My eBay plugin updated to 0.1.2.0 (1 Viewer)

[andreavb]

You can download the plugin from here:
https://www.team-mediaportal.com/files/Download/MediaPortalInstaller(MPI)/Web/myeBaypluginv0.1.2.0/



This plugin allows you to search Items on eBay, view details and images, access yor personal ebay features such as watching list, bidding list and so on...


v0.1.2.0 05/12/2007

- Skin support for BlueTwo, BlueTwo wide, Replicant and ReVision

- Login into "my eBay" providingaccount details in plugin configuration form

- add and remove items from your personal watching list

- view item specifics

- view images extracted from item's description

- view personal biddings , best offers, won and lost items list


v0.1.1.0 22/11/2007

- Cleaned up code and skin

- display icon when item is "Buy it now", show time left and bids

selecting an item from the search result you can:

- display item details (price, shipping cost, payment method, etc etc)

- display item image gallery

- display item full description

v0.1.0.0 19/11/2007

- Search for Items on localized eBay

- Display result list with image thumbs



TO DO:

place bids



USAGE:

run MPI package and install it


enjoy and tell me what you think

Hello, this is just an idea...I've made some code snippets for implementing FIC Spectra display in ExternalDisplay plugin, now maybe I'm ready to start my first own plugin. When I was using MCE (one year ago) I installed a plugin for searching eBay, watching myeBay and make offers on items, then my friend pointed me to MP and then I forgot about this feature. What about if we try to write such a plugin? maybe just to begin we can only have a search page showing results in a list, settings to choose what international eBay site to use (it, en, de, dk, fr,...and so on)

I seem to remember that there is a parsing class or a piece of code to extract text from a webpage, maybe other plugins already use it, once extracted text from the webpage it can be presented in a MP interface, I'm not inside skin creation but I'm a coder

please tell me your opinion...

since we still don't have a good and stable webbrowser for MP this could be good for the ones who want to check their biddings and search on eBay, maybe while listening MP music!...and it could be easier to navigate with remote that with mouse or keyboard

waiting for your feedbak, I'll try to learn more about plugin ceration and skinning!

MP rules

I've found some pages related to interfacing your own applications with eBay databases

http://developer.ebay.com/common/api/

http://developer.ebay.com/businessbenefits/faq/

 

[andreavb]

I've tested a query to an eBay API page, the result is an XML page containing informations about the search: in this case the search is for "Media Center" in eBay US, only 5 items, do you think it will be asy to create a page with a text box and a search button and then display the result matching items list on the right?

