Friday June 9th (PDT) - Release Discussion Thread

Thanks for the alert. Always good to know. Is this Phase II ?

Good luck
Rosemary

No. This is just a release of new features for eBay Live. Phase II is still in development.

thanks for the heads up and for the externally hosted image options.

(and sorry about replying in your news/notices thread)

externally hosted images - will be nice. most of mine are already on my site and always thought it silly to move 'em over and eat up more bandwidth, time, etc. sure, could code 'em in by hand, but still...

thanks again

quote:

Originally posted by wayoutwest:
(and sorry about replying in your news/notices thread)

you noticed that I removed that

and i didnt even get "pink slapped"

Hi,

Does this mean that the images hosted on this website will also be down ?

Has Auctiva emailed EVERYONE about this site outage? Remember that there are users who don't visit the community boards or use the website to list. I don't know if they will be affected by this but they screamed the loudest last time there was an extended site outage.

I got the nod via a pop up message when I logged in to Auctiva good idea!

But as I was logging in specifically to do some listing, I too want to know whether the image hosting will be down - and I need to know ASAP otherwise I won't bother!

Please advise ASAP!

This 'update' will not impact images. The alert will give everyone ample warning.

quote:

Originally posted by bartonsbargains:
Remember that there are users who don't visit the community boards or use the website to list.

The only users who do not use the website to list are using our classic software which is not impacted by this update.

Bill

Early Friday morning we'll be doing a site update. It's not a server/hardware change.

The main difference between this site update and all of our previous ones is that we've held off for a few months instead of just doing weekly updates as we added features. With this new process, we've actually done a lot more testing than normal.

I expect it to go just as smooth as our normal site propogations and for the site to be back up within 30 minutes of the end of maintenance. But, just in case we have to revert to the old version of the site or do a quick fix and re-release, we wanted to put the warning up for everyone.

-Kevin

Sneak Peak of our new features
--------------------------------------------

For those who'd like to see what the new features will look like on the site before it goes live for everyone, you can try our beta site out.

A few things to keep in mind though:

1. The beta site is using your LIVE auction data and is connected with the LIVE ebay site. So, if you post an auction, it will actually post to eBay.

2. Auctions that you create on the beta site will NOT show up correctly on the current Auctiva site.

3. Scheduling will NOT work on the beta site. If you do want to Post to the live eBay site, you'll have to use the "post" button. Keep in mind that the same auction will then not be able to post/schedule back on the current Auctiva site.

4. The Auto feedback service is NOT running on the beta site. You can leave feedback though from the transactions page.

5. Custom templates will NOT work properly between beta and live site.

All of these issues will not be issues when we make the beta test the new live site.

And finally... the link to the beta site:
(Link removed as the live site now has the same site as the beta previously had)

Feel free to post comments here.

-Kevin

Thanks so much for the information. When you are finished on Friday evening, is there some place we go to make sure the feedback is not automatic? In other words, will it be on and we have to turn it off if we don't want automatic feedback?

It's defaulted to off, you'll need to turn it on if you want it on.

Poke around the new site, test out the new images selection pages and options on that page, the feedback area, and etc. You probably just don't want to try using it for real work. It's just a sneak peek.

Thanks, fellas. I feel better. You guys are alway so helpful.
Good luck
Rosemary

quote:

Originally posted by wayoutwest:
and i didnt even get "pink slapped"

Steve..

You mean like this?
<smile>


HA!
Enjoy eBay Live!!!!!
Donna

LMAO @ Donna!

Hey, I need a button with that image for ebay live! been awhile since i've been pinkslapped on ebay forums, though. guess i need to try harder *grin*

slightly off topic (my pinkslap story) -- i'm the one that caused ebay to start warning people about spoofs on their main pages (rather than only warning in forums like they had been).

I nearly fell for a phish and after some digging found the warning buried in the forums. i felt that wasnt enough and went to CBS News and got them to run story on national news (as part of their friday consumer alert series) about ebay spoofs and phishing in general. when preparing the story, they asked me to try to find people that had been victims (instead of near victim like i was).

so i posted on ebay forums about it and that was going to the media about it and asking for any victims to step forward. got pinkslapped because all requests for info by the media have to go through their legal dept. (nevermind the fact that i was just a concerned private citizen and not the media themselves).

and got pinkslapped again for complaining about the pink slap on the forums.

CBS news ran the story (using my email acct so they could show the spoof email on news), ebay began putting warnings on main pages of site, and ebay spent quite a bit of $ running a series of commercials about how great it was to shop on ebay.

