Image Links Considered Active Content & Will Not Work

GarageSale
1

As you may already know eBay has been placing a notice at the top of listings about active content. These notices can only be seen when you are logged into your account and can’t be seen by any buyers. If you utilize the “Preview” link in this notice to view your listing with any active content now disabled you will see that any links you have to externally hosted pictures do not work. Clicking on such images will not longer open a new browser tab or window.

notice2.png1358×194 25 KB

If you use the following tool from eBay’s forums you will see that the links are being targeted as active content. After the page has been loaded into this tool the code can can be seen under the “Markup” subtab under the main “Show/Hide” tab.

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ActiveContentSandbox.htm

link targets.png1390×250 124 KB

I have been using a free image hosting site called use.com for images, but recently have been thinking of switching to a paid server with ftp as this will save having to paste the html code from the free service into each listing for each group of images I upload. Both of these strategies now seem a rather moot point if eBay intends on banning clickable links on image thumbnails.

Can this be fixed? Without the ability to provide buyers access to full sized images GS becomes utterly worthless.

I fail to understand eBay at all on this matter. eBay Pictures Services is not able to show my images at their full size - they are all downsized. A uncropped photo from my camera (5184 x 3456) is only shown at 30% of its original size by EPS. The maximum width EPS shows pictures is 1599, which means most pictures from my camera are reduced in size by EPS.

On the other hand eBay is now also banning links to full sized images embedded within the description. This makes no sense at all and will only lead to problems with buyers who now can’t see the fine detail in antiques and collectibles. I previously had conducted a test using a image of a oil painting. When viewed on EPS the artist’s brush strokes in the painting were no longer visible yet were still visible in my externally hosted images.

eBay’s “customer service” actually suggested I now take photos with a camera phone to cut down on their size so eBay does not downsize them or that I reduce their size using a online editing program. The purpose of using my $1,200 camera and my copy of Photoshop CS is to make high quality photos for buyers! I received several other similar “insane” answers from eBay’s customer service strongly suggesting that they don’t really care at all - as usual. If someone that worked for me gave one of my customers the type of answers I received from eBay customer service they would be immediately fired from their jobs.

2

This is a good question! I use my own image server and sometimes have tons of photos in my listings. Are we going to be forced to use Ebay Picture Services?

3

Apparently the horizontal limit that EPS will show images is 1600 pixel, although if you download a image at full size from EPS it shows 1599 in the Mac Finder (perhaps the Finder is miscalculating the image by calling the fist pixel 0 as opposed to 1 as in programming languages I’ve used).

When EPS came out that was the exact thought of some sellers on eBay, flypogger - they will eventually force all sellers to use EPS and come up with some lame excuse as a cover story.

4

If you scroll down there to the section “What Template Designers should know.” it states:

“prevent links from targeting other browsing contexts (target=”“).”

You’re using ‘target=“_blank”’ in your links. It’d worth a try to remove it. Maybe you can still use your links then.

Regards, Kristian

5

I just revised a listing using one of GS’s built-in templates with images being uploaded to a ftp server. The listing included two images, a text description and a textblock at the bottom. I did not manually insert any picture html code into the listing. I simply dragged pictures into the editor and told GS to upload to a server using ftp.

I checked the code GS uploaded to eBay using the following tool. GS is inserting the a tag links with the banned target attribute into the code uploaded to eBay servers.

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ActiveContentSandbox.htm

I manually removed the target attribute from each link and tested using the same tool. I then clicked the first image once and it expanded to cover all the description and the second image. Clicking it a second time expanded it to its full size. If you click the image a 3rd time it will reduce to the 2nd largest size; however, there is no way to reduce the image further and the description and 2nd image will remain forever hidden unless you fresh the entire listing in the browser.

I was also using the design template utility Version 2.1b7 (218) and it suddenly started acting very strange. First all the code in custom template all disappeared; however, I had saved it to the desktop previously. I restarted the program, but now it refused to allow any code to be pasted in. Clicking one tab also now shows the content of other tabs or the tab content does refresh at all. The built in templates refuse to show any code under the code tab or will only show the code when the program first starts and then will disappear for all the templates. I’ve used AppCleaner to remove it and its supporting files 3 times, but its still does not work.

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Note: I also upgraded one of my hard drives to the latest Apple OS to use the latest version of GS and it also inserted the incorrect target links into the code its uploading to eBay.

Design Template Utility is no longer usable. After you attempt to past any text in the code tab the first time it does not paste any any of your code and then refuse to accept any further test typed on your keyboard.

