Can't copy from http://export.giveawayoftheday.com/index.xml

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Can't copy from http://export.giveawayoftheday.com/index.xml

(22 posts) (3 voices)

Started 11 years ago by xprt007
Latest reply from Giveaway of the Day project team

xprt007
Member

Hi

I am using the Giveaway Ticker on my Drupal CMS-based website front page. This mostly works with no problem.

At times, though, like a few minutes ago for some reason, the page having that code, in this case the front page does not load at all & only has the error text

Can't copy from http://export.giveawayoftheday.com/index.xml
on the page
which is quite annoying because it blocks the site page from loading.

I know each site (server) has some periods when it is down, but I think it would be good to make the code in such a way it does not hold other sites with that code at ransom.

I must say I have feeds from a number of different websites, but in case any of them fails, it does NOT cause the same problem of preventing the whole page from loading.

After a couple of minutes, I could access the front page again without that error, but I have been compelled to contact you because I have noted this a couple of times I have randomly gone to this site.

I would be grateful if this could be looked into.

Thank you in advance.

Posted 11 years ago #
graylox
Moderator

Welcome to the forums xprt007!

I'm afraid that we can't help you with this problem, this is a forum run by users for users under the roof of GOTD, and we have no access to the technical part of the forums or other GOTD related things.

You should send a PM to "admin" or send an email via the Contact Form.

Maybe later on one of our users who has some experience with the ticker, will have an advice for you.
In any case - please contact the GOTD team directly.
Thank you.

graylox

23-05-2013

PS:
I contacted the keymaster.

Posted 11 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

Hi xprt007,
can you please elaborate how exactly you use Giveaway Ticker (http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/spread-the-word/).
So far I only can say that it is no way the ticker can block the whole page from loading, unless you embed it on the server's side, which is highly not recommended.

If you actually use a server-side script, like the one we provide as a sample of GFS service usage (http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/gfs/, PHP version), consider caching of our feed on your server, or just switch to the JavaScript-based method, since client-side script cannot block page load.

Posted 11 years ago #
graylox
Moderator

Thank you Team :)

Posted 11 years ago #
xprt007
Member

Hi,

Thank you all for the responses.

I need to make a correction ...

I am actually not using the ticker mentioned in this particular case, but the http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/gfs/, PHP version with this as part of the code:
<?php
require_once("./giveaway/settings.php"); require_once("./giveaway/lib.php"); ?>
<h2><?php echo $gaotd->get_title() ?></h2> <table style="border: groove 5px #ff0000;"> <tr> <td> ...

You suggest
consider caching of our feed on your server

How can that be achieved?

I am NOT a coder, but if you could please say how to exactly achieve caching, e.g. by mentioning exactly what to do in the settings.php. lib.php or any other script, I would do it. I would use the equivalent javascript version as the last resort, hoping it allows formatting it the same way.

Thank you in advance

Posted 11 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

Hi xprt007,
it seems like we've found a better way to handle this issue.

All you need is to download sample scripts again and replace lib.php with its updated version.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/gfs/sample-xml.zip

Best regards,
GOTD Team

Posted 11 years ago #
xprt007
Member

Hi

Very grateful for the solution.

I replaced lib.php with the new one. I understood that it was only lib.php to be replaced and left the other ones as they are. I hope that is OK & what you meant!

One more question, now that I have the attention of the script authors/support. ... :)

I actually use your scripts on a number of sites. The case that was corrected above is at HERE.

I also use the version with detailed information and providing a download link on its own page HERE in the second case. As you will clearly note, in contrast to the first case, something in the code considerably deforms the layout of the site. I have failed to make out what it is and have had to live with this for the last 2 years.

When creating the page in Drupal CMS, I used the code

<?php
// configure include "./giveaway/single.php";
?>

and nothing more. Is there anything in the code you provide, one could tinker with so it does not have any effect on the layout?

For some reason, the version that provides information about previous downloads as well could not work on the Drupal site I tried it on.

Thank you for the quick responses & solution(s).

Regards

Posted 11 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

Hi xprt007,
it's not that clear what's wrong with the layout.
In fact, it looks okay for me.

I suppose it's something related to HTML/CSS code, but you need to provide me with information about your browser's name and version, which OS you use and everything else you may find useful so I could reproduce the issue.

