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flyingpylon
01-22-2004, 12:14 PM
Looks like something's up with AWS. It's not including customer reviews in a high percentage of requests right now.

If you're caching AWS data, you might want to check for the availability of reviews in the returned XML.

Mike
01-22-2004, 01:31 PM
No reviews are showing up on my site, neither is the average customer rating. The price is though.

flyingpylon
01-22-2004, 01:37 PM
The way AWS works is that with each request AWS compiles data from multiple sources and then returns the results. Amazon decided that if a particular resource didn't respond quickly enough, that its nodes would simply be left out of the XML response. That's why the availability node is often missing. So something must be wrong with the server that delivers customer reviews.

MarkB
01-22-2004, 01:50 PM
It's probably just experiencing heavy weeks-end loads.

incka
01-22-2004, 02:58 PM
Or perhaps there has been a question of copyright of the reviews.

flyingpylon
01-22-2004, 03:03 PM
I doubt it has anything to do with heavy weekend loads... I've been working with AWS for about 3 months and I've never seen this happen.

I also doubt that Amazon has purposely pulled them for any kind of copyright issue. When you create a review they tell you they own the copyright to it.

It's a system problem. The AWS people know about it now and hopefully they're looking into it.

This is probably the one time I want search engines to stay away from my site.

incka
01-22-2004, 03:06 PM
Use robots.txt to block them for a few days.

Shawn
01-22-2004, 03:16 PM
I don't have reviews, but Chris does: http://www.discountpowertools.net/Item/B0000649EG/

MattM
01-22-2004, 03:19 PM
Edit: I was for a little while, now I'm not getting the reviews.

MattM
01-22-2004, 03:30 PM
Originally posted by Shawn Weeks
I don't have reviews, but Chris does: http://www.discountpowertools.net/Item/B0000649EG/ Maybe he has cached the information?

Mike
01-22-2004, 03:40 PM
So does GCT13, and I think he uses the same system as Chris.

GCT13
01-22-2004, 03:43 PM
There's nothing official or otherwise on the Amazon.com AWS board. (Not that I really expected anything, because websitepublisher is far more active with AWS talk than the Amazon board.)

chromate
01-22-2004, 06:10 PM
They do show up occasionally and then go down again. Dan and Chris are caching, but if you go deep into their sites, a lot of the reviews don't show. Pages that haven't been cached?

GCT13
01-22-2004, 06:18 PM
Pages that haven't been cached. Or whose cache has expired.

flyingpylon
01-22-2004, 06:46 PM
Originally posted by GCT13
There's nothing official or otherwise on the Amazon.com AWS board. (Not that I really expected anything, because websitepublisher is far more active with AWS talk than the Amazon board.)

http://forums.prospero.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=am-assocdevxml&msg=4126.1&ctx=0

GCT13
01-22-2004, 07:09 PM
Thanks pylon. I wasn't looking in the right board.

I love the Amazon Guy's "world class" remark. Who's got the 7+ figure development budget here? :rolleyes:

flyingpylon
01-22-2004, 07:16 PM
Yeah, as you could see, I got a little peeved at that remark. I can't even count the number of hours I've spent developing workarounds for things in AWS that either don't work as advertised, aren't documented properly, or are just plain bad programming. AWS is cool and all, but it's still a long way from anything I would call "world class".

chromate
01-23-2004, 04:58 AM
I agree. Even in the short time I've been using AWS, I've found the whole thing to be pretty "scrappy". There's so much wrong with it and most of it seems to be stupid mistakes on Amazon's part that you would have thought they would have fixed long ago. Even their message board is absolute cr*p.

I always used to be pretty impressed with Amazon. I think their business sense is good. But their technical ability sucks!

However, the extent of their database and their "pulling power" makes the whole thing worth using :)

Best.Flash
01-23-2004, 05:50 AM
Originally posted by chromate
Even their message board is absolute cr*p.

Agreed.

Given the popularity of AWS on these forums I wonder if Chris would consider adding an AWS topic forum here.

chromate
01-23-2004, 09:36 AM
Interesting idea. Maybe a sub-forum topic of this one? Considering the number of PM's I'm getting asking for help with various AWS projects, it would be good to direct them all to the "aws" forum instead. Not that I mind getting and answering PM's, but it would mean everyone could benefit from the responses.

...By the way PM'ers... GCT13 is the man to ask if you have any questions regarding AWS. I'm useless at it ;) ;) (sorry Dan, lol)

MarkB
01-23-2004, 09:42 AM
*makes note* :p

Seeing as I got as far as AWS with SOAP as staring dumbly at the screen... :)

GCT13
01-23-2004, 09:54 AM
I remember there were a huge amount of AdSense posts on website forums when it first came out. The # of AWS posts may receed in the near future (or maybe not :) )

Be on the lookout for an AWS article here on WebSitePublisher soon. I'm writing it over the weekend, it's aimed at showing what can be done with AWS, complete with a sample tutorial in REST.

Mike
01-23-2004, 09:59 AM
I wondered when that was going to happen, the article that is:)

incka
01-23-2004, 10:14 AM
Originally posted by GCT13
I remember there were a huge amount of AdSense posts on website forums when it first came out. The # of AWS posts may receed in the near future (or maybe not :) )

Be on the lookout for an AWS article here on WebSitePublisher soon. I'm writing it over the weekend, it's aimed at showing what can be done with AWS, complete with a sample tutorial in REST.


Can't wait! Will it be including example codes?

GCT13
01-23-2004, 10:15 AM
Originally posted by incka
Can't wait! Will it be including example codes? Yeah.

chromate
01-23-2004, 11:37 AM
Wohoo! Even better. Now I can just say... "read the article!" instead of directing people towards devshed.

Mike
01-23-2004, 12:38 PM
When are amazon going to sort this out? I've got a bad feeling that google's gonna come along soon.

MattM
01-23-2004, 02:43 PM
Still no updates on the discussion board. :(

MattM
01-23-2004, 03:20 PM
I'm still not receiving them, but it appears that Mike and Shawn are.

Mike
01-23-2004, 03:24 PM
Yeh, I'm getting a few, but most are still not there.

MarkB
01-23-2004, 04:07 PM
I get reviews fine on my AWS site. e.g.:

http://www.buymetal.net/metal-item_id-B00005AKKD-search_type-AsinSearch-locale-us.html

MarkB
01-23-2004, 04:12 PM
Hmm - except on some :) Doh'eth!

MattM
01-23-2004, 08:12 PM
Ok, now I'm receiving them, seems everyone else is too.

Mike
01-24-2004, 01:59 AM
Yup, I'm now receiving them. Good job as well after someone said google was doing a major update.