7

Without knowing what design and what layout option you have tested it’s hard to tell what happened. Could you please let me know the details or better send me a link to the listing in question?

Of course, we’ll try to update all GarageSale designs so they won’t cause trouble with the new “Active Content” rule coming next year.

Regarding the DTU: Version 2 is too old for GarageSale 7. We’re currently working on a new version that supports GS7. You can already download a pre-release version of the new “GarageSale Design Utility” here:
http://downloads.iwascoding.com/downloads/DesignTemplateUtility_2016-09-26.zip

Regards, Kristian

8

Every single built-in template I’ve tested, including one I built from scratch, which inserts images in the description places a html <a tag with the target attribute around the image in the description so that when its clicked a new tab or browser window is opened with the url of the original photo in the description is linked. The entire html <a tag and its target attribute are being flagged as active content.

I only tried GS 7 briefly and did not use it with DTU. I reverted back to using DTU that came with GS 6.9.2 as I saw nothing in GS 7 of any benefit, especially since I am not interested in updating my OS since that means other important applications I use will no longer work.

DTU no longer functions correctly. When its first started it shows code under the templates, allows me to initially use the delete key, but once I attempt to paste anything into the code field of any editable template, even duplicates made of the built-in templates, it refuses to paste anything and then I am unable to type any further code. Pasting code also disables the placeholder and layout menus for inserting code. Pasting just once has also caused the program to eventually crash and the main tabs in the application to show the incorrect content. When I restart the program its back to normal, but trying to paste any text in the code field will cause the same problems.

I removed DTU using AppCleaner, which also removes an associated files, but reinstalling it causes the same problems. Also restarted the Mac Pro, but that did not fix the issue.

Unfortunately the problem with eBay’s active content mess is that they expect us to create thousands of templates during the coming months which may never work or require editing. I don’t know about you, but I don’t work for free for eBay.

9

Hello,
the problem of active content @devilsadvocate talked about is seriously worrying me. I am creating dozens of new listings every day and the idea of having thousands of listings next year that won’t work is a bit painful. It is some weeks I am trying to understand what a “active content”. Is eBay going to ban also any links that send customers to a new browser’s page? Is there anyone who can kindly explain me this, please?
In this discussion I have just found out that there is also another problem with images. It is extremely important since I have the same need of @devilsadvocate , dealing with antiques I need to show as many details possible. Unfortunately, using GS image server, the maximum size is 1600 so I decided to concentrate my sales on items that do not require huge images (f.e. postcards), but while I am doing this I am also studying how to use ftp (f.e. I need maximum dimensions for books’ or paintings’ photos). @devilsadvocate how did you solve the matter? Is there any solution for the trouble of images’ links? The last important question, @kristian is there any possible way to enlarge images without links that open a new browser page (f.e. a zoom like this for EPS images)?
I hope someone could clarify me this.

Thank you in advance
Federico

10

Hi all,

GarageSale’s design templates do not make use of „active content“ (JavaScript, Flash, plug-ins and form actions.)
However, they make use of links, e.g. to open an image in a new browser window. When it comes to links it’s unclear how ebay will handle them in future. So far, they nowhere mentioned that they will remove links as long as they meet their links policy:

„(…) Links that point to a third-party website, such as image hosting and auction template sites, are also allowed.“

If you use eBay’s „official“ testing tool from „i-ways“ it states (if links are found):
„HTML link is found in source codes.
HTML 5 standards only allow limited use of HTML links in Sandbox mode. It is not yet clear to what extent the use of links is allowed in eBay listings. We will adjust the analysis accordingly“

Conclusion: I fear we have to wait until ebay provides us with more details.
When we know these details, the GarageSale design templates will be updated, if needed.

Some helpful links if you want to learn more:
„Best Practices“ from eBay:
http://pages.ebay.com/sell/itemdescription/bestpractices.html#Overview

Links Policy from eBay:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-links.html

„i-ways“ test tool:
http://www.i-ways.net/mobile-friendly/en-us/

eBay community: „Scan listings for Active Content before eBay’s ban begins“ (see the posts from user „shipscript“):
http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Scan-listings-for-Active-Content-before-eBay-s-ban-begins/td-p/25835095
(He also answers the question why links do currrently not work in eBay’s “active content preview” sandbox page!)

Regards, Kristian

11

The version of GS I am using (6.9.8) has an upper limit of 1200 x 800 on GS’s own server thus its not usable as my camera takes 5,184 x 3,456 images so the vast majority of images, which are cropped, are bigger than eBay’s 1,600 maximum visible limit.

