Checklist for Going Live
Your application may need to go through the Compatible Application Check. For more information, please see the sections below and see the following location:
If you decide to go through the Compatible Application Check, ensure that your application complies with eBay policies:
Compatible Application Check formerly was called Standard Application Certification.
Additionally, new applications must support the latest schema version that is available in the Production environment at the time of the Compatible Application Check.
The following topics provide more information about these prerequisites:
Supporting Compatibility Levels
Compatible Application Check
Compatible Application Check formerly was called Standard Application Certification.
This section covers the following topics:
Requirements for Compatible Application Check
Getting a Compatible Application Check
About the Compatible Application Check Timeline
Requirements for Compatible Application Check
As part of the Compatible Application Check process (see Getting a Compatible Application Check), eBay critically reviews all new applications for compliance with eBay's Compatible Application Check Requirements at no cost.
The requirements are listed below. They identify performance criteria for each application. These criteria affect key operating functions: Error handling, simultaneous requests, and polling frequencies.
All Developers Program licensees are required to be in compliance with the Compatible Application Check Requirements at all times. Occasionally, changes to the API require changes to the requirements. The eBay Developers Program makes all reasonable attempts to notify licensees when the requirements change. However, we strongly recommend that you review the Compatible Application Check Requirements below regularly.
Requirements for Specific Calls
Certain calls have special requirements to ensure that you use them most efficiently and effectively. Please see Compatible Application Check for Specific Calls for a summary of the Compatible Application Check Requirements that apply to particular calls.
Requirements for Error Handling
Errors that are returned from calls include useful details and instructions for both end-users and applications. The structure and granularity of the error messages are intended to help your application handle errors gracefully.
When an error occurs, please use the following guidelines to determine what actions to take to correct the error and when to retry the request.
Infrastructure Errors: These indicate that an infrastructure error has occurred, such as a problem on eBay's side with a database or server going down.
- Symptoms: No response, unable to connect to eBay, a database error is returned, or a structuredexception is returned.
- Retry: two times
- Actions:
- Test connectivity.
- Check the Announcement Boards (see System Announcements).
- Escalate the problem to eBay by contacting online technical support (see Developer Technical Support).
Application-Level Errors: An application-level error occurs due to problems with business-level data. In these cases, we return a list of errors in the response message payload. See Application-Level Errors for details about this type of error.
- Symptoms: An API call request returns an error result set.
- Retry: Do not retry until you have confirmed that the input arguments and request are valid.
- Actions:
- Review the call input to confirm that the input fields and overall format of the request are valid.
- Report bugs by using online technical support (see Developer Technical Support).
- Check the Announcement Boards see System Announcements).
- Escalate the problem to eBay by contacting online technical support (see Developer Technical Support).
See Error Handling for additional information about handling errors.
Requirements for Sending Simultaneous Requests
- Server-side applications may use a maximum of 18 simultaneous threads per application.(Technically, this means 18 simultaneous threads per AppID, which is a unique identifier for an application. See Sandbox and Production Keys for information about obtaining an AppID.)
- Client-side applications may use a maximum of three simultaneous threads per user.
- Any multi-threaded application must have the ability to quickly increase and decrease thethread count per call.
If you have questions about the maximum number of threads your application is permitted, please contact Developer Support.
Multiple Items Returned per Single API Call
Some calls return multiple items in response from a single call. eBay reserves the right to change the maximum number of items returned per page (see Controlling the Amount of Data Returned for information about pagination).
Applications must be designed to recover gracefully when the number of items returned per page changes.
Polling Frequencies
eBay reserves the right to restrict an application's polling frequencies for any calls. This type of restriction typically occurs when eBay determines that an application is causing a negative operational impact to the eBay site.
Versions
New applications must comply with and use the latest schema version that is available in the production environment at the time of the Compatible Application Check. See our eBay Schema Versioning Strategy for details.
We announce important changes for each version in the release notes. Therefore, it's a good idea to be sure you review the release notes regularly. See Release Notes and Known Issues for information about where to find the release notes.
UTF-8 Character Set
Applications must use the UTF-8 encoding scheme (not ISO-8859-1). All applications must validate text strings specified in the body of each request to make sure the characters are UTF-8 compliant. It is not enough to simply transmit information to eBay in UTF-8 format; you must convert the characters provided by users (e.g. in item descriptions, street addresses, names of persons) to UTF-8 if they were received in a non-UTF-8 charset (e.g. from a browser for which the encoding was not UTF-8) or stored in your database in a non-UTF-8 charset.
See the article "Working with UTF-8: charsets, conversion, tools" in the Developers Program Knowledge Base for additional information:
Getting a Compatible Application Check
The details of the Compatible Application Check process, and best practices, are detailed on the Compatible Application Check page of the eBay Developers Program site:
Compatible Application Check PageIf you decide to go through the Compatible Application Check, ensure that your application complies with eBay policies:
This section summarizes the Compatible Application Check process and includes some points you should keep in mind as you put together your project plan and milestones, and as you design, develop, and test your application.
These are the main steps in the Compatible Application Check process:
- Double-check that your application meets the Compatible Application Check Requirements (seeRequirements for Compatible Application Check). Conditions change and the requirements are updated on an ongoing basis.
- Navigate to the Compatible Application Check page on the eBay Developers Program site (seethe link above).
- Navigate to the Support page on the eBay Developers Program site (see Developer Technical Support) and open a new support case. Fill out the Compatible Application Check form completely and accurately. This is the only way to request the Compatible Application Check for your application.
This process is free.
- After you submit the document, Developer Technical Support will notify you of the status ofyour application.
If your application does not initially pass the compatibility check, Developer Technical Support will explain what you need to do to improve the application. Depending on the extent of the changes, we may need to close the case, and you may need to reapply when your application is ready.
- Your application must comply with the Compatible Application Check Requirements at alltimes, so please be sure to review the requirements regularly to make sure your application remains in compliance.
About the Compatible Application Check Timeline
The Compatible Application Check process takes approximately 5-7 business days, provided your application meets the Compatible Application Check Requirements, and you are within the API Public License Agreement guidelines. For more information, see:
If you decide to go through the Compatible Application Check, ensure that your application complies with eBay policies:
Supporting Compatibility Levels
When you send information to eBay, you need to specify which version of the API your application is using (see Release Versions).
See our eBay Schema Versioning Strategy for details.
| http://developer.ebay.com/DevZone/XML/docs/WebHelp/DevAndTestApplications-Checklist_for_Going_Live.html | |
| © 2004–2013 eBay Inc. All rights reserved. | Version 823 |