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Published: September 12 2006, 11:15:00 AMUpdated: July 31 2022, 8:15:28 PM

I am a motor vehicles seller and I need an uptodate list of bidders so that I can try and convert the bid to a sale. How can I do this? Should I call GetAllBidders for all my items at a regular interval?


Detailed Description

An efficient application design would be to make a call to GetSellerEvents every 30 minutes with the ModTime filter set from the last time you made the call to the current time to get a list of all the items for which a seller event has occured.  Then you iterate through each item in the list and check if there is a change in the BidCount for the Item with the value in your database.  If there is a change, it is only then you make a call to GetAllBidders for the Item and retrieve the list of bidders.  

Here is a sample Scenario:
1.  Make a GetSellerEvents call request:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<
GetSellerEventsRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
  <
Version>473</Version>
  <
RequesterCredentials>
    <
eBayAuthToken>*****</eBayAuthToken>
  </
RequesterCredentials>
  <
ModTimeFrom>2006-09-12T17:30:00.000Z</ModTimeFrom>
  <
ModTimeTo>2006-09-12T18:00:00.000Z</ModTimeTo>
</
GetSellerEventsRequest>

Sample Response:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetSellerEventsResponse xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
  <Timestamp>20060912T17:40:59.370Z</Timestamp>
  <Ack>Success</Ack>
  <Version>477</Version>
  <Build>e477_core_Bundled_3514903_R1</Build>
  <TimeTo>20060918T00:00:00.000Z</TimeTo>
  <ItemArray>
    <Item>
      <ItemID>110005777243</ItemID>
      <ListingDetails>
        <StartTime>20060912T17:29:59.000Z</StartTime>
        <EndTime>20060917T17:29:59.000Z</EndTime>
      </ListingDetails>
      <SellingStatus>
        <BidCount>1</BidCount>
        <CurrentPrice currencyID="USD">1.0</CurrentPrice>
        <QuantitySold>0</QuantitySold>
        <ListingStatus>Active</ListingStatus>
      </SellingStatus>
      <Site>US</Site>
      <Title>title</Title>
      <Currency>USD</Currency>
      <BestOfferDetails>
        <BestOfferEnabled>false</BestOfferEnabled>
      </BestOfferDetails>
    </Item>
    <Item>
      <ItemID>110005778741</ItemID>
      <ListingDetails>
        <StartTime>2006-09-12T17:59:16.000Z</StartTime>
        <EndTime>2006-09-12T17:59:16.000Z</EndTime>
      </ListingDetails>
      <SellingStatus>
        <BidCount>0</BidCount>
        <CurrentPrice currencyID="USD">1.0</CurrentPrice>
        <QuantitySold>0</QuantitySold>
        <ListingStatus>Ended</ListingStatus>
      </SellingStatus>
      <Site>US</Site>
      <Title>title</Title>
      <Currency>USD</Currency>
      <BestOfferDetails>
        <BestOfferEnabled>false</BestOfferEnabled>
      </BestOfferDetails>
    </Item>
  </ItemArray>
</GetSellerEventsResponse>

2.  Iterate through the ItemArray:

  • For ItemID 110005777243, since the BidCount is greater than 0, check the value in your database.  If it is 0, then you have received a new bid, so make a call to GetAllBidders for ItemID 110005777243.
  • For ItemID 110005778741, since the BidCount is 0, so you can even skip the check in your database; and not make any call to GetAllBidders.

This design will significantly reduce the calls to GetAllBidders unnecessarily and make your application scale very easily.

Given a choice, you should always try to pick those calls which are lightweight and make the other calls only when required.



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