Auction Action Tracker is a utility to quickly check the status of eBay auctions. By entering item numbers, you add items to a list. You can also use the Auto Load option to effortlessly add your current auctions, as well as current auctions you have bid on, to the list. Opening an item in this list opens another window where the current auction statistics are shown. From this window you can reload the contents once, or use the Continuously Reload option to continuously update the window. The Continuously Reload option is very handy during the last few minutes of an auction, when most bids seem to occur. Auction Action Tracker now has the ability to bid on auctions, making it one step closer to an all-in-one eBay application. Auction Action Tracker is a great utility for eBay sellers and bidders.
Auction Action Tracker is shareware. You will not be able to use Auction Action Tracker after the initial 30-day trial period without registering. Please support a student developer, registration is only $5.
2. Requirements
Auction Action Tracker requires very little. It should be able to run on any Macintosh with a Motorola 68020 processor or better, running at least System 7.1, and with 3MB of available RAM (real or virtual).
3. Description of Features
Menu Items
Apple:About Auction Action Tracker...
Displays the about box dialog with a link to my web site.
Apple:Registration...
If copy is unregistered, the trial period remaining is displayed along with registration information. If registered, a personalized thank you message is displayed.
File:New
See "New..." button in the Items window.
File:Open
See "Open" button in the Items window.
File:Close
If the frontmost window is an auction status window, it will be closed.
File:Auto Load
See "Auto Load" button in the Items window.
File:Delete
See "Delete" button in the Items window.
File:Ban
See "Ban" button in the Items window.
File:Quit
Quits Auction Action Tracker.
Edit:Select All
When the Items window is frontmost, this menu item will select all auctions in the item list.
Edit:Clear Cache
Clears the auction bid data cache.
View:Bidding
When an auction status window is open, this menu item will change the window to only show the bidding section.
View:Bidding & Time
When an auction status window is open, this menu item will change the window to only show the bidding and time sections.
View:Bidding & Time & Item
When an auction status window is open, this menu item will change the window to show all information sections.
View:Arrange:by End Date
When the Items window is frontmost, this menu item will sort the auctions in the item list by end date.
View:Arrange:by Item Number
When the Items window is frontmost, this menu item will sort the auctions in the item list by item number.
View:Arrange:by Name
When the Items window is frontmost, this menu item will sort the auctions in the item list by name.
View:Remove Duplicates
When the Items window is frontmost, this menu item will attempt to remove duplicate entries from the items list.
View:Item List
This menu item will reopen the Items window if it has been closed.
View:Ban List
Shows the item ban list and allows the user to remove items from it. See "Ban" button in the Items window.
Auction:Open With Browser
If the frontmost window is an auction status window, the auction page will be opened in your Internet Config-selected browser. If the frontmost window is the Items window, the selected item will be opened in your Internet Config-selected browser.
Auction:Bid With AAT
Opens the bid window for bidding on the currently open or currently selected auction(s).
Auction:Reload
See "Reload" button in the Auction Status window.
Auction:Stop
See "Stop" button in the Auction Status window.
Items Window
"New..." button
Displays a window asking for an item number. Auction Action Tracker will contact eBay, get this item's title, and add this item to the item list. While Auction Action Tracker is contacting eBay, the "New..." button will change to a "Stop" button. Clicking this button while in "Stop" mode will halt the operation.
"Auto Load" button
Displays a window asking for an eBay user ID. Auction Action Tracker will contact eBay and get all current auctions the user is currently the seller or a bidder of, and add them to the item list. While Auction Action Tracker is contacting eBay, the "Auto Load" button will change to a "Stop" button. Clicking this button while in "Stop" mode will halt the operation.
"Delete" button
Removes currently selected item(s) from the items list.
"Ban" button
By holding down the option key, the delete button turns into a ban button. This button adds the currently selected item(s) to the ban list, preventing them from being added to the item list. This is useful if you have bid on something, but the bidding has passed what you wish to spend and you do not want the item to be added via the Auto Load option.
