Domain Split Rolling to Motors Starting Monday (9/29)

Update (8 Oct, 2008): The domain split is now at 100% on the Motors site.

The domain split will be rolling to the Motors site starting Monday (9/29). It will start out at 50% on the site (50% of listings will have the domain split applied) and—if results are positive—will go to 100% on the following Monday (10/6)

This is an improved version of the domain split that rolled out to Motors earlier this year.

This does NOT mean that the domain split will be rolling to ALL eBay sites on Monday. The timing for other eBay sites is still being driven by the new View Item page, and that is incrementally rolling out. And being tested and verified at each stage.

If you haven't had a chance to test your listing under the domain split, you can test it in the Sandbox. Both the domain split and the right rail are working in the Sandbox now. Unfortunately, the Sandbox has the old version of Motors, so you can't test that specifically.

Here is an example of a listing with a wide template and a right rail:
http://cgi.sandbox.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110035258105&ih=001&category=73839&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1

Here is a post with screenshots at different resolutions:
http://developer.ebay.com/community/blog/article/?category=Blog.Developer&name=http://ebaydeveloper.typepad.com/dev/2008/09/how-the-right-r.html

Here's how to get your listing into the sandbox for testing:
  http://developer.ebay.com/community/blog/article/?category=Blog.Developer&name=http://ebaydeveloper.typepad.com/dev/2008/09/how-to-get-your.html

How the Right Rail Looks on the New View Item Page

Update (25 Sep, 2008): You can now see the right rail in the Sandbox. Remember it only shows up on listings that were posted by Store sellers.

I'm hearing from people that they are unable to see what the right rail looks like on their listings. The right rail is enabled in the Sandbox only for listings by eBay Store sellers. To have a right rail show up on your listing, you need to open a store in the Sandbox.

Or, it that's too much hassle, you can list using this test account that we created just for use in the Sandbox.
Username: external_api_seller
Password: 123456
I don't know what will happen if we all try to use it at once, but it will be fun to find out! And please play nicely and don't change any information for this test user.

We're having a temporary glitch in the Sandbox that is preventing the right rail from showing up right now, so I'm posting these screenshots of what a wide listing looks like with the right rail. You can see that the 1200px wide image shows up just fine, and the right rail gets added on top of that:

Here's the view of that page in my browser window (expanded fully on a 1280 px x 1024 px monitor). You can see that the right rail is completely hidden on the right side, but the 1000 px bar is fully visible. Only the 1200 px bar is cut off by the window edge.

Update (25 Sep, 2008): Here's a screenshot of the page taken at an 800x600 resolution. The 700 px bar is the only one that shows. Plus the basketball image on the left is 65 px, so you have 65 px + 700 px = 765 px to work with at this resolution.

I hope this clears up some confusion about the right rail. Please post to the comments if you still have questions. And I'll update this as soon as I hear that the Sandbox glitch is fixed, and you can see the right rail properly again.

How to Get Your View Item Template into the Sandbox

The eBay Sandbox is a test environment that reproduces most of the features of the eBay site. Developers use it to test their API code, and you can use it to test how your listings will look in the new View Item page. The nice part is that you can list, edit, and end your items without any fees or change to your real eBay feedback.

Here's how to get started in the Sandbox:

1. Create an eBay Developers Program account so you can access the sandbox user creation tool.
   Create an account here:
   https://developer.ebay.com/join/
2. Create a sandbox user for listing an item. If you want another user to buy the item, create two uesrs.
   Create a user here:
   https://developer.ebay.com/DevZone/sandboxuser/
   You can create multiple sandbox users with differing levels of feedback
3. Go to the eBay Sandbox and list an item using the normal SYI flow.
   The eBay sandbox is here:
   http://sandbox.ebay.com/

New View Item Page in Sandbox

Update (15 Sep, 2008): The new View Item page is now back in the Sandbox.

Update (11 Sep, 2008): We've temporarily had to roll back the sandbox to fix a different issue, so you can't see the new View Item page right now. It will be restored soon.

Want to see how your listing will look in the new View Item page? Head on over to http://sandbox.ebay.com!

