The Zinc API interfaces with the retailers via proxies. This enables each retailer interaction session to use unique and consistent IP addressing. Due to many factors, sometimes the bulk proxies available to us become blocked by retailers. The best path to keeping your own account from being blocked is to provide your own proxy service, by either hosting your own proxy or purchasing a proxy from a provider. We call this “bring-your-own-proxy” (BYOP).

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Where do I get a proxy?

We cannot recommend any specific proxy provider. Many commercial providers are unsuitable because their IPs are low quality and shared among many users. It is best to use a real residential IP address dedicated to your ordering flow. One option is to deploy the Zinc proxy container, on GitHub at zinc/zn-proxy.

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Create BYOP Configuration

To configure a BYOP, you must provide the retailer, email account, and full proxy connection URL.
AttributeTypeDescription
retailerstringSingle-word name representing the retailer
emailstringEmail address used as account with the retailer
proxy_urlstringFull HTTP proxy connection string for proxy service
The proxy_url components are as follows:
ComponentDescription
proxy_userUsername for the proxy service account
proxy_passwordPassword for the proxy service account
proxy_ipIP address of the proxy server (sample shows 192.168.1.1)
proxy_portPort number of the proxy server (sample shows 1234)
curl "https://api.zinc.io/v1/proxies/byop" \
  -X PUT \
  -u <client_token>: \
  -d '{"retailer":"amazon","email":"youremail@youremail.com","proxy_url":"http://proxy_user:proxy_password@192.168.1.1:1234"}'

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Request Current BYOP Configuration

You can query the Zinc API for the current BYOP configuration of a specific retailer account. If the account is configured for BYOP, the full proxy information will be returned in the JSON response. If the account is configured for one of our internal proxies, the response will be successful (200) with an empty JSON body. 
curl "https://api.zinc.io/v1/proxies/byop" \
  -X GET \
  -u <client_token>: \
  -d '{"retailer":"amazon","email":"youremail@youremail.com"}'

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Delete BYOP Configuration

Use the DELETE method instead of PUT. 
curl "https://api.zinc.io/v1/proxies/byop" \
  -X DELETE \
  -u <client_token>: \
  -d '{"retailer":"amazon","email":"youremail@youremail.com"}'