Posted 11 years ago #
xprt007
Member

Hi

Thank you for taking the time to look into this.
Here is a => link to screenshots showing the issue which ONLY appears on the page with the single.php code, showing software download details & download link.

The FIRST screenshot shows the normal layout as it appears on the rest of the hundreds of site pages.

The rest show the page with that mentioned code in the latest versions of Firefox (21.0), Opera 12.15 & Chrome 27.0.
I am right now using Win 8, but know it is the same issue on all different systems with Win 7 & different browsers. I just checked & noted it is the same with just that page on a Suse Linux 12 (latest version) at least in Firefox.

Since I started using your code at least 2 years ago, I am sure it was the same then in Win XP & the different browser versions & subsequent updates.

Other details:
This is a Drupal 7 (CMS) based website using the Tapestry theme. I checked with the DEFAULT Bartik theme and noted that the equivalent of that part with the 2 arrows left & right in first screenshot also gets truncated so it is not fullscreen & the site is no longer centered on the page but is shoved to the right, like in the other cases. The last 2 screenshots are with the default Bartik layout theme.

Another thing to note, this problem does NOT appear on a Wordpress site I use it on.

It would be good if the culprit piece of code could be identified. ;)
This is the affected page => this.
As said, since only
<?php
// configure include "./giveaway/single.php";
?>
... is added and i have not encountered this in any other circumstances, the formatting must be coming from outside the Drupal & local theme style, ...

Also the site links color gets changed to light blue, etc.

Once again thank you in advance.

Posted 11 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

Hi xprt007,

now I see the reason for these glitches.

You cannot include entire single.php in your Drupal template, because single.php is a complete page ITSELF, i.e. it contains all the parts of a valid web page, including <head> and <body> sections, which your Drupal template already has.

You should create your own include file (or modify single.php) without these sections, because, again, they are already defined in your Drupal template. The part of single.php you need to include starts at:

<?php

require_once("settings.php");
require_once("lib.php");
...

and ends at:

<?php
}
?>

Besides, you should move all CSS code from the original single.php (everything within <style type="text/css">...</style> section) to either external css file, or to the <head> section of your Drupal template for this page.

I hope this helps.

Posted 11 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

Regarding "Also the site links color gets changed to light blue, etc.", it happens because tag 'a' is redefined in the CSS section of single.php. Basically, you should not redefine generic tags, like 'h1' or 'ul', since they are already defined in your Drupal template.

Alternatively, you may create specific CSS rules for these tags for single.php only, for example, h1.gotd { ... }, and then replace tags <h1> with <h1 class="gotd"> within single.php so these rules will only apply to the included code.

Posted 11 years ago #
xprt007
Member

Hi

So it pays to provide as much detail as possible. ;)

Yes, I modified the single.php, removing the elements above & below the code you mention. It worked as expected following the CSS of the Drupal theme, which is great & basically solves my problem. will have to see about the CSS, if necessary.

I went ahead, though and wanted to instead use the index.php content, which I had also given up on before.
If one edits it like single.php, it shows the content, including past Giveaways.

The only catch:

Where you have "Proceed to download page", the download link in this case is wrong & is THIS ... tied to the local site & not pointing to Giveawayoftheday.com.

I think this is not only a local issue ...

With that corrected ... I will leave you in peace. ;)

Many, many thanks.

Posted 11 years ago #
xprt007
Member

One more thing:

Also the other links in index.php to details on the Giveaways of previous days are also not correct & have the structure of the wrong download link, i.e. not pointing to the Giveawaysite ...

Posted 11 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

Hello xprt007,
I'm glad I was helpful.

If you want to drive users straight to GOTD site instead of dedicated giveaway pages on your site, in index.php template replace this code (all occurrences):

$gaotd->get_urlsingle()

with

$gaotd->get_url()

It should be sufficient, if I get your idea right.

