DVDPedia: Amazon US not returning any results

[vjl]

I now have 5.9.2, beta 95 of Bookpedia setup on a new 2014 [well, apple refurb] Mac mini running 10.13.4. "Amazon Test" is check marked and Amazon US is the only source of data. Unfortunately I am not getting the most important field I need filled in - the ASIN. But at least I am able to scan books in, but unfortunately this means more manual work when entering books in. I am also not seeing the lowest new and used price fields being populated either.

The way other Amazon listing software works, is that it uses a completely different API to access those fields - MWS - Amazon Marketplace Web Service - https://developer.amazonservices.com . I am unsure if this might help.

I do now have my own Amazon Associate ID [now called Amazon Affiliates], but the rules for using it seem completely different than they did in the late 90s and early 2000s - one can only use it on websites and mobile applications [and one must provide all websites and apps that will be using the affiliate ID]. I'm a bit weary of putting my ID into the 'Amazon Settings' part of the app, so it still uses the pedia01-20 ID. I do have an active AWS account but they seem to be moving away from access keys and secret keys - I am unsure if I should generate new ones for Bookpedia or keep the current key that is in that setting.

I use Bookpedia to generate a large text file that I upload to Amazon with the books that I sell. The ASIN is the key field that Amazon requires in those uploads - The ISBN field in Bookpedia often contains the 13-digit ISBN which is different than the 10-digit ISBN which is often - but not always - the ASIN.

So for right now after I scan a lot of books, when I go into each record to describe the condition and list my selling price, I also have to copy and paste the ASIN from the Amazon product page. I would like to know if this is a temporary thing with this beta version or if this is going to be how Bookpedia operates from this point forward.

Thanks!

[Conor]

Thank you for the detailed post, with all issues. I was putting to much weight on the ISBN and not worrying about the ASIN. I fixed that quickly in the beta 96. I'll take a look at the other API and see if it can be integrated for better price results on the low prices if not fixed it for the current version. Should have that ready in a few hours.

[vjl]

Thank you for the detailed post, with all issues. I was putting to much weight on the ISBN and not worrying about the ASIN. I fixed that quickly in the beta 96. I'll take a look at the other API and see if it can be integrated for better price results on the low prices if not fixed it for the current version. Should have that ready in a few hours.

Thank you, Conor! That fix in beta 96 works perfectly! The ASIN gets imported in just fine with the few sample books I tried. For beta 96, the low price fields still aren't being filled in. While the current new/used lowest prices are very nice, they aren't as crucial to me as the ASIN. And again, I know I'm an edge case, using Bookpedia as an inventory and sales record program for my business rather than for a collection of personally owned items. [though on my non-business Mac, I do use all the Pedias for my personal media collections! how i would love a Brickpedia though, for my far too vast collection of LEGO sets! :O ].

Anyway, thank you very much for the quick fix! Is it recommended to use one own's Amazon Affiliate ID and AWS access/secret keys with this version, or should I stick with what's currently being used?

MWS may be a better API for using fields that Amazon may be giving you a headache about. I use software on my iPhone and an old PDA called NeatOScan that uses a bluetooth scanner or the iPhone's camera to scan barcodes and bring back instant info valuable to me to find out if I should purchase the book [weight, title, ASIN, all different kinds of new/used prices - FBA vs FBM, etc]. They also make an inventory program I believe [Windows only] which uses the same MWS API.

When I get this new Mac mini going well [i am having a major and well-known issue with Bluetooth on the new system which makes using a wireless mouse impossible, and i have 3 other smaller issues involving other software i use, that i should have figured out this week], I plan on making a screencast showing how I use Bookpedia for my biz and I'm determined to dedicate some time every week to working with Doghouse and making contributions finally!

[vjl]

Quick update on beta 96 of Bookpedia - the Open URL keyboard shortcut no longer works - command-option-A. The toolbar icon works, but for those of us that are keyboard centric and love shortcut keys, the shortcut doesn't appear to function [nothing happens].

