Patent ID: 8078505

Claim:
A method for automatically updating a seller application upon connecting to a network-based transaction facility, the method including: communicating the seller application over a network from the network-based transaction facility to a client machine, the seller application being executable at the client machine to receive a plurality of transaction listings that are utilized at the network-based transaction facility to transact a plurality of offerings that are described by the respective transaction listings; receiving a request, over the network from the seller application, to connect to the network-based transaction facility; determining whether a category update exists for a category data structure that is maintained remotely by the seller application, the determining performed at the network-based transaction facility; communicating the category update to the seller application responsive to the determining the category update exists, the downloading the category update for each updating of a category data structure maintained by the seller application by utilizing the downloaded category update, the downloading of the category updated including downloading a changed category data structure to the seller application for updating of the category data structure maintained by the seller application; communicating a plurality of attribute updates to the seller application to enable automatic updating of the seller application with the downloaded attribute updates, the plurality of attribute updates including an attribute that includes a descriptive information field associated with a transaction listing; receiving a plurality of transaction listings that were created by the seller application at the client machine, wherein the receiving includes receiving a batch file over the network in a single transmission that includes the plurality of transaction listings; and specifying by the seller application a minimum scheduling value between a plurality of start times for publishing each of the plurality of transaction listings on the network-based transaction facility.