStatus> ListingStatusCodeType </ListingStatus>
 <MessageID> MyMessagesMessageIDType (string) </MessageID>
 <MessageMedia> MessageMediaType
 <MediaName> string </MediaName>
 <MediaURL> anyURI </MediaURL>
 </MessageMedia>
 <!-- ... more MessageMedia nodes allowed here ... -->
 <MessageType> MessageTypeCodeType </MessageType>
 <QuestionType> QuestionTypeCodeType </QuestionType>
 <Read> boolean </Read>
 <ReceiveDate> dateTime </ReceiveDate>
 <RecipientUserID> string </RecipientUserID>
 <Replied> boolean </Replied>
 <ResponseDetails> MyMessagesResponseDetailsType
 <ResponseEnabled> boolean </ResponseEnabled>
 <ResponseURL> anyURI </ResponseURL>
 </ResponseDetails>
 <Sender> string </Sender>
 <SendToName> string </SendToName>
 <Subject> string </Subject>
 <Text> string </Text>
 </Message>
 <!-- ... more Message nodes allowed here ... -->
 </Messages>
 <Summary> MyMessagesSummaryType
 <FlaggedMessageCount> int </FlaggedMessageCount>
 <FolderSummary> MyMessagesFolderSummaryType
 <FolderID> long </FolderID>
 <FolderName> string </FolderName>
 <NewHighPriorityCount> int </NewHighPriorityCount>
 <NewMessageCount> int </NewMessageCount>
 <TotalHighPriorityCount> int </TotalHighPriorityCount>
 <TotalMessageCount> int </TotalMessageCount>
 </FolderSummary>
 <!-- ... more FolderSummary nodes allowed here ... -->
 <NewHighPriorityCount> int </NewHighPriorityCount>
 <NewMessageCount> int </NewMessageCount>
 <TotalHighPriorityCount> int </TotalHighPriorityCount>
 <TotalMessageCount> int </TotalMessageCount>
 </Summary>
 <!-- Standard Output Fields -->
 <Ack> AckCodeType </Ack>
 <Build> string </Build>
 <CorrelationID> string </CorrelationID>
 <Errors> ErrorType
 <ErrorClassification> ErrorClassificationCodeType </ErrorClassification>
 <ErrorCode> token </ErrorCode>
 <ErrorParameters ParamID="string"> ErrorParameterType
 <Value> string </Value>
 </ErrorParameters>
 <!-- ... more ErrorParameters nodes allowed here ... -->
 <LongMessage> string </LongMessage>
 <SeverityCode> SeverityCodeType </SeverityCode>
 <ShortMessage> string </ShortMessage>
 </Errors>
 <!-- ... more Errors nodes allowed here ... -->
 <HardExpirationWarning> string </HardExpirationWarning>
 <Timestamp> dateTime </Timestamp>
 <Version> string </Version>
</GetMyMessagesResponse>

Detail Controls

DetailLevel

The DetailLevel input field influences which call-specific fields may be returned. (All standard output fields are returned regardless of DetailLevel.)

The none column indicates the fields that are returned when you do not specify a DetailLevel.

Samples

New to making API calls? Please see Making a Call.

Note: Some item IDs, user IDs, or other data in these samples might no longer be active on eBay. If necessary, you can substitute current eBay data in your requests.

Available samples:

• Basic Call ↓ - Retrieves Message headers for the authenticated user.
• Specific Message IDs ↓ - Retrieves specific Messages, according to the provided message ID values.
• Message Folders ↓ - Retrieves message headers for the specified folder.

Retrieves Message headers for the authenticated user.

Description

This sample shows how to retrieve the headers for messages. Once retrieved, you can cache the MessageID values, which you can use to get more details on specific messages with another GetMyMessages call.

Input

XML format.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetMyMessagesRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
 <RequesterCredentials>
 <eBayAuthToken>A*******3</eBayAuthToken>
 </RequesterCredentials>
 <WarningLevel>High</WarningLevel>
 <DetailLevel>ReturnHeaders</DetailLevel>
</GetMyMessagesRequest>

Output

XML format.
<GetMyMessagesResponse xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
 <Timestamp>2019年11月04日T22:17:05.891Z</Timestamp>
 <Ack>Success</Ack>
 <Version>1127</Version>
 <Build>E1127_CORE_APIMSG_19083139_R1</Build>
 <Alerts/>
 <Messages>
 <Message>
 <Sender>b***r</Sender>
 <RecipientUserID>m***************r</RecipientUserID>
 <Subject>b******r has sent a question about item #1**********2,
 ending on Oct-18-19 18:52:35 PST - Acura : CL</Subject>
 <MessageID>1*****0</MessageID>
 <Flagged>false</Flagged>
 <Read>false</Read>
 <ReceiveDate>2019年10月18日T02:54:32.000Z</ReceiveDate>
 <ExpirationDate>2020年02月12日T02:54:31.000Z</ExpirationDate>
 <ItemID>1**********2</ItemID>
 <ResponseDetails>
 <ResponseEnabled>true</ResponseEnabled>
 <ResponseURL>http://contact.sandbox.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?M2MContact&
 item=1**********2&requested=b******r&qid=7****0&redirect=0&messageid=m1*****0</ResponseURL>
 </ResponseDetails>
 <Folder>
 <FolderID>***</FolderID>
 </Folder>
 <Replied>false</Replied>
 </Message>
 <Message>
 <Sender>b************r</Sender>
 <RecipientUserID>m***************r</RecipientUserID>
 <Subject>b************r has sent a question about :Question about book Edition for item #1**********5,
 ending on Oct-16-19 15:45:13 PST - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone</Subject>
 <MessageID>1*****0</MessageID>
 <Flagged>false</Flagged>
 <Read>false</Read>
 <ReceiveDate>2019年10月16日T18:03:43.000Z</ReceiveDate>
 <ExpirationDate>2020年02月10日T18:03:43.000Z</ExpirationDate>
 <ItemID>1**********5</ItemID>
 <ResponseDetails>
 <ResponseEnabled>true</ResponseEnabled>
 <ResponseURL>http://contact.sandbox.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?M2MContact&
 item=1**********5&requested=b************r&qid=7****2&redirect=0&messageid=m1*****0</ResponseURL>
 <UserResponseDate>2018年10月17日T18:51:33.000Z</UserResponseDate>
 </ResponseDetails>
 <Folder>
 <FolderID>***</FolderID>
 </Folder>
 <Replied>true</Replied>
 </Message>
 </Messages>
</GetMyMessagesResponse>