EDIT: The shortcut key will only work if one has the "Book" menu item selected. If I am just viewing a list of books and don't have the mouse clicked on the "Book" menubar item, then the shortcut key does not function.

[vjl]

Another issue I've found with Beta 96 is that the ASIN is no longer the 'key' for the cog wheel's feature to fetch data from Amazon. Sometimes Bookpedia puts the wrong ASIN in the field when I scan books [usually due to the barcode itself not reflecting the proper ISBN or for a while, Amazon would return Kindle versions of books, but you fixed that a while back ]. Anyway, my usual course of action is to search Amazon for the correct record in Safari, copy the ASIN, and wipe out all of the fields in Bookpedia for that item and paste in the ASIN then use the cog wheel to fetch the missing data for the record from just Amazon US.

It appears now the ASIN is no longer looked at when fetching data this way, as I need to fill in the 13-character ISBN into Bookpedia's ISBN field [removing the unusual hyphen that Amazon adds to that field on their product page].

While this works, as it means I have to copy and paste 2 fields, there are some records on Amazon which only have an ASIN field and do not have an ISBN field [mostly media, but some books on CDs are like that and used to properly fetch into Bookpedia].

Anyway, just another little nitpick for you...sorry!

EDIT: Here is one such record that is a book with no ISBN but an ASIN: https://www.amazon.com/They-Called-Me-B ... B0017QWGUI

[vjl]

A possible bug I've now seen a few times but didn't have time to make note of it...on May 30th, I scanned this book in:

https://www.amazon.com/Coraline-Neil-Ga ... Src=detail

which has a barcode of:

9780380977789

Bookpedia, however, populated the ASIN field with: 0380807343 instead of the proper : 0380977788

However, all of the details that were set in Bookpedia, such as edition and format, were correct. This book really is a hardcover, and the Bookpedia record was accurate in that regard. But the ASIN that ends in 343 is the paperback version of the book. The ISBN barcode on the book itself is the 13-digit version of the proper HC format.

This happened yesterday on a book I had to hand type the ISBN for [no barcode], but I was in a rush to ship it, and didn't get a chance to make a note of the issue.

Sorry to bring you more bug reports!

[Conor]

Thank you for the extensive details. I had to write a new search from scratch so a lot of the small tweaks I have done over the years have to be reintegrated. But taking the ASIN into account when doing the gear button should have been there from the start, that was a big oversight on my part with the quick re-coding of the search.

Amazon lists all the formats together now, so it's hard to pick the right ASIN. Thank you for the details on that, it should now be better. The URL field will still be the main ASIN that Amazon wants to list the book under. For example in Caroline it will be 0380807343. But that should be okay as all the formats are listed together on that page as well.

Added lowest new and used price as well.

Please try the fixes in the latest beta 97.

Thank you for the tip on MWS API. Could be something to integrate into the future to get the more reliable data on pricing, but not sure Amazon would go for a search feature only, if not using some of the other features of the API, such as listing the sellers records and more advanced options.

If you have an active Associate Account and use that and turn off the check mark on "Amazon Test" by selecting it again, then you will be using the older search and you will get the behavior from a few weeks ago. So you can do that if you prefer.

[vjl]

Conor - I'm on beta99 so far and so far so good, though I will be doing more data entry today and give a much more detailed report then. I've been trying to fix this Mac's bluetooth issues [any BT Apple mouse i hook up lags on the screen big time and it's been a known issue since 10.11 with certain systems; this is a brand new [refurb] Mac so it is odd it is having an issue right out of the box].

Anyway, I will give a followup here, or if you prefer, via e.mail, with my experiences with beta99. Thank you for fixing so many small bugs so quickly!

