Are there any Gurus here on using File Exchange CSV files to upload listings

[clarry100]

Morning all,

Over the past couple of weeks I have been developing and Excel interface to make using this method of listing easier.

I'm a bit of an Excel guru and also VBA coding so I've made extensive use of formulas and VBA code to collate the data and save into CSV format ready for the upload.

I've done lots of reading of the ebay File Exchange Advanced Instructions in an effort to understand all the rules as they relate to what I'm try to do. And built up a template for what we need.

I've been using the VerifyAdd function to check that the files are working then making corrections as needed. Got a normal single product to work nicely. 

Took a bit longer to get a product with variations working as this one is. Yesterday I got the message SUCCESS!. woohoo looked like I had it working. Then this morning I thought I would do a live listing upload using the ADD function. But first just did one more VerifyADD.

Guess what it failed! Grrr! Nothing had changed since yesterday.

The warning message is:

"21919403|21919401"

"Warning - The item specific Brand is missing. Add Brand to this listing, enter a valid value, and then try again.|The item specific Brand is missing.|The item specific Brand is missing. Add Brand to this listing, enter a valid value, and then try again.|Brand||Warning - UPC is missing a value. Enter a value and try again.|Enter a value in UPC and try again.|UPC is missing a value. Enter a value and try again.|UPC|"

Now its only a warning, not a full blown error so I suspect if I try to do the live upload it will work.

But yesterday I had no errors or warnings at all.

I've attached a screenshot (below) of a section of my CSV file that I believe it is complaining about and looks like it complies with the ebay guide to me. Basically, if you have variations then all the item specifics are detailed on the variation records and not on the product level so the product level fileds should be empty as they are. All my custom fields (C:<FieldName>) for the required Item Specifics have unique records for each variation. Some are BLANK as they do not apply to this particular item, but that should be OK. Although the MPN and UPC codes are always "Does not Apply" for our stuff.

I've been tearing my hair out trying to figure this one out, but don't have that much I can afford to lose. LOL!

I'm hoping we have a guru in here that might better understand what I'm doing wrong here. I assume it's me, but it did work cleanly yesterday tho. So I'm at a loss now to fix this up.

[gec2002]

I think you get those warnings if you try to add UPC fields etc to active listings?

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

I don't use file exchange for listings so it's entirely possible I'm wrong, but it might not be an error with your template.

I've been getting exactly the same error warnings when I revise current listings and get to the submit page on eBay (brand names, UPCs etc are not required for my categories).

The flag doesn't go away, so I just ignore it and submit my listings (no issues so far). 

[clarry100]

Thanks DG...

Yes its the same in our baby goods category. The UPC's etc are not a requirement. But I wanted to add in the Item Specifics with a view to perhaps helping in search engine visibility. And if you use Item Specifics then UPC's and MPN's and Brand are dependant fields, at least that's the way I understand the guide on this. But since we don't have MPN's or UPC's then I just add in the default value of "Does not Apply". And the Brand is our business name of "ABC Didi" since our things are all (well 99% anyway) handmade by us.

So although I'm seeing this warning it might still work anyway as you say. The messages I've been getting are remarkably similar to that you have posted above.

But I did wonder why yesterday I was getting a clean bill of health on the VerifyAdd function but today I get this warning message when nothing had changed. Its not Friday is it???

So I might just bite the bullet and give it a try tomorrow to Add a new listing (as opposed to Revise an existing one). If it works it will make managing our listings much simpler. Well... thats the theory anyway. My wife is not so convinced. LOL

But it was as much an exercise for me (as in can I even do this?) as anything else. That part of it has worked a treat including building up of the item description field using HTML coding. Its been great brain food over the past couple of weeks. LOL

[gec2002]

As I said above you are revising active listing the second time around so it gives the error it is a known bug.

[clarry100]

I have been so far unable to find a solution to the warning message.

On each variation the value of "Does not Apply" is not present and has to be manually applied after the new listing is active.

It looks like some kind of bug in the File Exchange process now as gec002 says.

And another problem has arisen now... with the product and variation images.

I have been uploading them to an external server I have general access to via FTP.

But once the pics are loaded using their external URL link they work fine on the listings, but once you delete them from the server the pics also disappear from the listing. Means that the URL link to the images remains active to the external server rather than the images being uploaded to the ebay image servers. This measns that you always need to leave the images on the external server. I dont really want to do this as the server solution is only temporary for me.