So, i'm not the most popular guy when it comes to ebay's upper mgmt - laf!

just found where system updates are (in a way) affecting images.

click to enlarge isnt working on active auctiva listings.

here's url from an auctiva listing with click to enlarge (the url that loads when you click) -
http://www.auctiva.com/hostedimages/showimage.aspx?gid=...2&formats=0&format=0

as you can see, gives you a message about system being updated.

store window appears to also not be working.

i spent yesterday getting sister set up for selling on ebay (getting her ebay acct id verified so can use as a seller acct, getting her a photo area set up, teaching her auctiva -- heaven forbid she'd use one of those other places , etc). Anyway, store window was working on her listings last night (before the update). today they say "No Items Available"

here's one of her items if you want to look http://cgi.ebay.com/Metal-Antique-Finish-Elk-Candle-Hol...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm having the same problem. No enlarged pics and nothing in the store window. I wish I had known about the update sooner I don't normally visit the boards and I would have worked more last night, had I known.

Hi all. New site is not yet live, we're still finishing up normal maintenance.

I'm not sure why supersize images are displaying a maintenance page when you try to view them. Those images are not dependant on the database and thus should display as normal. I'll have someone look into why that's happening.

As for the store window, that unfortunately can't generate what items to display if the database is down. It is normally cached for a couple of hours and thus can make it through some of maintenance time with the previous items it was loaded with, but as soon as the caching time ends and it tries to load new items, if the database is still down for maintenance, it won't be able to get new items.

The database should come back online shortly and your store windows will generate new items.

-Kevin

hello all,

i am new here (*waves*) and was just wondering about some things.. hopefully since they were mentioned in this thread, they'll be ok here... pls. move me if i'm in the wrong place! and pls. don't think i'm a dodo, i'm sure some of these q's seem obvious, but i'm also new to selling, and honestly don't know this stuff! as for the alert, didn't notice it at all and didn't get a popup.. tried to get on last nite when i noticed ebay's 20 cent listings, but site was 'flaky' (i'm est so i guess things were in progress already)... sad to miss out on that, but at least i learned to pay attention about updates!

here's my q's:
what is ebay live? and what do the auctiva updates pertain to?

i saw some peeps mention auto feedback service; i've never noticed that; where is it exactly?

and here's the biggie... what exactly is beta and does that mean there will be two versions of auctiva, or is the site switching to beta...
(remember, i haven't even been doing this a week, so bear with me!

and finally, what's the diff. btwn listing on auctiva, and using the 'classic software', and is the old software still available?

i think that's it for now; thanks for your patience and info!

and btw, i'm really glad i found auctiva... i've been talking about selling on ebay for so long, but don't know if i ever would have done it w/o this site! *cheers*

Normal maintenance is done. We're now running some updates on the database to handle the new features that have been added to the site.

These updates are taking a little longer than we expected. We hope to have them finished in about 1 hour. The database will remain offline until these are finished.

-Kevin

queen,

Here's some quick answers... you might want to start a new thread after we're done working on the updates and maintenance if you still have other questions.

eBay live is eBay's annual conference. You can find more on that at:
http://pages.ebay.com/ebaylive/

We update our site every now and then with the newest features we've worked on and to put out fixes to any problems that are on the previous version of the site. This update is a lot bigger than our normal ones, hence the site having to go down for a bit longer than normal.

The beta site was just a place people could preview some of the new features. It will be down after today and you can use the normal Auctiva site just like normal.

-Kevin

kevin,
thanks for the quick reply! i have a better idea of what you guys were discussing in here, and will prolly ask more detailed q's later like you suggested. and you can just call me mab!

quote:

It will be down after today and you can use the normal Auctiva site just like normal.

-Kevin

and how kind of you to assume i'm normal! and you don't even really know me! lol

quote:

Originally posted by queen_mab:
i saw some peeps mention auto feedback service; i've never noticed that; where is it exactly?

function is not yet visible/available. is in update that theyre releasing today.

quote:

and here's the biggie... what exactly is beta

in computer terminology, when youre creating software, you have the alpha (which is the very basic prototype of the product), and the beta (which is the working prototype but still needs work, may have bugs, etc) (and then of course you have the finished product that is released)

the auctiva beta was where upcoming changes to site were being tested, reviewed, etc.

quote:

and does that mean there will be two versions of auctiva, or is the site switching to beta...

there wont be two versions, no. and unlike microsoft and ebay, who both seem to constantly keep their products in "beta testing" mode, site wont be switched to beta

quote:

and finally, what's the diff. btwn listing on auctiva, and using the 'classic software', and is the old software still available?

classic auctiva is still available. site is http://classic.auctiva.com basically the difference is that classic auctiva runs on your computer, whereas new auctiva is through website.

quote:

and btw, i'm really glad i found auctiva... i've been talking about selling on ebay for so long, but don't know if i ever would have done it w/o this site! *cheers*

welcome to auctiva! kick your shoes off, sit back, relax, and enjoy your stay

aw, you rock, wayoutwest! i don't even think i have any more q's right now! thanks so much! i guess that's why i'm the 'newbie' and you're the 'specialist'

and i'm an at-home mom, so my shoes are *always* off, but i'm also hardly *ever* relaxed!

