The eBay Integration project for Zen Cart is working well on our web site. But, before I make it available to others, I decided to make it work a little better.
The process for adding Zen Cart products to the eBay store was a little too cumbersome. I had a tab where you could list and search for products then select a product to edit. The editor allowed you to manage additional product information needed to list the items on eBay. Then, to actually add the products to eBay, you would select a menu option on the Tools tab. If any products failed to add, you would have to go back to the Products tab to edit the product before trying again.
I took some time to rewrite the code so that listing, searching, browsing, and editing products is much easier (and the code will be much easier to maintain). To add a product to eBay, you just click a button when the product is displayed. Any errors are reported on the same page so you can easily edit the product to fix them and try again.
For now, at least, once the product is listed on eBay the eBay Integration system keeps the inventory in sync between the Zen Cart store and eBay. But, if you modify a product attribute – such as the description – in Zen Cart, the corresponding eBay listing will not automatically be updated. I think that will work okay and be less confusing. Currently, I review each eBay listing after it is completed and tweak it as necessary. Even with this extra step, listing products using this plug in for Zen Cart is much easier and quicker than entering then through eBay’s web site.