"Open" button
Opens the auction status window(s) for the currently selected item(s).
Auction Status Window
"Reload" button
Refreshes the auction status statistics.
"Continuously Reload" checkbox
If selected (checked) and the "Reload" button pressed, Auction Action Tracker will continuously refresh the auction status statistics.
"Stop" button
Clicking this button will halt reload operations.
Bid Window
"Item" field
Displays the number of the item to be bid on.
"Key" field
After the key has been loaded via the "Get Key" button, this field will display it. The key is supplied by eBay and is required to bid.
"User ID" field
Enter your eBay user ID here.
"Password" field
Enter your eBay password here.
"Maximum Bid" field
Enter the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the item here. It should be in the format "x.xx" without a dollar sign. If you get an error message indicating that there is a problem with the bid, check to see that your bid is at or above the minimum bid using a browser.
"Quantity" field
Enter the quantity you wish to purchase. For non-dutch auctions, put "1." For dutch auctions, your total bid will be your maximum bid times this quantity.
"Get Key" button
Attempts to get the key from eBay which is required to bid. For last-second bidders, you should click this button a few minutes early so that you don't have to load the key at the last second, increasing your bid speed.
"Place Bid" button
After the bid key has be received, this will submit your bid to eBay and notify you if you are the high bidder or if you have been outbid.
"Stop" button
After clicking the "Get Key" or "Place Bid" button, this button will stop progress.
"Cancel" button
After the key has been loaded but the bid has not yet been placed, the "Stop" button will turn into this button allowing the user to change the user ID, password, maximum bid, and quantity information. You will have to get the key again, before the bid can be placed.
4. Registering
Auction Action Tracker has the following pricing.
1+ single user licenses, $5 per user
A Site License costs $75 (equal to 15 users) and covers all locations for your organization within a 160 kilometer radius of your site (100 miles). One big advantage of a Site License is that you do not need to keep track of how many people at your site are using the software.
A World-Wide License costs $300 and it covers all locations for your organization on the planet earth.
You can pay for Auction Action Tracker online, using your credit card, at the following URLs. There are also clickable links to these pages on the registration reminder window in Auction Action Tracker.
Secure: http://order.kagi.com/?U49&S
Insecure: http://order.kagi.com/?U49
You can also pay for Auction Action Tracker by using the Register program. Open the Register program that accompanies Auction Action Tracker. Enter your name, your email address, and the number of single user licenses you desire for each program you wish to purchase (or Site or Word-Wide licenses). Save or Copy or Print the data from the Register program and send the data and payment to Kagi. More specifics on the Register program to follow. Kagi handles my payment processing.
If paying with Credit Card or First Virtual, you can email or fax the data to Kagi. Their email address is sales@kagi.com and their fax number is +1 510 652-6589. You can either Copy the data from Register and paste into the body of an email message or you can Save the data to a file and you can attach that file to an email message. There is no need to compress the data file, it's already pretty small. If you have a fax modem, just Print the data to the Kagi fax number.
Payments sent via email are processed within 3 to 4 days. You will receive an email acknowledgement when it is processed. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days and if you provide a correct internet email address you will receive an email acknowledgement.
If you are paying with Cash or USD Check you should print the data using the Register application and send it to the address shown on the form, which is:
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-U49
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA
You can pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries but at present if you pay via check, it must be a check drawn in US Dollars. Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies, the conversion rate for non-USD checks is around USD 15 per check and that is just not practical.
If you have a purchasing department, you can enter all the data into the Register program and then select Invoice as your payment method. Print three copies of the form and send it to your accounts payable people. You might want to highlight the line that mentions that they must include a copy of the form with their payment.
Kagi can not invoice your company, you need to act on my behalf and generate the invoice and handle all the paperwork on your end.
Please do not fax or email payment forms that indicate Cash, Check or Invoice as the payment method. As far as we know, there is still no technology to transfer physical objects via fax or email and without the payment, the form cannot be processed.
