Type Change for Values in Sold and Active Inventory Reports

Posted by Laurel Kline in Product News & Large Merchant Services
Friday, Jan.29.2010, 11:55 AM PT

Starting with release version 657, all amount values in the Merchant Data API will be returned strictly as xs:double as specified in the schema and documentation. Currently, monetary amounts in the Sold Report and the Active Inventory Report use grouping separators where applicable (e.g. the comma in 1,234.55). The new values will be returned regardless of the version passed in the request.

A conversion summary for a few currencies can be seen below for reference:

USD

EUR

 This change was deemed necessary to:

• Stay in line with the standards established across other eBay APIs and Products. Sellers often use multiple tools, the data returned should stay as consistent as possible.
• Reduce the complexity of managing different currencies when engaging in Cross Border Trade (CBT).
• Correct any outstanding inconsistencies between the Schema and the reports.

Join Us for a Webinar on the Spring 2010 API Changes

Posted by Laurel Kline in Trading API, Shopping API, Business News, Program Events & Product News
Thursday, Jan.28.2010, 12:51 AM PT

Please join us today for a webinar on the Spring 2010 changes. This webinar is open to anyone developing with the eBay API.

We'll be reviewing the announced Spring 2010 changes and answering any questions you may have about the new features.

Meeting Link: https://intercall.webex.com/intercall/j.php?ED=133766222&RG=1&UID=0&RT=MiM0
Starting date:   Thursday, January 28, 2010
Starting time:   1:00 pm, Pacific Standard Time (San Jose, GMT-08:00)
Meeting number:   592 777 078
Teleconference:  

Developer Impact: Spring 2010 Announcements

Posted by Laurel Kline in Product News, Trading API, Shopping API, Best Practices, Finding API, Categories and Item Specifics, eBay Motors, Sandbox & Business News
Tuesday, Jan.26.2010, 9:25 AM PT

Today, Dinesh Lathi posted an important announcement about the Spring 2010 Release (SR10.1). Here is the developer impact for those features. More details will follow in the documentation as each feature is released.

OUR LOWEST INSERTION FEES EVER COMING THIS SPRING: FREE AUCTION-STYLE LISTINGS; FIXED PRICE AS LOW AS 3¢ WITH FULL SEARCH EXPOSURE
Great news: Starting March 30 the upfront cost of selling on eBay will be dramatically reduced for sellers of all sizes with our lowest Insertion Fees ever. Whether you're running a business or selling to earn extra cash, choose from a range of options designed to make your selling easier and more profitable:
Choose the option that's best for you:
1.  New "eBay everyday" standard rates: List Auction-style FREE—pay only if it sells
The new eBay standard rates are perfect if you sell occasionally. 

• List up to 100 items a month Auction-style free—no Insertion Fees—when you start your Auction-style listing under $1.
• Get new, lower Insertion Fees for all other start prices.
• Either way, pay one easy Final Value Fee of 9% of the winning bid—and never more than $50—pay only if your item sells.
• List in Fixed Price for 50¢ with Final Value Fees mostly the same as today

2.  New eBay Stores subscription packages: Fixed Price with full search exposure as low as 3¢ plus great low rates for auctions
The new eBay Stores subscription packages are the right choice for most sellers with 50 or more listings a month:

• List in Fixed Price with full search exposure for as low as 3¢ Insertion Fees with Final Value Fees for the most part the same as today
• Get FREE pictures
• Get deeply discounted fees on Auction-style listings

Developer Impact:
No API changes are needed to support this change. Any rate or subscription changes will be automatically reflected in the API. Sellers are encouraged to review their listing strategy to see which options work best for them.

Only one Fixed Price format
"Full search exposure" is key because starting March 30, there will be just one Fixed Price listing format on eBay. Store Inventory Format listings will automatically become regular Fixed Price listings with the same duration and renew at the new rates—and surface in search results right along with all other listings.

Developer Impact:
In the API, the FixedPriceItem (FPI) listing format will be replacing the StoresFixedPrice (SFP) listing format. We are offering a migration phase where AddItem will continue to accept either FPI or SFP as listing formats. However, the item will be displayed as FPI on the site and in search results. GetItem and other Get calls will return the format you originally used in the request (FPI or SFP).

