www.auctionsieve.com

jjforb · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:39 pm Post subject: AuctionSieve 2.6.9.1 Mac

for about a week now every time I start searching I am deluged with error messages coming as fast as I can click them. There are also messages that there are pages the software can not read. Thank you.

nev · Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 12:37 pm Post subject:

Got an example search for me?

jjforb · Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 9:32 pm Post subject:

Failed to connect to ebay for "Search one day in the life of Rufus Wainwright". several times then, ebay is returning error pages or pages I can't interpret for above.
Then same error messages for "search beards: an unshaven history".
etc etc

hotshoe · AuctionSieve master Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 34

Having the same problem. Example search.
Search term - Amazons
Category 176985
Use Australian ebay

176985 is music/records but I get all sorts of weird results like xbox games and books about parrots that are in different categories.
Also get pop up messages about Ebay is returning error pages that I can't interpret they may have changed their pages.
I have multiple searches in that sieve but I give up after a few minutes due to all the error messages and odd results. This started within the past week.
Also as of this evening when I click to view one of the odd search results it opens a Firefox page that reads "The connection was rest ... site may be temporarily unavailable or too busy" etc. This is Australian ebay, however by going direct to Australian ebay I have no problem loading pages so wonder if this is connected. Thanks for your help.

wickmesh · Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 5:15 am Post subject:

I too have seen quite a lot of "Failed to connect to ebay for" messages over the last week.

I've also seen one instance of junk results, it looked as if ebay was accepting my search term but searching across the whole site, not the category the sieve was restricted to.

Today all seems OK, maybe it was just more ebay glitches?

hotshoe · AuctionSieve master Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 34

wickmesh · Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:29 am Post subject:

OK, happened again this morning, and I can be specific.

"Failed to connect to ebay for" seems to be for items I have added to my watch list. Happened for item 301315070695.

Junk results from 2 searches, both in the same (Music) sieve.

(1)
Use ebay.co.uk
Search term "joe satriani (unstoppable, momentum)" (All of these words)
Include Store Items ticked
Only Search in Category uk176984 (that is - CDs)
Max Price 5

Gives me items 261594830190, 261594832015 and 261594837677 - all of which are in category 15687

Searching the whole of ebay.co.uk for this search term guess what, brings up the expected CDs (which I'll have seen before and thus will be hidden in the sieve) plus those 3 items. Untick "ignore auctions already seen" and there the CDs are (so AS had hid them as I'd seen them before).

(2)
Use ebay.co.uk
Search term "sara k -closer -appear -hobo -tell -dreaming" (All of these words)
Include Store Items ticked
Only Search in Category uk176984 (that is - CDs)
Max Price 4

Gives me item 151412178803 which is in category 64968

Searching the whole of ebay.co.uk for this search term brings up a load of rubbish including the above item, if I restrict it to £4 then there are 10 items including the one above - untick "ignore auctions already seen" and there the rest of the 10 rubbish items are (so AS had hid them as I'd seen them before).

Given my sieve includes 36 searches, all of which search the same category, it would appear that ebay is indeed occasionally ignoring the category part of the search...

Andrew

hotshoe · AuctionSieve master Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 34

From what I'm hearing from others, this is a worldwide problem with ebay search. If there are no results for the entered term it switches to search a similar term across all categories, presumably based on the idea that people would prefer to see lots of irrelevant results rather than nothing. Yet another ebay blunder.

hotshoe · AuctionSieve master Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 34

"0 results found in the Records category, so we searched in all categories"

wickmesh · Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 6:26 am Post subject:

nev · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 12:55 am Post subject:

Thanks everyone for the investigation.

My family and I have been sick this week but I still read everything posted/emailed.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to look at this on Sunday.

hotshoe · AuctionSieve master Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 34

nev · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 4:51 am Post subject:

I think this has happened in the past and I put in some code to work around it.

Either some special url parameter in my eBay requests or checking for some code on the page to figure out if there's some message like "No results for your search, so here's some completely random items I'm sure you'll be rapturous with joy to see!"

Hopefully it will be an easy fix.

nev · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 6:47 am Post subject:

Oh and yeah, it's that flu. It's a shocker. Feverish on Monday night. Still feeling pretty crappy today.

nev · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 1:15 pm Post subject:

Ok, I've found the problem. Given an example page like this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/CDs-/176984/i.html?LH_IncludeSIF=1&_nkw=joe+satriani+%28unstoppable%2C+momentum%29&_armrs=1&_from=R7&_ipg=50&_mPrRngCbx=1&_pcats=11233&_udhi=5

eBay display:
0 results found in the CDs category, so we searched in all categories. [Return to original search]

And clicking Return to original search used to work but now it doesn't!

I've put in a check for that message (and ones like it) that seems to fix the problem.

New beta is out - let me know if there are any cases it doesn't fix!