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Published: September 30 2004, 11:03:00 PMUpdated: July 19 2022, 8:07:20 AM

Currently we cannot send AddItem or ReviseItem calls for Rotary engines without falsly indicating a number of cylinders.
Why is there is no value in the Number of Cylinders attribute value list for Rotary?

Also I see some listings showing the Engine type is listed as: " 4 CYLINDER 1.8 LITER TURBO" on the ViewItem page.
Where is this value coming from since I don't see it in any of the Value Lists for Motors attributes?

Engine Type and Number of Cylinders are separate attributes that actually appear as separate "Engine" values in the ViewItem page.

The Number of Cylinders is represented by Attribute id="10718", and the selected value appears as Engine just below the Transmission attribute.
Here is the snippet from the GetAttributesCS API call for Siteid = 100:

<Attribute id="10718" labelVisible="true" IsRequired="true">
<Label><![CDATA[Number of Cylinders]]></Label>
<Type><![CDATA[1]]></Type>
<EditType>0</EditType><ValueList count="10">
<Value id="-10">
<Name><![CDATA[-]]></Name>
</Value>
<Value id="1026">
<Name><![CDATA[2]]></Name>
<DisplayName><![CDATA[2 - Cyl.]]></DisplayName>
</Value>
<Value id="1027">
<Name><![CDATA[3]]></Name>
<DisplayName><![CDATA[3 - Cyl.]]></DisplayName>
</Value>
<Value id="1028">
<Name><![CDATA[4]]></Name>
<DisplayName><![CDATA[4 - Cyl.]]></DisplayName>
</Value>
<Value id="1029">
<Name><![CDATA[5]]></Name>
<DisplayName><![CDATA[5 - Cyl.]]></DisplayName>
</Value>
<Value id="1030">
<Name><![CDATA[6]]></Name>
<DisplayName><![CDATA[6 - Cyl.]]></DisplayName>
</Value>
<Value id="1032">
<Name><![CDATA[8]]></Name>
<DisplayName><![CDATA[8 - Cyl.]]></DisplayName>
</Value>
<Value id="1034">
<Name><![CDATA[10]]></Name>
<DisplayName><![CDATA[10 - Cyl.]]></DisplayName>
</Value>
<Value id="1173">
<Name><![CDATA[12]]></Name>
<DisplayName><![CDATA[12 - Cyl.]]></DisplayName>
</Value>
<Value id="-12">
<Name><![CDATA[Don't Know]]></Name>
</Value>
</ValueList>
<ValidationRules>
<Rule>
<Required/>
<Name>RequiredRule</Name></Rule>
</ValidationRules>
</Attribute>

The Engine Type attribute (Attribute id="25846") is a free text attribute for which you can send any value through the API call like this:

<Attribute id="25846">
<ValueList>
<Value id="-3">
<ValueLiteral><![CDATA[ROTARY 1.3 LITER TWIN TURBO]]>
</ValueLiteral>
</Value>
</ValueList>
</Attribute>

Here is an example of a listing that uses both atrributes: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem­&category=6003­&item=2493427443­&rd=1
You can see that the listing used 6-Cyl. for attribute 10718 and "6 CYLINDERS 2.8 Liters" as the free text value for attribute 25846

The thing that answers the question, why some items show the Engine attribute just below the Transmission and why some don't is tied to the fact that the eBay.com SYI flow uses a feature that is not available to the AddItem API call. The SYI flow for Motors on eBay.com computes attributes based on the given VIN and "appears" to bypass the need for entering a value for Number Of Cylinders (Attribute id="10718") and furthermore results in a ViewItem page that does not show the Engine attribute (really Number of Cylinders) just below the Transmission.

For Rotary engines, you have to use "Don't know" as the attribute for Number of Cylinders.
So use this in AddItem:

<Attribute id="10718">
<ValueList>
<Value id="-12">
<ValueLiteral>
<![CDATA[ Don't Know ]]>
</ValueLiteral>
</Value>
</ValueList>
</Attribute>

The quickest path to an acceptable resolution may be to have a 'Rotaty' attribute added for Number of Cylinders, so we are pursuing that in the short term.

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