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Registering an Application

You need to register an application if you want to access the majority of the Trade Me API methods. Registering an application generates a 'Consumer Key' and 'Consumer Secret' and you'll need to include these in your application so it can request and modify data on behalf of a user using OAuth.

Your application should not request or store the username and/or password for any Trade Me membership.

Live site approval

All applications are subject to our approval process and terms and conditions. If you intend to use your application in production we suggest that you register it in on the live site to gain approval before you begin the development process. For testing purposes you can register a test application on the Trade Me Sandbox.

Applications are automatically submitted for approval when they are registered on our live site.

Sandbox

We provide www.tmsandbox.co.nz as a playground for developing applications. Registration for the sandbox is separate to the main Trade Me website

All sandbox applications are automatically approved, however when you are ready to go to production your application will be subject to our approval process and terms and conditions. If you intend to use your application in production we suggest that you register it on the production site as well to gain approval before you begin the development process.

How to register

Registering an application is easy.

For the Trade Me sandbox:

  1. If you don't already have a Trade Me sandbox membership you'll need to create one.
  2. Go to your My Trade Me page. Click 'My Applications’, choose ‘Developer options’, and then ‘Register a new application’.
  3. Fill in the form fields and once you’ve successfully submitted the form make a note of your ‘Consumer key’ and ‘Consumer secret’ – add these to your application to be used as part of the OAuth authorization process. Read more about Authentication.

Note that this account is only valid in the sandbox environment. You will need to register again on www.trademe.co.nz once you are ready to deploy your application against our production environment. Registering on our production environment is subject to a review process.

For the main Trade Me site:

  1. If you don't already have a Trade Me membership you'll need to create one.
  2. Go to your My Trade Me page. Click 'My Applications’, choose ‘Developer options’, and then ‘Register a new application’.
  3. Fill in the form fields and once you've successfully submitted the form make a note of your ‘Consumer key’ and ‘Consumer secret’ – add these to your application to be used as part of the OAuth authorization process.
  4. Wait for your application to be approved.

Registration Tips

Registration Member

Registered apps belong to the member that created them and cannot be transferred. If your are building an app for the company you work for we recommend that the Trade Me Member belongs to that company or can be transferred. Likewise, the email address should be suitable, so when we get in touch about site outages or upcoming changes we know we'll be getting in touch with the right people. Consider using a group email or distribution list as the contact, and don't use your personal Trade Me account unless you are sure it's the right thing.