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eBay, the world's largest online marketplace, has a vibrant Developers Program. Developers interact with eBay through the eBay Developers Program website in many different ways, including getting development keys, signing up for programs, utilizing developer tools, reading from documentation, support forums and blog entries.
the challenge
The eBay Developer Program website, while effective for its original intention, had become outdated over time, causing difficulties for both internal teams and the end-user. Users of the site had the ability to log in but could not log out, and they had no way to interact with the site or modify it to fit their personal needs. The external systems used by the site were experiencing problems with integration, and it was determined that the CMS and database weren't able to maintain the site as it was, nor continue to grow and develop it as eBay itself grew and transformed over time. In order to accommodate the growing site and the needs and demands of its users, upgrades would have to be made, including reconfiguring the site's infrastructure.
the solution
In order to meet the ever-changing needs of the site, the SolutionSet team rebuilt the site from the ground up, with attention paid to user experience. This included importing all the data from the current site and repurposing the look and feel from the original site. The majority of all frontend and backend code was changed to make the site more easily adaptable to future scalability. All interaction points with external system APIs were recoded, and common logins were created for many external systems via a variety of mechanisms. A number of the user flows were rewritten, and five or six mini-apps/tools were also recoded. Error checking, mid-flow saves, and external documentation were added, as well as the ability to rate, comment, tag, and bookmark website content. All of these changes gave site admins a greater degree of control over the site. The end result is a fast, easily adaptable system that meets the current needs of eBay and can be relied upon to change and grow along with the needs of the site in the future.
Visit developer.ebay.com