Introducing a New Way to List Products that Fit Multiple Vehicles

Parts compatibility is the best way to list products that fit multiple vehicles, ensuring more relevant search results while simplifying your sellers' online inventory. This convenient and familiar way to shop for parts means more buyers, faster sales, and fewer buyer questions for sellers. Highlights:

• Structured Data: Sellers no longer have to create and manage many listings, or include the names of all compatible vehicles in the listing title to help buyers find a part that fits. Instead, they just create one listing describing a single part and either select a pre-filled product from our catalog, or add an extensive list of compatible vehicles. This data will appear in the new Compatibility tab in the listing description. The information in the Compatibility tab is searchable.
• Improved Search Relevancy: Listing with parts compatibility also helps buyers find parts that fit their vehicles more easily since they see more precise search results containing exact parts for their specific vehicle. In addition, sellers using parts compatibility will see a boost for their listings in search results.

Parts compatibility was announced in January, and will be released in selected eBay Motors > Parts & Accessories > Car & Truck Parts categories starting in March:

• Lighting & Lamps [#33707]
• Air Intake & Fuel Delivery [#33549]
• Exterior [#33637]
• Tires [#66471]
• Wheels [#43953]

Stay tuned for availability in all Car & Truck Parts and Vintage Car & Truck Parts sub-categories later this year. We'll also post updates on the eBay Motors discussion board

This feature is available in sandbox for the following test categories:

• Parts & Accessories > Car & Truck Parts > Parts Test Category [170583]
• Parts & Accessories > Car & Truck Parts > Wheels, Tires & Parts > Tires > Tires Test Category [170578]
• Parts & Accessories > Car & Truck Parts > Wheels, Tires & Parts > Wheels > Rims Test Category [170577]

Documentation on API changes to support parts compatibility is now in the Product Service Release Notes.

Check out the parts compatibility API docs today!

2010 eBay Developers Program Survey Coming Soon!

Keep your eyes open for an invitation to take the 2010 eBay Developers Program Survey. The survey is your opportunity to provide us with direct feedback to improve our program to better meet your needs.

Results from past surveys of our developer community resulted in improvements to our Developer Sandbox,  Developer Tools and our communications regarding API changes.

We are working with a company called Qualtrics, so please look for our email in early April with a link to the survey on their site.

Please take this opportunity to share your opinions with us.

661 Trading, Shopping, Client Alerts, Merchant Data API Docs Now Available

Please remember to use a test environment when updating applications to use a new schema version.

To find out when a version of the API will be available, see the table at the top of the Release Notes for that API.

You can find the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

New Way to Specify Item Condition: Available in the Sandbox

We are releasing a new way of specifying Item Condition with the API. Previously you had to use attributes or custom item specifics to specify the condition of an item. Now you can use a first class data element. This new element will replace the old ways of specifying item condition.

<Item>
  <Title>Apple  MacBook Pro MB990LL/A 13.3 in. Notebook NEW</Title>
  <Description>Brand  New Apple MacBook Pro MB990LL/A 13.3 in. Notebook!</Description>
  <PrimaryCategory>
  <CategoryID>111422</CategoryID>
  </PrimaryCategory>
    <ConditionID>1000</ConditionID>

More Granular Conditions

In addition, the item condition values are being made more granular in many categories. For example, we previously had the condition "Refurbished." We are splitting that value into "Manufacturer refurbished" and "Seller refurbished." This will better reflect the conditions that are relevant and appropriate in each category. This will also better set buyers expectations about the items that they are purchasing.

Defaults and Values per Category

The new item condition values are the result of extensive testing with sellers and category experts. The default set of values for most categories is:

• New
• New other (see details)
• Manufacturer refurbished
• Seller refurbished
• Used
• For parts or not working

Not Always Inheritance

However, child categories will not always reflect the same conditions as their parent categories. For example, for Sporting Goods, most child categories follow the default set of values. However, Running Shoes are soft goods that are more similar to the Clothing Shoes & Accessories >Shoes category. Sporting Goods> Exercise & Fitness> Running> Shoes uses that set of condition values instead. There are a significant number of exceptions similar to this one. Use GetCategoryFeatures to determine what the condition values are for your category.

Timeline

March 22: New item condition values available in two categories in the Sandbox:

• Video Games
• Computers & Networking

End of April: New item condition values roll to eBay.com for a single category, Video Games. During the migration period, you can continue to use the old way or the new way of specifying item condition.