In early 2011, SFP will no longer be an accepted option, and your AddItem call will fail if you include it. We recommend you take the following actions as early as possible to avoid issues:

• Remove StoresFixedPrice as a listing option from your user interface
• Start using FixedPriceItem in your AddItem instead of StoresFixedPrice.

Starting with 653 (late Jan), the existing eBayNotes field in will start returning whether or not that item has had sales in the last 16 months. Sellers can use that information to help them make decisions about which selling strategy works best for them.

As of March 30th, 2010, any existing SFP listings will be treated as FPI on the site. Items will immediately get the higher FPI exposure, and will renew or relist at the FPI price.

Any listing enhancements (e.g., bold, subtitle, etc.) will also renew or relist at FPI rates. Sellers will want to evaluate their use of listing enhancements to see if it supports their listing strategy at the higher rates.

This feature will be available in the Sandbox for testing after the Production release. Note, however, that most Sandbox items will not meet the criteria for having sales information returned in eBayNotes (a listing with no sales for 16 months).

Developers who do not yet support the eBayNotes field in GetMyeBaySelling should consider adding support for it. Sellers will find that information particularly valuable between now and late March as they evaluate their existing SFP listings.

Subscribe or upgrade your subscription early and save!
We want to make sure you have plenty of time to get ready: Use the handy Fee Illustrator to determine which option will be most cost-effective for you. Then subscribe or upgrade now with no additional monthly fee until April.

Developer Impact:
No new API changes for this feature.

BUILDING BUYER CONFIDENCE—NEW EBAY BUYER PROTECTION PROGRAM
We're making a big move to bring buyers and keep them on eBay with the new eBay Buyer Protection program. All over eBay, the message to buyers will be loud and clear: "eBay's got you covered," so buy on eBay with the confidence and satisfaction you expect from a trusted retailer. As always, direct communication between buyers and sellers to get issues resolved will continue to be encouraged.

Developer Impact:
No new API changes for this feature.

The eBay Top-rated seller badge also ensures quality service and keeps buyers coming back. More and more of you are now enjoying the benefits. U.S. sellers can also now qualify for Top-rated status in more countries.

Developer Impact:
We know that sellers appreciate visibility into their performance on eBay. Sellers who sell on UK/IE/DE/AT/CH currently have only 3 possible status levels returned in GetSellerDashboard for those sites: BelowStandard, Standard (default), and TopRated. We are adding an additional level of granularity to the response so sellers can also see if they are AboveStandard.

AboveStandard indicates that the seller is performing above the standard level for that country. UK and DE PowerSellers who are AboveStandard are eligible for Final Value Fee discounts.
Starting early Feb, if you specify version 653 or later in your request, you'll also start seeing AboveStandard (when applicable) in the response.

AboveStandard is an already existing enum (as of 635) so you do NOT need to upgrade to the 653 WSDL to pick up this tag. You probably already support it for the US site.
3rd-party developers will want include this status tag in any user dashboard, or listing cost estimates they provide. Note that a default status value is returned for all sites (whether or not there have been any sales on that site), so developers may want to filter out values for sites that the seller does not sell on.

MORE UPDATES TO BOOST SELLER EFFICIENCY
Sellers in eBay Motors Parts & Accessories will be able to create one listing with a complete list of compatible vehicles—a huge saving in Insertion Fees and time.

Developer Impact:
The API fully supports Parts Compatibility. Developers with sellers who list in Motors: Parts & Accessories will want to add support for this feature to their applications.

Parts Compatibility is available today in the Motors Sandbox in selected test categories. Starting in mid-March, Parts Compatibility will be supported in limited Parts & Accessories categories in the Production environment.

Trading API SDK support for Parts Compatibility will also follow in March.

