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eBay Technical Problem?

Started by Flaming_Telepath,

62 posts in this topic

Doohickamabob

Doohickamabob

Posted
Posted
Manually. (thumbs u

What program do you use to build the HTML? Are you using Microsoft Word or something like that? This sort of program is not well-designed for building web pages.

 

I notice in your source code there are a lot of repetitive tags that don't do anything, just open and close. For example, you'll have a

(just a random example) on multiple lines, which serves no purpose other than to make the browser read extra code. I wonder if all this gobbledygook is tripping up the display of images somehow.

 

The reason I wonder about the image serving is that when I go to look at just the image, copying the image code and pasting it into a new window, the image alone is not displaying. Trying to look at just the image code shouldn't be affected at all by your eBay coding -- it is a direct request for the image from the Imgur server. Yet it isn't showing up.

 

That's why I wonder if there is a hosting issue. Or perhaps the repetitive eBay junk-coding is causing numerous repetitive calls to load the image, giving you the effect of a denial-of-service / bandwidth error on your Imgur hosting.

 

I am probably speaking over my head here, but I would advise trying to recreate your eBay listing template so that it is more streamlined, and see if there's anything you can do about clearing out any coding is repetitive and has no function.

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Flaming_Telepath

Flaming_Telepath

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  • Author
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Manually. (thumbs u

What program do you use to build the HTML? Are you using Microsoft Word or something like that? This sort of program is not well-designed for building web pages.

 

I notice in your source code there are a lot of repetitive tags that don't do anything, just open and close. For example, you'll have a

(just a random example) on multiple lines, which serves no purpose other than to make the browser read extra code. I wonder if all this gobbledygook is tripping up the display of images somehow.

 

The reason I wonder about the image serving is that when I go to look at just the image, copying the image code and pasting it into a new window, the image alone is not displaying. Trying to look at just the image code shouldn't be affected at all by your eBay coding -- it is a direct request for the image from the Imgur server. Yet it isn't showing up.

 

That's why I wonder if there is a hosting issue. Or perhaps the repetitive eBay junk-coding is causing numerous repetitive calls to load the image, giving you the effect of a denial-of-service / bandwidth error on your Imgur hosting.

 

I am probably speaking over my head here, but I would advise trying to recreate your eBay listing template so that it is more streamlined, and see if there's anything you can do about clearing out any coding is repetitive and has no function.

 

I'm really grateful for all the thought and input. (worship)

 

However, the HTML code has been the same since the day dot...without any previous problems.

 

The problems automatically resolve themselves by going into the item and saving again, without even opening the HTML window, never mind editing it. :eek:

 

The code is basically what eBay wrote. I wrote my auction blurb on the page, eBay translated it to HTML, I went into the HTML to add the images.

 

As I say, it's been problem free for two years, but now... :ohnoez:

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songsaboutclouds

songsaboutclouds

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To revise all at once (or 500 at a time)

go to my ebay

click on active listings

 

Below the Blue "Create Listings" button

click the checkbox that marks all

 

Click "Edit"

 

Drop down menu will then give you the option of editing

listings 1 - 500

501 -1000

1001 - 1500 etc

 

choose 1 - 500, wait, save

 

at least I think that's the info you asked for?

 

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Flaming_Telepath

Flaming_Telepath

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To revise all at once (or 500 at a time)

go to my ebay

click on active listings

 

Below the Blue "Create Listings" button

click the checkbox that marks all

 

Click "Edit"

 

Drop down menu will then give you the option of editing

listings 1 - 500

501 -1000

1001 - 1500 etc

 

choose 1 - 500, wait, save

 

at least I think that's the info you asked for?

 

Tried that already. Has no effect.

 

Probably because the image is embedded in the text, which you can't change on the mass edit option. :cry:

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Doohickamabob

Doohickamabob

Posted
Posted
Manually. (thumbs u

What program do you use to build the HTML? Are you using Microsoft Word or something like that? This sort of program is not well-designed for building web pages.

 

I notice in your source code there are a lot of repetitive tags that don't do anything, just open and close. For example, you'll have a

(just a random example) on multiple lines, which serves no purpose other than to make the browser read extra code. Your image code also seems to be nested far deeper than necessary. I wonder if all this gobbledygook is tripping up the display of images somehow.

 

The reason I wonder about the image serving is that when I go to look at just the image, copying the image code and pasting it into a new window, the image alone is not displaying. Trying to look at just the image code shouldn't be affected at all by your eBay coding -- it is a direct request for the image from the Imgur server. Yet it isn't showing up.

