CategoryTree API reference

The Category Tree API returns category information for selected category IDs. If you call the API without specifying a category, CategoryTree returns a list of all top-level Adobe Stock categories.

You can optionally request the results in languages other than English by using the locale parameter.

Please note that categories are metadata set manually by the Stock Contributor (the photographer or artist who uploaded the asset), not by Adobe Stock. Therefore, if the asset is not categorized correctly, it is due to human error. Also, the Stock Search API does not use machine-learning algorithms when searching by category--it can only rely on information provided by the Contributor. Finally, categories are not actively curated by Adobe Stock, so new categories are not added or removed on a regular basis.

On the other hand, keyword search is driven by both machine learning and by Contributor metadata. For that reason, searching by keywords instead of categories is considered a best practice, and is generally more reliable and accurate. Adobe Stock maintains this API mainly for backwards compatibility with existing applications.

Category Tree calls

Endpoint	Methods
https://stock.adobe.io/Rest/Media/1/Search/CategoryTree	GET

Authentication

An Authorization header is not required.

Request headers

See API authentication and Headers for Stock API calls for details about header content.

Required headers: x-Product, x-api-key
Optional headers: Authorization, X-Request-Id

URL parameters

Pass the following parameters with a GET request.

Parameter	Description
locale	Location language code. String. Default is `en_US`. See the full list of Locales. String.
category_id	Optional. Unique identifier for an existing category; results are returned for this category. Integer.

Responses

CategoryTree's response is returned in a JSON array that can contain multiple category structures. Each category may have child categories beneath it that can be discovered with subsequent requests.

[
    {
        "id": Integer,
        "link": String,
        "name": String
    },
    {
        "id": Integer,
        "link": String,
        "name": String
    }
]
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[
    {
        "id": Integer,
        "link": String,
        "name": String
    },
    {
        "id": Integer,
        "link": String,
        "name": String
    }
]

Name	Description
id	Unique identifier for the category. Integer.
link	Category path. The format is: `/Category/linkname/category_id` See below for example usage. String.
name	Localized category name. See Locales. String.

Example requests and responses

First, we obtain a list of all top-level categories by not including the category_id parameter.

GET /Rest/Media/1/Search/CategoryTree HTTP/1.1
Host: stock.adobe.io
X-Product: MySampleApp/1.0
x-api-key: MyApiKey
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GET /Rest/Media/1/Search/CategoryTree HTTP/1.1
Host: stock.adobe.io
X-Product: MySampleApp/1.0
x-api-key: MyApiKey

The response is multiple categories, including "Food" (id 289).

[
    {
        "id": 261,
        "link": "/Category/states-of-mind/261?load_type=category",
        "name": "States of Mind"
    },
    {
        "id": 289,
        "link": "/Category/food/289?load_type=category",
        "name": "Food"
    },
    {
        "id": 444,
        "link": "/Category/graphic-resources/444?load_type=category",
        "name": "Graphic Resources"
    },
]
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[
    {
        "id": 261,
        "link": "/Category/states-of-mind/261?load_type=category",
        "name": "States of Mind"
    },
    {
        "id": 289,
        "link": "/Category/food/289?load_type=category",
        "name": "Food"
    },
    {
        "id": 444,
        "link": "/Category/graphic-resources/444?load_type=category",
        "name": "Graphic Resources"
    },
]

The category "Food" has multiple child subcategories which we cannot see here without further requests. Here is a subset of its category structure.

Food
- Accessories
- Bread
- Cheese and Dairy Products
  - Camembert
  - Cheddar
  - Emmental and Gruyere
  - Feta
- Cooking

To get the first child level of Food, we pass its category_id of 289.

GET /Rest/Media/1/Search/CategoryTree?category_id=289 HTTP/1.1
Host: stock.adobe.io
X-Product: MySampleApp/1.0
x-api-key: MyApiKey
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GET /Rest/Media/1/Search/CategoryTree?category_id=289 HTTP/1.1
Host: stock.adobe.io
X-Product: MySampleApp/1.0
x-api-key: MyApiKey

We see it has child IDs of 300, 301, and 311.

[
    {
        "id": 300,
        "link": "/Category/bread/300?load_type=category",
        "name": "Bread"
    },
    {
        "id": 301,
        "link": "/Category/cheese-and-dairy-products/301?load_type=category",
        "name": "Cheese and Dairy Products"
    },
    {
        "id": 311,
        "link": "/Category/cooking/311?load_type=category",
        "name": "Cooking"
    },
]
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[
    {
        "id": 300,
        "link": "/Category/bread/300?load_type=category",
        "name": "Bread"
    },
    {
        "id": 301,
        "link": "/Category/cheese-and-dairy-products/301?load_type=category",
        "name": "Cheese and Dairy Products"
    },
    {
        "id": 311,
        "link": "/Category/cooking/311?load_type=category",
        "name": "Cooking"
    },
]

If we want to see the children of "Cheese and Dairy Products", we make another request for category_id 301.

GET /Rest/Media/1/Search/CategoryTree?category_id=301 HTTP/1.1
Host: stock.adobe.io
X-Product: MySampleApp/1.0
x-api-key: MyApiKey
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GET /Rest/Media/1/Search/CategoryTree?category_id=301 HTTP/1.1
Host: stock.adobe.io
X-Product: MySampleApp/1.0
x-api-key: MyApiKey

And get back multiple types of cheeses.

[
    {
        "id": 302,
        "link": "/Category/camembert/302?load_type=category",
        "name": "Camembert"
    },
    {
        "id": 303,
        "link": "/Category/cheddar/303?load_type=category",
        "name": "Cheddar"
    },
    {
        "id": 304,
        "link": "/Category/emmental-and-gruyere/304?load_type=category",
        "name": "Emmental and Gruyere"
    },
    {
        "id": 305,
        "link": "/Category/feta/305?load_type=category",
        "name": "Feta"
    },
]
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[
    {
        "id": 302,
        "link": "/Category/camembert/302?load_type=category",
        "name": "Camembert"
    },
    {
        "id": 303,
        "link": "/Category/cheddar/303?load_type=category",
        "name": "Cheddar"
    },
    {
        "id": 304,
        "link": "/Category/emmental-and-gruyere/304?load_type=category",
        "name": "Emmental and Gruyere"
    },
    {
        "id": 305,
        "link": "/Category/feta/305?load_type=category",
        "name": "Feta"
    },
]