this is the response to the http POST request

<FindItemsResponse>
<Timestamp>2007-11-14T16:28:10.441Z</Timestamp>
<Ack>Success</Ack>
<Build>e537_core_Bundled_5585571_R1</Build>
<Version>537</Version>
−
	<Item>
<ItemID>280173583005</ItemID>
<EndTime>2007-11-24T14:34:30.000Z</EndTime>
−
	<ViewItemURLForNaturalSearch>
[url]http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-Pavilion-dv9005us-Media-Center-Notebook_W0QQitemZ280173583005QQcategoryZ140082QQcmdZViewItem[/url]
</ViewItemURLForNaturalSearch>
<ListingType>Chinese</ListingType>
<GalleryURL>http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/pict/280173583005.jpg</GalleryURL>
<PrimaryCategoryID>140082</PrimaryCategoryID>
−
	<PrimaryCategoryName>
Computers & Networking:Laptops, Notebooks:HP, Compaq
</PrimaryCategoryName>
<BidCount>0</BidCount>
<ConvertedCurrentPrice currencyID="USD">300.0</ConvertedCurrentPrice>
<ListingStatus>Active</ListingStatus>
<TimeLeft>P9DT22H6M20S</TimeLeft>
<Title>HP Pavilion dv9005us Media Center Notebook</Title>
−
	<ShippingCostSummary>
<ShippingType>Calculated</ShippingType>
</ShippingCostSummary>
</Item>
−
	<Item>
<ItemID>120183849371</ItemID>
<EndTime>2007-11-24T13:24:47.000Z</EndTime>
−
	<ViewItemURLForNaturalSearch>
[url]http://cgi.ebay.com/BOSE-LIFESTYLE-5-8-9-12-Media-Center-CD-Control-Unit_W0QQitemZ120183849371QQcategoryZ1499QQcmdZViewItem[/url]
</ViewItemURLForNaturalSearch>
<ListingType>FixedPriceItem</ListingType>
<GalleryURL>http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/pict/120183849371.jpg</GalleryURL>
<PrimaryCategoryID>1499</PrimaryCategoryID>
−
	<PrimaryCategoryName>
Consumer Electronics:DVD & Home Theater:Home Theater Systems
</PrimaryCategoryName>
<ConvertedCurrentPrice currencyID="USD">265.0</ConvertedCurrentPrice>
<ListingStatus>Active</ListingStatus>
<TimeLeft>P9DT20H56M37S</TimeLeft>
−
	<Title>
BOSE LIFESTYLE 5 8 9 12 Media Center CD Control Unit
</Title>
−
	<ShippingCostSummary>
<ShippingServiceCost currencyID="USD">25.0</ShippingServiceCost>
<ShippingType>Flat</ShippingType>
</ShippingCostSummary>
</Item>
−
	<Item>
<ItemID>260182492449</ItemID>
<EndTime>2007-11-24T10:37:09.000Z</EndTime>
−
	<ViewItemURLForNaturalSearch>
[url]http://cgi.ebay.com/BOSE-LIFESTYLE-12-SERIES-II-Media-Center-CD-Unit_W0QQitemZ260182492449QQcategoryZ1499QQcmdZViewItem[/url]
</ViewItemURLForNaturalSearch>
<ListingType>FixedPriceItem</ListingType>
<GalleryURL>http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/pict/260182492449.jpg</GalleryURL>
<PrimaryCategoryID>1499</PrimaryCategoryID>
−
	<PrimaryCategoryName>
Consumer Electronics:DVD & Home Theater:Home Theater Systems
</PrimaryCategoryName>
<ConvertedCurrentPrice currencyID="USD">255.0</ConvertedCurrentPrice>
<ListingStatus>Active</ListingStatus>
<TimeLeft>P9DT18H8M59S</TimeLeft>
<Title>BOSE LIFESTYLE 12 SERIES II Media Center CD Unit</Title>
−
	<ShippingCostSummary>
<ShippingServiceCost currencyID="USD">25.0</ShippingServiceCost>
<ShippingType>Flat</ShippingType>
</ShippingCostSummary>
</Item>
−
	<Item>
<ItemID>130174039529</ItemID>
<EndTime>2007-11-24T09:29:23.000Z</EndTime>
−
	<ViewItemURLForNaturalSearch>
[url]http://cgi.ebay.com/3-5-DVR-Mini-Media-Centre-Digital-Video-Player-Recorder_W0QQitemZ130174039529QQcategoryZ175QQcmdZViewItem[/url]
</ViewItemURLForNaturalSearch>
<ListingType>FixedPriceItem</ListingType>
<GalleryURL>http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/pict/130174039529.jpg</GalleryURL>
<PrimaryCategoryID>175</PrimaryCategoryID>
−
	<PrimaryCategoryName>
Computers:Video, Sound, Multimedia:Other Video, Multimedia
</PrimaryCategoryName>
<ConvertedCurrentPrice currencyID="USD">133.4</ConvertedCurrentPrice>
<ListingStatus>Active</ListingStatus>
<TimeLeft>P9DT17H1M13S</TimeLeft>
−
	<Title>
3.5"DVR Mini Media Centre Digital Video Player Recorder
</Title>
−
	<ShippingCostSummary>
<ShippingServiceCost currencyID="USD">44.47</ShippingServiceCost>
<ShippingType>Flat</ShippingType>
</ShippingCostSummary>
</Item>
−
	<Item>
<ItemID>290181506357</ItemID>
<EndTime>2007-11-24T08:42:31.000Z</EndTime>
−
	<ViewItemURLForNaturalSearch>
[url]http://cgi.ebay.com/PC-Remote-Control-Windows-Media-Center-XP-Controller_W0QQitemZ290181506357QQcategoryZ170QQcmdZViewItem[/url]
</ViewItemURLForNaturalSearch>
<ListingType>FixedPriceItem</ListingType>
<GalleryURL>http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/pict/290181506357.jpg</GalleryURL>
<PrimaryCategoryID>170</PrimaryCategoryID>
−
	<PrimaryCategoryName>
Computers:Input Peripherals:Other Input Peripherals
</PrimaryCategoryName>
<ConvertedCurrentPrice currencyID="USD">21.34</ConvertedCurrentPrice>
<ListingStatus>Active</ListingStatus>
<TimeLeft>P9DT16H14M21S</TimeLeft>
−
	<Title>
PC Remote Control Windows Media Center XP Controller
</Title>
−
	<ShippingCostSummary>
<ShippingServiceCost currencyID="USD">8.88</ShippingServiceCost>
<ShippingType>Flat</ShippingType>
</ShippingCostSummary>
</Item>
<TotalItems>749</TotalItems>
−
	<ItemSearchURL>
[url]http://search.ebay.com/ws/search/SaleSearch?fsoo=2&fsop=1&satitle=media+center[/url]
</ItemSearchURL>
</FindItemsResponse>

