Workshops Your Customers May Be Interested In

eBay is offering the following workshops next week. Both you and your customers might find them helpful!

Turning  Unhappy Customers into Loyal Buyers
This workshop will be held  on Tuesday, May 13th from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Pacific  time. 

In this workshop, Jerad Schempp, Chief Operating Officer of Certified  Solution Provider HostedSupport will explain an approach for turning unhappy  customers into loyal, long-term buyers! 

Understanding  Safer Payment Requirements and eBay Item Holds

This workshop  will be held on Thursday, May 15th from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.  Pacific time. 

Join eBay and PayPal staffers to learn more about the goals of safer payments  and eBay item holds. Learn how to avoid having your funds held and what to do if  your funds are held to release them as quickly as possible. We will also answer  your questions about how holds work, what happens to your funds while they are  being held, interest payments, shipping confirmation, communication, and dispute  resolution.

Update on Custom Item Specifics

We are working hard on rolling out Custom Item Specifics to all categories! The majority of categories will have Custom Item Specifics in place by the middle of next year.

A few categories will continue to use the older style of item specifics (attributes) through 2009. These include Cars, Trucks, Motorcycles, and Tickets. A complete list will be available later in the year.

For more information on Custom Item Specifics, see Working with Custom Item Specifics. For more information on attribute-style item specifics, see Working with Attribute-Based Features.

ZinText Makes your Site an Affiliate Powerhouse!

ZinText is a free service that can be used on any website to automatically link keywords to products on eBay. The links look similar to other in-text advertising links, with a double underline. When a user hovers over the link, a window pops with live listings on eBay related to that keyword.

You can try it out yourself on the  ZinText demo page.

Here's the cool part: ZinText automatically picks out the keywords for you. Just drop the ZinText JavaScript into your page, and you get instant affiliate links. No thinking required. If you want to customize it more, you can include and exclude certain keywords using their whitelists and blacklists.

ZinText uses your existing  eBay Partner Network campaign ID, so you will see the clicks showing up in your normal eBay Partner Network reports.

ZinText is able to offer this service for free because 10% of your clicks  go under their campaign ID. This means ZinText makes money the same way you do - through the eBay Partner Network.

Learn more about ZinText. Read founder Chris Hedgecock's blog.

PayPal To Be A Required Payment Option for AU Sellers

We're making it safer for all our members to trade on eBay.com.au. To ensure members use only the most secure payment methods, it will soon be required to offer PayPal on all listings on eBay.com.au.

Changes will be introduced in two stages:

1. All items listed for sale on eBay.com.au on or after 21 May 2008 must offer PayPal as one of the payment methods.
2. All items appearing on eBay.com.au as of 17 June 2008 must be paid for using one of the following:
   1. PayPal
   2. Pay on pick up (i.e., paid for when picking up the item)
   3. Visa/MasterCard (with transactions processed by PayPal).

No other payment methods will be permitted.

eBay is making these changes to improve the buyer experience by  ensuring buyers have a safer electronic form of payment available to  them. Giving buyers safer payment options on eBay will help increase  buyer satisfaction and improve the marketplace overall. In addition, it allows us to offer unprecedented levels of protection to buyers and sellers, including PayPal Buyer Protection up to AU$20,000.

For more information about safer payment requirements, please review the following announcement:

• Making eBay Even Safer
• About PayPal Buyer Protection

Please note a small number of categories are excluded from these changes. Find out about these exclusions.

563 Trading API Documentation Now Available

The 563 version of the API documentation is now available. Please note that updates to applications using new schema versions should always be done in a test environment.

Release Highlights

New Features

• Promotional Sales Support for Auctions and Auction/Buy It Now Formats via Free Shipping
• Enhancements to PayPal Buyer Protection
• Preview: Use Your Seller Dashboard To Check Your Selling Performance

Changed Functionality

• Changes to the eBay Feedback System
• New Creation Time Filter for GetAdFormatLeads
• Specifying Freight Shipping when Listing
• GetMyeBayBuying Allows You to Use the Trading and Shopping APIs Together
• Items Under Minimum Not Returned In Searches
• ReviseItem: Shipping Details and Multi-Quantity Listings

Documentation Changes and Errata

• eBay Web Site Differences for Third Party Checkout
• Improvement of and Migration of Samples

Change Requests

• See the Trading API System Announcements for bug fixes included in this release.

eBay Trading API Documentation

• Release Notes
• eBay Web Services Guide (HTML) or (PDF)
• I/O Reference

Please refer to table at the top of the Release Notes for when each version of the API will be available.

