eBay Developers Program
"I love our new website. Bravo SolutionSet!"
— Alan Lewis, eBay Developers Program
Client
eBay, the world’s largest online marketplace, has a vibrant Developers Program. Developers interact with eBay through the eBay Developer Program website in many different ways: getting development keys, signing up for programs, utilizing developer tools, reading from documentation, support forums and blog entries, etc.
Challenge
Create a new infrastructure that would solve immediate problems and be adaptable for the future
The eBay Developer Program website, while effective for its original intention, had become outdated over time, causing difficulties for both internal teams and the end-user.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 were unable to maintain the site as it was, nor continue to grow and develop, 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.
Solution
Implement CMS, member management system and community, re-engineer flows, and convert data to a rational schema
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 current data from the current site, and re-purposing the look and feel from the original site. The majority of all front-end and back-end 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 re-written and five or six mini apps/tools were also re-coded. 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.
Technology Used
_xHTML
_CSS
_JavaScript
_Microsoft Windows Server 2003
_Microsoft SQL Server 2005
_Web Services
_ASP .Net (C#)
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