Amazon Capsule not showing up in Hub?

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   FatFreddysCatposted 12 years ago

   I posted a new Hub this morning which included an Amazon capsule with 8 or 9 related items in it. However when I went back to look it over after publishing, the Amazon capsule was not showing up, there's just a blank space where it should be.
   
   When I went into "edit" mode I can see the capsule but it shows none of the items I put in it (it sez "press edit to modify the contents of this empty capsule").
   
   I have deleted the capsule, re-inserted it, and republished the hub, and got the same result. It does not appear in the Hub and shows up as "empty" when I go into Edit mode.
   
   Is there some kind of bug at our end, or is Amazon experiencing trouble?
   
   Anyone have a clue? THe Amazon caps show up fine in all of my other recent Hubs (including one I posted just yesterday).

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2. 67

   2uesdayposted 12 years ago

   There was a problem with Amazon capsules weeks ago on my hubs. At the time I reported it in this section as did several other hubbers. I thought it had been resolved but maybe it has not as you are encountering difficulties too.

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   FatFreddysCatposted 12 years ago

   OK, so at least I know it's not just me. Do you suppose I should alert the Powers That Be via e-mail, or will they see the problem here and deal with it?

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      Maddie Ruudposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I see it!  I'll let the engineers know and one of us will get back to you.

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   Maddie Ruudposted 12 years ago

   It looks like on your latest Hub (OVERKILL) you have an unconfigured Amazon capsule.  Or were you referring to your Dreaded Lead Hub?  I see Amazon products on that one just fine.

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      FatFreddysCatposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Maddie - yes, it is the OVERKILL hub where I'm having trouble. I just went back into "edit" mode on it again and saw that the Amazon Capsule was empty. (I thought I'd deleted it altogether last time, but I guess not.) So I went to Amazon, pulled a bunch of links, inserted them in the capsule, and yet again, when I re-published the Hub... it was invisible, until I went back into edit mode, where it shows the capsule as empty. This is now my fourth or fifth try. Am I missing something?
      Please note that if I "preview" the Hub before re-publishing, the Amazon capsule shows up just fine, with all the items in it. Yet as soon as I hit the publish button, it's gone. 
      I appreciate any help you can provide!

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         Maddie Ruudposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Is it possible you accidentally clicked the "hide this capsule" button?

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            FatFreddysCatposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I wasn't even aware that there was such a button. But even if that were the case and it was "hidden," wouldn't I still be able to see the products in it during edit mode?

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               FatFreddysCatposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I just took a look @ the capsule again in edit mode and if you're referring to the check box in it that says "don't display this capsule," it is not checked....
               I am stumped.

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                  Maddie Ruudposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I just added a few Overkill albums to your Hub (in the existing Amazon capsule, by keyword).  It looks like it successfully saved.

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                     FatFreddysCatposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Neat-O. I don't understand what happened or how you made it work, but thanks!!

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   2uesdayposted 12 years ago

   Not sure if it is exactly the same problem that we were having here -
   
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/91619
   
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/90212

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6. 0

   Angie497posted 12 years ago

   I'm having the same problem - pretty much all of my hubs have Amazon capsules, and while the capsule shows on the older hubs, it's not showing on my recent ones. It's also not showing on an older hub that I recently edited. The Amazon configuration info is still showing correctly in my account, and I didn't check the 'don't display this capsule' box (although for the life of me, I don't understand why you'd add a capsule if you don't want to display it LOL), but the thing just flat isn't working.
   
   FWIW, I just checked and I'm also not getting product previews when I go in to edit the capsule, so I'm not sure what the heck is going on. But it makes me a sad panda.

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      FatFreddysCatposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not 100 percent sure but I think the problem lies with whether or not you choose particular products to put in your Amazon capsule, or let the capsule pick them for you via keywords. I usually pick specific products and when I did that in this case, I ran into the trouble described above.
      
      ...but as you can see, when Maddie Ruud (staff member) updated the capsule in my Hub and let the capsule pick stuff by itself by using keywords, it worked fine.
      
      Hopefully the Powers that Be are aware of this apparent bug by now and are looking into it, because generally I prefer to choose specific products for my Amazon capsules. Doing it via keywords sometimes lets unrelated products sneak in and I don't like the way that looks...I mean, the Hub I had the problem with is about a heavy metal band called Overkill, and when the Amazon keywords were used to fill the capsule it pulled in a CD by an different band with the same name.

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         Angie497posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Ugh...except I never pick specific products. Mine are all set up by keyword. So apparently there's some other hiccup in the system.