Keep up to date with the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

John Darrow
API Tech Docs and Tools

563 Shopping API Documentation Now Available

The 563 version of the API documentation is now available. Please note that updates to applications using new schema versions should always be done in a test environment.

Release Highlights

Changed Functionality

• Items Under Minimum Listing Amount Not Returned In Searches

Change Requests

• See the Shopping API System Announcements for bug fixes included in this release.

eBay Shopping API Documentation

• All Tutorials: Start working with the Shopping API.
• Getting Started Guide: A quick overview of the eBay Shopping API and what you can do with it.
• Call Reference: Browse all calls and the fields they use.

Please refer to table at the top of the Release Notes for when each version of the API will be available.

Keep up to date with the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

John Darrow
API Tech Docs and Tools

Developer Pulse: Top 5 Developer Forum threads

Top 5 Developer Forum threads (by # of posts) from the last two weeks:

1. Where is the affiliate id in the ebay Partner Network
2. Getting Average BidCount
3. Error 21915461 using GetBestOffers
4. FindPopularItems: Most Popular Across All of eBay
5. Listing Icons

- Delyn

New Industry Keynotes Announced, plus Project Echo

We're 6 weeks out from the event, and we've made some recent additions to our keynote line-up for eBay Developers Conference 2008, the must attend e-commerce technology industry event of the year.

• Mike Shaver, Chief Evangelist for Mozilla Corporation
• Adam Gross, Vice President, Platform and Developer Marketing at Salesforce.com
• Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com
• John Donahoe, CEO and president of eBay Inc.
• Rajiv Dutta, president of eBay Marketplaces
• Max Mancini, Senior Director of Platform and Disruptive Innovation at eBay

Speakers will be addressing the importance of open platforms in improving user experiences, boosting customer loyalty and engagement, and helping entrepreneurial developers monetize their applications by taking advantage of the leading e-commerce API platforms on the Web. You won't want to miss the opening keynote demo featuring Project Echo for the eBay platform.

Next, if you are planning on launching an application built on the eBay platform that you'd like to announce around eBay Live! or eBay Developers Conference -- make sure to get your press release approved by eBay in time to issue it at the events. Send your press release to ebaypaypal AT text100.com and they'll respond to your request quickly.

In addition to our eBay Developers Conference 2008 Facebook Event, where people are already connecting with familiar faces and arranging to meet in Chicago, we've started an ebaydevcon08 twitter, where you can get real-time updates from the show. When you Follow the ebaydevcon08 twitter, followers of ebaydevcon08 will have their messages appear on plasma display screens in the Developer Lounge in Chicago.

All for now. Register Now to get in on all the fun!

- Delyn

Developer Pulse: Top 5 Developer News

Top 5 Developer News (by # of clicks) from the last two weeks:

1. Offering Safe Payment and Buyer Protection
2. New Pricing Model for eBay.co.uk
3. eBay Partner Network
4. eBay Partner Network site live - Get your new ID now!
5. Send us your Nominations for Star Developer Awards by Friday, April 11th

Charity Sellers Need to Accept New Charity Terms & Conditions

In May 2008, existing charity sellers will no longer be considered registered charity sellers until they agree to the new Terms & Conditions and create a donation account on eBay. After this date, any charity seller that tries to sell an item as a donation will be taken to the new Terms & Conditions page. When accepted, sellers will be marked as accepted and can continue being registered charity sellers as before.

Please let your customers who sell items for Charity know about this change, as it will block their listings until they agree to the new Terms & Conditions.

Retiring UK and Germany eBay Express

At the end of April 2008, UK and Germany eBay Express sites will be shut down. The sites will no longer be accessible, and you will not be able to list items on these sites via the website or the API.

Active Express-only items will be ended and moved to a seller's unsold items folder and a full insertion fee credit will be issued. Scheduled Express only items will be also moved to the unsold items folder, but not credited since the items were never charged. All other listings in any other format will remain on the site as they are.

For more information on the API impact, see the Release Notes.

Last Chance to Save $245 - Register for DevCon by April 30th

Look out - I'm back, and I've got lots of exciting updates about eBay Developers Conference 2008.

First off - don't miss out on your last chance to save $245 by registering for DevCon by April 30th. Register now so you can relax and make plans to enjoy all Chicago has to offer.