Posted 11 years ago #
xprt007
Member

Hi

Somehow, the code in your post is missing. ;)

Basically, what I was saying is this:

The code in Single.php gets printed correctly, with TODAYS download "Easy Office Recovery" for example, having these 2 download mirrors:
http://files.giveawayoftheday.com/EasyOfficeRecovery.zip & http://files.giveawayoftheday.com/EasyOfficeRecovery.zip

Using index.php, the link for that exact download is:
http://www.orbituganda.com/giveaway/give-away-day?gaotd_id=41037

which leads to a page not found page. I would suppose that should not happen. I of course do not mind what you call "dedicated giveaway pages on your site".

I just tried this on an unconnected Wordpress site & it was the same page not found error with the download link for TODAYS & all past downloads, but only when using the index.php. With single.php, the link is fine.

I assume there is just a small issue and thought I could point this out.

Regards

Posted 11 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

My previous post has been fixed.

Unfortunately I still don't really understand what you are trying to accomplish.

Regarding wrong links to dedicated giveaway pages (the ones that use single.php template, on YOUR site), they should look like:

http://.../single.php?gaotd_id=40609

where template name is customizable via settings.php:

DEFINE( "GAOTD_SINGLE_PAGE_URL", "single.php" );

If you want to display download links instead of dedicated giveaway pages, use:

$gaotd->get_downloadlink()

instead of:

$gaotd->get_urlsingle()

Posted 11 years ago #
xprt007
Member

Hi

OK, I think I am misunderstanding something here.
Everything connected to single.php creates the page as expected and this was my original question, which you responded to. I am satisfied with the download links/mirror & do not want to change them. Everything here works.

The question is if I chose not to use single.php BUT "index.php" instead, which outputs also the past Giveaways. That is where I am bit confused about.
There is something I might have mixed up here.

I just want to know the settings in lib.php & settings.php which allow
<?php
// configure include "./giveaway/index.php";
?>

to providing functioning download links.

Just that. Please remember I am not a coder. That is why some stuff is not that obvious to me. ;)

Thank you & regards ... and thank you for your patience

Posted 11 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

Hello xprt007,
let me explain how sample templates work once again.

index.php lists current and several recent giveaways, provides links to pages that, in turn, use single.php template and display extended information about particular giveaways, including download links (they point to files.giveawayoftheday.com as a rule).

lib.php provides common functions used by other templates.

Via settings.php you can re-define several variables, in case you change default settings.

Thus, non-modified version of index.php does not provide download links, it only points to single giveaway pages. And, as you can see, there are no broken links if non-modified templates are in use:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/gfs/sample/

Of course, the sample templates set is merely a working example, these templates are not supposed to be included to any other templates or used as is. You have to understand how it actually works to be able to implement and customize it, otherwise I would not recommend using this approach in the first place.

Posted 11 years ago #
xprt007
Member
Hi

Thank you for all your patient answers above.
I guess I am giving up on this, but let me make a few remarks.
- The page using single.php is here and it works perfectly.
- I had hoped I could instead of the above page, go a step further & provide a page with previous downloads, so users can get information about them, even if I know they are no longer downloadable.
  
  I tried for the last time to use a fresh, NON-MODIFIED version of sample.xml & integrated index.php INSTEAD.
  
  So the result ... .com/giveaway-test-using-index-php/
  
  I have repeatedly looked at http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/gfs/sample/ and see they have the SAME structure.
  
  Everything about today's [12th, June] "Giveaway of the Day – Batch Picture Protector 4.0" is OK, except the download link => here, which otherwise looks similar to http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/gfs/sample/single.php?gaotd_id=41513, with the only difference being the location on the 2 respective sites.
  
  Regarding previous downloads, like "Aiseesoft Blu-ray Player 6.1.3", the DETAILS/MORE link sat GIVEAWAY is http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/gfs/sample/single.php?gaotd_id=41538 & at this temporary => ... .com/giveaway-test-using-index-php/single.php?gaotd_id=41538, same structure, with the only difference being the one here leading to a page not found error.
  
  You say
  Thus, non-modified version of index.php does not provide download links, it only points to single giveaway pages. And, as you can see, there are no broken links if non-modified templates are in use:
  
  ... but mine does not point to those links at Giveaway.
  Something I have probably failed to understand prevents it.
  
