View Item description summary feature - Is it working?

[the_fancy_fox]

I found this for mobile apps but try as I might I can not get it to work.  Is there another way to chose what part of the description is shown on mobile instead of the mess ebay displays? One I am currently working on is displaying the condition field instead of any description.

View Item description summary feature

The View Item description summary feature will become available to sellers in the Summer of 2016. This feature will allow sellers using code in their item description to customize and optimize the item description summary as it appears on mobile devices. This feature will be especially helpful to sellers who sell complex products (that require item descriptions longer than 800 characters long) or for sellers using active content (JavaScript, Flash, etc.) in their item descriptions to customize the look-and-feel of the listing in the desktop environment.

Once the View Item description summary feature is released this Summer, sellers who are familiar with using HTML can customize the actual content that appears in the item description on mobile devices. To customize the item description for mobile devices, the seller will use special HTML <div> and <span> tag attributes in the item description field/text box. An example of this HTML code is shown below:

<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Product">
<span property="description">
	This paragraph contains almost 800 characters of text to be displayed in the mobile item description.
	And the text in this paragraph through this sentence contains 250 characters, which is the amount we
	will display without any actions on your part. When you tag a paragraph with these HTML breaks, the 
	content will be displayed to shoppers looking at your item. This will allow the shopper to see the 
	key information you want to display, without them having to click through to the complete description. 
	If your complete description is 800 characters or less and uses basic HTML we will display the entire 
	description without any action on your behalf – so the best practice is to keep it within 800 characters. 
	If you have a long description, make it easy for your buyers by using this option.
</span>
</div>

[shipscript]

@the_fancy_fox

In order for eBay's mobile summary tags to work, your description between those tags can not contain any HTML tags. While eBay does allow bullet list tags inside there, they really don't work with eBay's editor, so just a full paragraph of plain text is your best bet.

[the_fancy_fox]

Still not working correctly.

Heres the listing:

Item ID: 111904399103

<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Product"> <span property="description">
Lot of 6 Vest sewing books. Lots of patterns. Martha Pullen signed book included. Beautiful vests and all the rest, 90 Ways to Jazz up your wardrobe, Fancy Jackets and Vests, Quick and Easy Vests &amp; Jackets, Wearable Quilts, True Style, Pieced Jackets with Distinctive Applique, Over 800 pages of information!
</span> </div>

What it is displaying is what is in the Item Condition field in the Item Description on mobile:

"books are in good to excellent condition. Many appear not to have been opened."

And what is with the &amp; ??? I am finding it across many of my listings where I use the & sign. I didnt put it there ebay did.

[the_fancy_fox]

So I took out the amp; and saved the listing. Ebay put it right back. So I removed the & sign and put the word AND instead. Saved the listing and nothing funky was added by ebay.

However, it didnt help. It still doesnt display correctly on mobile.  What is being displayed in the description field on the Ebay App is what is in the condition field.

[shipscript]

@the_fancy_fox

I can see that eBay is correctly pulling the mobile summary from your description.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111904399103

If you have the ability to "view source" on eBays listing and can scroll down a few lines, you'll encounter this line that shows eBay has correctly pulled the item description and has made it available to shopping venues.

<meta Property="og:description" Content="Lot of 6 Vest sewing books. Lots of patterns. Martha Pullen signed book included. Beautiful vests and all the rest, 90 Ways to Jazz up your wardrobe, Fancy Jackets and Vests, Quick and Easy Vests and Jackets, Wearable Quilts, True Style, Pieced Jackets with Distinctive Applique, Over 800 pages of information!. | eBay!" />

I do not have the mobile App installed to test, but in my regular testing of the summary in the past, I have seen that it takes a few minutes to propagate into the meta tag above and into the summary on mobile where I use the browser, not the App.  I usually need to refresh the listing on mobile to see it display.

I can not test the App. If you can reload the listing in the App, it might clear up.

If it continues to display the wrong info, it should be reported on one of the Mobile Apps forums.

The &amp; is a 5-character HTML code for the ampersand (&) symbol. Because the ampersand is often used to join values in URLs and as a prefix for HTML "entities" (symbols not found on your keyboard) in web pages, it is frequently converted to the ampersand-entity to make it mean simply "&" and carry no other meaning.

So, when "&amp;" is rendered by the browser, you would see only "&", or if "&copy;" is rendered by your browser, you would see only "©", but if it is displayed in plain text, you would see the entire entity string.

[the_fancy_fox]

Well if your seeing it I am going to leave it alone.  In the ebay app its wrong but when I go in through the browser on my phone its now correct.

Thank you for all your help.

[d-k_treasures]

@shipscript

Are you able to keep the classic site active when you switch pages or even refresh the same page? I'm noticing that even after I switch to the classic site, ebay keeps switching back to the junk mobile view.

[shipscript]

@d-k_treasures

I usually look at mobile view because I'm specifically looking for mobile view, so I haven't tried to access the classic site on a mobile device in quite some time. I don't have a device with me right now to test for you.

[d-k_treasures]

Thanks. Just curious if you get the same thing.

Even though I've been in the business for 40 some years, doesn't mean I like where it's going - especially if the choice you select isn't going to stick. 

[the_fancy_fox]

---

@d-k_treasures wrote:

@shipscript

Are you able to keep the classic site active when you switch pages or even refresh the same page? I'm noticing that even after I switch to the classic site, ebay keeps switching back to the junk mobile view.

---

Yes same here. It didnt used to do that but now at every page it switches back to mobile. 

[d-k_treasures]

---

@the_fancy_fox wrote:

---

@d-k_treasures wrote:

@shipscript

Are you able to keep the classic site active when you switch pages or even refresh the same page? I'm noticing that even after I switch to the classic site, ebay keeps switching back to the junk mobile view.

---

Yes same here. It didnt used to do that but now at every page it switches back to mobile. 

---

Thanks - nice to know I'm not alone. If I wanted the mobile site, I would stay there. Since I want the classic site all of the time, then that's where I want to be all of the time.