Errors

You can use the HTTP status code of the response to an API call to determine if there is an error.

HTTP Status Code	Meaning
`200`	Success - The API call was successful - there are no errors.
`400`	Bad Request - The API call failed - the API call is being used incorrectly. A parameters is missing, unexpected, or incorrectly formatted. A `message` attribute will explain the error.
`401`	Unauthorized - The API call failed - authentication via the access_token failed. A `message` attribute will explain the error.
`404`	Resource Not Found - The requested resource does not exist. This might mean the identifier you're using to access a resource is incorrect. A `message` attribute will explain the error.
`500`	Internal Server Error - An unknown error occurred - probably caused by a bug in the API.

Examples

Here's an example of an API error caused by providing an unrecognized parameter to an API call:

curl -v -X GET https://tophatter.com/merchant_api/v1/products.json \
-d 'access_token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN' \
-d 'foo=bar'

< HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
< Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
< Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
< Cache-Control: no-cache

{
  "message": "The following parameters were provided but are not recognized: foo."
}

Here's an example of an API error caused by providing an invalid identifier to an API call:

curl -v -X GET https://tophatter.com/merchant_api/v1/variations/retrieve.json \
-d 'access_token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN' \
-d 'identifier=6631A'

< HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
< Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
< Cache-Control: no-cache

{
  "message": "There is no variation with the unique ID 6631A."
}