Listing with Parts Compatibility:

• Use the new Product API to retrieve the correct eBay Product ID (ePID) for your part (if available). Include that ePID value in the ProductReferenceID container in your AddItem request. The Product API will be available with 655 (early Feb).
• Use the new Product Metadata API to retrieve a list of parts compatibility information specified as name and value pairs. For example, to specify a part's compatibility with a vehicle, the name would map to standard vehicle characteristics (e.g., Year, Make, Model, Trim, and Engine). The values would describe the specific vehicle, such as a 2006 Honda Accord. Pass those name value pairs in the new Item.ItemCompatibilityList container in AddItem. The Product Metadata API will be available with 655 (early Feb).
• Specify parts compatibility manually by specifying the part's relevant dimensions and characteristics (e.g., Section Width, Aspect Ratio, Rim Diameter, Load Index, and Speed Rating for a tire) using attributes in Item.AttributeSetArray. A table of attribute values is available now.

Finding Parts Compatibility Items:
Parts compatibility improves search relevancy and frees up item titles and descriptions for more useful descriptions of the part. Listings with parts compatibility information also get a Best Match boost in search results. The compatibility match is also displayed in the search results (e.g., Fits: 2004 Honda Accord).

This new search behavior is supported by the Finding API and the Best Match Item Details API. The deprecated calls FindItems, FindItemsAdvanced, GetSearchResults and GetCategoryListings do not support Parts Compatibility items.

For more information, see the Trading API Release Notes.

You'll be able to list multiple variations of a product in one Fixed Price listing in many more categories.

Developer Impact:
The Items with Variations feature has been added to more categories. For technical information on how to use this feature in the API, see Describing Variations in a Listing.

Return policy and handling time will be required for new listings and re-listings in eBay Motors Parts & Accessories in June—editing tools make updating listings easy

Developer Impact:
Return Policy is specified in Item.ReturnPolicy. ReturnsNotAccepted is a valid value. Handling time is specified in Item.DispatchTimeMax.

Most listing-tool developers should already support required Return Policy and Handling Time in other eBay categories. In late 2010, they will also be required in Motors: Parts & Accessories.

Only new, relisted, and renewed items will be checked for compliance.

Developers can help sellers comply with the new requirement by flagging non-compliant listings for their review. Also by offering bulk editing tools to so sellers can search live listings and revise.

Category and Item Specifics changes are also coming with the rest of these.

Developer Impact:
Please refresh your cached categories and item specifics when the changes go live.

In keeping with the practice started last year, we're continuing to consolidate changes that impact your business into two or three major releases a year. Get details on all the updates coming in the spring 2010 update, including the new fee structure.
For more insight into the upcoming changes, including fees, you're also invited to:

• Take part in the upcoming webinar on Thursday, January 28.
• Join me and other leaders from eBay and PayPal in a Town Hall meeting on Thursday, January 29. Check the Announcement Board for more details coming soon.
• Talk with members of my staff during the next two days on a special discussion board we've set up for this purpose.

We recommend taking advantage of the resources that Dinesh mentions above. eBay developers can also get their questions answered:

• On a special technical discussion thread hosted by the eBay Developers Program.
• At an upcoming technical webinar on Thursday, January 28 immediately following the general one.

Make Selling Manager Applications Part of Your New Years Resolutions

Posted by Perrine V. Crampton in Merchandising API, Trading API, Shopping API, Developer Community, Business News, Developer Education & Product News
Wednesday, Dec.30.2009, 1:25 PM PT

We have had a very busy year working on the Selling Manager Applications program. We’ve grown to 34 available applications (with more getting ready to launch!) and enhanced the Selling Applications Directory to better market your applications!

Meeting Sellers' Needs

Selling Manager Applications are all about meeting the Seller’s needs. Helping them do and manage their business easier, faster, stronger. Sellers are regular people,trying to earn a living. Life gets in the way. Many of them do not have a technical background and are looking to Selling Manager Applications to solve problems and make it easier for them to earn money.

Let’s face it. Everyone wants to earn money.

Sellers are looking for the best cost-benefit in your applications. In a recent Seller survey, many Sellers said they don’t have a lot of money and are very price sensitive. Given the economy, this should not be a surprise to any of us. Some Sellers said they are not technical and need applications that are easy to use, configure and manage.