Payments send via postal mail take time to reach Kagi and then up to 10 days for processing. Again, if you include a correct email address, you will hear from Kagi when the form is processed.
Auction Action Tracker has a protection scheme and when you pay, we tell you how to indicate to Auction Action Tracker that you have paid the registration fee. If you do not have an email address, please enter your complete postal address and please remember, we do not know what country you live in so please enter that into the postal address also.
5. Getting New Versions
You may get new versions of my software at the following URL.
http://www.susogi.net/travish/
6. Distribution
Auction Action Tracker is shareware. You may distribute Auction Action Tracker freely as long as you include all original, unmodified files including the Auction Action Tracker application, registration applications, and text files. If you would like to include it in a CD, floppy, or other media collection, please let me know before it is distributed, and send me a copy.
7. Version History
2.0.1 - 05.14.99 - This version fixes a compatibility issue with Mac OS 8.6 as well as adding some minor improvements.
New features and improvements:
•AAT 2.0.1 should now work correctly with Mac OS 8.6.
•The item list's bid and high bidder columns are now automatically updated when an auction status window detects a change. If you want to update the whole items list, just open every auction, let them load, then close them all.
•The "View:Update From Cache" menu item was removed. The item list now automatically updates itself from the cache when it is opened.
•The "Auction:Open" menu item has been renamed to "Auction:Open With Browser" to more accurately reflect its function.
•The "Auction:Bid" menu item has been renamed to "Auction:Bid With AAT" to more accurately reflect its function.
•The registration reminder will no longer open for unregistered users who choose the "View:Item List" menu item.
•Minimum RAM raised to 3MB.
2.0 - 05.13.99 - This version adds long-awaited bidding support, along with quite a few major improvements.
New features and improvements:
•New bid window accessed from the "Auction:Bid" menu item.
•"Browser" menu has been renamed to "Auction". "Auction:Open" works the same as "Browser:Open" used to. "Auction:Bid" no longer opens the item in a browser, but instead opens the new bid window allowing the user to bid from within AAT.
•Item list and ban list now have five columns: number, end date, bid, high bidder, and title. This gives the user more information and a more Finder-like feel to AAT. The bid and high bidder can be updated from the cache via the "View:Update From Cache" menu item.
•The "View:Arrange:by Item Number", "View:Arrange:by End Date", and "View:Arrange:by Title" menu items have been removed. Their function was replaced by the new column headers in the Item and Ban lists.
•All auction data is now cached, not just the number of bids. When an auction status window is opened, the information received is cached so that the next time you open it the previous state is immediately displayed while new, current data is being loaded.
•New "Auction:Reload" and "Auction:Stop" menu items. These do the same as the "Reload" and "Stop" buttons in an auction status window.
•The Auto Load feature now remembers the last user ID you used.
•The Items window can now be closed by clicking the close box or choosing the "File:Close" menu item.
•New "View:Item List" menu item to reopen the Items window once it has been closed.
•The Items window now remembers its size and position, returning itself to that size and position when it is reopened.
•Auctions can now be opened in your Internet Config-selected browser from the item list, without having to open a status window, via the "Auction:Open" menu item.
•Closing an auction status window now automatically resets the green arrow. This is to remain consistent with the new auction data caching. Users can still click the green arrow to reset it.
•The Items window now has a minimum size of 620x200. This is for compatibility with the new column headers in the item and ban lists.
•Item number sorting now works correctly when sorting 8 character and 9 character item numbers.
•Bug fixed with opening multiple auction status windows at once with item numbers of varying lengths.
•Bug with green arrow fixed. This bug would cause the green arrow to display when the number of bids had not increased, whenever the screen was redrawn (such as when AAT was hidden and then brought back to the front).
1.5 - 04.28.99 - This version adds some useful features, cosmetic and menu improvements, and bug fixes.
New features and improvements:
•New "Ban" button in the Items window. The button is not normally visible, but when the option key is held down, the delete button turns into the "Ban" button. This button adds the currently selected item(s) to the ban list, preventing them from being added to the items list. This is useful if you have bid on something, but the bidding has passed what you wish to spend and you do not want the item to be added via the Auto Load option.
