Bulk Editing Description Problem

[from-then-to-now]

We have previously used the Bulk Edit tool to edit Item Descriptions successfully (before being transferred from Seller Manager Pro to Seller Hub).

We are now trying to update listings to comply with the http/https requirement as well as other changes we need to make. We have some 1700 listings across a number of eBay sites and therefore need to edit in bulk. However, the tool doesn't work now. We have tried to change just 2 or 3 UK listings at a time without success. Although the screen messages indicate that the changes have been successfully processed, when we examine the individual listings, the changes have not been made.

Here are just two examples of the Search & Replace changes attempted:

Search:  ><br></td>

Replace with:  ></td>

Search: http://www.domain/**/******/

Replace with: https://www.anotherDomain/*****/*****/

[PLEASE NOTE: The full Search & Replace details have not been shown above, for security reasons]

Any help would be much appreciated.

[alpine*ade]

I only clicked on the link and it did that craziness. I have now switched from Google Chrome which has been crashing lately - to Firefox. Maybe that will help???

OK I have done the first run. There is an edit mode button on the right - should I have done anything with that? There were 3 I think that couldn't be edited because of photos - I'm not worried about those right now.

[shipscript]

The Chrome browser probably had some settings or addons interfering with page and causing crashes.

The job that you ran through eBay's BEAR eliminated the code in about 400 listings.

This code should eliminate another 65. We'll keeping going from there. Let me know when that BEAR job is done.

<div style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: medium;"><font rwr="1" size="4" style="font-family: Arial;"><font size="5" color="#8a0000"><b><font face="Arial Black">NOTE:</font><font face="Arial">&nbsp;MY STORE WILL BE CLOSED FROM DEC. 15TH UNTIL JAN 1ST - SO PLEASE PURCHASE &amp; PAY BEFORE THE 15TH SO I CAN GET YOUR ORDER OUT TO YOU IN TIME.&nbsp;</font></b></font></font></div><div style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: medium;"><font rwr="1" size="4" style="font-family: Arial;"><font size="5" color="#003162" face="Georgia"><b><i>Merry Christmas to you &amp; your family ~ hope to see you soon!&nbsp; Adrienne</i></b></font></font></div>

For those wondering the process, I'm putting the intial Regex filter code in the "Custom Capture" field of the Active Content Scanner to find listings that match that code.  I take the positive results from the Custom column, select FILE EXCH from the country list, and paste the results column back into the box that opens. That gives me a smaller number of listings to scan. With that smaller number, I copy the plain text version of code from one listing and run Custom Capture on that plain text. I'll continue that process with the Regex and plain text until we eliminate all the plain text versions.

[alpine*ade]

I copied and pasted the HTML that you gave and used the bulk edit find & replace tool - and having done a random search I am not seeing the text in my listings anymore!!! I am delighted and amazed at your skill (and patience with me!). I still have the Vendio active content link to remove but I have some hope now. :O)

[shipscript]

@alpine*ade

But you still have more to go. I found 65 with this phrase.

<font size="5" color="#00456d" face="Georgia"><b><i>Please stop by soon and browse the great selection of Christmas items and gifts - everything from stickers to thank you cards to ornaments &amp; gifts!&nbsp;</i></b></font></font></div><div style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: medium;"><font rwr="1" size="4" style="font-family: Arial;"><font size="5" color="#8a0000"><b><font face="Arial Black">NOTE:</font><font face="Arial">&nbsp;MY STORE WILL BE CLOSED FROM DEC. 15TH UNTIL JAN 1ST - SO PLEASE PURCHASE &amp; PAY BEFORE THE 15TH SO I CAN GET YOUR ORDER OUT TO YOU IN TIME.&nbsp;</font></b></font></font></div><div style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: medium;"><font rwr="1" size="4" style="font-family: Arial;"><font size="5" color="#003162" face="Georgia"><b><i>Merry Christmas to you &amp; your family ~ hope to see you soon!&nbsp; Adrienne</i></b></font>

After that, there will probably be 10 stragglers.

[alpine*ade]

Wow - THANK YOU - will do.