  I will assume, that apart from at http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/gfs/sample/, that same links work on OTHER independent sites & drive those who click them to the equivalent of http://de.giveawayoftheday.com/
  
  I personally just wanted the download of today's Giveaway if index.php is used to work by default like those of single.php. and in addition, i.e. that one can download that days Software, that for those of previous downloads do not lead to a page not found for older Giveaways, but instead, may be to the pages like at http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/gfs/sample/. Here all the "More" links ... page not found[*/]
May be one could include an example in lib.php, settings.php, etc IN THE CODE ... probably as commented lines, for those using index.php for a given site like abc.com. I can imagine it is the same for all sites & not much to add some useful/helpful tips ...

unless of course index.php is not meant for other users.

;)

So I rest my case & will probably leave it at that. You have already spent lots of time explaining for which I am grateful.
Posted 11 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

Hi xprt007,
it's quite simple, actually.

The problem with links on:

http://www.aspectusafrica.com/giveaway-test-using-index-php/

is: you don't have the script single.php located at:

http://www.aspectusafrica.com/giveaway-test-using-index-php/single.php

Either put it there, or modify the path to it accordingly via GAOTD_SINGLE_PAGE_URL in settings.php.

Unfortunately, you can't use the template for a single page you created before and located at:

http://www.aspectusafrica.com/links/giveaway-of-the-day-gratis-software/

because, by design, the single template script must be located in the same subdirectory with the index template script (or deeper).

------------------
Example (advanced)

I want my index page to be located at:

http://www.aspectusafrica.com/links/giveaway-of-the-day-gratis-software/

and my single page template at:

http://www.aspectusafrica.com/links/giveaway-of-the-day-gratis-software/single/

so resulting links will look like this:

http://www.aspectusafrica.com/links/giveaway-of-the-day-gratis-software/single/?gaotd_id=41513

To achieve this, I:
1. put the original index.php to /links/giveaway-of-the-day-gratis-software/ directory
2. create a new directory /links/giveaway-of-the-day-gratis-software/single/
3. put the original single.php to /links/giveaway-of-the-day-gratis-software/single/ and rename it to index.php
4. Modify GAOTD_SINGLE_PAGE_URL constant accordingly:
DEFINE( "GAOTD_SINGLE_PAGE_URL", "/single/" ); //relative path (relative to the current page)

I hope this helps.

Posted 11 years ago #
xprt007
Member

Hi

Thank you for taking the time.
I am going to look in detail at what you said, but I think here is a key UPDATE/CLARIFICATION

If I am not mistaken, I saw somewhere that giveawayoftheday.com is made from Wordpress, but I might be mistaken.

If you use Wordpress like I do for the above mentioned site I am using this code, there is a way Wordpress dynamicaly creates pages, using the permalinks setting for example allocating a page/article the name appended to the URL. So an example of such URL of an article/page is http://www.mysite.com/this-is-the-name-of-the-article.

Then there is the issue of navigation MENUS. Supposing the above article is a MAIN navigation element, the url will remain so. Supposing it is a SUBMENU item of the main menu "LINKS", it would have the url http://www.mysite.com/links/this-is-the-name-of-the-article

On my site actually the giveaway scripts directory is http://www.mysite.com/giveaway & all the scripts from sample.xml are here although this does not appear anywhere in the output.

So CMS like Wordpress, which dynamically create pages act a little bit differently from if I used the code at http://www.mysite.com/giveaway on self-coded or other site that acts differently and what you suggest above would certainly work with the paths outside Wordpress as I have proved.

So without the mentioned "giveaway" directory with the scripts in the url, Wordpress for "single.php" creates a working page at http://www.aspectusafrica.com/links/giveaway-of-the-day-gratis-software/.

For "index.php", which is currently being tested, I created a separate directory at mysite.com/giveaway2 & do NOT have it under the "links" main menu as a sub-menu and so Wordpress dynamicaly allocates it the url "http://www.aspectusafrica.com/giveaway-test-using-index-php/", the part after ".com" being created from the title I allocated it & being NO directory.

I just wanted to clarify that, in case it affects what you said, which I will however look at.

Regards

Posted 11 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

Hello,
I think now I understand what's the problem.

You are trying to implement our sample templates within Wordpress Template Structure, and it may be tricky.

I did not research this subject in depth but I guess you need to look into custom Worpress page templates (http://codex.wordpress.org/Page_Templates).

Posted 11 years ago #

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