this is the eBay reference manual to the specific API call to search items:

http://developer.ebay.com/DevZone/shopping/docs/CallRef/FindItems.html#samples

this plugin should work just like the MyTrailers or MyMusicVideo, search for some text and display results in a list...this could be the first step, then once an item is selected from the list it should show the complete description, images and so on...I'm studying MyTrailers in order to understand how a simple plugin works and how to implement this first simple feature...all your feedback is much appreciated

 

[mzemina]

Before I tell my wife about this, what do you expect would be the next step (after seeing the results if the search) for a user would be using this plugin?

 

[andreavb]

Once the search is performed the next step will be seeing details of every search result item, maybe the search can be divided into pages of 10 elements in order of ending (or maybe you can decide the order method: price, end date,...), if you select an item from the list a new page with item details will be displayed, with images, full description, payment methods, etc etc etc...it should work as searching items on eBay. Then there are also API calls to use your myEbay, items you are watching, items you bidded on, winned auctions, bid on selected items...this calling the eBay API pages passing your ID and password

maybe we can have a popup reminders if an auction is ending, if you win or lose an auction...but these are extended features...

 

[patrick]

Before I tell my wife about this, what do you expect would be the next step (after seeing the results if the search) for a user would be using this plugin?

LMAO, I was thinking the same thing

patrick

 

[andreavb]

I've released a pre pre beta of the plugin with simple features: search and select localization.

PS. you can download it from the first post of this thread

 

[chrissooo]

cool, and where i can find it?

EDIT:
UPS! ... sorry, of course in the first post ... i thing its time to go in the weekend

 

[andreavb]

*** FIXED ***

I'd need some help from the good MP coders...I'd like to go on with this plugin and make it just a little bit better!
Is there a way to remove the onscreen virtual keyboard once the users presses enter? in my code I use the typed text to query an http page from eBay that returns me the items list but the keyboard remains on screen until the http page is loaded completely (not so good to see!)...I'd like to change this behaviour by removing the keyboard from screen once the user typed the search text and then display the waiting circle until the list has been filled with items parsed from the page. How can it be done with code?

once the list has been populated with search results it will be good to display each item's image. how can I do this? I already know the URL of each image but I should download them and put in a temporary directory then assign each of them to the correct item in the listcontrol...this just like when entering my pictures when the thumbnails update while you surf the image directories...

HEEEELLLLPPPP!

 

[MadMac66]

Scheduling

maybe we can have a popup reminders if an auction is ending, if you win or lose an auction...but these are extended features...

At least it should be possible to send all your watched auctions to the My Planner or myOrganizer plugin, so that they can inform you about ending bids... for the My planner plugin there is somewhere a good documentation for the api. So when these plugins act as a trigger to sent the request for a certain auction to the ebay api, this should work (and show of course the interaction between different plugins)

Keep on with your approach

MadMac

 

[andreavb]

I have released a new version of the plugin: now you can view details of every item returned with the search, this includes full description, image gallery, title, category, current price, quantity, seller, payment methods, shipping costs and so on...

I'd like to have a little help to create better graphical (such as image for my plugin and special icons for listcontrol) and skin, I'd like to better parse the description of the object to remove unwanted characters and maybe extract <img href="..."> tags from description and add these images to gallery...

please let me know if you like it