Another problem with not allowing links is providing additional information for the buyer. Examples:

  1. I sold a rare cigar label. This label was featured in a online museum which I linked to in my auction. There was nothing for sale at the museum site. As result of buyer’s knowing this the item sold for over $100.

  2. I sell many vintage genealogical and provide links to sites such as findagrave.com and to 18th and 19th Century U.S. county history books which have been digitized by Google. Buyers use this information to determine if the items I have are from their ancestors. I placed a 1860s Bible for sale which normally has little value; however, two relatives where bidding against each other and the item sold for more than $100, but only because they were able to see this additional information.

eBay says the links may not work in which case they have effectively banned them because no buyer is going to take the time to manually find the url of each image and open that in their browser - assuming of course that can even be done under eBay’s new rules. Currently in Firefox while looking at my listing under the eBay’s Preview mode ,whereas the active content is turned off, you can only see the full size pictures by holding down the control key and tapping your mouse on a embedded picture to bring up a contextual menu to open the picture’s url in a new tab; however, no buyer is going to do that.

eBay also says that in addition to the links not working they could be actually stripped from the listing altogether so buyers will not see them at all. eBay has been previously experimenting with a concept of the having the description area not even visible by default. eBay is encouraging buyers, especially mobile buyers, to now buy items without actually reading the text description or examining detailed photos. This is called eBay throwing its sellers under the bus - they frankly do not care. EPS is already many years old and they have not fixed it. If they wanted to fix all they need to is allow greater picture sized in EPS and more than 12 pictures, which frankly makes one wonder what my fees being paid to eBay are be used for - its certainly not for the benefit of their sellers or buyers.

I’ve been experimenting with a new template. DTU has stop working altogether despite many uninstalling and installing it many times thus I’ve been using TextWrangler to edit a template. The idea behind my new template was to get rid of the links by removing the html a tags in the template. If I initially embed the images so that they display at full size immediately upon loading the listing this might create some problems for buyers in that they are too large. So for users wanting to see detail greater than EPS I embed the images in the listing within a html div tag. This div is smaller than the full size image and displays scrollbars to allow the user to allow the user to scroll the image vertically and horizontally. The user can also increase the size of div by dragging it with their mouse.

In this template the thumbnails are 500 x 500, but can be dragged bigger and scrolled. This template shows my description, followed by any images centered, followed by a textblock with my terms of service. It seems to work well so far; however, the question is how big to make the initial div for the window - probably should be bigger than 500 x 500, but how much bigger to make it buyer friendly. Will I have to also place media queries in my code for mobile and tablet users - perhaps the 500 x 500 div is already too big for mobile users.

<div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; color: #000; text-align: left; font-weight: normal;">
[[description]]
</div>									
<center>
[[foreach image item.auctionImages imagesThumbLoop]]
<div style="width: 500px; height: 500px; resize: both; overflow: auto; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<img src="[[image.imageURL]]">
</div>
[[endforeach imagesThumbLoop]]
</center>
{{textblocks.Terms}}

Do you think this might be workaround kristian? Hopefully you understand what I am attempting by my explanation.

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http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/view-item.html#tab=whats-new

According to those help pages mobile users may not be seeing any embedded images when they first visit your listing (or not at all). eBay scans your listing and grabs what text it thinks may be important and shows them that and if they want to see more they must tell eBay. When the full description loads it may or may not show the embedded images.

Try looking at your listings using a device emulator found in Chrome as discussed at the url below. All the online ones I have tried do not work. I personally do not use any mobile devices to test on an actual device; however, I was not impressed by the text eBay decided to show by default. In one case they grabbed text form the middle of my description. In the other case all they showed was a GS version number from the html (that was really weird to say the least).

http://www.goinflow.com/using-chrome-as-a-mobile-emulator/

Well at least the 10 ads eBay has placed on the bottom of my listings were working good.

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So after much tearing my hair out, while beating my head against a wall for added measure, I wanted to get input from others on the following possible workaround.

Problem:

Currently many users insert thumbnails of images into the description using the html img tag. These thumbnails are linked to full sized images that are hosted on 3rd party servers. The images are typically linked using a html a tag around the html img tag as in the examples below.

In first example when the user clicks on the image the link to the full size iamge would be opened in a new browser tab or window depending on the user’s browser’s preferences. In the second example the link would open in the current browser window and the user would need to use their back button to see the eBay auction that was previously shown in the browser window.