Site is coing back up online. I'd still hold off from using it until we say it's good to go.

I see that there are a few things we're still working out with syncing the new site with the database updates.

If you open your saved listings and it's blank, please DO NOT save. Just leave that page and don't save. Your data is there, it's just not loading from the database correctly right now.

-Kevin

We had to do another update to the database. In order to make this happen as quickly as possible we shut down the website so that we would not have anything else impacting the database.

I imagine this will take 15-20 minutes. At that point we'll then bring the site back up and check to make sure everything is okay. I'll then let you know at that point how things are.

-Kevin

thanks kevin, and pls. keep us updated.. i was able to get on the site about an hour ago, but stopped for lunch and now can only get to the boards.
thanks again!


edit/ same post time, i guess now i owe you a coke!

I'm trying to do some listings and my information will not load in any type of listing. Is this due to the site work? Thanks for any help.

Never mind, I see my answer up there about blank listings. I missed it somehow. Thanks.

Okay, we're bring the site back up on all the servers. Please report ASAP if you notice anything wrong with your saved listings or anything else on the site.

If something is not right with any of your saved listigns after you load it up on our lister page, make sure to NOT save. Just exit out and report to us on here what is not correct.

We'll be checking these boards throughout the day. Although this is the last post from me today, as I'm off to eBay live.

Thanks all of your for your patience. Hopefully you'll enjoy some of the new features we're releasing.

-Kevin

I noticed before there was a 'seller details' section under profiles.. now there is the link in the 'menu bar',but it doesn't go anywhere.. this seems kinda like 'shipping details' that we can add; is it the same, and where'd it go?

quote:

Originally posted by queen_mab:
I noticed before there was a 'seller details' section under profiles.. now there is the link in the 'menu bar',but it doesn't go anywhere.. this seems kinda like 'shipping details' that we can add; is it the same, and where'd it go?

Hi queen_mab -

The 'Seller Details" section is an enhanced version of the old 'Shipping Details" section. When you use a template for your listings you can now add from 1-5 information sections on your listing: Payment, Shipping, About Me, Terms of Sale and Contact Us.

'Seller Details' behaves like any other profile. You can make as many varieties as you need to speed up your lisitng process. You can leave off any of the information sections that don't apply to you. When you are on the one-page lister, once you choose a template, a drop down menu with all your saved 'Seller Details' profiles appears to the right. Choose the one you want and the information is automatically added on your template.

About the sub-nav in the Profiles, the link currently takes you to the Manage Seller Details page (which probably does look pretty bare if you don't have anything created yet) but there is a "Create New" button at the top left of that page which will take you to the Seller Details Wizard. This is where you type your information for each section.

For additional help, you can click on the Help Icon (the question mark) to the right of 'Seller Details' on the Profiles landing page or click the Help link at the top of each page to visit our updated Help page.

Happy listing!

Cara

I have one profile for Checkout Options that is saved in my Master Profile. When I load the master profile, it won't automatically show up and when I try to load it, it takes me to an error page. Is this happening to anyone else??
michelle

thanks cara....

actually, i got an 'error' before when i clicked on the sublink, but they must have been fixing it at the time; just checked again and 'seller details- NEW!' box is there again..

thanks again!

(btw, my real name's donna, but since there's already one in here, i haven't bothered to use it! i can be donna2

Hi there, saw that the site was back up so I decided to try and list a thing or two. I quickly noticed something, when you click to change font color, the color options show up at the top of the page instead of at the drop down box. Same thing happened when I right-clicked to copy.

Thanks, Richard

edit: jsut to clarify, This appears to be happening with all of the format options above the text body.

something else...

my store window is empty and says'sorry i have no items for sale!' ...made sure it was enabled, and it is, any ideas....?

edit/ sorry, and also, on my 'active listings' page, i have an auction that has a bid, and it's not registering as being bid on there, or in my store... but another one that has a bid IS listed... and this was actually happening b4 the updates... any ideas on why this is happening? thanks!