 

That's why I wonder if there is a hosting issue. Or perhaps the repetitive eBay junk-coding is causing numerous repetitive calls to load the image, giving you the effect of a denial-of-service / bandwidth error on your Imgur hosting.

 

I am probably speaking over my head here, but I would advise trying to recreate your eBay listing template so that it is more streamlined, and see if there's anything you can do about clearing out any coding is repetitive and has no function.

 

I'm really grateful for all the thought and input. (worship)

 

However, the HTML code has been the same since the day dot...without any previous problems.

 

The problems automatically resolve themselves by going into the item and saving again, without even opening the HTML window, never mind editing it. :eek:

 

The code is basically what eBay wrote. I wrote my auction blurb on the page, eBay translated it to HTML, I went into the HTML to add the images.

 

As I say, it's been problem free for two years, but now... :ohnoez:

Even if you're not changing the HTML, every time you revise an item, eBay's listing-editing program automatically revises the HTML. I think it might actually add "junk code" each time the page is revised and saved. I have definitely seen the coding change on this basis alone. I edit my listings in both the WYSIWYG text screen and the HTML code screen, and I notice that eBay's program constantly revises the HTML code so it conforms to the latest HTML standards, and it often removes spacing and other elements that I originally put in to make it easier for me to see where I'm adding HTML code. eBay's program is "dumb" and doesn't recognize when it has already revised code or changed spacing, so it applies generic changes to the code every time it is re-opened and re-saved.

 

My theory is your current template is based on listings that you've revised multiple times, and somehow all the added HTML code has resulted in an error that causes the processes to loop indefinitely inside the image tags. My guess is that the current template sends multiple calls to your image server to load up the image. Your image host (Imgur) probably has an automatic limit placed on image calls, perhaps on a per-minute basis. So the bad eBay code is maybe causing the equivalent of a denial-of-service result on your image host.

 

When you go to revise the eBay listing, the eBay automatic self-coding changes perhaps resolve whatever the looping issue is. By the time you've made these changes, the minute-by-minute Imgur file-call restriction is perhaps reset, allowing normal image loading.

 

It's just a theory but it makes as much sense as anything, right?

 

I would suggest starting over with a clean listing template. As soon as you have something are happy with, save the template and work from it from now on. I know that's not particularly helpful if you have 5,000 listings and you want to apply a batch edit to all of them...

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Doohickamabob

Doohickamabob

Posted
Posted
It's possibly something to do with the ebay search function "Cassini" then.

As far as I know it ignores excessive HTML in descriptions. It's possible they've

goofed again with this?

This is very plausible. A call to eBay might help, though he'd likely have to go up the tech-support chain to find somebody who knows about this.

 

I wonder if it is being discussed in the eBay message forums somewhere. Would be worth searching to find out.

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cousin itt

cousin itt

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The reason I wonder about the image serving is that when I go to look at just the image, copying the image code and pasting it into a new window, the image alone is not displaying. Trying to look at just the image code shouldn't be affected at all by your eBay coding -- it is a direct request for the image from the Imgur server. Yet it isn't showing up.

 

The image *does* display if you do a right-click, copy-image-location, and paste the url into a new tab/window.

 

However, if you just right click, and click "view image", you get that error message. Looking at the html code of the new web page, there's an "alt" tag in there that actually contains the same error message.

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Doohickamabob

Doohickamabob

Posted
Posted
The reason I wonder about the image serving is that when I go to look at just the image, copying the image code and pasting it into a new window, the image alone is not displaying. Trying to look at just the image code shouldn't be affected at all by your eBay coding -- it is a direct request for the image from the Imgur server. Yet it isn't showing up.

 

The image *does* display if you do a right-click, copy-image-location, and paste the url into a new tab/window.

 

However, if you just right click, and click "view image", you get that error message. Looking at the html code of the new web page, there's an "alt" tag in there that actually contains the same error message.

I tried to replicate what you've said here, but when I go to the Action Comics #251 listing, now the images load up, even though about an hour ago they were showing up as broken.

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cousin itt

cousin itt

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Something really whacky is going on... go back to the first post in this thread... I very distinctly recall yesterday that the first link (the captain marvel listing), the images WERE working yesterday, but now they are not. Maybe I'm just misremembering. (The image links in the second link of the first post are also not working, which is the same as yesterday.)