<a href="" target="_blank">
<img src="">
</a>

<a href="">
<img src="">
</a>

eBay is banning active content so the first example will not work - users may move their mouse over the image but it will do nothing when clicked. The second example, which is less desirable, may or may not work depending upon if eBay also plans to ban links.

With these links no longer work properly the buyer is forced to further use their browser to see the actual full size images. In Firefox on a Mac they would need to hold down the control key while tapping their mouse to bring up a contextual menu from which they need to chose an option to open the link for the image. Most users are unlikely to do this as most buyers want instant results.

eBay’s official solution is to use eBay Picture Services; however, that choice is highly defective. It limits images to a width of 1600 pixels and to see a image at that size you may need to use a larger monitor and resize your browser window until the image no longer gets any larger. Mobile viewers will have the added problem of having to use screen gestures to magnify their view of the image.

My thoughts on the matter were to embed images within the description within a series of picture viewers which would show images at 100% of their original size. These viewers would automatically show scrollbars when the image was bigger than the viewer window. These viewers would automatically span the width of the available space. The height must to be set at a given pixel amount for this code to work and to prevent the images from being resized to the size of the outer division. A height of 500px seems to work well so far in the listings I have tested using the mobile emulator in Chrome.

I’ve used the following code in a current template I’ve tested on eBay.

.gsimagewrapper{
position: relative;
width: 100%;
height: 500px;
overflow: auto;
clear: both;
margin: 0px;
margin-bottom: 14pt;
padding: 0px;
}

.gsimage{
position: absolute;
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
}

<center>    
[[foreach image item.auctionImages imagesThumbLoop]]
<div class="gsimagewrapper">
<img class="gsimage" src="[[image.imageURL]]">
</div>
[[endforeach imagesThumbLoop]]
</center>

This may or may not cause slower loading time for users using mobile devices over current embedded images using links. This will depend upon how your thumbnails are embedded. Some thumbnails are simply the full sized which are shown at a smaller size. Other thumbnails are actual smaller copies of the original images - the originals are not loaded until the user visits the links for those full size images. The second technique generally allows for faster initial loading time, but then requires the user to also load the full sizes they choose to see.

Here is the full template for consideration:

<style>

.gsdescriptionwrapper, .gsterms1wrapper{
    font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Sans-serif;
    font-color: #000000;
    font-size: 14pt;
    font-align: left;
}

.gsimagewrapper{
    position: relative;
    width: 100%;
    height: 500px;
    overflow: auto;
    clear: both;
    margin: 0px;
    margin-bottom: 14pt;
    padding: 0px;
}

.gsimage{
    position: absolute;
    top: 0px;
    left: 0px;
}

</style>

<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Product">
<span property="description" style="display: none;">
Please read the full description and examine the full size images prior to purchase.
</span>
</div>

<div class="gsdescriptionwrapper">
[[description]]
</div>
                    
<center>    
[[foreach image item.auctionImages imagesThumbLoop]]
<div class="gsimagewrapper">
<img class="gsimage" src="[[image.imageURL]]">
</div>
[[endforeach imagesThumbLoop]]
</center>    

<div class="gsterms1wrapper">
{{textblocks.Terms1}}
</div>

That last bit of code is not needed needed for anyone to test the template. That code (see below) refers to a textblock I am having GS insert into each listing at the bottom that contain my terms of service. It is formatted with its own style tags inside the textblock.

<div class="gsterms1wrapper">
{{textblocks.Terms1}}
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@devilsadvocate your messages are endless! To be honest I did not understand all, especially because I am not expert of html, maybe @ilja will find a solution adding the 3000x4000 size. Anyway, I do not understand why you would not use the 3000x4000 size… if your images are bigger that’s not a problem if they are resized, I understand that 1200x800 is too small, but 3000x4000… don’t you think that the difference between 3000x4000 and 5184 x 3456 is little?
Second, you did not mention the main problem for eBay Picture Service: it costs, and a lot!

15

I am not an html expert either - just a quick idea I cam up with after reading about css and html.

Here is a 500 x 500 pixel crop of a larger picture for comparison

EPS Maximum Display of 1600:

3000 Wide:

5184 Wide Original:

How exactly are those 3000 wide images going to be displayed in the description?

I assume you are not going to display them at full size within the description, but instead are going to place thumbnails in the description with links to the full sized images.