Next, thanks to all of you who were behind the record number of Star Developer Award nominations this year that were due by Friday, April 11th. We were flooded with both nominations and customer testimonials telling us about their favorite eBay tools. eBay, PayPal, Skype, Shopping.com -- I was completely energized by all the activity. We were struggling to keep up! Stay tuned about the winners and runner-ups from each category.

Due to popular demand, we are adding a Day One, hands-on eBay Web Services B.Y.O.L. Code Lab on Monday afternoon, June 16th. If you want to roll up your sleeves and get neck deep in code, this is the session for you. This two hour Code Lab will be a deep dive into our Shopping Web Services, Trading Web Services and Client Alerts. Bring your own laptop, and eBay engineers will help guide you through the detailed steps needed to create three demo applications from scratch. And because you are using your own set-up, you can bookmark all the key information you need to be able to recreate the steps when you get back home. 

Now let's talk fun. Fun is staying in downtown Chicago during the conference, so you can enjoy all that this great city has to offer. We're offering a free shuttle over to the McCormick Place West Convention Center throughout DevCon, from the Hyatt Regency Chicago. You don't need to stay at the Hyatt Regency Chicago to take advantage of the DevCon Shuttle, so check out the Shuttle information and nearby hotels on the Hotels/Shuttle page of our DevCon website.

Fun is also joining our eBay Developers Conference 2008 Facebook Event, so you can connect with familiar faces and arrange to meet in Chicago. Check out some of the event photos, videos and links people are sharing, including information about upcoming sessions from the speakers who are giving the talks.

I think that's enough for now. Check back in a couple of weeks for our next DevCon update. Get ready for Chicago!

- Delyn

New Flash Tutorials for Version 2.2 of the Flex/Flash SDK

Developers who design with the Flex/Flash SDK 2.2 can now take advantage of two new tutorials for use with Adobe's Flash CS3 - a basic search tutorial, and a more advanced search tutorial.

The basic-level tutorial takes Flash CS3 developers through the steps needed to create a successful search application using the FindItemsAdvanced Shopping web service call.

The more advanced tutorial combines the results of the FindItemsAdvanced and  the GetUserProfile Shopping web service calls to create an application that  retrieves both item and user data.

More Calls Added for JavaScript, Flex, and Flash SDKs (Toolkits)

All of the SDKs (JavaScript, Flex, and Flash) that help you build applications with eBay Shopping API calls have been updated to include the following calls:

FindPopularItems
  FindPopularSearches
  FindReviewsAndGuides
  GetCategoryInfo
GeteBayTime

In addition, the SDKs include a new timeout retry feature, and samples for FindPopularItems
and FindReviewsAndGuides.

561 Trading API Documentation Now Available

The 561 version of the API documentation is now available. Please note that updates to applications using new schema versions should always be done in a test environment.

Release Highlights

Announcements

• Retiring UK and Germany eBay Express
• Existing Charity Sellers Are No Longer Considered Registered

New Features

• Improved Lead Gathering
• PayPal Integration on HK, SG, MY, and PH Sites

Changed Functionality

• Changes to Charity Seller Details for eBay Giving Works

Documentation Changes and Errata

• Improvement of and Migration of Samples
• BuyItNowAvailable Field for Chinese Auctions

Change Requests

• See the Trading API System Announcements for bug fixes included in this release.

eBay Trading API Documentation

• Release Notes
• eBay Web Services Guide (HTML) or (PDF)
• I/O Reference

Please refer to table at the top of the Release Notes for when each version of the API will be available.

Keep up to date with the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

John Darrow
API Tech Docs and Tools

561 Shopping API Documentation Now Available

The 561 version of the API documentation is now available. Please note that updates to applications using new schema versions should always be done in a test environment.

Release Highlights

New Features

• FindHalfProducts Enhancements

Change Requests

• See the Shopping API System Announcements for bug fixes included in this release.

eBay Shopping API Documentation

• All Tutorials: Start working with the Shopping API.
• Getting Started Guide: A quick overview of the eBay Shopping API and what you can do with it.
• Call Reference: Browse all calls and the fields they use.

Please refer to table at the top of the Release Notes for when each version of the API will be available.