[vjl]

Hi Conor,

So I finally have had the time to do some data entry and unfortunately Bookpedia isn't working with the Amazon Test check marked, for most of the barcodes that I scan in. The barcodes usually are ISBN13, not ISBN10. I am unsure if that makes a difference, though one ISBN13 barcode did scan into Bookpedia correctly:

9780962741708

But these books all came up with an immediate 'red' number and no entry put into Bookpedia:

9780345544940
9780876045138
9780812930986
9780894864025
9780981886350

Once I entered my own Amazon Associates/Affilate account, created a new IAM user with the following permissions [and gave bookpedia the access & secret keys], I was able to scan the above books using my barcode scanner, into Bookpedia:

AWSMarketplaceFullAccess
IAMFullAccess
AWSPriceListServiceFullAccess
DatabaseAdministrator
AdministratorAccess
AWSMarketplaceMeteringFullAccess
ServiceCatalogAdminReadOnlyAccess
AWSWAFFullAccess
AWSMarketplaceRead-only
PowerUserAccess

The lowest used/new prices worked well.

I should note also that the lone item that 'correctly' scanned, really didn’t. The barcode was 9780962741708 and Bookpedia, when using Amazon Test, input the ASIN as B01GMLLW0C but the real record has an ASIN of 0962741701.

However, clearing out all the Bookpedia fields, pasting in the 0962741701 data into the ASIN field, and using the cog wheel to fetch data from Amazon US [only], all the fields were correctly populated, once I used my own IAM [aws] and Amazon Affiliate accounts.

So the old way of searching is working well. One question - what IAM group permissions do I really need Bookpedia to use? One can only have 10 per group and the 10 I picked above work, but obviously there is some unneeded redundancy as 'full access' and 'read only' access for AWSMarketplace seems a bit odd.

Thanks again for doing all of this tweaking!

[Conor]

Thank you for all the details. Let me quickly find the bug. A typo on the new version was not letting me recognize the 13 digit ISBN, it calculated the check digit wrong and though it was not an ISBN. Fixed in a new beta, should self update if you relaunch or use the "Check for Updates".

Should also correct the issue with "We The Arcturians: A True Experience" that was also connected to the typo.

For the permissions on the IAM user the Product Advertising API is such a separate product from the natural IAM services that I believe you don't need any of the permissions granted. If you remove all permissions from the group the API for the product is still accessible. Including the Marketplace API, as that delivered via the Product Advertising API.

[kfscoll]

I think this bug is back.

I used my own Amazon Associates account with the release version of DVDPedia on 7/3/18 and it returned search results from Amazon US with no issues. However, this evening I tried to search for two movies that I bought from Amazon and got no search results. Thinking there was perhaps a problem with my Amazon Associates account, I installed the most current beta version of DVDPedia, checked the "Amazon Test" option, and still get no search results from Amazon US.

[Conor]

Thank you for the update. Working on the latest beta, could you let me know what the search term was that was failing, so I can try the same? Thank you.

Do select "Amazon" from under the magnifying glass and let me know if it's a particular setting in the "Search For" and "Limit" options that then appear that might be causing the issue.

[kfscoll]

Thank you for the update. Working on the latest beta, could you let me know what the search term was that was failing, so I can try the same? Thank you.

Do select "Amazon" from under the magnifying glass and let me know if it's a particular setting in the "Search For" and "Limit" options that then appear that might be causing the issue.

I'm not using the Search field at the top right of the DVDpedia window (I don't see an "Amazon" selection under the magnifying glass). Instead, my usual MO is to click the "Add" button at the top left, enter a UPC code (in this case "013132632285"), and click "Search." The dialog box displays "Searching: Amazon US..." but doesn't return any hits...although it did find this UPC just a few days ago. Other UPC's I try don't return any hits either.

Thanks again for your help!

[Conor]

Thanks for the extra info. Fixed in the new beta 100 version. If you are already running the beta, it will self update on relaunch. Otherwise download from the link above. My typo for not taking into account UPCs automatically for DVDpedia for searching. Would have worked if you had removed the now default "title" limit. In the search window where you enter the UPC code, you can click on that magnifying glass there and you get a list of search sites. When you select Amazon there you get the options I was talking about. Just a clarification for others as you don't need to do it in the beta, it will recognize the UPC and change the search accordingly.

[kfscoll]

Thanks for the update! And I now follow what you were saying about the search options when clicking on the magnifying glass.