sandbox/ebay/README.txt

put my ebay module into sandbox so gordon can view the code.


1. ebay API this is really tricky: you register on developer.ebay.com 
and get your keys and the token. now you need to pair a sandbox user 
account with a given set of keys. while "read-only" api requests worked 
fine, AddItem did NOT work - ebay API told me to register a credit card 
first in order to setup a sellers account. strange. i searched ebays 
website for hours but couldn't find a solution. in the end, i found a 
blog entry somewhere as some people had the same problem: you need to 
register the sandbox user account through the developer.ebay.com 
interface (there's a link somewhere). it does NOT work if you register 
the account directly on http://sandbox.ebay.com need to remember that.


2. keys and token
ebay api requires 3 keys and a token. ebatns usually requires the user 
to put the token in a seperate file.
i don't think this is a good solution for drupal, so i put the token in 
a database field like any other variable.
somewhere in ebatns documentation i read that changed token are written 
to the token file automatically. i can't figure out when a change if 
token is to happen? (except the user changes it himself). anyway, should 
i stumble across a forced change of token, i can still detect it and 
write a new one to the database.
i also think this is ok from a security pov.


3. bundling of ebatns
ebay module requires the ebatns library. i thought a while about how 
this dependancy is best resolved. i don't think it's good to ask the 
user to download the lib and place it in a specified location. that's 
too complicated and too error-prone.
so i kinda bundled the lib and just put it into a subdirectory within 
the ebay module.
ebatns changes quite frequently, so the user should place updates there.
i hope there's nothing to say against that?!


4. ebay and drupal and ecommerce
this is a complicated situation; on the one hand, ebay module should 
integrate with ecommerce's products of course. on the other hand, there 
are many features which need to be hidden. for example, the ebay product 
can't be bought through drupal. it can only be bought through ebay and 
paid for in drupal.
i'll also have to take care of changes: deleting an item or changing the 
price is not possible on ebay of course (unless there haven't been any 
bids so far);
1	put my ebay module into sandbox so gordon can view the code.
2
3
4	1. ebay API this is really tricky: you register on developer.ebay.com
5	and get your keys and the token. now you need to pair a sandbox user
6	account with a given set of keys. while "read-only" api requests worked
7	fine, AddItem did NOT work - ebay API told me to register a credit card
8	first in order to setup a sellers account. strange. i searched ebays
9	website for hours but couldn't find a solution. in the end, i found a
10	blog entry somewhere as some people had the same problem: you need to
11	register the sandbox user account through the developer.ebay.com
12	interface (there's a link somewhere). it does NOT work if you register
13	the account directly on http://sandbox.ebay.com need to remember that.
14
15
16	2. keys and token
17	ebay api requires 3 keys and a token. ebatns usually requires the user
18	to put the token in a seperate file.
19	i don't think this is a good solution for drupal, so i put the token in
20	a database field like any other variable.
21	somewhere in ebatns documentation i read that changed token are written
22	to the token file automatically. i can't figure out when a change if
23	token is to happen? (except the user changes it himself). anyway, should
24	i stumble across a forced change of token, i can still detect it and
25	write a new one to the database.
26	i also think this is ok from a security pov.
27
28
29	3. bundling of ebatns
30	ebay module requires the ebatns library. i thought a while about how
31	this dependancy is best resolved. i don't think it's good to ask the
32	user to download the lib and place it in a specified location. that's
33	too complicated and too error-prone.
34	so i kinda bundled the lib and just put it into a subdirectory within
35	the ebay module.
36	ebatns changes quite frequently, so the user should place updates there.
37	i hope there's nothing to say against that?!
38
39
40	4. ebay and drupal and ecommerce
41	this is a complicated situation; on the one hand, ebay module should
42	integrate with ecommerce's products of course. on the other hand, there
43	are many features which need to be hidden. for example, the ebay product
44	can't be bought through drupal. it can only be bought through ebay and
45	paid for in drupal.
46	i'll also have to take care of changes: deleting an item or changing the
47	price is not possible on ebay of course (unless there haven't been any
48	bids so far);