•New "File:New", "File:Open", "File:Auto Load", "File:Delete", and "File:Ban" menu items. These menu items have button counterparts, and were created to give keyboard control to AAT.
•New "Alert on Bid Increase" feature. When an auction status window is opened, AAT will now show a green arrow next to the current bid if the number of bids has increased. This arrow will stay until it is clicked, which resets it.
•New "Edit:Clear Cache" menu item. This will delete the cache created by the new "Alert on Bid Increase" feature.
•New "View:Ban List" menu item. This will present the currently banned auctions, and allow the user to remove auctions from this list.
•Fixed a bug which caused the Auto Load feature to not work with users who are selling or bidding a lot. The problem occurred when the amount of HTML data Auction Action Tracker had to process was greater than 32k.
•New "About Auction Action Tracker..." about box dialog with improved graphics.
•Fixed an inconsistency in the end date formatting in the Items window.
1.2 - 04.11.99 - This version adds two requested features.
New features and improvements:
•New "View:Bidding", "View:Bidding & Time", and "View:Bidding & Time & Item" menu items. These new menu items will alter the information displayed in an auction status window, allowing the user to see only the information he/she wants.
•New "View:Remove Duplicates" menu item. This menu item, when the Items window is frontmost, will attempt to remove duplicate entries from the items list.
•Better crash error message.
1.1.1 - 04.07.99 - This version fixes a bug that could cause auctions' statistics to be parsed incorrectly.
1.1 - 04.06.99 - This version adds some very useful requested features.
New features and improvements:
•Item list now shows the auction's end times. NOTE: End dates will not be displayed for auctions already in your item list from a previous version. Only new auctioned added with the "New..." or "Auto Load" buttons will show the end date.
•New "View" menu with "View:Arrange:by End Date", "View:Arrange:by Item Number", and "View:Arrange:by Name" menu items. These new menu items allow auctions in the item list to be sorted by different values. NOTE: Older auctions in the item list from previous versions may not be able to be sorted, especially by end date.
•New "Edit:Select All" menu item. This menu item, when the Items window is frontmost, will select all auctions in the item list.
•Items window is now resizable.
1.0 - 04.03.99 - First version is complete.
1.0b3 - 04.03.99 - Getting close to the final version with some simple but important improvements.
New features and improvements:
•For reserve auctions, "(reserve met)" or "(reserve not yet met)" is now displayed next to the bid.
•Bid status is now in bold for easier viewing.
•Bid status is now color-coded with red or green text.
•When the user clicks the "New..." or "Auto Load" button, it will turn into a "Stop" button allowing the user to cancel the task.
1.0b2 - 04.02.99 - Some major improvements.
New features and improvements:
•Various bug fixes.
•New window layout uses about 26% less space.
•30 day trial period, instead of 14.
•New File:Close menu item to close currently displayed auction status window.
•Registration reminder window now links to secure ordering, as well as insecure ordering.
•Improved HTML numeric entity processing. NOTE: When a numeric entity value can't be interpreted correctly, it is replaced by a question mark.
•New browser menu with Browser:Open and Browser:Bid menu items. "Open" will open the currently displayed auction in your web browser. "Bid" is the same as "Open", but should scroll down to the bidding section of the page.
1.0b1 - 03.28.99 - Initial release
8. Contacting The Author
If you enjoy Auction Action Tracker and would like to send me some questions, comments, bug reports, or feature suggestions, feel free to do so through the Feedback section of my web site. I look forward to hearing from you.
http://www.susogi.net/travish/
9. License Agreement
By opening Auction Action Tracker you acknowledge that Auction Action Tracker may cause harm to your computer and/or components and that you will not hold the author, Travis J. Hicks, responsible for any harm caused by Auction Action Tracker. Auction Action Tracker may not provide accurate information. If eBay alters its HTML format, Auction Action Tracker may cease to function. Use Auction Action Tracker at your own risk.
