Finally, with the help of some users (thanks!) I believe I have eliminated the Value “” out of range (10008) error as reported here. It seems the problem was with the geotargetting occasionally throwing up a blank or unknown country, possibly due to a timeout from the IP server, or maybe an “XX” because it couldn’t identify the coutnry. This was getting matched with some “blank” countries from our countries list (ones that can be listed for delivery purposes but do not have an eBay site) - I think Afghanistan was the culprit, but if it hadn’t been that it would have been Albania! The result was we were trying to get listings from an unspecified country, which was throwing the error.
I believe this is fixed now, but I cannot test it as I cannot simulate a visit from an unidentified country! So please upgrade to the new version via the download link, especially if you are using geotargetting (I imagine the error is only happening if you are) and let me know if you get it happening again! (I know you will!)
Oh, and please watch this space - there is another problem that someone pointed out recently. It’s another real obvious one, it’s amazing it never dawned until now, but I need to write a separate post about that, because it’s quite major!
Posted on December 22nd, 2008 by markowe
Filed under: Uncategorized
Hi again. I’m not sure if this is the best place to post this, but here goes anyway.
First, here’s an apparent quirk I found (it may be known, but I’m not sure). I set up a [wordbay]bicycle book[/wordbay] in a page. It presents me with 3 books. When I put the same search in the search box at the bottom, I get a page with 10 results.
New, I’m not quite sure how the same search can produce different results like this, but it got me to thinking. Have you ever seen how Goldencan (and I’m certain some other similar services) is set up - you can add keyword searches to a store which produces clickable links at the top of the store listing. It looks very nice and has all the appearances of a “regular” online store. It looks something like this:
Bicycles
Bicycle seats Bicycle helmets Bicycle pedals
Bicycle shirts Bicycle shorts Bicycle books
Store item
Store item
Store item
etc.
Now, I was thinking, at the bottom of a Wordbay page it already has a search box and a link (see similar items on eBay). So, I think at least part of the code is already there. Would it be possible to add these keyword searches to the current product? Preferably at the top, but it would still work on the bottom.
This kind of enhancement would turn Wordbay into pretty much a full fledged store-front in my opinion.
Thanks for this idea. The search quirk you pointed out happens to me too, and I think there must be some slightly differing parameters used when a search is carried out (yeah, I know, I wrote the program, but my memory is very hazy even about things like where I left my cup of coffee, so bear with me).
Oh, I got it. When you do a search it lists items with any number of bids, even if you specified a minimum number in the backend. I suppose this was to ensure a wider choice for the visitor. Do you think it makes sense?
As for the keywords, sounds like a nice idea - were you thinking the webmaster should specify these, or for the plugin to somehow extract them from the existing listing and generate them dynamically? Yes, it would be quite easy to implement from the existing search code.