###################################################### # # eBay Search Engine # (c) Darren Wright, All Rights Reserved # http://perlwebsite.com # author : Darren Wright # # UNAUTHORISED USE OF THIS SCRIPT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED # INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS CAN BE FOUND IN README.TXT # # Selling or modifying the code for this program without prior written consent # is expressly forbidden. You may not redistribute this program over the Internet # or in any other medium. In all cases copyright and header must remain intact. # # This program is distributed "as is" and without warranty of any kind. # By using this program you agree to indemnify perlwebsite.com and the author # for any damages, losses etc. as the result of its use. # In other words use at your own risk. # ######################################################## ######################################################## Thank you for purchasing eBay Search Engine This script has been designed to add eBay listings to your own website. The script utilises the eBay editor kit to return searches and category listings. You should have received the following files... * ebay.cgi * settings.txt * header.txt * footer.txt * readme.txt Below you will find information on how to install eBay Search Engine, and how to set up eBay Search Engine for Commission Junction Affiliate tracking. Please follow all instructions. ######################################################## ######################################################## OVERVIEW eBay Search Engine has been designed to return ebay search results direct into your own webpages. It is also possible to set up links throughout your website that will return search results from specific categories using specific search terms. Please read Advanced Links located further down this page. ######################################################## ######################################################## PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW TO INSTALL (Instuctions for Commission Junction Affiliate Tracking are further down the page) (1) Unzip ebay.zip to your hard drive. (2) If your path to perl is not #!/usr/bin/perl you will need to change the first line of ebay.cgi to reflect the true path to perl. If you don't know where perl is, ask your system administrator. (3) Create a folder in your cgi-bin called ebay and upload ebay.cgi in ascii mode to this folder. Set ebay.cgi file permissions to 755. (4) To customise the look and feel of your ebay search pages, open header.txt and footer.txt then edit the html to reflect the look and feel of your own website. Save these files before uploading. (5) Upload header.txt, footer.txt and settings.txt to the same directory as ebay.cgi. You may need to set all the text file permissions to 777, although on most servers this is not neccessary. (7) Your done installing eBay Search Engine. The last step is to activate it. To do this, using your browser, type in the URL of ebay.cgi, this will look something like this, http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/ebay/ebay.cgi , then fill in the setup details. ######################################################## ######################################################## HOW TO CONFIGURE EBAY SEARCH ENGINE FOR COMMISSION JUNCTION AFFILIATES What we will be doing here is retreiving our Commission Junction PID number, and then retreiving our eBay encoded user ID. Both these items are required to use eBay Search Engine to track affiliate sales. This is not for the faint hearted, you will need to create an affiliate Editor Kit on eBay, then identify your encoded user ID from within the Editor Kit html code. I will do my best to guide you through the process, but YOU will have to retreive the details yourself to configure the script and track commissions. Unfortunately I can not assist you to do this, as you are required to login to your eBay account to create the Editor Kit. PLEASE NOTE: If for any reason you cannot retreive your required information, or are unable to retreive the information, or Commission Junction or eBay do not track your eBay Search Engine affiliate sales, I will not be held liable, and will not provide a refund on this script. So please do not ask. (1) Firstly you will need to have an account with Commission Junction, if you don't have an account, go to http://www.cj.com and sign up. Once you have an account, login and search for ebay, make sure you select the eBay program for your country, apply for affiliate status within Commission Junction. (2) Once you have applied to be an affiliate for eBay through Commission Junction, retreive your PID number, Please note your PID number is not your Commission Junction account number. Login to Commission Junction, then go to Account > Web Site Settings, you will see your PID number listed there. You will need your PID number when activating the eBay Search Engine script for the first time. (3) Now you will need an account with eBay, if you havn't got an account, follow the following link and sign up, http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-1659734-2202641 (4) Once you have an account, follow the links to the eBay affiliate pages, then go to Toolbox > Editor Kit , click on the "Get Editor Kit Now" link. This will bring up the Create Your Editor Kit page. What we are doing here is creating an editor kit so you can retreive your eBay encoded user ID from within the html code. (5) Create a Editor Kit by filling out the form. Select Commission Junction as your Provider, enter your Commission Junction PID Number. Enter