Archive for August, 2012

New OFDB plug-in for DVDpedia

Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

After struggling with their servers and mirrors for years, we finally found one that’s slightly better than the others so Conor has put together a search plug-in for the ofdb.de site. It’s still very much a beta plug-in because the server times out at times and sometimes refuses searches without explanation. But hopefully it’ll still be useful for our German-speaking users and we’ll be able to improve the plug-in with time.

You can download the plug-in on our Extras page.

As with most other search sites, for additional search delimiter options (in this case, choose between DVD or Blu-Ray), select the OFDB site directly in the search window instead of using the ‘All’ search.

Click on the little magnifying glass in the search field to select a search site directly.

Version 5.1.2 in the App Store (except DVDpedia)

Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

Version 5.1.2 is ready for download in the App Store now as well, except for DVDpedia which for some reason was not granted the same expedited review process as the other three programs.

This is the first time we’ve applied for an expedited review since the Amazon API issue is time sensitive (it comes into full effect on August 31st) but Apple only granted the fast track for Bookpedia, CDpedia and Gamepedia. We sent a second request to include DVDpedia since the programs are a suite and many users own more than one of the apps but Apple declined on the grounds that they had already granted expedited reviews to the other programs. Apparently three is the limit you can ask for?!

We apologize to all DVDpedia users who run the App Store version and we’re hoping for a quick review once the program has made it to the front of the queue. In the meantime, you can already sign up for an associate ID and enter that into the Preferences > Amazon Settings as detailed in this post to avoid running into issues with the Amazon search.

Changes to the Amazon API

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012

Amazon is changing their API access requirements on August 31, 2012. It will be limited to associates only which means a personal associate ID will be required by all users accessing Amazon. For most users no action should be necessary since you should already have your own associate ID linked to your AWS account and the Amazon search will keep working as usual. (The current version of the Pedias, 5.1.2, requires a personal associate ID from all users accessing Amazon.)

For those without a personal associate ID, you need to sign up using the same account that you are using for the access key, i.e. both have to be linked to the same email address.
If you are currently using the default Bruji Associate ID (bruji00-20), please visit the Product Advertising API page, select the appropriate locale at the bottom of that page and create an associate account with your own email address. Once logged in, take note of your new associate ID (also called a “Tracking ID”) and copy it over to the associate ID field in the Pedia Preferences -> Sites -> Amazon Settings. 

If you receive an error after entering your new ID, please try logging into the Amazon Associate site once with your new credentials and then return to the Amazon Settings window in your Pedia program.

If you are still having issues after signing up with a new email and associate account, get in touch with Amazon directly please. Make sure you include your access key and corresponding associate ID in the message. You do not need to send them your secret key.

You can read more about the recent changes in the Amazon forums, for example here and
here.

We know that the associate program is essential for some of our users and we hope to continue providing access to Amazon’s searches in the future but our main focus in the programs goes towards collaborative and user-friendly sites such as Freebase, Wikipedia and of course the Pedias’ own Doghouse. You can help us make these sites, and in turn the Pedia searches, better by contributing missing items and information. Especially for Doghouse this is easy and quick and makes the Pedias better programs for everyone. If you haven’t signed up for Doghouse yet, check out the help files for more details on how you can contribute.