Keep up to date with the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

John Darrow
API Tech Docs and Tools

Early May category changes

The category structure will be updated in early May based on feedback received from the eBay Community and from experts in the affected fields. The May update contains some significant changes for Crafts and Video Games, as well as many additions to Dolls & Bears and Pottery & Glass. If you sell in these areas, please be sure to take a look at the new category structure on Seller Central here. Business & Industrial, Collectibles, Computers & Networking, Musical Instruments, Sporting Goods and Toys also have minor adjustments as detailed below.
Updated Categories:

• Business & Industrial - Restoring brand-specific subcategories for Antique Tractors & Equipment
• Collectibles - Removing Bullets & Grenades category under Militaria >WWII >US >Original Period Items according to new company policy
• Computers & Networking - Removing Digital, Downloadable Software category according to new company policy
• Crafts - significant changes
• Dolls & Bears - many new categories
• Musical Instruments - Restoring brand-specific subcategories for Guitars
• Pottery & Glass - new categories
• Sporting Goods - restoring brand-specific categories for Golf Balls and Vintage Fishing Lures, gun types for Airsoft, and increasing visibility for Baseball Gloves & Mitts
• Toys & Hobbies - Adding Radio Control Engine categories
• Video Games - significant changes

No Change to Auth & Auth for Identity Confirmation

Last week, you heard from John Canfield about Trusted Selling with Identity Confirmation. In certain cases, eBay will now be requiring people to enter a PIN received over the phone when they sign in to eBay.

Developer Impact:
Developers will not be required to make any changes to their applications as a result of this new process. If your application requires use of the Auth & Auth sign in process, when necessary, we will handle the PIN confirmation for you, before providing you with a token.

559 Trading API Documentation Now Available

The 559 version of the API documentation is now available. Please note that updates to applications using new schema versions should always be done in a test environment.

Release Highlights

Announcements

• ReviseItem: Shipping Details and Multi-Quantity Listings
• PayPal To Be Required Payment Option for UK Sellers

New Features

• Making Listings Available by Default on Another Site
• GetItem Returns Business Seller Information in a Business Card Display Format

Changed Functionality

• Shipping Requirement For New Users
• Changes to PicturePack and SuperSize for Gallery PhotoDisplayType
• Picture Show Photo Display Options Are No Longer Available
• Green Camera Icon No Longer Supported
• Digital Delivery Format Disabled

Change Requests

• See the Trading API System Announcements for bug fixes included in this release.

eBay Trading API Documentation

• Release Notes
• eBay Web Services Guide (HTML) or (PDF)
• I/O Reference

Please refer to table at the top of the Release Notes for when each version of the API will be available.

Keep up to date with the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

559 Shopping API Documentation Now Available

The 559 version of the API documentation is now available. Please note that updates to applications using new schema versions should always be done in a test environment.

Release Highlights

New Features

• GetSingleItem Returns Business Seller Information in a Business Card Display Format

Change Requests

• See the Shopping API System Announcements for bug fixes included in this release.

eBay Shopping API Documentation

• All Tutorials: Start working with the Shopping API.
• Getting Started Guide: A quick overview of the eBay Shopping API and what you can do with it.
• Call Reference: Browse all calls and the fields they use.

Please refer to table at the top of the Release Notes for when each version of the API will be available.

Keep up to date with the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

ProStores Design Certification Program and Template Store

Become a ProStores Certified Designer – market to ProStores' rapidly growing merchant base and display the "ProStores Certified Designer" logo.

• Display the ProStores Certified Designer logo on your company site
• Get listed in the ProStores Designer Directory
• Be eligible for inclusion in our newsletter and other marketing materials 

As a ProStores Certified Designer you are also eligible to participate in the ProStores Template Store. Create customized templates for sale to ProStores merchants—showcase your design talent and increase your exposure to ProStores merchant base.

ProStores is the complete ecommerce solution backed by eBay – featuring built-in integration with the eBay marketplace and PayPal payment solutions.

Get trained, get certified, and build your business with the ProStores Design Certification program and Template Store.

Late April 2008 Item Specifics Changes

We plan to update the following eBay Item Specifics in late April/early May:

• Video Games: Accessories
• Video Games: Systems
• Video Games: Games
• Crafts: Sewing Machines
• Crafts: Dies

In addition, new eBay Item Specifics are planned for Fabric categories in Crafts.

Please refer to Seller Central for upcoming Item Specifics changes.

eBay Developers Conference 2008 badges

Are you going to eBay DevCon 2008 in Chicago? Say it loud and proud with our cool badges for your blog, website, HTML newsletter, email, etc.