When you build your application, keep in mind the different technical skills of the Sellers; your customers:

• Would a Quick Reference Guide help Sellers configure your application faster or easier?
• Would a 30 second video describing the most compelling features of your Selling Manager Application help increase Seller subscriptions of your application?

Make us part of your New Years resolutions!

Submit your Selling Manager Application Business Readiness Review and Billing information by Jan 10th in order to go live by mid-February 2010. Based on our research, we think email management, customer management, shipping and fulfillment, bulk editing of listings, UPI process management, picture management, profitability analysis, and inventory management are all pretty good bets for new Selling Manager Applications. But that doesn't mean you can’t use your imagination and create other application types. Social networking or providing special filtering are some additional areas. Surprise us! Show us what you’ve got!

Read the eBay's Next Gen Platform Opportunity blog entry for an overview of the program and benefits.

• View Lead Product Manager, Selling Manager Applications project, Madhu Gupta’s presentation deck here,
• Learn more about Selling Manager Applications here.

eBay Developers who have created Selling Manager Applications include:

• MyStoreCredit - helps Sellers provide buyers with a positive experience through follow-up e-mails that include shopping rewards, such as a 10% off coupon on their next purchase.
• Outright – a free Web service that tracks all Seller income and expenses to get taxes done accurately and on time to help you avoid costly fines from the IRS.
• vzaar - allows Sellers to quickly and easily add video to their eBay listings for a more dynamic shopping experience.
• Read their, and other, Success Stories at:http://developer.ebay.com/programs/Success-Stories/home.html

Get started today! Review our documentation and see if this opportunity is a fit for you.

Grow with us in 2010!

Updates to Summer 2009 Release; Part 2 of 2.

Posted by Perrine V. Crampton in Documentation, Product News, Certified Provider, Developer Community, Finding API, Best Practices, Shopping API, Trading API, Client Alerts API, Large Merchant Services, Merchandising API & Categories and Item Specifics
Thursday, Dec.17.2009, 9:49 AM PT

Updates to Summer 2009 Release; Part 2 of 2.

On July 29, 2009, Laurel posted an announcement about the July 2009 updates. In this entry, we highlight part 2 of the features that were released since then

For the list of calls changed with each Trading API version, see the Trading API Release Notes.

Because there are many updates, the details have been split into two entries. The first part can be found here. This is the second entry and covers the following topics:

Listing Enhancements

[627] Changes to ListingFeatureDetails and Some Listing Features to Be Removed and Restricted

Selling Manager Applications

Shipping

ShippingCarrierUsed: Type Change
LeaveFeedback and Shipping API Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs)

Top-Rated Sellers

Misc

Reminder: Return Policy and Handling Time Required When You Renew GTC Listings

As a reminder, the first entry included: will link to part 1 entry.

• Best Match
• Editing Live Items (ELI)
• Search

If you would like the complete details on the July 2009 Update, please refer to the following links and to the API Release Notes.

• Overview
• Details
• FAQ
• eBay Motors
• Canada

Seller Resources

• Best Practices
• Seller Checklist

Listing Enhancements

[627] Discontinued: Bold title, border, Featured First, Featured Plus!, gift icon, highlight, Homepage Featured, and ProPack. See the Release Notes.

[627 ] Changes to ListingFeatureDetails and Some Listing Features to Be Removed and Restricted

• All features are not available to all Sellers, use the Trading call GeteBayDetails to find out which features are available for your site. As part of the seller release, some listing upgrades were removed for some sites, and some will be restricted to eBay Top-Rated Sellers or PowerSellers. The listing features include bold title, border, Featured First, Featured Plus!, gift icon, highlight, Homepage Featured, and ProPack. A new type, ListingFeatureDetails, has been added to the GeteBayDetails response that returns which listing features are available to the seller for the site. Another addition to the GeteBayDetails response, UpdateTime, reports the time of the most recent modification to any Detail.
• A type has been added to the Trading call ListingStartPriceDetailsType.MinBuyItNowPricePercent, which returns the minimum percentage difference between the start price and the Buy It Now price for a listing on the specified site. There is one exception: Use category details to find the percentage requirements for Motor Vehicles (using Site ID 100 - the eBay Motors site.)