 

The action 251 images are still not loading for me. (Did you make sure to do a shift-reload, or whatever does a complete clear and reload on your platform?)

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Doohickamabob

Doohickamabob

Posted
Posted
Something really whacky is going on... go back to the first post in this thread... I very distinctly recall yesterday that the first link (the captain marvel listing), the images WERE working yesterday, but now they are not. Maybe I'm just misremembering. (The image links in the second link of the first post are also not working, which is the same as yesterday.)

Both of the original post's linked-listing images are currently loading up for me (on Firefox with a PC).

 

But I agree something whacky is going on: Now the Action #251 images are NOT loading...

 

EDIT: The images don't load. When I right-click and do a "View Image," they show up as broken links. When I paste in the image code, they show up! Then, when I reload the Action #251 eBay listing (after having the images show up from the image-location paste), the images show up!

 

I noticed when I clicked "View Image," it attempted to display the images based on code that did not include the "http://" at the beginning. When I pasted the image location, that contained the "http://" part and it loaded correctly.

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Doohickamabob

Doohickamabob

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Okay, Flaming Telepath or whoever is in charge of editing the listings, try this:

 

In your image code, use "https" instead of "http" ...

 

HTTPS prevents the image call from being bounced around before it gets to Imgur.

 

The HTTP image command is somehow, somewhere, getting translated into an image call that eliminates the "http" part of the image link. If you use "https" instead, it locks the full image link into place, so by the time it gets to your image host, it hasn't been altered or "dumbed down."

 

I think maybe eBay is monitoring or adjusting outgoing image calls made from its listing pages, and inadvertently causing this error for certain hosting sites. I dunno...I'm lower than an amateur at this stuff. (Edit: I think this might actually be a problem not with eBay, but with Imgur redirecting its own image calls -- but "https" will prevent that.)

 

On the Action #251 listing, for example, the listing code initially says to display:

http://i.imgur.com/pxNqkZ5.jpg

 

...but by the time it gets around to asking for the image, it ends up asking for:

i.imgur.com/pxNqkZ5.jpg

 

...without the "http://" part to indicate the link is starting from a fresh location.

 

However if you changed the code so that the image link was trying to access this:

https://i.imgur.com/pxNqkZ5.jpg

 

...then it cannot be downgraded to "i.imgur.com/pxNqkZ5.jpg" alone, and will always remain as "https://i.imgur.com/pxNqkZ5.jpg"

 

I think this will solve your problem.

 

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ttfitz

ttfitz

Posted
Posted
Something really whacky is going on... go back to the first post in this thread... I very distinctly recall yesterday that the first link (the captain marvel listing), the images WERE working yesterday, but now they are not. Maybe I'm just misremembering. (The image links in the second link of the first post are also not working, which is the same as yesterday.)

 

The action 251 images are still not loading for me. (Did you make sure to do a shift-reload, or whatever does a complete clear and reload on your platform?)

 

I've got the same thing - yesterday the first link worked, but the second didn't; today they both don't work.

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Doohickamabob

Doohickamabob

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OK, I've added the 's' to the http for this auction. What does it look like?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Avengers-14-VG-FN-/351219044039?

Dang! It didn't fix it! This is a very perplexing problem!

 

One more thing to try: change the "i.imgur.com" part of the image to "www.imgur.com"

 

So if you have this:

https://i.imgur.com/qY3pzIL.jpg

 

....change it to this:

https://www.imgur.com/qY3pzIL.jpg

 

The "i.imgur" part is some sort of a redirect. It might work better if it starts with the more "official" and recognizable "www" address.

 

If that doesn't fix the problem, then I am at the end of my ideas! I think a call to eBay and Imgur tech supports (both of them) is in order.

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kav

kav

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My advice is just drop it-the main pic with the enlarge function is quite sufficient and I always considered those extra pics in listings redundant.

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Doohickamabob

Doohickamabob

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My advice is just drop it-the main pic with the enlarge function is quite sufficient and I always considered those extra pics in listings redundant.

 

It's true that the eBay pics are sufficient for purposes of selling. I personally like having the option to scroll down and see the pics as well, because it's a lot smoother just to scroll down than to have to click, click, click, click repeatedly.

 

If somebody wants to put images in the body of the listing, they should be able to. I think Flaming Telepath has now narrowed the problem down to being more about using Imgur to host images than about anything wrong with eBay or with the HTML code of his listing.

 

Anybody have recommendations for good image hosting platforms or CDN's (Content Delivery Networks)?

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