foxcode: Calling strong-stomached beta testers...

Kilroy Balore, CyberFOX! (

foxcode) wrote,
@ 2005-08-17 23:25:00

Current mood:	adventuresome
Current music:	(Loreena McKennitt)-The Mummers' Dance
Entry tags:	beta, ebay, jbidwatcher, sniping

Calling strong-stomached beta testers...
Greetings,
I'm testing a new sniping core. The goal is to extract a LOT of the behavior which takes time to a period prior to the actual auction completion, including logging in, getting the item page via the affiliate link, and submitting the initial bid getting to the confirmation screen. It leaves off there, and then exactly when the snipe is supposed to fire, it sends the confirmation form to eBay.

Yes, folks have suggested something like this for a while, but I had to build a framework around it that supports the concept of sandboxing every snipe into its own little world.

Some example problems that could be run into due to the new core include:

Multiple snipes too close together could cause eBay to behave strangely, because each one is an entirely separate logged-in session. If eBay has trouble with the same user logged in multiple times from the same machine this might not work. Untested!
I don't know how long the confirmation page's form is 'good for', so too much lead time will expire it, and too little ends up in the same state we're already in. I believe it should be good for 5 minutes at least, and I'm shooting for a 2 minute lead time, so it should be okay. Untested!
My code may just fubar. ;) It's a seriously major change for the sniping process, and I may not have moved all the logging, and other details, over. It's brand new code, too, so it might just not work right for everyone.
The 'updating' context doesn't share a cookie with the sniping context, so if the sniping invalidates the updating cookie because of doing another login, then it's possible the updating thread will fail to load user-specific data, and/or stop working with items in the Mature Audiences category. This would be a side-effect of eBay's code not being happy with multiple independant logins from a single machine. (It would be as if you were logged into eBay from Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera all at once, and doing different things in each browser. I don't actually know if they support this.)

Snipes may just fail with this version.

If you're okay with that, and really want to test, please drop me a line, or reply here with contact info.

-- Morgan Schweers, CyberFOX!

(Post a new comment)

	Yes, I want to test (Anonymous) 2005-08-18 08:37 am UTC (link)
	Hi Morgan, you may send a copy to me (w.flamme at web.de), I will test soon (against ebay.de) ;-) Regards Werner (Reply to this)

	I'm up for it. (Anonymous) 2005-10-09 02:03 am UTC (link)
	yohan at helloari dot com -Jonathan (Reply to this)

	Blog post. (Anonymous) 2005-10-14 09:08 am UTC (link)
	Just wanted to let you know that i have posted about jbidwatcher here on my blog (http://mytechieself.blogspot.com/2005/10/jbidwatcher-moves-to-099.html). Keep up the good work! (Reply to this)

You Rock!
(Anonymous)
2005-12-04 06:54 am UTC (link)

MORGAN YOU ROCK!

Your automated response to my donation evoked tears. Seriously.

How do you do this? You're a machine...

I have a hard time doing the laundry when I get home from work. It's all I can do to spend a few minutes tinkering with homebrew PSP coding, let alone what you do. I've worked a lot of system integration projects, none as complex as yours, and I know the pain of a constantly shifting interface.

You should find a publisher to put this thing on the shelves at WalMart.

-Eric

(Reply to this)

	Shipping column is broken. (Anonymous) 2005-12-19 10:41 pm UTC (link)
	All I get is a line. (Reply to this)

(Anonymous)
2006-01-16 09:45 pm UTC (link)

Just started to try and use this.

jbidwatcher updates my auction with no problem.

When I try to bid on the item, it gives the following error:
Sign in failed repeatedly during bid. Check your username and password information in the configuration manager.

My username and password ARE CORRECT.

I would assume this would also mean that sniper will not work as well? :(

What's up? Is it not been updated since October which is the problem?

TIA

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Sign-in issue.

foxcode
2006-01-17 12:46 am UTC (link)

Greetings,
When you launch JBidwatcher, in the upper right corner, does it say 'Not logged in'?

JBidwatcher is resiliant in the face of login failures, but if it can't log in as you, it's pretty much unable to snipe.

Yes, if bids fail, snipes will likely also fail.

One thing to check is whether logging in to eBay normally (via browser) is prompting you with what's called a 'Captcha', which is a graphic that you have to interpret as some sequence of letters or numbers. JBidwatcher can't interpret those, so if your account has been marked as requiring one of those to log on, then JBidwatcher will fail to log on. (This normally only happens if you've had more than a certain number of password failures in the last 24 hours.)

That said, there is a REMOTE possibility that if your password contains particular non-alphanumeric characters JBidwatcher might make a mistake in logging on, and not pass the password correctly. (One example used to be '=', but I'm pretty sure that works now.)

Another possibility is that you might be behind a firewall/proxy that requires HTTPS (secure HTTP) to be proxied. JBidwatcher relies on secure HTTP to get to eBay during the login process, so all the item updates (which are not done over HTTPS) can be working, but the login will fail.

ALL of these issues will cause 'Not logged in...' to show up in the upper right corner of JBidwatcher's display, however.

Are you seeing that, and could any of the possible situations I describe be the issue you're seeing?

(Continue in email to me, cyberfox, via the gmail.com domain.)

-- Morgan Schweers, CyberFOX!

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Sign-in issue.
(Anonymous)
2006-01-17 02:59 am UTC (link)

Hi Morgan, (and thanks)

Well, if it wasn't logged in how would it fetch or update the auction?

I do not see a "not logged in" NOR a "logged in", but the above statement tells me through common sense that I am "logged in".

It has a user@ebay: 16-Jan-2006 (current time) so I ASSuME that means I am logged in and the current ebay time.

None of the above - no captchas, pass all num/alpha, no firewall ...

TIA

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Sign-in issue.

foxcode
2006-01-17 08:47 am UTC (link)

Greetings,
Updating an item requires just an 'item view', which is an open page (i.e. doesn't require logging in). If by 'fetch' you mean retrieve from your 'My eBay' page, then yes, that DOES require being successfully logged in.

(Merely using JBidwatcher to monitor auctions doesn't even require an eBay account, but any form of 'My eBay', or any bidding/sniping/buying does require an account, and to successfully log in.)

It has a user@ebay: 16-Jan-2006 (current time) so I ASSuME that means I am logged in and the current ebay time.

Interesting! That DOES suggest that it successfully logged in to the base site.

On a side note, snipes are their own little world. They log in entirely independantly of the main program logging in, for instance. This is to prevent confusion when two snipes are interleaved. (The bid process for one is started on the same 'cookie' as the bid process for another.) This means snipes might work for you, even if bids don't, but I'd want to resolve the issue you're describing first.

If you want some test auctions to try bidding against with no consequences, try doing a seller-search for 'test-jbidwatcher-sales', and bidding on those items. Especially the ones with '-C-' in their title; those are standard eBay auctions (not dutch, not BIN, no reserve, not private, etc.).

If bidding on those fails with the same message, try forcing an update of the login cookie by using 'Refresh eBay Session' under the eBay tab, and then bidding.

-- Morgan Schweers, CyberFOX!

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	(Anonymous) 2006-03-15 11:25 am UTC (link)
	Musik: (Loreena McKennitt)-The Mummers' Dance One of my favorite. (Reply to this)

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