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            FatFreddysCatposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Oh well. So much for that theory, then.

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   2uesdayposted 12 years ago

   Hi FatFreddysCat,  when I had the problem earlier and it was not resolved I found a 'work-around' where that you could still select the exact item you want using the keyword method.
   
   It just takes longer to do than the usual way of using the Amazon capsule and is a bit of a pain time wise. I had to do something as I had several pages featuring hardly any of the Amazon products I had selected and it was a problem for anyone landing on the page.
   
   Go to the Amazon site and find the 'CD' you want to advertise. Copy the description of it at the top of the page (not the URL). Go to your hub and the Amazon capsule and paste the description in the box using the keyword method. Nine times out of ten the item exact item I was looking to advertise appeared.
   
   Hope that is of help until a solution is found.

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      FatFreddysCatposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanx for the tip, 2uesday... if the problem hasn't been resolved by the time I publish my next Hub I'll give this a try.

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      1. STAFF

         Fawntiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Is the problem occurring no matter which products you add, or is it only a certain product that is causing the trouble? If you can give us specific examples of products that you are attempting to add, and by what method (ASIN, URL, or ISBN), then that would be very helpful.

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   FatFreddysCatposted 12 years ago

   I suppose it could've been one particular product. In the case of the hub about Overkill, I was adding a selection of CDs by the band (via URLs, using the "choose specific products" option in the Amazon capsule). Maybe one of them was causing the trouble?

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   1. STAFF

      Fawntiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It's possible. I tried adding a few CDs by Overkill and was able to do so. It's also possible that it was a temporary problem with our database.

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         2uesdayposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         This or a similar problem started happening on my hubs weeks ago and it was in Amazon capsules on older hubs.
         
         At first I thought it was that the product had sold out (over Christmas) but there were so many capsules with the same message that I checked on Amazon and the items were still available.
         
         I am have been using the fix I mentioned or deleting when I discover them.
         
         The message that shows instead of the product is this -
         
         No Amazon products found

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         1. STAFF

            Fawntiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            It really helps if you can give specifics. Which product? Which Hub?
            
            If you've changed all of the Hubs with problems, then please post again when you see the problem next time. Thanks!

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   Millionaire Tipsposted 12 years ago

   I'm still having problems with my Amazon capsules as well. I've pretty much had it all year.   I cannot see the products when I am in edit mode.  It is only when I publish or click done editing that I am able to see the products. 
   
   It is frustrating that I can't check to make sure they are okay before I press publish, but it doesn't take too much to change it if it isn't.

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      Millionaire Tipsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      My most recent hub with an Amazon capsule:
      http://millionairetips.hubpages.com/hub … Plan-Ahead
      
      I tried again - the products are there in published mode, but when I press edit, I can't see  products.

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      1. STAFF

         Fawntiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I will look into this and post back here.

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      2. STAFF

         Fawntiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I'm sorry, Millionaire Tips, but I'm not seeing what you are seeing. The books in your Amazon capsule appear for me in edit mode as well. I'm sorry that I can't be more help! (And I can't help if I can't see the problem, unfortunately.)
         
         Edit: If you can provide a screen shot showing the problem, then that might give me more to go on.

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            Millionaire Tipsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you Fawntia for looking into this. All I see is that the capsule is there.
            
            
            
            

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               Angie497posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Millionaire Tips, that screen looks pretty much just like mine. Makes me a sad panda.

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            2. STAFF

               Fawntiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               How strange! I still can't reproduce the problem, so I've asked another staff member to look into it. Hopefully, he will see what you see so that we can get this fixed.

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                  Millionaire Tipsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Thank you Fawntia.  It started this year - after they announced they were rolling Amazon into HP revenue stream.  Was I supposed to do something to make that happen?  Has it happened?  I'm not sure now whether my code is the old one or whether it is going through HP.

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                  1. STAFF

                     Fawntiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     No, the launch of the new Amazon program has been delayed. You didn't need to do anything for that yet. It should still be running your old code. The problem you are having shouldn't be related at all.
                     
                     Unfortunately, the other staff member who looked at this can't reproduce the problem either. Most likely, it was a temporary issue that has or will resolve itself. It is peculiar, but at least the products are showing up in your Hubs. That is the most important thing.

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    Millionaire Tipsposted 12 years ago

    It's been happening all year on new and old hubs and it would be nice to not have to deal with the issue, but it's not a big deal.  You're right, the products show up at the end so I'm not too worried about it.

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