Patent ID: 8682732

Claim:
A method to facilitate programmatic access to a network-based commerce facility via a network, the method comprising: receiving a request from one of one or more third-party applications via a programmatic access application, the request being based on communication between at least one of a plurality of users and the respective third-party application, the request generating a call function to perform an action pertaining to electronic commerce to allow one or more indirect transactions between the network-based commerce facility and the at least one of the plurality of users via the respective third-party application; and responsive to the request, performing one or more actions pertaining to electronic commerce, and communicating via the programmatic access application one or more results of the one or more actions to the respective third-party application in a programmatically accessible format, wherein with each call function, a session certificate uniquely identifying the associated third-party application is provided, and a determination is made as to whether the associated third-party application is authorized to use the call function based on the session certificate.