Items with Variations

[629 ] Multi-Variation Listings: GetSellerEvents and Other Enhancements

• GetSellerEvents now returns variation details in Item.Variations, including StartPrice, Quantity, and QuantitySold, plus SKU and/or VariationSpecifics. Multiple variations are returned together in the same Variations node (similar to GetItem).
• To keep the GetSellerEvents response smaller, the variation specifics are not returned if the variation has a SKU.
• With RelistFixedPriceItem and ReviseFixedPriceItem, you can now use SKU to uniquely identify an existing variation, regardless of whether the listing has inventory tracking set to SKU.
• ReviseInventoryStatus now supports modifying variations when InventoryTrackingMethod is set to ItemID.
• For the site specified in the request, GeteBayDetails now returns variation constraints, such as maximum number of variations, in VariationDetails.
• GetUser now returns QualifiesForVariations (a boolean) to indicate whether the user is eligible to list with variations on the site specified in the request.
• In SetUserNotes, you can now set private notes for variations. These notes will be visible to the user for variations that are displayed in My eBay.
• GetMyeBayBuying and GetMyeBaySelling now return PrivateNotes for applicable variations. Depending on how the notes were set (what was specified in the SetUserNotes request), the variations may be returned within Variations or within Item

Selling Manager Applications

• Sellers may subscribe to Selling Manager Applications through My eBay.
• Developers can create Selling Manager Applications using the Selling Manager API

Shipping

• [635] Shipping Insurance option has been removed from many sites. If shipping insurance is included in AddItem, it will be dropped with a warning, but won't fail. See the Release Notes.
• [635] Using My eBay, you can create an Exclude Ship-To List of the locations to where you will not ship items. Once set up, all items that you list on eBay will, by default, use the Exclude Ship-To List to exclude the locations you specified in the list. If a buyer's primary ship-to location is a location that you have listed as an excluded ship-to location (or if the buyer does not have a primary ship-to location), they will receive an error message if they attempt to buy or place a bid on your item. Use GetUserPreferences to review the default set of excluded locations that you have set up in My eBay. Use GetUserPreferences to retrieve your global exclusion list. See the Release Notes.
• [635] Tracking for multiple package shipment for a single item. ShippingCarrierUsed and ShipmentTrackingNumber have been moved to a repeatable ShipmentTrackingDetails container. See the Release Notes.

ShippingCarrierUsed: Type Change

• [627] More shipping carriers supported. The type for ShipmentType.ShippingCarrierUsed has been changed from ShippingCarrierCodeType to string. This enables sellers to specify a shipping carrier (via CompleteSale) other than the ones noted in ShippingCarrierCodeType.
• With a request version lower than 627, the value you specify for CompleteSale's ShippingCarrierUsed must be a value found in ShippingCarrierCodeType. If the request version is 627 or higher, you can specify the shipping carrier of your choice, even if it is not in the ShippingCarrierCodeType list, and GetSellingManagerSaleRecord will return that value. See the Release Notes.

LeaveFeedback and Shipping Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs)

• [629] Local Pickup: Shipping Time DSRs ignored, Shipping and Handling Charges MAY be ignored.
• In the Trading API LeaveFeedback call, DSRs left for Shipping Time will be ignored for all Local Pickup transactions. DSRs left for Shipping and Handling Charges will be ignored for Local Pickup transactions where the seller did not add any special handling fees. See the Release Notes.
• This change affects the following eBay sites: AU, Mn-AT, BE-FR, BE-NL, CA, CA-FR, FR, DE, HK, IN, Mn-IE, IT, MY, Motors, NL, PH, PL, SG, ES, Mn-CH, UK, US

