Amazon Search Stopped Working

[Nora]

I have a regular customer account

You need to sign up for an associate account as well. This is part of the new Amazon API rules that all users wishing access to their search must sign up with their own AWS account AND associate account, both of which have to be registered to the same email address.

[Conor]

Also please do download the latest beta that has more room for the error message. It was previously too short and was cutting out a useful URL that it would present to some users for the signup location.

[jmark]

I am in the UK and seem to be ok for Amazon UK - but when it comes to Amazon US (2nd in my list) it just sits and whirls. I have set up an associate account for UK, do I need to do same for each country?

[Conor]

We have been able to use a single one between countries. Although if signing up for a new country they change the number at the end. Could you have a look at your console log, see if there are any messages from DVDpedia? You can access the console log via the application 'Console', located inside your Applications/Utilities. The newer messages are towards the end of the log any errors from the API would be listed there.

[jmark]

Thanks for the reply - I was about to check console and thought I'd run the same search as yesterday so I could find the console messages easily.

Guess what - It worked as per normal. Not sure what happened yesterday - must have been a problem with Amazon US or maybe you need to restart Bookpedia after changing details?

Anyway problem has gone for the meantime.

Thanks

[schwitzer_at]

I have the same problem as described in this thread.

I have purchased the SW back in May of this year, entered all the login data for Amazon AWS and entered all of my DVDs and Blu-Rays. Since then I have not used the SW anymore.

Today I wanted to add the latest 10-15 Blu-Rays and to my surprise the SW asked me to enter this Associate-ID for the Amazon service. I have done an extensive search on Amazon without finding the ID. As such I cannot use Amazon as a source of data for my DVDs/Blu-Rays.

My major problem with this is, that the SW is absolutely not user friendly. Why is it necessary to set up all these accounts? Why do I need to add an additional account on Amazon where I need to add all sorts of data like what webpage I have and that stuff?

One of the reasons why I decided to purchase this SW was the automatic features the SW had but they are now gone and not coming back without the big hassle of setting up all sorts of things which takes ages! I have now entered all of my new Blu-Rays manually with manual download of cover pictures.

Please, can you make your SW in a way that is user-friendly as in the current status it isn't. Or at least can you come up with a workaround that is user-friendly?

Sorry, I don't want to appear rude, but at this point in time I cannot recommend your SW.

[gottadoit]

Dear Schwitzer At,

You sir are an idiot, as someone who has used this software for years, the additional, horrendous complexity has been caused by Amazon (multiple times) and not this SW (it is called software and not SW). If you carefully read this thread, you will see what has to be done by you BECAUSE OF AMAZON and not this SW (it's called software or an app on the Mac). That you cannot recommend this product shows you are a really stupid person. Your tone is insulting hence the tone of my response.

Get a CLUE and read the entire thread. Carefully, trying to understand what it tells you to do.This must be done by you and cannot be automated in the APP because of Amazon.

There is just no pleasing of certain people. If it is beyond your abilities, I recommend notepad.exe software under the SW Windows and for you to edit a text file of your movies and definitely getting off the Mac platform.

Good day.

Note: I am not affiliated with Bruiji and these are my own opinions. I just think you are an obnoxious, stupid prick.

[Nora]

@schwitzer_at: I'm sorry that you feel DVDpedia has become useless without the Amazon connection. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about the regulations that Amazon puts into place regarding their data and its access. If you'd like to sign up for an associate ID with them to continue using their services, you can do that here. You can also read more about the issue on our blog.

A good alternative to Amazon is Doghouse - DVDpedia's own database built exclusively by and for DVDpedia users from around the world - since it supports search by UPC and includes Blu-Ray information as well. The downside is that the data depends completely on what users have contributed so it might be that a particular DVD/Blu-Ray hasn't been added yet or that only the DVD version (or only the Blu-Ray version) has been uploaded. In those cases you could add the other version and adjust those fields that change or if the movie hasn't been uploaded at all there's always IMDb with their vast database albeit of only movie information, not the physical products so you'll have to do a title/keyword search and some manual adjustments might be necessary. But it's still be a lot faster than entering each movie completely by hand.

The majority of our users are from the US so there is inevitably a bias towards US movie data in Doghouse at this point but as more UK/Australian/Canadian users upload their data and more importantly their UPCs, the search improves for everyone.
We are very proud of Doghouse and how far it has come in its first year. And it wasn't a minute too soon considering all the problems Amazon has caused us in the last few months again...

[schwitzer_at]

@Nora: thanks for your response.

I fully understand that your are depending on Amazon. Also as I said in my first post, Amazon doesn't make it easy to understand their service and how to set it up. But what you from Bruji could do better is to help your users as much as you can, maybe by providing them with a step-by-step tutorial that helps to set up the SW properly. I'm sorry, but I simply do not have the time to read and understand all the information that is written somewhere in a forum. Even more because of the fact that I'm using Amazon as a normal customer and have no interest whatsoever to use their other web services. I only need it for DVDPedia.

Again, don't take me wrong, the SW as such is great. That was the reason why I have chosen it. But there is definitely room for improvement as said above.

@gottadoit: I really feel very sorry for you and your poor life. It must be hard to manage a living being like you.

[Nora]

Thanks for the feedback. We have guides both in the Help files (linked inside the program via the little Help button in the Amazon Settings window) and on our blog, where a quick search for "Amazon" will bring up all the relevant articles that will walk you through the different sign up procedures.

[SiteCR2]

this worked fine until recent update and change of address.
I have tried to resign in and also tried to get a new associate account.
both which tell me Colorado is not acceptable.
so now what.
I've tried to add 30 3D or blu ray titles tonight. some are in the IMDB and others area for sure on amazon but not showing up in iSight search or the regular word search.
what has changed since Nov?

[Nora]

I believe the Amazon Associate program - which users of the AWS server now also need to be a part of per Amazon's requirements - is not valid in Colorado so unfortunately you cannot sign up using a Colorado address.

IMDb is a probably the most complete database out there but they do not provide search by UPC or for Blu-Rays since they offer movie information not the physical product information (i.e. no DVD vs Blu-Ray info). Do try Doghouse, DVDpedia's own database, for UPC searches like that. Obviously since it's user contributed the database is constantly growing, especially as new movies come out and are contributed by users.

[Kara Harkins]

Adding to the frustration: if you register amazon can delete your ID if nobody buys from your website. This was not stated in the dvdpedia upgrade notes, just that you needed to register.