ScrapeAZon reviews not displaying on page

Hello, bregister555.

I’m glad you found the correct affiliate ID.

At this point, I suspect that it is an issue with the PHP configuration. It is possible that cURL is not installed/enabled and that file_get_contents is configured to not return information from a URL.

I don’t think I’ve ever tested ScrapeAZon on PHP 5.2, so I can’t say for certain whether there are issues there. You could try switching to 5.3, testing, and then switching back to 5.2 if 5.3 breaks other things.

You might also try asking your hosting provider whether cURL is available in your configuration. If they do not offer cURL, ask if allow_fopen_url is enabled. Preferably, they would have cURL enabled and allow_fopen_url disabled. If neither of those options are available to you, you will not be able to use ScrapeAZon.

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes.

James

Hi James, I sent an email to Hostmonster and here is there response…

“Thank you for contacting Support. cURL is available on the server for use. We have PHP versions 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4 What in particular are you needing help with? We are not developers nor scripters, so I don’t know any of the other requirements of this script. I would consult this data with the developer.”

So it looks like cURL is available. I’ve tried 5.2, and 5.3 of PHP. I switched to 5.4 and wordpress would not log in.

Is there something I need to do to use cURL? Seems like something that should just work…

Mike

Hi, Mike.

You are absolutely right. There shouldn’t be anything else you need to do. I noticed that the response from Hostmonster was that “cURL is available on the server for use.” So it is available, but is it enabled for your particular instance of PHP?

Assuming it is enabled, my next step would be to try to recreate your environment in a test environment and see if I can reproduce the problem on my end. For that, I would need the following information:

1. The version of WordPress you are using
2. A list of the themes you have installed (identifying the active one)
3. A list of the plugins that you have you installed and activated
4. The version of PHP you are currently using (i.e. 5.2.x, 5.2.x suhosin, 5.3.x, 5.3.x suhosin)

If you don’t want to post those in the forum, you can email them to me privately by visiting the contact form on my site: https://timetides.com/contact

Once I’ve recreated your environment, I can try to duplicate the problem and will probably have more luck tracking down any issues.

Thanks and let me know.

James

1. WordPress is version 3.5.1

2. The site uses the Thesis Theme

3. I’ve deactivated all of the plugins except for ScrapeAzon, if they’re still installed can the still create conflicts? (My wife has a BUNCH of plugins installed)

4. I’ve tried every version of PHP on Hostmonster… 5.2, 5.2 Single php.ini, 5.2 FastCGI, 5.3, 5.3 Single php.ini, 5.4, and 5.4 Single php.ini

I just tried switching themes, no dice.

It’s a weird deal. I guess I’m not sure my Amazon Associate ID is correct yet, I’ve entered it with and without the -20, which is correct?

Hi, Mike.

Thank you for the information.

I believe that your affiliate ID is probably correct (with the -20 on the end). Even if it wasn’t, the most likely behavior ScrapeAZon would exhibit would be to display the reviews and provide an incorrect affiliate ID in the links the reviews displayed.

Additionally, if your AWS Access Key ID is incorrect, you should see an Amazon-generated message that says something like this: “InvalidClientTokenId: The AWS Access Key Id you provided does not exist in our records.”

If your AWS Secret Key is wrong, ScrapeAZon should display an Amazon-generated message that says something like this: “SignatureDoesNotMatch: The request signature we calculated does not match the signature you provided. Check your AWS Secret Access Key and signing method. Consult the service documentation for details.”

I must admit that I’m a little perplexed by the fact that you’re not seeing any output at all, especially if every other plugin has been disabled and you’ve tried switching themes. I’m going to go ahead and set up a test environment to see if there’s anything I can do to replicate the behavior.

Out of curiosity (and so I can most closely replicate your settings), what do you have the Country Code drop-down set to in ScrapeAZon Settings?

Thanks.

James

Hi, Mike.

In my test environment, I was able to replicate the problem you are having in two separate ways:

1. When I disabled allow_fopen_url in php.ini and enabled the checkbox in ScrapeAZon’s settings
2. When I disabled cURL in php.ini and disabled the checkbox in ScrapeAZon’s settings

Therefore, it sounds like your hosting provider might not have cURL enabled for your PHP instance, even though they have it available for use. I’d recommend checking with them again to verify that your instance of PHP actually has cURL enabled.

You can also verify it for yourself by using the phpinfo() function of PHP. The following page describes this process:

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Finding_Server_Info

If you scroll to the curl section of the phpinfo page that you create using the instructions at the above link, you should see a “curl support” row. If the “curl support” row is not there or does not say “enabled,” then cURL is not enabled.

I hope that helps. At this point, it’s definitely looking like a PHP configuration issue.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

James

https://www.thegenesischronicles.com/phpinfo.png

Looks like it’s installed.

Sort of at the end of the line with this one. Not sure why it’s not working…And need to get moving on this site. Maybe we should just throw in the towel.

I do appreciate your help with this James, you’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty here.

Hi, Mike.

I’m sorry it didn’t work out. That is both frustrating and perplexing.

I am planning to add new troubleshooting features to both ScrapeAZon and GoodReviews in future releases that will, at the very least, aid in eliminating user configuration issues and cURL support as causes of problems like this.

Perhaps we can try again when I have those routines implemented.

Thanks for trying ScrapeAZon.

James

Hi James,

Well, I’ve couldn’t leave well enough alone and my son is helping me to run a couple of tests.

We tested the If statement in the plugin and the result was that the function comes up false. Here’s what we did…

if (is_admin()) {
add_action(‘admin_menu’,’scrapeazon_admin_add_page’);
add_action(‘admin_init’,’scrapeazon_register_settings’);
echo “This function is working”;
}
else {
echo “This function is not working”;
}

Turns out that the function is not working. Does this help?

We just really want this plugin to work ??

Mike

Hi, Mike.

The only thing the is_admin() function does is return “true” if the current page the user is viewing is a dashboard/admin page and “false” if it is not.

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Function_Reference/is_admin

If you can see the ScrapeAZon Settings page when the plugin is activated, that’s doing what it’s supposed to do.

If you still have your phpinfo() page available, look there for the following variables and let me know what their values are:

1. disable_functions
2. allow_url_fopen

Also, I have nearly completed a new routine for a ScrapeAZon revision that can assist in the process of elimination for this situation. You can send me an e-mail through my contact form ( https://www.timetides.com/contact ) if you’d like to try this new version. It’s not quite ready to release to the repository yet.

Thanks and let me know.

James

Success!

The Plugin works flawlessly. Ends up I went through some forums where people have the exact same issue and I had used a different login for the Product API account than I used for the AWS account (signed up at different times, thus the accounts were not related… All is fixed now.

Thanks James, creator of this very useful plugin, for all your help!