Visit one of your auctions and use the “Preview” link that eBay is now placing at the top of each description inside a warning box about active content being banned by mid 2017. You can’t see this in other people’s actions - you need to visit one of your own items while you are logged in.

Now click those thumbnails with the Preview mode enabled. They don’t work. So how are buyers going to see your full sized image with no links to those images that work. You can still embed thumbnail images in the listing under the Preview mode, but what is point of doing that if their only purpose is to act as links to full size images? Assuming that eBay eventually addresses the issue of links it still means you may be creating listings in GS for the next 8-9 months that will need to be changed to work under their new rules or perhaps they will not work at all. That is a lot of wasted time thus I came up with a possible solution that allows buyers to see the full size images inside scrollable viewers and do not depend on links to other web pages which eBay may ban.

Do you mean it costs money in your country? I am not charged for EPS in the U.S. I also do not use Gallery Plus which is $.35 for some categories, although eBay has a habit of randomly adding Gallery Plus to my and other user’s invoices which I have remove thus I pay nothing for EPS.

My main problem with EPS is that it has a limit of 12 images and those images will display no wider than 1600. It displays my cameras images at 30% of their original width and height.

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Interesting… in my opinion a sort of “zoom” would solve the matter, but not for mobile users. So in my opinion the only way is opening a new page and then manually enlarging the image. Anyway, don’t worry that 60 % of mobile users do not “spend time” looking descriptions, at least for me. I usually meet people who buy without looking description because it is “a loss of time” (… it’s hard to keep calm in this cases… !!).

I am sorry but I suppose this feature is only for your country, no advised on eBay.it

This is my main problem!! Now I am running about 2200 listing but this is a minor part available items, I am constantly listing, but the idea of creating for 8-9 months thousands of new listing that will need to be revised… this is shocking! Of course I know it is not GS’s fault but eBay’s, but their assistance is absolutely useless! They never reply to my question in a proper way, I wrote 3 email, I receive 3 totally different replies… I lost hope and this is also why I am always around here.

It costs a lot!!! First image is gratis, then 0,39 € cent. To be honest I never tried because I still give enough money to eBay, but I HOPE it is not 0,39 per photo… anyway just consider that 0,39*2200 active listing (now) would be nearly 850 € EVERY MONTH… no comment…

17

Yes, I have also found that to be true. My main reason for providing such information is insurance against people who do not take the time to examine the full listing or who wish to commit fraud. My terms state that the buyer is confirming that they have examined the text description and full sized image before they make their purchase. This has helped in several situations whereas the buyer claims one thing, but soon changes their story when I bring their attention to the full size images which prove that they are lying or did not examine the description or full sizes before purchasing.[quote=“fedege96, post:16, topic:1962”]

I am sorry but I suppose this feature is only for your country, no advised on eBay.it
[/quote]

I am guessing eBay is planning to complete their testing in the U.S. first and then make changes to other countries; however, perhaps what eBay plans to do is not legal in other countries - they’ve gotten in trouble with the EU in the paste; for example.

What eBay plans to do:

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/itemdescription/bestpractices.html

External testing tool for active content:

How it appears at the top of each listing while you are logged into your account:

Screen_Shot_2016_10_04_at_3_17_00_PM.png1280×176 56.4 KB

I agree. When I call eBay they give a different answer each time, much of which is completely wrong and contradicts their own web pages. Most every person I talk to appears to be located in India and although they generally speak good English they do not have a native understanding of American English. They also try to hide the fact that they are from India in emails - they begin the message with "Hello, this is “John” but then sign their emails with their Indian name which I probably could pronounce correctly. LOL! I have nothing against people from India - my problem is that eBay does not provide customer service from my own country who would be able to understand 99.9% of everything I say.

WOW! That works out to about $.43 an image using the current exchange rate. EPS’s charges would be a scary costume for Halloween :0)

Here’s a screenshot of me testing the image viewers in Chrome’s emulator under its Developer Tools as seen on a IPhone 6 Plus. The image has been reduced in size to fit into this discussion.

Each one of those small squares shows the image at full size with vertical and horizontal scrollbars. In the first image you can see a small rounded bar on the right side of the image - that is a vertical scrollbar. All the user has to do is scroll the images to see small portions of them at full size. Those image viewers are stacked on top of each other vertically.

I might tweak the design by reducing the width to of the viewers to 95% so that their is some space on each side of each viewer as this will provide an area where the user can tap the main eBay page so that the browser’s focus is taken back to the main page instead of the current viewer that they are scrolling in.

18

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