XML Feed

[Consultant]

If anyone is streaming pages using xml feed, go check your site, the xml feed appears to be in tatters

edited

[drivetowin]

Looks like someone has moved or deleted a load of files on their server - let's hope its only temporary - have you tried emailing Marc?

[monkeyman]

Hmm, I'm thinking the same at the mo.

I've spent the best part of the last week or so, installing and tweaking IPS (I'm using PHP/SOAP)

It's been down a couple of times and the whole thing just doesn't seem to work a 100%.

It is 'good' but I think it needs a lot more work on it and far better support from AWIN.

[drivetowin]

Agreed - the support from Marc used to be really good but just lately seems to be almost non-existant

Come on Marc - update us - what is happening - can't access any data files at the moment...

[DavidC]

Hi

IPS looks fine to me, just checked my sites.

Consultant, I think your being a little over the top. I have no problems with the PHP side of things, fair enough there has been some small down time, but hey that's the internet you gotta expect that.

The support offered by Marc is good, and I strongly believe they are doing their best to fix any problems that pop up.

A network that is working for us affiliates and giving us better tools, to help us make more money, and added content for our sites is a good thing!, and I think we should all get behind them, with constructive feedback.

Perhaps they could build in cache'ing for the data files, this would solve any small downtime issues, and also speed up the system.

[bulbo]

I think Marc is a generally good bloke who tries his utmost to support us affies. I have seen him post things when obviously under extreme pressure and he still manages to remain tactful and polite when some of us may have lost our rag.

The problem seems to be that Marc himself doesn't have much support!

Managing a load of Affiliates must be hard work enough on its own. With the recent arrivals of the IPS, the Content Units, the Datafeeds (XML & CSV), he just seems to be totally over-worked with too many things.

On top of all this he does the Newsletters and he seems to have been instrumental in the recent re-design of the site layout.

I don't know who is the head-honcho at AWin but I hope they see this and give Marc some help.

Unless Marc IS the head-honcho - in which case... employ some people you tight ass!!!

[drivetowin]

Agreed - it wasn't meant as a dig at Marc who is really helpful and a nice guy - I think he's just struggling trying to juggle all the balls at once.

[millerpc]

I know Marc was having some issues today. When i spoke with him on the phone ( at about 3pm ) they were loading a new server with the feeds as the old one didnt have enough space.

Nice to see they are investing in their servers to make the whole thing work.

Marc isnt God - lots of emails myself this week saying

" Automated Product Importer Message
The following problems were encountered when attempting to fetch and import your product file.

The Following Fields were missing from the data:
name
deepLink
price
merchantCategory

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Affiliate Window Product Server - 352 "

There was nothing wrong with the file and nothing had changed.

I guess this is why they were upgrading and Marc sent my emails to "his " developer. My feeds were still working but our images were poping in and out ( www.millerpc.co.uk)

Marc was also talking about another server they were preparing !



Time will tell.

Eddie Miller
CEO MIllerPC
" MP3 Players "

[Ecco]

I love IPS and what AWIN are trying to do here, and support all the positive comments made about Marc, etc...

but (you knew there was a "but" coming didn't you), I was just wondering how you people running live installations were living with the fact that the system is, shall we say... a little unreliable?

I've had it running in test for a while and I'm just not confident about putting it live due to the ongoing issues (that are gradually getting ironed out, I know).

Anyone suffering any real, lasting damage through the downtime, getting more visitor complaints, etc? Just curious.

[drivetowin]

We use a lot of the data but we've used the XML feeds and loaded it into databases on our own servers so haven't really been affected by the IPS issues - only when the tracking server failed the other week.

[bulbo]

Haven't had any actual complaints but I suppose people generally don't bother complaining about a site not working on the net - they just go elsewhere.

I'm sure the problems and the downtime have cost me sales but, I suspect I have generated sales that I probably wouldn't have generated if the IPS wasn't there at all so I guess on balance it's all even.

[Marc Gear]

We are currently in the process of upgrading our medium sized ShopWindow server to two Big Fat ShopWindow Servers(tm).

Yesterday we switched over to one big fat server which left behind some things on the old medium sized server which were non-essential - like the ShopWindow support forum and the XML feeds. The XML feeds are designed to be downloaded in a zip file and then worked on on your own webservers/local machines, they are not intended to be streamed from our systems live, that is what the SOAP Webservice is for (the IPS system)

I am not sure if you are working with them in this way or not, but as it was not intended to be used like that, we figured it would do no harm to leave regeneration of them until the morning (they are currently being rebuilt now)

The upgrade to the server should fix all of the reliability problems we have had of late, including the disappearing images, missing feeds and merchant data generation mentioned above and elsewhere.

The problems with the SOAP Webservice and affiliate data regeneration are unrelated to the problems with the XML files and both should be fixed shortly - i will update as soon as i know more.

The problems with the server have fallen at a time when we are recruiting for more staff which has meant that development and support resources have been split between getting new people to help, and fixing the current problems.

IPS and now ShopWindow has been a runaway success and we are working as hard as we can to ensure that it's reliability is assured and that it is a valuable resource to affiliates.