posted on September 8, 2001 10:57:28 PM
What is going on. We have tried to launch three auctions (a/c wabbitt15) over the past 2 hours, and we get the following messages:...
The following message was returned from the scheduler while attempting to list your
auction:
Unknown launch error. We were unable to verify the launch of your auction. It is possible
that your auction did launch, so we suggest that you check the auction venue directly to
verify before attempting another launch.
If this error message does not provide enough information regarding the source of the
auction error, you may preview the auction insertion. Otherwise you may edit the auction
information or attempt to schedule the auction again.
Couldn't retrieve site preview!
Unfortunately, we were unable to retrieve a preview from at this time. You may not want
to schedule this auction yet; we are apparently having difficulties communicating with this
site.
Please use your browser's BACK button to return to editing this listing.
We got them launched, but please take a look at eBay #1463962700 and #1463962703 and scroll all the way to the bottom. We used our normal template selection (default #4, images on top) and we hand fed 2 auctions onto eBay directly with the same HTML from our Global Preferences and they are beautiful and perfectly centered.
We are very unhappy with the clutter and broken garbage at the bottom of the ad and everything is squashed off to the left. Tell us we blew $1.80 in eBay fees for that.
posted on September 9, 2001 10:09:01 AM
Thanks, Sonya. Here is some more information on test previews we have done and may help engineering.
In previewing default templates without any customization, and selecting those templates for images at Top only, we have found that templates 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 12 are off-center to the left and there are unloaded template remnants to varying degrees scattered like confetti at the bottom.
Interestingly, top image templates 13, 14, 18, 19 and Blank preview well and our TOS text that is saved in Global preferences centers well, and this confirms that our HTML is not faulty and not interferring.
The sad part is that unless AW can shortly solve the template issue we will either have to delay launching if we want to stay with a colour scheme we are set up for, or bite the bullet and do some heavy modifications for a new template selection.
So, we really need to know where we stand, and soon or today may end up being wasted like yesterday evening.
Did you change or add anything in particular to your HTML? There haven't been any changed to the code in the templates since they were first released, so if you have always been using this same exact code with this same exact template, it is hard to say what may be causing this now that did not before.
I played with the code you have in your item description area, and default text, and launched an item to eBay to see how it shows up.
Would you take a look at this item, and tell me if there is anything that doesn't appear as it should.
posted on September 9, 2001 12:47:58 PM
Thanks, Christopher. That test you sent me to looks fine except for the fact that the "About Signatures...." blurb was tabled, but that's not important.
The 2 ads mentioned in the update still look like an explosion, and I don't see how our HTML interferes with your code since ours is inserted into yours. If you will take a look at eBay #1464078150, that ad was just launched through AW utilizing template #19, and we did not modify the HTML in our Global Prefs prior to that launch.
Also, before just launching that ad, we attempted a preview through a new single create for template #4, and it still previews badly with text in column to the left and template remnates at the bottom.
Bottom line, we can live (unhappily) with the template change, but that still does not explain the 5 templates that preview poorly as mentioned in the 2nd post, above, or how other users might be affected.
Still, something is wrong with part of this code. The example you gave as being the one that does work correctly, does not for all users.
Note how the background intrudes down into the eBay area for bidding on IE? Well, on Netscape the bidding area is completely cutt off for this item.
I believe it has something (not being an HTML guru) to do with the table tags you are using, but cannot say for sure as we do not offer HTML support. The sample I listed for you, that shows up correctly in the template you wanted to use (default #4) - all I did was remove the following tags before listing :
Granted, I probably could have at least left the font color tag there, but since I removed that to I wanted to note that. Again, not being a HTML guru, is is possible that all of your table tags have to reside in the same ongoing tag. Something to the effect of : <table _____="1234" ____="34" ____=xx> , instead of breaking them up into their own individual tags?
There is definetly some new HTML you must be using from how you created your ads before, can you pinpoint what part of the code changed and check that for any possible errors.
posted on September 9, 2001 06:56:31 PM
Thanks, Christopher. We compared the current saved prefs with the older version we had, and a line-by-line inspection found a lousy <tr> buried in a string that we had ignored because template #19 took it and template #4 wouldn't. Go figure.