I have been unable to find any way to make the File Exchange process take the image from the external server and transfer them over to the ebay image servers (possibly to product gallery images) so that I can safely remove them from the external server when I'm done.

Any thoughts on how (or even if) this is possible to do?

[*tippy*toes*]

I can't solve any of the issues you are having (I can't even make a spreadsheet!), but just wanted to comment about the photos being on the server. A few sellers that I buy from regularly all post photos from Photobucket and within a day of me leaving feedback, if I go back into the listing, I'll just have a big red X where the photos were. I can only assume it means that they have deleted them from Photobucket, which then deletes them from the listing as well.

I manually upload photos when I do listings and they will stay there if I delete them from my computer (I generally keep them for 6 months post sale in case there is a dispute opened). Those ones are obviously uploaded into eBay, so I can't work out why ones linked to external sites aren't.

Edited to correct spelling errors.

[clarry100]

Yeah Tippy... the ones you upload manually when you create a manual listing are uploaded onto the ebay image servers so are always accessible from there. These should be quicker to load as well.

But I have learned in the past couple of days that when you create a listing using the File Exchange CSV file process the images have to be first placed on some remote webserver somewhere then in the CSV file you provide a URL link to the pics. I had assumed that they would have uploaded from there in the usual way to the ebay servers. But not so.

When I deleted them from the remote server they were also lost from the newly created listing. When I put them back onto the remote server again the pics in the listing were restored. So clearly they have to remain on the server so the listing works properly.

I just have not been able to see any way to make them upload to the ebay image servers so that they are not dependent on remaining on the remote server. I'm sure it can be done somehow but in reading up/down and sideways thru the File Exchange PDF guide I cannot find it. So at the moment this is a pretty severe limitation on the whole File Exchange process really.

Yeah I'm kinda a bit of a power user of Excel so found it pretty straightforward to set up my spreadsheet to provide a pretty cool interface that will allow me to create/edit listings this way. Between one listing and another there is not much you need to change as a lot of it is common from one to the next. Then I just made a button to create the CSV file ready to upload.

Also built a bit of VBA code to create all my variation data etc. Grab the image filenames and build up the URL's etc for them. Align them to the variation colour choices. Pretty cool little interface but wasted time if I cant find a way to get these images into the right places as its no good if I have to host them on an external server that's really only a temporary place for them to live. ho hum!!!

[clarry100 · Accepted solution]

Well....

Here is some additional info on this for those who might be interested to learn something out of it. I certainly have done.

I found out there is a special ebay technical support group in USA for technical help on this stuff.

So I sent them an email at: turbodata@ebay.com.... They responded within 2-hours. Very helpful indeed.

Why can't the regular CSR's learn from them. And they actually know their stuff too.

In order to make the UPC, MPN and BRAND fields work properly here is what you have to do...

For UPC the field heading in the CSV file has to read: Product:UPC

For MPN the field heading in the CSV file has to read: C:MPN

For BRAND the field heading in the CSV file has to read: C:BRAND

And Branding info is only to be present in the first record. ie the product record. In all the variation records it has to be left BLANK. This info is not very clear in the guide.

Once the above was done then all the item specifics data loaded correctly and with no errors.

For uploading product & variation images via the CSV file, first you have to load your image files onto an external server which I had done.

Then you put the full URL path + file name into the PicURL field. This is for the main product record and the variation pics.

Doing this does indeed load the image files into the ebay image servers.

But... you need to give them up to 24-hours after the CSV upload completes in order to complete image loading from your external server in the background. If you remove the image files from your external server too early then they may disappear from your listing.

Hence, why when I deleted them from the server they disappeared from my listing. But today when I delete them the listing remains intact. The guide does not mention this wait time at all.

So I've had a win and learned heaps.

Now my little self-developed Excel File Exchange interface is working very well indeed.

Listings are so much easier to do now.

Happy little camper!

Hope this thread is helpful to someone out there.

[*tippy*toes*]

Great news! Glad it was a simple fix!.

I said in my previous post that I had no idea how to make a spreadsheet. Guess what I did? I made a spreadsheet  (well, 4 actually)!!!!!!

Looks like we both learned something. Go us!