[BUG] findAllListingsActive sort_on: updated desc – not correctly sorted

[sampok]

The findAllListingsActive endpoint allows for sorting on "updated" in "desc" order. However the updated_timestamp is not monotonically descreasing. This makes it hard to poll and follow updated listings as it's unclear how deep in pagination some 'unseen' listings might be.

Steps to reproduce

Running this with Node.js...

// Request active listings sorted by updated desc
let { results } = await fetch(
  "https://openapi.etsy.com/v3/application/listings/active?" +
    new URLSearchParams({
      sort_on: "updated",
      sort_order: "desc",
      taxonomy_id: 374,
    }),
  { headers: { "x-api-key": "[REDACTED]" } }
).then((response) => response.json());

// Calculate the diff between each listing's updated timestamp
// assuming it to be monotonically decreasing
let listings = results.map((l, index) => {
  const prevListing = results[index - 1];
  const diff = prevListing
    ? l.updated_timestamp - prevListing.updated_timestamp
    : "n/a";

  return {
    listing_id: l.listing_id,
    timestamp: l.updated_timestamp,
    diff: String(diff).padStart(4),
    note: diff > 0 ? "Unexpected positive diff!" : "",
  };
});

console.log(Object.keys(listings[0]).join("\t"));
console.log(listings.map((l) => Object.values(l).join("\t")).join("\n"));

... results in:

listing_id      timestamp       diff    note
1156947456      1678630511       n/a
1437017621      1678630502        -9
1315940412      1678630492       -10
1437017585      1678630492         0
1428383803      1678630489        -3
1180396931      1678630488        -1
1082337708      1678630487        -1
1151645928      1678630552        65    Unexpected positive diff!
1371620975      1678630477       -75
1421384619      1678630476        -1
1413994878      1678630476         0
1064886882      1678630466       -10
1040135069      1678630462        -4
1437017355      1678630464         2    Unexpected positive diff!
1395024925      1678630462        -2
1330207420      1678630460        -2
1343586777      1678630460         0
1343832297      1678630459        -1
1407343916      1678630455        -4
735326860       1678630453        -2
749200497       1678630453         0
880753400       1678630452        -1
1437008489      1678630453         1    Unexpected positive diff!
880736544       1678630452        -1
876233524       1678630450        -2

Expected Behavior

The returned listings should be in monotonically descending updated order as expected from the documentation.

 

[openapi-support[bot]]

Thank you for reporting this issue. We can confirm that sorting by updated timestamp (sort_on=updated) is currently not supported in our API, despite being documented as available.

• Current Status: We're investigating the implementation of this feature. Our technical analysis has identified that this requires infrastructure updates to support this sorting capability.
• Technical Context: While our API accepts the sort_on=updated parameter, the feature is not fully implemented. This explains why requests fall back to creation date sorting instead.
• Next Steps: We're working with our engineering teams to determine the implementation timeline and technical requirements.

We'll update this issue with when the problem is resolved.