Too Many Web Page Programming Errors

[pf9000]

They need to test their web pages before releasing. Every feature needs to be documented and tested. It’s called Beta Testing. The Web Programmer should use a Flow Chart and make sure each step functions as it should and when a link is provided, it needs to be a valid link with current and proper information. Apparently we have a new error with USPS Tracking. The order is wrong when compared with the official USPS Web Site.  This problem just showed up a few days ago. What that means is that the error was introduced. The page was working correctly and than a Programmer went in there and introduced an error, and didn't bother testing the functionality of the page before releasing it live. The number of errors that I am seeing are too numerous and frequent.

[dhbookds]

The order is wrong when compared with the official USPS Web Site

what exactly is wrong?  Nothing can be fixed unless you articulate the problem.......

[hartungcards]

I've heard that good help is hard to find in Silicon Valley.

[luxgoods]

It's even tougher when all your programming is being done in India

[luckythewinner]

---

@pf9000 wrote:

They need to test their web pages before releasing. Every feature needs to be documented and tested. It’s called Beta Testing. The Web Programmer should use a Flow Chart and make sure each step functions as it should

---

What you are describing is two decades out of date.

Almost every web company these days follows some form of Agile development, which does use flow charts or feature documentation. Many have also dispensed with QA departments and manual testing in favor of automated unit tests.

For the specific problem you mentioned:

eBay calls an API at the USPS to obtain tracking information, and does not do it in real time. If the order of the entries in the tracking history is different than the USPS site, it could be an issue at eBay, or it could be an issue with the USPS API. It could also be an update to a third-party package that changed how the API data was serialized or how the sort function in the package works.

[nuclearomen]

---

@pf9000 wrote:

Apparently we have a new error with USPS Tracking. The order is wrong when compared with the official USPS Web Site.  This problem just showed up a few days ago. What that means is that the error was introduced.

---

Wrong! This problem has been existent on ebay tracking for LONG time, not a few days ago! It was also reported numerous times by myself and others. But yes, you are correct, the order of scans are out of order, the biggest issue that others had reported for quite sometime now is the acceptance scan for some doesn't show until days later which caused some to get penalized for handle time even though USPS tracking shown on those items were correct ebay still penalized those sellers - saying "their system is not faulty" though it is and has been for at least a year or more. 

[zamo-zuan]

---

@luckythewinner wrote:

---

@pf9000 wrote:

They need to test their web pages before releasing. Every feature needs to be documented and tested. It’s called Beta Testing. The Web Programmer should use a Flow Chart and make sure each step functions as it should

---

What you are describing is two decades out of date.

Almost every web company these days follows some form of Agile development, which does use flow charts or feature documentation. Many have also dispensed with QA departments and manual testing in favor of automated unit tests.

---

This is misleading.

One of the key phases of agile development is that it's test driven, which obviously many of these features do not undergo (or do not undergo them rigorously).

Second, stability is one of the key fundamentals, and iterations are not to add new functionality until the current functionality is usable.

Being familiar with the Agile development methodology only highlights how eBay isn't following the principles, rather than defends them from such criticism of not testing these updates/fixing the ongoing issues.

It's a bit insane that the development is going full speed ahead (new features rolled out by the day) without the past issues being fixed for months/years.

[stevemartin60]

Beta testing, shmeta testing.  We're all-powerful eBay.  We don't need no stinkin' testing.

[stevemartin60]

It's really quite simple.

 Properly tested programming WORKS.  Untested or improperly tested programming fails, leading to excuse making.

[whatmorefabric]

My husband is a software engineer.    His title is Executive Software Developer.    He is in charge.

To OP....nowadays  that type of testing is in your dreams.

The problem is not Ebay it is the post office.    They are moving to QR codes and not bar codes.

[sextons-sweet-deals]

The last three eBay updates that hit me was October 2022, February 2023, and now May 2023. My listings appear dead for about 7 to 10 days (no offers, no questions, no sales). This is a pattern that is not getting better at all!

All these updates just mess up our listings and we have to keep revising our listings due to glitches. 

[nuclearomen]

---

@whatmorefabric wrote:

My husband is a software engineer.    His title is Executive Software Developer.    He is in charge.

To OP....nowadays  that type of testing is in your dreams.

The problem is not Ebay it is the post office.    They are moving to QR codes and not bar codes.

---

No, the problem isn't USPS and the bit about moving QR and not Bar is completely false, USPS scans QR for acceptance only, such as if you don't have printer use the QR code to go to the counter for them to print label, then it gets a bar code and the bar code is scanned. Tracking on USPS(dot)com is correct, in order and in relative real time (takes usually within a half hour of a scan to appear). It's ebay's programming of the tracking that is wrong.