• Resolved zacklawhon

    (@zacklawhon)


    After having this issue multiple times, I deleted all items from WP-Lister then ran a new Inventory Report. I attempted to import just 1 item and the form returned this:

    Couldn’t fetch URL http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CBAN6XA/ – server returned error code 503

    Couldn’t fetch URL http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CDH43I8/ – server returned error code 503

    The item was indeed imported but, WP-Lister gave it the SKU B00CDH43I8, rather than the SKU already assigned to the item on Amazon and the SKU shown on the Import screen.

    What am I doing wrong?

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Plugin Support WP Lab Support

    (@wp-lab-support)

    Hello zacklawhon.

    Usually when importing via the inventory report method, if the SKU is assigned the ASIN that would be caused by a glitch on Amazon. Do you see the proper SKU in the SKU column of the merchant listings report?

    This could also be due to the 503 error. I would suggest fixing the 503 error first then going from there.

    As I mentioned in your other post:

    The 503 error is an error caused by your host. A 503 error is defined as:

    The Web server (running the Web site) is currently unable to handle the HTTP request due to a temporary overloading or maintenance of the server. The implication is that this is a temporary condition which will be alleviated after some delay

    So you will need to contact your host about that error.

    Kind regards,
    John

    Plugin Author WP Lab

    (@wp-lab)

    Yes, this does sound like an issue specific to this server or hoster to me as well. Either the hoster is somehow blocking access to those URLs (more likely), or Amazon blocks this server from accessing those (less likely).

    I tried importing that ASIN on my local site and it went through without problems or errors. The quickest way to narrow this down and say for sure whether it’s something about that server/webspace or about your site (like other plugins) would be to clone the site to a staging server and see whether it works there.

    We do this frequently to narrow a problem down – or as proof that a specific problem is indeed related to a specific webspace – using the service of WP Stagecoach by the way. If you want us to do that, please contact us using the support form on wplab.com or directly via email at support (at) wplab.com.

    kind regards,
    Matt

    Thread Starter zacklawhon

    (@zacklawhon)

    The 503 error is an error caused by your host. A 503 error is defined as:

    The Web server (running the Web site) is currently unable to handle the HTTP request due to a temporary overloading or maintenance of the server. The implication is that this is a temporary condition which will be alleviated after some delay

    Doesn’t that refer to the server throwing the error, meaning that Amazon is returning the 503, not my server. If it is my server, does that mean code within WP-Lister is causing the error? I can’t imagine how that is possible unless the requests made to Amazon are GET and the URI is too long. But even that shouldn’t be caught by my server.

    Matt, when you imported the item, did you already have an item listed on Amazon with a custom SKU or did you just import the listing and allow WP-Lister to create a SKU?

    John, as for the preview of the report, everything is correct there, on every single line. I noticed that if the item has to be IMPORTED then, WP-Lister uses an ASIN as the SKU, but if the item is to be UPDATED everything works fine. So, I am pre-creating all items in Woocommerce to match what I have listed on Amazon, then I will attempt the complete import again. I’ll post my results when finished.

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by zacklawhon.
    Plugin Author WP Lab

    (@wp-lab)

    Well, it doesn’t have to be Amazon returning this error. All we know is that a PHP script on your server (WP-Lister, using actually a function in WP to fetch an external URL) is trying to fetch that URL (the Amazon product page) and instead of the page content it only receives that 503 error message.

    Now that can mean that Amazon is actually returning this error message, but it could also mean that your hosting provider has some kind of filter or firewall in place that blocks this request (so it never actually reaches Amazon’s servers) an returns the 503 instead. I’ve seen this many times, for example on servers with mod_security installed – in which case the error message isn’t to be taken literally at all.

    That’s why the easiest thing to determine whether it’s your server or not, would be to test it on a different server. It’s also the best argument you have when talking to your hosting provider: Usually they’ll reply something about the script or plugin being the problem and that they can’t debug 3rd party code (or words to that effect). But if you can tell them “We cloned the site to a different server where it worked just fine, so the problem is with this server / your infrastructure and unless you can’t fix it we need to move to a better hoster.” that’s usually much more effective in getting this fixed.

    Regarding your question: No, I simply imported the ASIN directly, not by processing a report. Of course, the end result would be different (regarding the SKU), but there is no difference at all about the process and about fetching those URLs. If there was a problem with that specific product that would trigger that error somehow, then I would have seen it myself. But there isn’t anything wrong with WP-Lister and you shouldn’t see that error message, that’s for sure.

    I’d highly recommend you contact support directly so we can investigate this properly. This public forum isn’t the right place to solve this kind of server specific issues.

    kind regards,
    Matt

    Thread Starter zacklawhon

    (@zacklawhon)

    My server logs every server error and ever PHP error. I just reviewed the log from the day I installed WP-Lister and there are no 503 errors or PHP errors related to this. The only errors listed are

    PHP Deprecated:  Automatically populating $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. To avoid this warning set 'always_populate_raw_post_data' to '-1' in php.ini and use the php://input stream instead. in Unknown on line 0
    

    I’m looking into whether or not that error is related to this issue. That error has occurred once per day since I installed wordpress. There are no other sites or frameworks running on this server. I am about to attempt the import again with a fresh report. I’ll post what happens.

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by zacklawhon. Reason: Spelling error fixed
    Thread Starter zacklawhon

    (@zacklawhon)

    Ok, I just attempted an import with a fresh report, on a single item.

    After pulling the report from Amazon, I chose to “select rows to process” then selected a single item. That item was set to “import” and showed the SKU as 13011718, and the ASIN as B015TUOGPA, all of which was correct. I then clicked “process selected rows, which reloaded the page with a message that said “1 item added to import queue”. I then clicked the Process button, the import screen popped up and the import completed without any errors or messages. But, after the import, I went to check the item and the SKU had been set to B01DFXJM0C.

    Worse yet, WP-Lister created and associated a new listing with the SKU it made. So now I have an extra listing that is not connected to any of my inventory management systems because the SKU doesn’t match the convention.

    Matt, if you would like to me move this discussion to the support ticket system I will, but these kinds of things should be public incase another user runs into this problem before it is fixed and WP-Lister is updated. I am a developer too and I get not wanting this out there but, regardless of our feelings about our work, “open source” sort of requires transparency in development.

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by zacklawhon. Reason: Forgot to add other points
    Plugin Support WP Lab Support

    (@wp-lab-support)

    Hello @zacklawhon

    Could you please submit a ticket to us with your dashboard URL, login credentials, and a sample SKU we can try importing ourselves?

    We should be able to figure out what’s wrong here, but to do so we need to examine this on the site where it happens, maybe even run the import a few times while examining the debug log and the database to see what is going on here.

    Kind regards,
    John

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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