Don't forget to take us up on our Early Bird discount - register by April 30th and get $245 off the regular price.

"I'm going to DevCon!"

Large Badge (235x100)

Copy and paste this code:

<a href="http://pages.ebay.com/devcon/"><img src="http://developer.ebay.com/images/devcon/2008/badge_going_250x100.gif" alt="I'm going to eBay DevCon 2008" /></a>

Small Badge (120x90)

Copy and paste this code:

<a href="http://pages.ebay.com/devcon/"><img src="http://developer.ebay.com/images/devcon/2008/badge_going_120x90.gif" alt="I'm going to eBay DevCon 2008" /></a>

See you in Chicago!

- Delyn

International Site Visibility Upgrade To Be Available in the API

The International Site Visibility feature is a listing upgrade that  is available to seller on any of the four primary sites we currently support, US  (ebay.com), Canada  (ebay.ca), UK (ebay.co.uk), and Ireland  (ebay.ie).  Sellers will have to option to pay a small fee to gain incremental exposure to buyers on a targeted secondary site.

For information about the International Site Visibility feature, see the following recent Announcement Board Posts:

• Information for US sellers 
• Information for UK  and Ireland sellers 
• Information for Canada sellers

The seller and listing requirements to be eligible for International Site Visibility can be found on the feature's Help page.

For information about the API changes, see the Trading API Release Notes.

Note: This feature will be available in the next few days.

Send us your Nominations for Star Developer Awards by Friday, April 11th

Don't miss out! Nominations for our annual Star Developer Awards are open, and the competition is already heating up fast. We’ve got five categories this year across eBay, PayPal, Shopping.com, ProStores and Skype:

• Most Innovative Application
• Early Adopter
• Service to the Community
• Best Design
• DSR Rockstar (improving customer service)

Please send your nomination to us via email to developer-relations AT ebay.com, no later than Friday, April 11th. Be sure to include:

• your name and contact info
• the nominee’s name and contact info
• the award category, and a brief explanation as to why you think the application is worthy of consideration.

Be sure to put “DevCon Star Developer Award” and the category name in the subject line of your message.

Also, make sure to register now for the eBay Developers Conference to get the Early Bird discount of $245 off regular price. Go to www.ebay.com/devcon and register now!

- Delyn

Developer Pulse: Top 5 Knowledge Base articles

Top 5 Knowledge Base articles (by user ratings & # of searches) created in the last two weeks:

1. Java SOAP Client for the eBay Shopping Web Services (Part One) -- Create a REST client and make Shopping API calls
2. Java SOAP Client for the eBay Shopping Web Services (Part Two) -- Logging Handler
3. Accessing properties of objects returned in response using JSON
4. Sample Auth & Auth implementation for Desktop Applications using Visual Studio 2005
5. Sandbox Registration Tool Error "REG.BIZ.140"

- Delyn

Keep Up With eBay Marketplace Updates

As announced by President of Global Marketplaces Operations, Lorrie Norrington, eBay is in the midst of numerous product updates and policy modifications to make eBay a better marketplace.

Developer Impact: Over the next several months, we will be keeping our developer community up to date with how these product and policy changes in the eBay marketplace will impact the eBay Web Services platform. We encourage you to keep you up to date with developer announcements in our blog by subscribing to our RSS feed and in e-mail by monitoring our bi-weekly email newsletter. Where there is direct and significant impact to the API platform, we will continue to point to the Release Notes to provide further detail.

PayPal To Be A Required Payment Option for UK Sellers

Starting in late April 2008, all sellers on the eBay UK site will be required to offer PayPal on their listings.

Sellers will still be able to offer other payment methods in addition to PayPal. This payment requirement is already in place for sellers with limited transaction history and for sellers listing items in specific higher risk categories.

eBay is making these changes to improve the buyer experience by ensuring buyers have a safer electronic form of payment available to them. Giving buyers safer payment options on eBay will help increase buyer satisfaction and improve the marketplace overall. This payment requirement will not apply to the listings in the Motors Vehicles category.

For more information about safer payment requirements, please review the following announcements:

• Making eBay Safer and Easier with PayPal
• Safer Payments and Buyer Protection

eBay Partner Network site live - Get your new ID now!

The eBay Partner Network site is now live. Sign up today to get your new affiliate ID. As an added bonus for joining early, eBay Partner Network members will get an extra 5% commission during the month of April.