The new View Item page is now live in the Sandbox for all listings. This lets you test your listing templates to make sure they'll look good in the new page.

The domain split for the item description is also live. We suggest that all developers and template creators list in the Sandbox so you can test how your template works. You'll be able to catch any unexpected interactions with the iFrame.

The new View Item is being displayed to a small number of users now, but is scheduled to roll to the entire site before the holiday season.

Update (12 Sep, 2008): It seems I caused some confusion by generalizing about the rollout plan for the new View Item page. Please see Clarification on New View Item Page Rollout for more information on the plan.

For more information see:

• How to Get Your View Item Template into the Sandbox
• View Item page: Developer Impact: New View Item Page.
• Domain split: Developer Impact: Domain Split on the View Item Page.

Want to go global? Test your app with our international Sandbox users!

I'm delighted to announce that we have just made an update to our Sandbox User Registration tool that lets you create "true" international Sandbox users. These users have international home sites, addresses, and phone numbers. It's a great way to make sure that your app can handle the different requirements that international eBay sites might have.

Supported countries are:

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium (Dutch)
• Belgium (French)
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Netherlands
• Switzerland
• UK
• US

Support for Italy, India, and Spain will follow.

Update to Sandbox User Creation

Update: Sandbox user creation is working. Thank you for your patience! Please use the wizard at http://developer.ebay.com/DevZone/sandboxuser/.

Update: We are experiencing temporary issues with Sandbox user creations. We are working hard on a fix. In the meantime, you can use these 12 sellers to test your app. Thank you for your patience!

Based on suggestions from many of you we have now updated the eBay Sandbox User registration to make it easier, as well as more secure, when adding new users. We've replaced the registration form with a handy wizard which you will find at http://developer.ebay.com/DevZone/sandboxuser/. To add new users you will need to use the wizard.

To avoid developer confusion between your Sandbox users and your production users we've removed the ability to edit Sandbox user names.  However, if your production application requires the ability to change user names please contact Developer Technical Support who will be happy to help you with testing that feature.

Sandbox Updates for mid-May USPS Changes

Upcoming USPS changes taking effect on Monday, May 14th are now ready to test in the Sandbox!  Take advantage of the features below to test your listings before the changes go live!

• New International Services are now available for listings.
• New International Services available via GeteBayDetails.
• Warnings are now returned from AddItem/ReviseItem/RelistItem when using deprecated services in listings.
• GetItemShipping returns calculated shipping costs for new services.
• Listing and Checkout behavior is now set to Post - May 14th behavior.

Please check the Sandbox System Announcement for updates testing Shipping Calculator functionality.

For more details regarding the USPS rate changes, see the eBay Shipping Center and the eBay API USPS Rate Change Guide.

Sandbox changes for dispute resolution testing

Based on input from our developer community, we have implemented a change to the Sandbox that eliminates the waiting period for filing both Unpaid Item (UPI) and Item Not Received (INR) disputes. For testing UPI disputes, eliminating the waiting period of associated Final Value fee credits pending on the buyer's response will be addressed in a future update.

Please note that currently this change has only been implemented for US (site 0). Global rollout to all other Sandbox sites is currently scheduled for early December. Refer to the API documentation release notes for other detail.

API Usage Report for Sandbox

The API Usage Report now allows you to view your API calls by production application and by Sandbox application.

Many people have taken advantage of the API Usage Report to view their Production traffic: what calls are compliant with minimum compatibility as well as which calls have failed. This report is an excellent tool to cross reference your log files with what eBay has captured about your API calls. Now you can use it in the Sandbox to display the number of successful API calls, API calls failed, and API calls not at the minimum recommended compatibility level.

Please Note: Although the report will store up to 6 months of data from today's date, special data tables were created for this report and the earliest data available for the sandbox environment is from July 28, 2006.

Tech Support Alert: Sandbox Registration Tool Broken

Developers: our Sandbox User Registration Tool is temporarily out of service.

To create and validate new Sandbox test accounts, please follow the instructions in this Knowledge Base article: Test Sellers for the Sandbox Environment. We are currently researching fixes for the tool, but do not have an ETA as to when it will be repaired.

Apologies for the inconvenience.