Create a Split-Pane Search Tool

Replace eBay’s search page with a framed version that makes it easier to go through a large number of search results in a short time.

The JavaScript solution in “Open Search Results in a New Window” [Hack #16] works, but it does so by hacking into existing search results pages. A better solution is to use the API to create a custom search tool.

This hack uses frames to list search results and individual listings side-by side. First, set up your frames:

     <frameset cols="20%,80%" frameborder=no> 
		<frame src="http://your.server/cgi-bin/search.pl" name="search">			<frame src="http://my.ebay.com/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?MyeBay" name="listing">
     </frameset>

Save this into a file called framesearch.html.

The Code

Next, modify the search.pl script from “Search eBay Listings” [Hack #104] so that it spits out HTML instead of plain text, including a simple HTML search form:

 #!/usr/bin/perl require 'ebay.pl'; require 'cgi-lib.pl'; &ReadParse; $keywords = $in{'keywords'}; print "<html><body>"; print "<form action=\"http://your.server/cgi-bin/search.pl\">"; print "<input name=\"keywords\" value=\"$keywords\">\n"; print "<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Search\">\n"; print "</form>\n"; if ($keywords eq "") { exit; } print "<p><hr><p>\n"; print "<nobr>\n"; PAGE: while (1) { my $rsp = call_api({ Verb => 'GetSearchResults', DetailLevel => 0, Query => $keywords, SearchInDescription => $opt_d ? 1 : 0, Skip => $page_number * 100, }); if ($rsp->{Errors}) { print_error($rsp); last PAGE; ...

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