As previously mentioned, eBay affiliates who use Commission Junction must migrate to eBay Partner Network by May 1, 2008 or they will stop getting commissions.

See here for information on how to update your code.

Update Your .NET Framework Before July

Starting with the July release, the eBay SDK for .NET will only support Microsoft's .NET Framework 1.1, and .NET Framework 2.0. We will drop support for .NET Framework 1.0, because Microsoft has retired it.

We strongly recommend that you update your .NET Framework, if you are still using 1.0.

See the eBay SDK for .NET readme file for more information.

Time to Update Your Java JDK

Starting with the July release, the eBay SDK for Java will only support JDK 1.5 and JDK 1.6. We will drop support for JDK 1.4, since Sun has deprecated JDK 1.4.

We will also upgrade from the customized version of Axis 1.1 to the standard Axis 2.0 version.

We strongly recommend that you update your JDK if you are currently on 1.4.

See the eBay Java SDK readme file for more information.

Digital Delivery Format disabled today

Update: The Digital Delivery Format has now been disabled. AddItem calls using that feature will fail.

Sellers who wish to continue to use the Trading API to offer digital goods can do so by setting the value of Item.ListingType to LeadGeneration and Item.ListingSubtype2 to ClassifiedAd when invoking AddItem.

Using the Classified Ads format, sellers receive a 30-day ad at a fixed price. Sellers can list multiple digital goods in one Classified Ad.

This solution enables sellers to continue to market their digital goods on eBay; however, because Classified Ad listings are a lead generation tool and do not result in transactions that go through eBay, Feedback cannot be exchanged between buyer and seller.

Early April category changes

The category structure will be updated in early April based on  feedback received from the eBay Community and from experts in the  affected fields. The April update  contains some significant changes for Business  & Industrial, Cell Phones &  PDAs, Health & Beauty, Home & Garden and Musical Instruments. If you sell in  these areas, please be sure to take a look at the new category structure on  Seller Central.  Books, Coins & Paper Money, Consumer Electronics, Sporting Goods and Toys  & Hobbies also have minor adjustments as detailed below.

  Updated  Categories:

• Business & Industrial - significant changes
• Cell Phones & PDAs - significant changes
• Health & Beauty - significant changes
• Home & Garden - significant changes
• Musical Instruments - significant changes
• Books - removing Magazine Subscriptions, according to new company policy.
• Coins & Paper Money - updating year categories in US quarters & dollar coins
• Consumer Electronics - adding DJ Gear & Stage Lighting section
• Sporting Goods - adding categories for Climbing Holds and Equestrian-themed Jewelry & Accessories, and moving Disc Golf to Outdoor Sports
• Sports Mem, Cards & Fan Shop - updating year categories in Cards
• Toys & Hobbies - Adding Pokemon TFG and Control Line & Freeflight categories

Now even easier to make REST calls

REST is a popular format which enables you to interact with eBay using a simple URL. Now, making REST calls has become easier with the Shopping API. You no longer need a token to make HTTP Get (REST) calls!

Since the Shopping API covers the same functionality as the token-based REST APIs and is easier to use, the token-based REST APIs will not be updated and will no longer be supported as of August 1, 2008. Please use Shopping API Get HTTP protocol for your development.

New sellers MUST specify shipping

Starting today, all new sellers who are listing for the first time must specify at least one domestic shipping service and associated cost for this and all subsequent listings.

Shipping details appear for buyers in key places, such as the Search Results page, the top of the item detail page, and in the Shipping Details section at the bottom of the item detail page. (Exception: shipping details that are only specified in the item description do not appear in these locations.)

Since listings with shipping specified are more likely to sell and attract better DSR scores, all sellers are encouraged to specify shipping details for their listings.

• AddItem
• RelistItem
• ReviseItem
• VerifyAddItem

For more information about shipping services, see Shipping Alternatives.

The vast majority of eBay listings already follow the best practice of specifying shipping costs. In a few months, it will become a requirement for most listings that shipping costs are specified. (Certain categories like Vehicles and Real Estate will be exempted.)

A reminder: eBay's "shipping calculator" supports most services from USPS and UPS. Sellers can list items (AddItem) with "calculated shipping" (the shipping rate is to be based, for example, on the distance to ship the item, determined from such things as the buyer's postal code, selected shipping service, and package size and weight). Buyers can then calculate the cost of shipping to their address with the Shipping Calculator on the eBay web site or with the GetItemShipping call.

