My Item description summary generator - please try!

[cooltronix]

Just for fun a coded a little item description summary generator . You can write a short description and copy and paste it to your eBay listing. Where you put the HTML on your eBay page doesn't really matter, eBay will pick it up. And it's invisible in desktop view. 

My code generator counts the 800 characters according to eBay.

If you are not familiar what it is, have a look here: 

The eBay Item Description Summary Feature

If you like to try, here is the free forever link:

https://ranktool.bid/mobile/

 I just wrote it, so if you find any bugs please let me know. 

[shipscript]

I like it. It's very clean and counts the <br> and &nbsp; character. Can you turn the text red when it exceeds the limit, with a negative count of characters over, and black again when it returns?

"Simply copy and paste the code and put is somewhere in the item description HTML."  You might want to be a little more specific about switching to HTML view on eBay's listing form.

Bug: When I copy to clipboard, it switches language.

[cooltronix]

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@shipscript wrote:

I like it. It's very clean and counts the <br> and &nbsp; character. Can you turn the text red when it exceeds the limit, with a negative count of characters over, and black again when it returns?

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Ouh, I need to look into that when I get the right time slot. That needs a bit thinking. But from a practical viewpoint, IMHO 800 characters is already too long for a mobile description. I haven't tried it though how it looks.

"Simply copy and paste the code and put is somewhere in the item description HTML."  You might want to be a little more specific about switching to HTML view on eBay's listing form.

 Sure, it must be in the HTML view. Will change thatin a moment.

Bug: When I copy to clipboard, it switches language.

Thanks, changed, had to use an id rather then a simple 'button'

[shipscript]

@cooltronix

Ouh, I need to look into that when I get the right time slot. That needs a bit thinking. But from a practical viewpoint, IMHO 800 characters is already too long for a mobile description. I haven't tried it though how it looks.

I agree that 800 is a bit lengthy for a hidden description. 250 characters would be adequate for eBay's current uses (mobile summary, item page meta tag, product catalog summary, sharing with other shopping venues, etc).

For coloring, something like this:

  if (len > max) {
    $('#charNum').text( (len-max)  + ' characters over limit');
	$('#field').style.color='red';
  } else {
    var char = max - len;
	$('#charNum').text(char + ' characters left');
	$('#field').style.color='black';

[cooltronix]

Thanks, good idea. Had to change a little bit, this line worked for me:

$('#field').css('color', 'red');

[shipscript]

That works better for me, but if I paste text from elsewhere, I would like to know how far over the limit so that I can choose which text to remove. As it is right now, I have to backspace to discover just how far over the limit the text has gone, regardless of whether I just need to change one word or remove an entire sentence.

[cooltronix]

I was just focusing on the color, not really on the how many too much. But it's a good idea. Not sure what will happen if the text is too long, whether eBay cuts it or doesn't read it at all.

If you have other HTML elements as on their page eBay won't use your short code. I tried it with some <b> and <strong> in the text.

[shipscript]

@cooltronix

eBay's support for included tags has seemed to morph over time, or perhaps the browsers have been the basis for that fluctuation. I had found that including the <p> tag or <ul> tag inside the summary worked at one point, but caused problems in later applications, such as a partial summary or no summary at all. If a wysiwyg is used, the summary tags are split across block level tags and multiple summaries may result, so now I tell users "no tags" or styling in the summary text, no carriage returns, and make the summary no more than one paragraph (a few sentences) long.  It just makes life easier for those not versed in the intricacies.

• The summary tag may contain a style tag.

• If the text is too long, eBay will truncate at the nearest whole word.

• If the summary is duplicated or split, eBay will take the first and ignore subsequent ones.

• eBay will retrieve a new summary with each revision.

I've had several tests running over the past year. I put the last revision date on each because that is the date that eBay pulled and stored the most recent summary.

Summary with 795 characters. When you view eBay's page source, you will see that eBay has pulled all 795 characters into the description meta tag:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/This-is-a-test-of-the-Mobile-Summary-tags-please-do-not-bid/222687460629

(Last updated on  Oct 29, 2017)

Hidden summary. The full summary can be seen as the mobile preview on this one-click-away listing:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/This-is-a-Mobile-Summary-test-please-do-not-bid/382084573431

(Last updated on  May 16, 2017)

Multiple summaries. You can see that only the first of three summaries is displayed in this one-click-away listing:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/This-is-an-SSL-AC-and-links-test-Please-do-not-bid/382183659408

(Last updated on  Jan 01, 2018)

[cooltronix]

I mainly use the /i/ view for testing. The view doesn't seem to use the full 800 chars when I look at your listing:

https://www.ebay.com/i/222687460629

I did the generator tool for people to use  it in whatever way they like. However, for myself I will probably use 200 chars or less to get the full description on the /i/ page, which shows about 200 chars. Since there are only 3 lines of text I <br> tags seems to be a bit a waste. This is easy to say for me, I don't think any of my full description has over 800 chars 😉

I didn't really investigated real mobile view though. Will do that next.

 

[cooltronix]

Whoops, edit time was up...

IMHO, if you really want to use the full 800 chars and maybe some <li> and <br> styling I would suggest:

• Do the first 200 chars straight to the point, no styling at all
• End the first 200 chars with a <br>
• Use the rest of the available characters with styling

Now you have an uncut /i/ view and a full mobile description.

[holcar98]

INDIANRED - #CD5C5C - RGB(205, 92, 92)
LIGHTCORAL - #F08080 RGB(240, 128, 128)
SALMON - #FA8072 - RGB(250, 128, 114)
DARKSALMON - #E9967A - RGB(233, 150, 122)
LIGHTSALMON - #FFA07A - RGB(255, 160, 122)

here are codes. Sorry, if smth wrong but used exactly this.

[kh-gary]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began, we have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread here: https://community.ebay.com/t5/forums/postpage/board-id/tools-apps-db.

Thanks.