anything as your Search Term. Enter 1 as the Category Number, Enter anything as your Title. This should be the minimum required to create a kit. It really doesnt matter about colours etc. as this will be set within the eBay Search Engine Script when you first run it. Click on the Preview Button at the bottom of the page. (6) With any luck you have created an Editor Kit, and are now viewing the html code and (Sniplet Source) and example of what it looks like. If not fill in any missing fields till you get to this point. (7) View the html code (Sniplet Source). Start at the begining and look along till you see &ai= the following bit of code will look something like this: c%7c%7d%7cef%7cu%4f followed by another & cymbal. That bit of strange code is your encoded eBay user ID. (8) Save your encoded user ID so you don't have to go through this process again ! (9) Now you are ready to install eBay Search Engine, follow the install steps listed above. ######################################################## ######################################################## ADVANCED LINKS It is possible to place advanced links on your webpages to return results from specific categories, using specific search terms, specific amounts of search results, specific price ranges and more. Here is how to do it: First your links must point correctly to ebay.cgi on your server, something like this: http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/ebay/ebay.cgi To search a specific Category you will need to know the category number, this is different from the category name, to find category numbers visit: http://listings.ebay.com.au/aw/listings/list/categories.html To return search results from a specific category, you would add this to your link: ?catid=293 (http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/ebay/ebay.cgi?catid=293) Where 293 is the category number. To search ALL Categories, you would add this to your link: ?catid=0 (http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/ebay/ebay.cgi?catid=0) 0 will search all categories. To return search results with a specific search term, you would add this to your link: ?catid=0&search=Guitars (http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/ebay/ebay.cgi?catid=0&search=Guitars) Where Guitars is the search term. To search descriptions, you would add this to your link: ?catid=0&srchdesc=y (http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/ebay/ebay.cgi?catid=0&srchdesc=y) To return a specific amount of search results, you would add this to your link: ?catid=0&num=12 (http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/ebay/ebay.cgi?catid=0&num=12) Where 12 is the amount of search results. To return items with minimum or maximum prices, you would add this to your link: ?catid=0&minprice=10 (http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/ebay/ebay.cgi?catid=0&minprice=10) ?catid=0&maxprice=100 (http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/ebay/ebay.cgi?catid=0&maxprice=100) Where 10 is the minimum price & 100 is the maximum in the above examples. To use both together, it would look like this: http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/ebay/ebay.cgi?catid=0&minprice=10&maxprice=100 NOTE the correct use of the "?" and the "&" cymbals. You can also combine any or all of the above, by using the "&" cymbal between each variable you are adding. The first variable should have the ? in front of it, any other variables should have a & in front of it. IE: if you wanted to add a link that returned "20" results from the "Antiques" category using the search term "Clocks" your link would look like this: http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/ebay/ebay.cgi?catid=353&num=20&search=Clocks NOTE the correct use of the "?" and the "&" cymbals. HERE IS THE FULL LIST OF LINK VARIABLES: To search a specific category: catid= Search a specific term: search= To search descriptions: srchdesc=y Return a set amount of results: num= Return items with a minimum price: minprice= Return items with a maximum price: maxprice= Return Buy It Now items only: bin=y Return Gallery Items only: gallery=y Return items from a specific Country: siteid= Examples: siteid=0 (United States) siteid=3 (United Kingdom) siteid=-15 (Any Country) siteid=15 (Australia) siteid=16 (Austria) siteid=23 (Belgium) siteid=2 (Canada) siteid=71 (France) siteid=77 (Germany) siteid=101 (Italy) siteid=146 (Netherlands) siteid=186 (Spain) siteid=193 (Switzerland) siteid=196 (Taiwan) Return items sorted by end time, newly listed etc: sort= Examples (Self Explanitory): sortname=Items ending first&sort=MetaEndSort sortname=Newly-listed items first&sort=MetaNewSort sortname=Lowest prices first&sort=MetaLowestPriceSort sortname=Highest prices first&sort=MetaHighestPriceSort ######################################################## ######################################################## TROUBLESHOOTING If you experience problems with the script, please read the following before asking me for help. * Script returns 500 Internal Server Error Make sure you've changed the first line of ebay.cgi to #! and then the path to perl on your system. Make sure you've uploaded ebay.cgi in ascii mode, not binary. Make sure you've set the permissions on ebay.cgi to 755. PLEASE NOTE: If for any reason Commission Junction or eBay do not track your eBay Search Engine affiliate sales, We will not be held liable, and will not provide a refund on this script. So please do not ask. If you still need help, go to http://perlwebsite.com ######################################################## Cheers Darren Wright http://perlwebsite.com