Building a Brushes API with The Product API: A Complete Guide

Introduction to Brushes

Brushes are essential tools used across many industries and applications, from artistic painting to personal care. From paint brushes for artists to makeup brushes for beauty enthusiasts, finding the right brush with the right specifications is crucial for achieving the desired results. Whether you're running an art store, building a beauty marketplace, or creating a recommendation service, having structured brush product data is essential.

Imagine being able to search for brushes and instantly get detailed information about each product - from brush type to brand. This is exactly what a specialized Brushes Product API can provide.

What Makes a Brushes API Special?

A Brushes Product API goes beyond basic product listings. It understands the unique characteristics that matter to brush buyers:

• Type: The category of brush - paint, makeup, hair, cleaning, or toothbrush

With this structured data, you can build powerful features like filtering by brush type, comparing different brush materials, or recommending brushes based on application needs.

Try It Out: Search for Brushes

Use the search bar below to search for brushes. Try queries like "Princeton paint brushes", "Real Techniques makeup brushes", or "Mason Pearson hair brushes". The results will include detailed specifications automatically extracted from product information across the web.

How It Works: Technical Implementation

Now that you've seen the API in action, let's dive into how it's implemented. This specialized Brushes API is built on top of The Product API which is an AI-based product search API that works with any product and any type of query. It responds with structured JSON and supports custom structured responses, allowing you to build specialized APIs for any product category.

The Product API's powerful custom_data_schema feature allows you to define additional structured fields specific to your product category, enabling you to create category-specific APIs like this Brushes API. For more details on how the API works, see the full documentation.

Understanding APIs for Product Data

An API (Application Programming Interface) enables different software applications to communicate. For product data:

• Input: You send a search query (e.g., "brushes Princeton paint")
• Processing: The API searches across multiple sources and uses AI to extract relevant information
• Output: You receive structured product data in JSON format

The flexibility of a product API means you can customize it for specific categories by defining additional data fields through JSON Schema.

Creating a Brushes-Specific JSON Schema to pass as custom_data_schema of search request

Here's the JSON Schema we use for brush products:

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "type": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": ["paint", "makeup", "hair", "cleaning", "toothbrush"],
      "description": "Type of brush"
    }
  },
  "required": ["type"]
}

Using the Category Prefix

When searching for brushes, we prefix the search query with "brushes" to help the AI understand the context and return more relevant results.

Example Search Queries:

• brushes Princeton paint
• brushes Real Techniques makeup
• brushes Mason Pearson hair
• brushes Oral-B toothbrush

The prefix "brushes" ensures the API understands you're looking specifically for brushes and not other products.

Complete Example: Making a Request

Here's how to make a request to The Product API with a brushes-specific schema. For complete API reference including authentication, endpoints, and all parameters, see the documentation:

const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/api?search=brushes%20Princeton%20paint&with_image=true', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    custom_data_schema: {
      type: "object",
      properties: {
        type: {
          type: "string",
          enum: ["paint", "makeup", "hair", "cleaning", "toothbrush"],
          description: "Type of brush"
        }
      },
      required: ["type"]
    }
  })
});

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.products);
Show more (23 lines)

Expected Response

The API will return products with standard fields plus your custom custom_data field:

{
  "status": "success",
  "products": [
    {
      "name": "Princeton Series 4050 Round Paint Brush",
      "description": "Professional-grade paint brush with synthetic bristles for smooth application...",
      "brand": "Princeton",
      "image": "https://example.com/image.jpg",
      "custom_data": {
        "type": "paint"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Conclusion

By combining the flexible Product API with a brushes-specific JSON Schema, you can create a powerful, specialized API for brush products. The key is:

1. Define your schema based on what brush data matters to your application
2. Use category prefixes in search queries for better context
3. Leverage the custom_data field to build rich, category-specific features

The same approach works for any product category - you just need to define the right schema for your needs!

Ready to get started? Create your own product API on The Product API and start building your own category-specific APIs today!

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Ready to build your own category-specific API? Check out our other API preset guides for art supplies, paint, furniture, and more!