AbeBooks Help Center

Sending inventory to AbeBooks from HomeBase® 3.0 is done through our Web Service. The first time you attempt to send an update to AbeBooks, you will be prompted to log in with the email address and password. Please note HomeBase 3.0 requires your AbeBooks UserId and API key in place of the email address and password. Doing so will set a security token on your computer that will make logging in unnecessary for future uploads, unless:

• Your bookseller account has been closed or suspended.
• You have installed HomeBase 3.0 on a second or new computer.
• You have removed and re-installed HomeBase 3.0.

There are 2 ways that you can send your adds, deletes, or updates to AbeBooks:

1. 1. When you close HomeBase 3.0, you’ll be prompted to ‘Send listing updates to AbeBooks?’ As long as you’re connected to the Internet, clicking ‘Yes’ will automatically send all updates, adds, and sold books to AbeBooks via our Web Service.This automatic prompting can be disabled by selecting Tools from the Menu bar and then choosing Options > Disable send updates prompt.
   2. You can also send updates to AbeBooks at any time during a session by selecting
      the Tools menu from the menu bar, and then choosing either of:

• Upload Listing Changes
• Upload Want Changes

When sending data for the first time, if you are unable to obtain the upload token, please note:

• Ensure your email address and password have been entered correctly – verify spelling and remember that both are case sensitive.
• If you have a buyer account on any of our European websites under the same email address and password as your bookseller account, you will need to change one of the passwords.

Once your changes have been uploaded, you will receive a confirmation message letting you know what action has been completed. The message will display:

• Number of listings added.
• Number of listings updated.
• Number of listings deleted.
• Number of listings failed.

If the message includes a number of listings that failed, or says ‘No Listings needed to be sent to the server’, please check the following:

1. 1. ‘Invalid’ Listings:Please note that there are mandatory attributes for each listing in HomeBase 3.0. Any listing for which mandatory attributes have not been populated will not be uploaded and will be included in your ‘Failed’ count. You can easily identify ‘Invalid’ listings by looking at the ‘AbeBooks Valid’ column for your listings. Any listing displaying ‘Invalid’ in that column has missing attributes.

      If a listing displays ‘Invalid’, double-click to open it. A red X will indicate the fields that need to be updated in order for the listing to be ‘Valid’. Update those fields and resend.

      If you are using custom text in any attributes fields, be sure you’ve first mapped them to AbeBooks corresponding terms.

   2. The ‘Send to AbeBooks’ check box is not checked:In the Edit and Add Listing or Want screens, there is a Send to AbeBooks check box located at the bottom right. As long as this box is checked, your changes will automatically be included in your next upload.

      If this box is not checked, the listing will not be sent to AbeBooks.

Important Note:

HomeBase 3.0 should not be used in conjunction with any other inventory management system. For example, if you make some updates via HomeBase 3.0, others via HomeBase 2.3, and still others via our Online Inventory Management System, it is extremely likely that the changes made in one will overwrite those made in another, resulting in missing listings, sold books appearing online, among other inventory issues.