Top-Rated Sellers

• [635] Seller Status Now Returned by GetSellerDashboard. See the Release Notes.
• Avoid 1s and 2s
• Only domestic DSRs count
• [629 ] Top-Rated Seller Details Available via GetUser and Other Calls; SellerInfo.SellerLevel to Be Removed
  • When Top-Rated Seller details became available in October (see Announcement), GetUser began returning fields that identify the seller as a Top-Rated Seller and gave details about the Top-Rated Seller program. These fields are already present and documented for GetUser and other calls. They include TopRatedSeller and TopRatedSellerDetails.TopRatedProgram, which identifies the Top-Rated-Seller programs for which the seller is qualified. See the Release Notes.
  • When the Top-Rated Seller feature became active on the US, DE, and UK sites, SellerInfo.SellerLevel no longer returned results for those sites. Affected calls include GetUser, GetBidderList, GetSellerList, GetItem, and GetItemTransactions.

Misc

More categories are becoming catalog-enabled

Reminder: Return Policy and Handling Time Required When You Renew GTC Listings

When Good Till Canceled (GTC) listings are renewed, they will be checked for Return Policy and Handling Time. If these details are not included, the GTC listing renewal will fail. For more info, see this entry in the Forum.

We are 9! The 9th Anniversary of the eBay Developers Program

Posted by Perrine V. Crampton in Product News, Developer Education, Developer Website, Partner News, Developer Community, Business News, Program Events & Best Practices
Wednesday, Dec.02.2009, 3:32 PM PT

Many changes have taken place since our 8th anniversary:

• In August 2009, eBay opened its new App Store for Sellers, offering developers the ability to embed their business productivity applications in My eBay, where hundreds of thousands of eBay Sellers currently manage their online business.
• As of Q3 2009, the eBay Developers Program has grown to more than 100,000 members who have created over 13,000 live applications.
• More than 60% of all eBay.com listings come through eBay Web services, with over 30% coming through third-party tools via the eBay Developers Program.
• In Q3 2009, the eBay Platform handled over 27 billion Web service requests.
• Five developers were honored this year with annual eBay Star Developer Awards for improving user experience, helping sellers adapt to rapid improvements in eBay Marketplaces, providing product input that improves the API platform for the eBay developer community, and more.

2009 eBay Star Developer Awards winners are:

• DSR Rockstar: Seller Machine CRM by BengalOne
• Most Innovative: Dynamic pricing feature by Monsoon
• Early Adopter: Mercent Retail for eBay by Mercent
• Service to the Developer Community: Jake Becker (helios825) of WatchCount.com
• Rapid Evolution: Sales Manager by InkFrog

Thank you all for another great year! :-)

More about the Changes to the Unpaid Item Dispute Process

Posted by John Darrow in Documentation & Product News
Thursday, Nov.05.2009, 3:23 PM PT

In October, eBay introduced changes in the Unpaid Item (UPI) Dispute process. We have a few clarifications and additions for you on this process. As noted in the UPI documentation, the new process lets you open  a dispute as soon as 4 days after the transaction (instead of 7) and close disputes as soon as 4 days after opening the dispute (instead of 7), etc.

How do you know whether these new timelines apply to your disputes or not? It is all about the request version. If you created a UPI dispute with a request version lower than 637, the old timelines apply and the various platform notifications for messaging are still supported.  But if the request version is 637 or greater, the new timelines apply, and the following platform notifications no longer apply: BuyerResponseDispute, SellerClosedDispute, SellerOpenedDispute, SellerRespondedToDispute. (The reason the notifications are not needed is because messages between buyer and seller are no longer added to the dispute.)

Support for the old process will be removed around March 2010, so please migrate your UPI dispute code to work with the new process.

What do you think of the new UPI process? I would like to hear your thoughts.

Fraser Smith
Senior Product Manager

developer-relations@ebay.com

eBay Architecture talk on the eBay API Platform @ SDForum, 10/28 in Palo Alto

Posted by Delyn Simons in Product News & Program Events
Thursday, Oct.15.2009, 2:31 PM PT

Join Farhang Kassaei, eBay's Lead API platform architect on Wednesday, October 28th, @ 6:30pm in Palo Alto for a talk on  the technical challenges and issues solved to create the latest updates to the eBay API Platform, hosted by SDForum.

