My question relates to the Firefox extension.

Starting about three days ago, the myibay link does not load on auction pages...not, at least, on most of them. A very few pages (maybe 1 in 25) seem to load, fine. After some tests, I'm certain this problem is server-side and specific to the FF add-on, whether at your end or eBay's (how pages are served; API, etc.).

I get the same error on two machines, both running FF3 - one under XP, one under Vista. At first, I had assumed this was just a matter of the myibay server(s) being stressed by high levels of activity. But when this error occurs, the status line indicates we're waiting for some kind of eBay includes.

Thinking it might be - however inexplicably - related to a conflict with other eBay-related includes, I even went so far as to switch off my Auctiva apps, because their apps are often very slow to load. Unfortunately, nothing changed. But, once your extension is disabled, all eBay pages seem to load, quickly and completely.

Any ideas? Anyone else noticed this?

Just letting you know that "Snipe it" link does not use any external API calls to the server and can not be related to that.
"Snipe it" link is getting generated locally by your browser only. The generation process starts after page is fully loaded.
So it seems like something is not loading completely in your Firefox and that preventing "Snipe it" from being started.

The only remote call it does is for "Current snipe" (which is not related to "Snipe it" link) so you can disable it in the myibay add-on options if you want to eliminate this external call.

As an idea to start, you can try to disable other add-ons and see if any of them conflicts.
Please let me know if you need more information or help with it.

---

Last edited on Tue Apr 07, 2009 03:00 PM.

Thanks very much for the clarification, Sashka. That's what I would have guessed, but I couldn't be sure, given the jumbled evidence in this case.

Meanwhile, after some experimentation, its pretty clear that the problem is - as you suspect - a simple matter of auction pages not loading, fully. However, determining the cause is unlikely to be simple, as it appears to be related to several things.

Here's an easy one: some of the 3rd-party 'animated image gallery' apps. seem to feature automatic update. They keep a channel open (either to 'thumbs.ebaystatic.com', or to the user's image-storage acct.), continually calling for all available images.:

I've constructed these pages, to demonstrate two, well-known gallery apps.:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400041228234

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400041187544

But not all such galleries do this. And the most common page-loading error I've seen on eBay is never-ending calls to 'includes.ebaystatic.com'. Thing is, I'm not sure why this happens, unless its something as simple as a busted app (like a pageview-counter).:

Here's an expired example.:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160324992490

Here's a current example.:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370158458679

And, for comparison, here's a page which loads just fine, with counter.:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230335802947

Whatever the cause, it does not affect directory pages, nor feedback pages, search results, etc. - just auction pages. Further, I cannot replicate the error(s) in IE or Opera, not even by using FF extensions, like 'IE View' or 'Opera View'.

Any ideas what's going on? I'd be happy to switch off every one of my FF add-ons, if you think that would help. But when this glitch first appeared I had neither added nor modified any of my extensions for a couple weeks, at least. So, it would seem to be independent of them.

Oh - two, more interesting things. First, so far, all such interminable page-load errors (at least, so far as I've found) are on 'eBaymotors.com' pages...not those hosted under the main 'eBay.com' domain.

And, second, as of just a few minutes ago I discovered that the glitch seems to disappear if you switch to the 'new' ebaymotors' view (see link at top-left, on page.) So, maybe it was all a matter of how the pages were being served, after all.

Hope all this info comes in handy, somehow. Again, thanks for your attention to this matter.

Interesting, I just tried all your examples and it seems to be working fine for me. Every time I load a new listing, I have "snipe it" link with no glitches once page finished loading (takes about 2-5 seconds depending on the listing).

I think you are right that it may be related to the new way of listing pages.
I did not find a way how to switch it (should I do it within my preferences on eBay?).

You could try to clean your browser's cache to see if something got stuck into it (maybe some old broken script from eBay which got updated some time ago?).

> Interesting, I just tried all your examples and it seems to be working
> fine for me.

Well, sure - that's how it always goes, right? ;)

> Every time I load a new listing, I have "snipe it" link with
> no glitches once page finished loading (takes about 2-5 seconds depending on
> the listing).

Correct. As I'd noted, its definitely dependent upon a 'no-load' condition. And, under the 'new eBaymotors' view, I'm seeing none of those. Must have been some carryover incompatibility that the web devs missed, during beta.

> I think you are right that it may be related to the new way of listing pages.

Yeah. I've been playing around with it, since the last response and I've seen no issues, whatsoever. The guys at eBay must have a ball, dealing with dopey little legacy issues, like these.

> I did not find a way how to switch it (should I do it within my preferences on eBay?).

No. I see no way to do that...not even for me, tho I'd been using (what I now know was) the 'old view', for many, many months. I had tried the 'new' layout, sometime last year when it was in beta, but dropped it due to a large number of annoying bugs, both in FF and Opera.

At the time, every eBaymotors page offered a convenient link to switch from old-to-new or back again. I guess once they're out of beta there's no going back. :\

> You could try to clean your browser's cache to see if something got stuck
> into it (maybe some old broken script from eBay which got updated some time ago?).

Good idea - this does have the earmarks of a classic JS bug. But I do clear cache pretty regularly. Not sure If I had done so since last week, but now I guess we'll never know. Gotta love the Web, huh? LOL

Thanks so much for your help, Sashka. Like I said, maybe this info will be of use to someone else, in future. Ciao.

Its someplace I rarely look - along the top edge of each page. In the upper, L/H corner, you should see some kind of 'gold seal' logo, followed by 'Welcome to the new eBay Motors!'. Look to the far right, of that line.

If worse comes to worse, try the same place on their main page: 'http://motors.ebay.com'

I got it. But "Snipe it" link worked fine with new layout.
I think the whole problem may be specific to your local setup.

Can you try to create another user account so Firefox will have a brand new clean settings and cache? (you will need to install myibay addon again).

> I got it. But "Snipe it" link worked fine with new layout.

Again, my only problem was with the 'old' pages.

> Can you try to create another user account ...

Sure. I'll have time for that either tonight or tom'w. and will report back, then.

MrF wrote:
> I got it. But "Snipe it" link worked fine with new layout.
Again, my only problem was with the 'old' pages.

I see. I always use old pages with no issues ("snipe it" link is always there). I was under impression that the new page has problem.. My bad.

Sashka wrote:
I see. I always use old pages with no issues ("snipe it" link is always there). I was under impression that the new page has problem.. My bad.

No problem - I know this issue is a bit convoluted, my explanation notwithstanding. Its no more clear for me, not least of which because I'm getting the same error on two machines/OSs.

Meanwhile, I learnedthat eBay started pushing the new eBaymotors layout as the 'official' one, within the past 7-10 days. They say the effective switch date is ~13 April, at which point the old version is kaput.:

http://www.ebayuniversity.com/gotraining/whats_new_at_ebay_motors?_trksid=m37

So, maybe its no coincidence that this problem popped up, around the same time. Perhaps, in preparation for the mass changeover, they've made some significant root-level change(s), thereby corrupting some script-handling routines.

I also checked for FF-related updates. Several add-ons were refreshed since last week, but nothing that's obviously related to eBay, either directly or indirectly. And the latest stable version of FF (3.0. was installed on 30 March, which I'm sure predates the eBay glitch by several days.

Again, I'll experiment with a second FF user acct. (with myibay as the sole extension), ASAP.