Hi,
It seems that the AmazonWSPro script has not been updated for a long time. It is no longer working for Amazon.ca at least and an HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request is returned when running the script to search.
I am wondering if anyone is interested to invest the time in fixing the script if there's offer of payment (e.g. via PayPal)? Maybe a few or even several of us AMC users can get together and pool money to increase the incentive.
Specifically I'm hoping to do UPC/bar code searches to look up and populate my catalog (I'm a new AMC user) with my hundreds of DVDs and BDs.
With a few sample movies, I cannot find some using UPC to search on Amazon.com so for me I would prefer Amazon.ca to be working with the script.
Thanks for reading,
a canuck
Offering payment to fix AmazonWSPro script
Fixing that script isn't that easy. Since amazon changed their AWS API usage to allow authenticated requests only, this cannot be done through scripting alone.
There are two possible ways to support authenticated requests, either you have to include this function with AMC software itself which is kinda problematic as you have to include your private key for that too (I did that with Sisimizi Game Catalog and encrypted the binaries to protect my private key, but decided to not do that anymore some time later) or you have to run a server side php script that calculates the authenticated URL for your AMC script (it includes a time stamp and some more), parse it back and then request data from amazon API using that URL. This is possible, but there are some problems to consider anyway: 1. You would have to find a way to allow only AMC scripts access to the php script or some other 3rd party software could use your authentication service too - and might cause lot of traffic not only on your server, but on amazon identifying with your personal AWS account. 2. That service is still against amazons AWS terms of use if you don't use it to advertise their products and generate sales (from) within your software ..
PS: These information might not be up-to-date anymore, there could be even more restrictions today. It's a long time ago that I gave up on using that service..
There are two possible ways to support authenticated requests, either you have to include this function with AMC software itself which is kinda problematic as you have to include your private key for that too (I did that with Sisimizi Game Catalog and encrypted the binaries to protect my private key, but decided to not do that anymore some time later) or you have to run a server side php script that calculates the authenticated URL for your AMC script (it includes a time stamp and some more), parse it back and then request data from amazon API using that URL. This is possible, but there are some problems to consider anyway: 1. You would have to find a way to allow only AMC scripts access to the php script or some other 3rd party software could use your authentication service too - and might cause lot of traffic not only on your server, but on amazon identifying with your personal AWS account. 2. That service is still against amazons AWS terms of use if you don't use it to advertise their products and generate sales (from) within your software ..
PS: These information might not be up-to-date anymore, there could be even more restrictions today. It's a long time ago that I gave up on using that service..
Thanks for replying! Sorry I did not notice earlier. I thought that when I made my original post I had "notify me" checked (it's the default...right?) but I didn't seem to receive an e-mail (I could be wrong but never saw it in spam either).
Anyway -- thanks again for the detailed reply. I wonder, what about starting from scratch? If I visit Amazon.ca and then use my bar code reader on a DVD/BD movie in the search box, I'll get the right item.
If the resulting HTML is parsed then generally AMC could be populated with most of the important bits including grabbing the cover art (enough to save the work of having to enter everything manually).
Is this approach any more feasible than using the AWS API? I realize it's subject to Amazon changing their site and potentially breaking things, but if the script sticks to the basics then I imagine the way general information on a DVD/BD title is presented won't change much if at all.
I'm still willing to contribute towards compensation for anyone willing to take this on...
Anyway -- thanks again for the detailed reply. I wonder, what about starting from scratch? If I visit Amazon.ca and then use my bar code reader on a DVD/BD movie in the search box, I'll get the right item.
If the resulting HTML is parsed then generally AMC could be populated with most of the important bits including grabbing the cover art (enough to save the work of having to enter everything manually).
Is this approach any more feasible than using the AWS API? I realize it's subject to Amazon changing their site and potentially breaking things, but if the script sticks to the basics then I imagine the way general information on a DVD/BD title is presented won't change much if at all.
I'm still willing to contribute towards compensation for anyone willing to take this on...
To answer your question, yes, it is still possible to do a script that uses screen scraping, searching for EAN / barcodes isn't a problem if the script knows how to handle that (barcode usually opens the target page without showing a results list).
Problem could be that the scripts needs to be updated from time to time, if amazon changes their code, and scripts aren't compatible between local amazon sites. So you need a specific script for .ca site, maybe an existing amazon script from different local site could serve as framework, but often it's easier to start from scratch.
Personally I don't have time to work on such, so you will have to find someone else - or take a look at an existing script and see if you can learn how to adapt, people on forums will gladly help new scripters when problems arise.
Problem could be that the scripts needs to be updated from time to time, if amazon changes their code, and scripts aren't compatible between local amazon sites. So you need a specific script for .ca site, maybe an existing amazon script from different local site could serve as framework, but often it's easier to start from scratch.
Personally I don't have time to work on such, so you will have to find someone else - or take a look at an existing script and see if you can learn how to adapt, people on forums will gladly help new scripters when problems arise.