Early May: New item condition values roll to eBay.com for the remaining applicable categories.

End of July: Only the new way of specifying item condition will be supported. If you continue to use the old methods of specifying item condition, your call will fail.

Note: A small number of categories may continue to use either attributes or custom item specifics to specify item condition. Use GetCategoryFeatures to determine which categories support the new way of specifying item condition.

Important! Item condition is only available in the 655 or later version of the API. You will need to upgrade your WSDL or Schema file to take advantage of the feature. Advanced users can manually upgrade only the AddItem call. See Specifying an Item's Condition for information on which version to pass in the request.

How to Specify Item Condition in the API

Numeric values are used in AddItem to indicate the item condition values. In most cases, the numeric value is consistent across categories (e.g., 1000 indicates the highest level of "New" across categories). However, the display string will vary across categories to display whatever is most appropriate for that category. For example, 1000 used in Clothing, Shoes & Accessories will display as "New with tags." 1000 used in Technology will display as "New".

It is very important that sellers understand how condition will be displayed for their category. It is part of the contract between the buyer and the seller. To support this, we are providing the display string in GetCategoryFeatures. We are also providing a link to the definition for that condition level. We recommend that developers display that link prominently in their listing interfaces.

More Information

For more information, see:

• Shopping API Release Notes
• Trading API Release Notes
• Trading API: Specifying an Item's Condition

GlobalGiving Extends ‘Innovate for Good’ Entry Deadline

In partnership with eBay, GlobalGiving is giving developers the opportunity to show their creativity and talent in a way that has big social impact and major visibility through the GlobalGiving and eBay platforms using either GlobalGiving or eBay APIs—or both. The winning developer gets an all-expenses-paid trip to visit a GlobalGiving project in one of many exotic project locations around the globe!

GlobalGiving, a nonprofit funded by Omidyar Network, is an eBay-like platform for giving to specific, grassroots social and environmental projects located around the world.

Entries will be reviewed by a high-profile panel of judges including Seema Shah, General Manager eBay GivingWorks and eBay World of Good, Mari Kuraishi, Founder and President of GlobalGiving, and Adam Hirsch, Community Director of Mashable.

Entries are being accepted now through April 30th, 2010. Winners will be announced May 14th, 2010.

Get started now!

The market for your apps just got a whole lot bigger!

Selling Manager Applications launched in 2009 and have been so positively received that we’ve opened them up to all sellers. (Previously, you needed a subscription to SM or SM Pro to access these tools.)

Now all US eBay sellers can subscribe to any of the nearly 40 applications in the Apps Center. From sourcing product to accounting tools to shipping help, these applications offer solutions for the most critical seller business needs.

Developers start coding!

Take advantage of the newly redesigned Apps Center to promote and showcase your app to millions of active eBay sellers looking for tools to grow their business.

Use the Open eBay gadget technology to build a new app from scratch or integrate your existing app into the eBay site experience. Find out more on how to get started building for Open eBay Apps today!

It's time! Registration opens for eBay Developer's Conference 2010

Save the date and grab your seat now for this year’s DevCon!

It’s time! Registration has opened (www.ebaydevcon.com) for the 9th annual Developers Conference, which will be held on Jun 8-10 in the heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose, CA. We’re planning a great lineup of networking events like our annual Beer Bash, hands on sessions to get you working deep within our code, keynotes and one-on-one opportunities with some of the leading thought leaders in eCommerce.

Starting today, you can register for only $99. And if you want to make the most of your time at DevCon, take advantage of PreConference sessions (http://www.ebaydevcon.com/about.html)  for only $50 more!

Are you a student and want to build on you educational foundation?  Show us a valid student ID and you can attend DevCon sessions for just $49! Know some brilliant up and coming developers? Pass on the information and help them get ahead of the competition!

We’ll be announcing some great keynotes in the upcoming weeks as well as releasing the schedule of sessions. Keep checking the website to keep abreast of everything DevCon 2010. (www.ebaydevcon.com)

See you there!

659 Trading, Shopping, Client Alerts, Merchant Data API Docs Now Available

Please remember to use a test environment when updating applications to use a new schema version.

To find out when a version of the API will be available, see the table at the top of the Release Notes for that API.

You can find the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.