Working with Seller Events  

To retrieve a list of a seller's items for which seller events have occurred, use GetSellerEvents.

To specify a seller, use the eBay user ID for the seller. If the eBay user ID is not specified, seller events are retrieved for the seller identified by the authentication token.

You can use the following time-based filters to reduce the number of events returned: ModTimeFrom, ModTimeTo, EndTimeFrom, EndTimeTo, StartTimeFrom, and StartTimeTo. For example, to retrieve only events for items that were modified during a specific time period, you can use ModTimeFrom and ModTimeTo. Best Practices are described in the following Knowledge Base article:

Best Practices for GetSellerEvents and GetSellerTransactions

https://ebay.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ebay.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=222

At least one of the following must be specified: ModTimeFrom, EndTimeFrom, or StartTimeFrom. Time-based filters can work in pairs (e.g., ModTimeFrom and ModTimeTo). If you do not specify the "To" filter, it is set to the time you make the call. For better results, the time period you use should be less than 48 hours.

The seller's user ID and filtering are specified for the call using the following properties.

Table 11-6 Seller Event Data Specifiers 

Item Property	Required	Type/Code List	Purpose
UserID	Y	UserIDType	eBay user ID for the seller whose events are to be returned.
StartTimeFrom	N/Y	dateTime	Describes the earliest (oldest) date to use in a date range filter based on item start time. Must be specified if StartTimeTo is specified.
StartTimeTo	N/Y	dateTime	Describes the latest (most recent) date to use in a date range filter based on item start time.
EndTimeFrom	N/Y	dateTime	Describes the earliest (oldest) date to use in a date range filter based on item end time. Must be specified if EndTimeTo is specified.
EndTimeTo	N/Y	dateTime	Describes the latest (most recent) date to use in a date range filter based on item end time.
ModTimeFrom	N/Y	dateTime	Describes the earliest (oldest) date to use in a date range filter based on the time an item's record was modified. Must be specified if ModTimeTo is specified.
ModTimeTo	N/Y	dateTime	Describes the latest (most recent) date to use in a date range filter based on the time an item's record was modified.
IncludeWatchCount	N	boolean	Specifies whether to include WatchCount in Item nodes returned. WatchCount is the number of watches buyers have placed on the item from their My eBay accounts.
NewItemFilter	N	boolean	Limits the returned events to just those where the modification to the item is its initial listing (i.e., only new item listings are returned).

The data returned by GetSellerEvents contains information about the items that fit your input filters. One ItemType object is returned for each item. See the schema documentation for ItemArrayType and ItemType for a complete list of their properties.

Table 11-7 GetSellerEventsCall Return Values 

Returned Values	Type/Code List	Meaning
ItemArray	ItemArrayType	Collection of Item objects, each of which represents an item listing that incurred the type of seller event change specified in the call's inputs.

Your application traverses the returned array for the data in each ItemType object. You can compare each object to data previously returned. For example, an application could compare returned data with the data stored in a database table. If the item's current price had changed (such as for progressive bidding in a Chinese auction), your comparison would reveal the change.

Some baseline set of data is needed to determine what item values changed as this is not indicated in the property values of the returned ItemType objects. The ItemType objects hold only current values, as of the last change to the item. For some purposes, the data values returned are of value (such as seeing the current price of a competitive-bidding listing) without comparing the values to an older set of values. Many sellers wish to be able to make this determination to not only see what the current values are, but what the old values were before the seller event. To do that the application must store the returned values for a given item (such as to a database table) on each GetSellerEvents. Subsequent executions of GetSellerEvents (using incrementally later date ranges) can then use this historical data in comparison with the newly returned data to highlight the changes.

User-Contributed Notes