Participation is one of the important principals of Web 2.0. To encourage participation often Web 2.0 sites adopt an "open" strategy: Allow your developers to build the application for your end user. Architecturally, this approach is radically different than the traditional architecture where the entire site is built, deployed and operated by an internal team. Some of the aspects of architecture that should be examined in any open architecture are:

1.Overall System Architecture

2.Deployment

3.Development Cycle and Testing

4.Dependency Management and Graph

5.Security

6.Performance

7.Domain Specific API

8.Events and Messaging

9.Internationalization

10.State Management, Data Access

This talk will focus on how eBay dealt with these challenges when it opened its Selling Manager Applications platform to developer community. Get details about the talk here. Join Farhang at SDForum on 10/28!

- Delyn

Sellers can now revise live multi-quantity listings with sale

Posted by Laurel Kline in Product News, Trading API & Best Practices
Wednesday, Oct.07.2009, 12:03 PM PT

As announced, sellers can now edit almost everything in live multi-quantity fixed price listings even after a sale on the item, except for title, category, duration and format. If you need to add quantity, modify the item price, edit the description, modify shipping costs etc, you don’t need to end and recreate the listing. You can simply revise your live listings. Buyers who had previously bought the item will have an option to see the earlier version of the listing.

For developers looking for new revenue opportunities, consider building feature-rich revision tools. Sellers are searching for listing revision tools that help them identify which listings need to be revised, regardless of which tool launched the listing. For easy policy compliance updates, we recommend all listing tools offer listing revisions, including multi-quantity fixed price items with a sale, with a quick way for sellers to determine which listings need revision. Or build a new revenue stream by building a query and revise tool, for easy search and replace on any parameter (even return value = null).

Developers will want to update their code to retrieve a particular version of a listing for proper reconciliation and dispute resolution purposes.

Developer Impact:
No code change is necessary to edit these listings, but any developer blocking these types of edits should remove such a block. Revisions can be done using any existing revise API call including ReviseItem, ReviseFixedPriceItem, ReviseInventoryStatus. Be sure you are using ReviseFixedPriceItem or ReviseItem so no additional seller fees are incurred (i.e. when using RelistFixedPriceItem). Revisions on multi-quantity fixed priced listings with a sale will still be blocked if a seller tries to edit title, category, duration or format.

When retrieving listings, a new Transaction ID field was added to GetItem on release 627 and GetItemTransactions on release 635 to return a specific version of the listing. If no transaction is specified, the latest version will be returned. Changes to the GetItemTransaction API call may cause a change to the behavior of several Platform Notifications. GetSellerTransactions will return the snapshot of the item as it was at time of transaction on release 635. Read the Release notes for more information.

Resources:
Release notes
ReviseItem
ReviseInventoryStatus
ReviseFixedPriceItem
GetItem
GetItemTransactions
GetSellerTransactions

New Best Match API: Whats your rank?

Posted by Laurel Kline in Product News
Friday, Oct.02.2009, 9:00 AM PT

Today, we are pleased to announce that the Best Match Item Details API is available. You can use this new API to help sellers answer the following questions:

• Where is my listing appearing in search results when sorted by Best Match?
• How is my listing performing?
• What listing attributes help or hurt my listings rank?
• What can I do to improve my listing's rank?
• How do listings on page one of search results compare to my listing for a given search?

Best Match is the default sort order for search results on eBay. The goal of Best Match is to help buyers find what they're looking for, from sellers they trust.

Using the Best Match Item Details API, you can write applications that help sellers improve the Best Match rank of their listings. Additionally, you can enable sellers to view their items' click-through rates, their impression count range, and their items' sales per impression. An impression occurs on a listing when a user sees a search results page that contains the listing.

eBay also is releasing the Search Visibility tool, available in My eBay for sellers who can access the Seller Dashboard.

The Best Match Item Details API provides extra functionality that is not available in the Search Visibility tool. However, before you write an application, please note the information returned by the Search Visibility tool. For example, note the values returned for an item in the tool's Search Visibility Report. The values correspond to some of the values returned in a getBestMatchItemDetails response.

For more information about the Best Match Item Details API, see the Release Notes.