[alpine*ade]

Done

[shipscript]

@alpine*ade

Here are the remainders that differed enough that they were not captured in bulk. You'll need to manually remove the text from those listings.

http://ebay.com/itm/220288835194
http://ebay.com/itm/350099968908
http://ebay.com/itm/351076765786
http://ebay.com/itm/351140933811
http://ebay.com/itm/351734139720
http://ebay.com/itm/352230383047
http://ebay.com/itm/352232014100
http://ebay.com/itm/391342616770
http://ebay.com/itm/391743538502

You still have several hundred listings with Active Content issues and the scripts are too large for eBay's find/replace tools.  To remove those in bulk, we'd have to visit the Bulk Active Content Editor. Perhaps you have built up some confidence now to try it again? If so, I will build a new file for you.

[alpine*ade]

I think I got all of them. If getting the rest is as easy as the previous ones were - yes I can do that. It's the long detailed process that scares me. Thank you for being so patient with me and giving of your time for this. I REALLY apprecate this.

[from-then-to-now]

Many thanks to @shipscript and @pocomocomputing.

Removing the trailing slash from the http.... search & replace solved that problem.

However, we just cannot get the  ><br></td> replacement to work. We also tried

replacing  br></td

with  </td.

without sucess.

We are trying to replace some 'rougue' <br> tags, but leaving others.

I guess we will investigate the Bulk Active Content Editor, which we have never used before.

[shipscript]

@from-then-to-now

It looks like you are trying to remove a <br> that is squeezed between two tags, and that is immediately followed by a </td>.  Is there any reason to preserve a <br> that is not squeezed between two tags?  For instance, would there be a reason to not remove just <br></td> and replace with </td> ?

Also keep in mind that there may be other symbols within the code you are trying to remove. For instance the <br> might be <br/> or <br /> if you changed browsers along the way or there might be a space between the tags.

If you provide a few representative listings that have examples of what you want to keep and want to remove, I can write a filter for the bulk Active Content editor.

[from-then-to-now]

@shipscript

You are correct, we are trying to remove <br> tags that are between a <td> and a </td> tag.

We have now discovered that these <br> tags are being inserted by eBay! If we manually revise a listing using the HTML tab of the 'built in' WYSIWYG editor, ebay inserts the <br> tag automatically. For example:

if we enter the code <td width="10" height="8"></td>

ebay's editor replaces it with <td width="10" height="8"><br></td>

NOTE: This doesn't happen if there is text between the <td> and the </td> tag.

And there's more...

Having now spent many days trying to resolve this, and having carried out tests on the bulk Active Content editor,  the BACE would appear to do the same (i.e. insert a <Br> tag between any set of <td> and </td>tags that don't have text between them].

It also looks as other WYSIWYG editors do the same - we have been using BlueGriffon to investigate/resolve this BUT it does exactly the same.

Here are some listing that (hopefully) illustrate the problem:

391809254110, 372222164725, 372196590337: These display OK (old listings, without the <br> tags), but if we revise them on eBay, either individually or in bulk (which we need to), the <br> tags are automatically inserted & oue listings will not display correctly.

372017579912, 391739701682, 272974487229: These already have the unwanted <br> tags and don't display correctly.

I hope you (or someone out there) can help, but regadless, many thanks for your help to date.

[shipscript]

@from-then-to-now

The wysiwyg editors would add the <br> based on what your browser prefers, since editor-elements within web pages rely on the browser editing engine. The Bulk Active Content Editor does not use the browser editing engine, but, I suppose, if you are seeing something, that might be occurring if looking at the source code of a browser preview. In that case, your browser may be adding its own interpretation to your code view.

I had found the same problem with the <li> element when using eBay's editor with my Firefox browser.  The <br> tags were being inserted inside the <li> elements and clobbering formatting in one of my gallery codes. My solution, rather than fighting the editor was to make the <br> disappear using the stylesheet.

The style rule for your purposes would be

td > br {display:none;}

It would be nice if you could limit the scope using a class, like this:

table.more td > br, 
table.know td > br, 
table.see td > br {display:none;}

I guess you know that sample listing 372017579912 has a lot of other problems...

There is an Auctiva gallery script that will need to be removed pretty soon, and the page shrinks to only about 700 pixels wide, whereas mobile devices bottom out at 320px.

All of the graphics-based borders and rounded corners can now be created with a simple CSS style, which will avoid the skips I see when the cells don't size to the defined value given for the border graphics.  CSS would even eliminate the need for those empty cells that are being populated with <br> tags.