Sorry, I haven't had any time to look at anything.

The problem is the encoded ampersand on the item URL var.

urlencode is doing it. I had this issue in an eBay Developer Application I run.

In the functions file on like line 57, add one line of code after the urlencode that looks like this.

That fixed it for us. YMMV.

Thanks Noppid! That did the trick!

Glad to help. When I saw the bug and that dismounted was busy, I had to do something. I use this hack and it's important to us. So, hopefully this can be the permanent fix.

This is shorter.

Thanks Noppid, much appreciated!

Works great!

This goes horribly wrong if someone posts up an already rovered link or forwards a PM which has been pre-rovered as it then double rovers them, which breaks all the links..

It should really look if the link has been rovered and if so, strip the url out and rover it with your own settings.

Oh and if a user edits a post which has an ebay link and had already been changed - it completely destroys it.

Are you referring to noppid's fix?

... or, v1.4 of the mod itself without the fix?

Thanks ...

Regards,
Badger

Both. The fix doesn't stop double / triple rewrites.

We need a v1.5 which doesn't rewrite the link if a rover address already exists - and if it does, make sure it's using thr right rover settings and modify if appropriate.

It shouldn't "double-rover" them. It shouldn't be even touching those links. But what could go wrong, will go wrong, so I'll look into if I have the time.

Cheers :)

Quoted posts also fall foul of this.

OK -- when you say functions file are you talking about the /includes/function.php -- because if so, in that file, my first occurrence of the word urlencode is not anywhere near line 57-- by line 1376.

I'd like to get this fix -- but I don't want to screw things up worse by following half instructions making the assumption I know the key to the other half.

What is the exact file I need to modify and what is the phrase I need to search for to insert the patch afterward?

Thank you

I figured it out -- silly me for not reading minds well enough -- functions files is code (to throw off dumb-asses like me) for the file /includes/functions_rewrite_ebay_links.php

That appears to be the fix.

Hey Dismounted,

I had a HUGE problem with the rewrite mod this week. Someone posted a link to a non-auction HTML page that is on ebay.com on my forum running this mod.

Naturally, the mod rewrote the link and put my campid and rover coding on this static html page link.

Then one of my members ran an auction on EBay and he decided to put a link to this static page in his auction description. He could not find the URL but he remembered he had seen it on my website. So, he went there and copied the link and placed it in his EBay Auction Description.

All this was, of course, unbeknownst to me.

Within an hour or two of him posting that auction I received an email from Ebay closing my EPN Affiliate account and seizing all of my earnings.

Luckily, I have an EPN rep that I can turn to with issues and problems. I called my rep and we figured it out and we found the problem and the guy that posted the link containing my affiliate coding notified Ebay that I wasn't involved and that it was an accident.

The next day I did get my account back.

But everyone should know that if for any reason one of your converted links ends up in an Ebay Auction, Blog, or even Ebay Forum you'll get booted out of EPN within hours of the posting. I was told that that any Affiliate coding link on any Ebay Hosted page will get you booted.

This mod needs to be fixed to NOT convert anything but auction URLs. It has to be made so that it will ignore ebay.com urls that do not contain the rest of the auction part of the URL.

PS They also said -- and this is a different subject but important too for people using this mod to know -- that you can not put your affiliate coding on any auction that you are conducting. So, if you are running Ebay auctions in the same niche as your forum and using the rewrite mod be sure that none of your auctions can show up on your forum with your Affiliate coding.

Could your EPN rep give me specific "URL-types" to only rewrite?

That would be great. :)

Sorry, I didn't see this earlier.

The mods needs to be able to tell the difference between an auction URL and simply the letters "e b a y . c o m" anywhere in any URL. As was pointed out a long time ago, a URL for a place called Tine Bay had rover tags put on it because it was tinebay.com

In my case a URL for a non-auction page like ebay.com/disclosure.htm had rover links put on it and this is what got posted into a real Ebay Auction description and caused all the problems.

Thanks, noppid!

Does anyone have this working on the latest version of vBulletin 3.8.1?

^ Tell me this isn't true. This doesn't work on 3.8.1?...

It may or may not, I just tried installing it but it didn't seem to work. No rewrite, but no errors.

There shouldn't be any reason why it wouldn't work.

Ok, I have a problem. After posting a link if I decide to edit the post, once I submit the link gets doubled or tripled up (depending on how many times the post is edited) like this...

http://diecastcrazy.com/community/re...26rd%2525253D1

That should not happen (it should be checking for already rewritten links). As before, I will take a look as time permits.

Thank you, I appreciate your efforts.

Does anyone know if this mod violates any TOS like the similar ShoppingAds mod?