Congratulations to Our Widget Developers!

The eBay Widget Build-Off Contest was a blast for us to host, and we are very encouraged by the enthusiasm and creativity the developer community has shown us. We want to thank all the developers who have entered their widgets for your passion and courage to show us just how cool eBay widgets can get. In our mind, you are all winners. But the average scores separated the masters from the experts by a sliver. So we want to take this opportunity to share with the rest of our developer community and eBay community whom we’ve chosen as masters of eBay widget development.  Details on the winner widgets and their developers are coming soon.

In no particular order:

Winner: Ztail.com’s gallery + related keywords selection widget

Winner: Ty Kroll's widget for disappearing eBay listings as they end

Winner: Mark Johnson's (Portland Studios) widget with 3D animated flip-the-widget for listing details design

Winner: Thai Huynh's new and improved eBay To Go

Winner: Ben Longoria's shoe rack widget for all the shoe fanatics out there

(Note: winners are subject to signing all necessary paperwork)

Congratulations again to all the winners! And thank you all again for participating in this quick contest and all your hard work :o).  You guys are awesome, and eBay Partner Network will be proud to share the winner widgets with the rest of our affiliate community.

By the way, we’re also opening up nominations for our annual Star Developer Awards. We’ve got five categories this year across eBay, PayPal, Shopping.com, ProStores and Skype:

• Most Innovative Application
• Early Adopter
• Service to the Community
• Best Design
• DSR Rockstar (improving customer service)

Please send your nomination to us via email to developer-relations@bay.com, no later than Friday, April 11th. Be sure to include:

• your name and contact info
• the nominee’s name and contact info
• the award category, and a brief explanation as to why you think the application is worthy of consideration.

Be sure to put “DevCon Star Developer Award” and the category name in the subject line of your message.

eBay Partner Network Migration

eBay affiliates who use Commission Junction must migrate to eBay Partner Network by May 1, 2008 or you will stop getting commissions

But relax, it's a very minor code update to use the new eBay Partner Network affiliate tracking values.

And as a reward for early migration, all eBay Partner Network members will get an extra 5% commission during the month of April.

1. Sign up with eBay Partner Network after April 1, 2008 to get your new tracking ID.
2. Use your new tracking ID instead of your old tracking ID
3. Update your tracking partner code

Please click here for details.

eBay SDK 555 for Java point release

Developers can download the eBay SDK 555 for Java point release. Point releases, unlike full releases, do not go through the typical, full rounds of quality assurance. Point releases include bug fixes and updates to the wrapper classes.

This point release is updated with the features and fields available in version 555 of the WSDL. For more information about WSDL version 555, see the Release Notes.

Before using the SDK, please read the main Readme file. Additionally, before using the SDK, please read the Release Notes (which contain tables showing schema changes that occur every two weeks) at the Developer Documentation Center. Please note that upgrades to an SDK should always be done in a test environment.

eBay SDK 555 for .NET point release

Developers can download the eBay SDK 555 for .NET point release. Point releases, unlike full releases, do not go through the typical, full rounds of quality assurance. Point releases include bug fixes and updates to the wrapper classes.

This point release is updated with the features and fields available in version 555 of the WSDL. For more information about WSDL version 555, see the Release Notes.

Before using the SDK, please read the main Readme file. Additionally, before using the SDK, please read the Release Notes (which contain tables showing schema changes that occur every two weeks) at the Developer Documentation Center. Please note that upgrades to an SDK should always be done in a test environment.

557 Trading API Documentation Now Available

The 557 version of the API documentation is now available. Please note that updates to applications using new schema versions should always be done in a test environment.

Release Highlights

New Features

• GetSellerList Returns Policy Details for Canceled Listings
• GetCharities Now Supports Searching for Featured Charities

Changed Functionality

• Improvements to User Token Retrieval
• Affiliate Tracking: Migration to eBay Partner Network
• Changes in Anonymous User ID Format for GetBestOffers

Change Requests

• See the Trading API System Announcements for bug fixes included in this release.

eBay Trading API Documentation

• Release Notes
• eBay Web Services Guide (HTML) or (PDF)
• I/O Reference

Please refer to table at the top of the Release Notes for when each version of the API will be available.

Keep up to date with the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

John Darrow
API Tech Docs and Tools