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Retrieves specific Messages, according to the provided message ID values.

Description

Retrieve a summary of your messages by calling GetMyMessages with DetailLevel set to ReturnHeaders. Make a second call to GetMyMessages with DetailLevel set to ReturnMessages, and specify the message IDs of the messages you want to review. This returns detailed information for each specified message.

Input

You can specify up to to 10 MessageID values per request.

XML format.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 
<GetMyMessagesRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents"> 
 <DetailLevel>ReturnMessages</DetailLevel> 
 <RequesterCredentials> 
 <eBayAuthToken>1*******C</eBayAuthToken> 
 </RequesterCredentials> 
 <MessageIDs> 
 <MessageID>1**********0</MessageID> 
 </MessageIDs> 
</GetMyMessagesRequest> 

Output

Notice that the response contains HTML within the Text node.

XML format.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<GetMyMessagesResponse 
 xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
 <Timestamp>2019年11月04日T22:17:05.891Z</Timestamp>
 <Ack>Success</Ack>
 <Version>1127</Version>
 <Build>E1127_CORE_APIMSG_19083139_R1</Build>
 <Messages>
 <Message>
 <Sender>e**y</Sender>
 <RecipientUserID>r***9</RecipientUserID>
 <Subject>?? You have a new offer: 12ドル.00 for Jonathon Byron Float... (1**********0)</Subject>
 <MessageID>1**********0</MessageID>
 <Text>Good news, R***l! You\x92ve received an offer for Jonathon Byron Float. The buyer is waiting - let them know your response before Oct-26 11:10:10 PDT.</Text>
 <Flagged>false</Flagged>
 <Read>true</Read>
 <ReceiveDate>2019年10月24日T18:10:13.000Z</ReceiveDate>
 <ExpirationDate>2020年10月24日T18:10:13.000Z</ExpirationDate>
 <ItemID>1**********0</ItemID>
 <ResponseDetails>
 <ResponseEnabled>false</ResponseEnabled>
 </ResponseDetails>
 <Folder>
 <FolderID>***</FolderID>
 </Folder>
 <Replied>false</Replied>
 <ItemEndTime>2019年10月26日T18:28:54.000Z</ItemEndTime>
 <ItemTitle>Jonathon Byron Floating Swans 3-D Hand-Painted Porcelain Collector Plate</ItemTitle>
 </Message>
 </Messages>
</GetMyMessagesResponse>

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Retrieves message headers for the specified folder.

Description

If you get too much data when retrieving only message headers, you can further restrict the amount of data returned by specifying a FolderID in the request. Doing so returns only the message headers from the specified folder.

Retrieve the FolderID values for the My Messages folders by calling GetMyMessages with a DetailLevel of ReturnSummary. Note that the FolderID for the Inbox is 0.

Input

This example uses a FolderID of 2.

XML format.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 
<GetMyMessagesRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents"> 
 <DetailLevel>ReturnMessages</DetailLevel> 
 <RequesterCredentials> 
 <eBayAuthToken>1*******C</eBayAuthToken> 
 </RequesterCredentials> 
 <FolderID>***</FolderID> 
</GetMyMessagesRequest> 

Output

The following sample shows the results from this call. Notice that the message is from FolderID 2.

XML format.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetMyMessagesResponse xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
 <Timestamp>2019年11月04日T22:17:05.891Z</Timestamp>
 <Ack>Success</Ack>
 <Version>1127</Version>
 <Build>E1127_CORE_APIMSG_19083139_R1</Build>
 <Messages>
 <Message>
 <Sender>e**y</Sender>
 <RecipientUserID>s********r</RecipientUserID>
 <Subject>eBay Second Chance Offer for Item #3**********9: Auction Title</Subject>
 <MessageID>2*****9</MessageID>
 <Flagged>false</Flagged>
 <Read>false</Read>
 <ReceiveDate>2019年10月20日T23:34:37.000Z</ReceiveDate>
 <ExpirationDate>2019年11月20日T23:34:30.000Z</ExpirationDate>
 <ResponseDetails>
 <ResponseEnabled>true</ResponseEnabled>
 <ResponseURL>http://*************.com</ResponseURL>
 </ResponseDetails>
 <Folder>
 <FolderID>***</FolderID>
 </Folder>
 </Message>
 </Messages>
</GetMyMessagesResponse>

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