AFAIK, this modification should be OK to use.

Is it possible to cloak or hide the rover part of the url? I've read a few post over on the Ebay Partner Network encouraging users to hide their ID to prevent it being stolen and posted on sites that violate Ebay's TOS.

If the ID is hidden, how is it meant to know who to credit? Please post a link to documentation describing what they mean...

Here, this topic http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Eba...100857&start=0 has some information on encrypting affiliate info. starting with post 11.

Here's a quote...

I've researched it a bit and see that masking can be done with a php. file in a way like your url specifying http://yourdomain.com/ebay.php but that would only work if you do every url manually. What I wonder is if it couldn't be worked into your modification with instead of adding the rover link in front of the ebay url that you add a link to a php file to the ebay url that will redirect using the ePN information but mask it to anyone else because they'll only see the php file source in front of the ebay url.

I don't think it'd be too hard to make the mod automatically add a link to a php file on the server in front of all ebay url's but the thing that I can't firgure out yet is how to make a php file redirect using the ePN credentials so we get credit for the transaction.

Maybe it could be done like your vbAnonymizer where Ebay links posted would be redirected through a php. file that attaches the affiliate info. to the url without exposing any AID's.

I don't know for sure though as I'm still researching how masking works. I just wanted to throw it out there because I see it could be useful for many of the affiliates.

That is not a "real" method - anyone that wanted to would still be able get that ID. However, yes, it can be done.

Would it be possible to add a javascript no right click to the mod?

I'm one person that had a link on my forum copied and pasted into an Ebay auction. My EPN account was closed in a matter of hours.

Fortunately, I had a contact at Ebay and we figured it out and I got my account reinstated.

I don't want a "no right click" added to my entire forum that would be horrible, but a no right click on Ebay links would be a big help.

Or if the mod could leave the original non-rover link and only add the campid etc when left clicked only. But I don't know how you could do that.

I think a "no right click" or "no copy" function should just be built into the mod. It's a serious worry.

PS. The link with my campid that was copied into an auction was not malicious. Just a stupid accident. Someone on my forum posted a link to a non-auction page on Ebay in their post. The mod rewrote it to a rover link even though it was non-auction. Then a 3rd party wanted to include a link to that page in his auction and remembered seeing the link on my site and copied it and pasted it. If I hadn't had an EPN contact I would be out many thousands of dollars due to this silly accident.

It would make it harder to get which would definitely benefit the affiliates. It seems that the ePN is a tricky business and the harder it is to get your affiliate info. the better.

The problem with no right click creativepart is that at least on Avant Browser I can highlight a link and click ctrl+c (copy) and ctrl+v (paste) it somewhere else still completely intact. That requires no right clicking. I don't think many people know that they can do it this way but it's still a possible problem.

You can easily test this method by posting a link here and previewing (not submitting) the post and see that your complete rover information is still intact just by highlighting the link from your site and copy/pasting elsewhere without even right clicking, just use the ctrl keys.

What about a way to do this via the php masking method? Is there anyway that if someone copied a link using that method that when posted elsewhere our credentials wouldn't be added if the link wasn't clicked from our domain? If I'm not explaining it clearly let me try to make an example.

Say we use the masking method that uses a .php file to hide the rover information on mouseover. Someone copies the link intact linking back to our php file with the ebay url and pastes it elsewhere. The php file would only recognize by maybe an "if" tag the source url and if the link is clicked from another source wouldn't include are ePN info.? Would that be impossible?

What would this cost Dismounted to have the php. masking done with or without the the last method I mentioned?

I agree that a redirected link sounds more secure. But the copying of your affiliate link into an Ebay owned page is remote, it happens, obviously but it is remote. So, a right click prevent would be easier to code and not add any processing overhead. Yes, it could be defeated, but it does make a remote occurrence even more remote.

It's better than doing nothing.

Actually, the answer to the problem is for Ebay to filter the content of it's blog, auctions and forums to prevent the posting of any "rover" URL. That's by far the easiest most secure way to do this. But they don't seem so inclined.

I don't know if that's even possible.
Possible, but in any case - the end user would be able to get the ID if they wanted.

I had been using the rewrite ebay to shoppingads mod, but shoppingads dropped me. :mad:

However, Ebay has approved my site for the Ebay Partner Network. :D

I need to use this Rewrite ebay links mod so that ebay partner network gives me credit if members buy after clicking on ebay auction links that my members post.

How can I use this mod to point to my EPN membership?

Please be specific, I am not really great with code. Thanks!

Maryx, you install this like any other mod and configure it with you EPN info in vb Admin just like almost all other mods. That's all there is to it.