Both Link shorteners are not working

When trying to create another registration link or adding a member manually, the link shorteners have stopped working. They expire immediately. The google shortener worked at one time, probably before the update, but now they immediately expire.

I’ve had to resort to having the customer cancel subscription, offering a refund & then signing up again. Apparently that first link works if they use it within 48 hours.

I know this is a common issue, but I haven’t read any solutions that work for me.

help!

Jason

Hi Jason.

Did you try another service, like Bit.ly? [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› URL Shortening Service -> Custom[/hilite]

http://api.bitly.com/v3/shorten?login=demo&apiKey=2d71bf07&format=txt&longUrl=%%s2_long_url%%

You need to change the API key with your own.

Cristian, in the title he says he tried both of them. However, Jason, you did only mention the Google shortener, so if you haven’t tried Bit.ly please do. :)

Also,

Apparently that first link works if they use it within 48 hours.

What first link are you referring to specifically? Just curious. :)

– Eduan

Fist link… meaning when the customer signs up him/herself. It’s when I need to make a new link that things get wonky.

Can somebody walk me through the baby steps of setting up bit.ly?

I tried, but it didn’t seem to work, just defaulted to google or tiny.

Thanks,
Jason

1) Get your Bit.ly API key. http://support.bitly.com/knowledgebase/articles/76785-how-do-i-find-my-api-key-

2) Then replace the xxxxxx in this URL with your API key.

http://api.bitly.com/v3/shorten?login=demo&apiKey=xxxxxx&format=txt&longUrl=%%s2_long_url%%

3) Enter that URL in the “Custom” box of the URL Shortening Service setting. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› URL Shortening Service -> Custom[/hilite]

4) Press the “save” button at the bottom of the page. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options[/hilite]

Thanks for that. Unfortunately it’s still defaulting to tiny or google shorteners (which both give expired errors).

I might sound like an idiot, but I swear I’m following the directions properly.

any ideas?

I believe you.

Could you send your site’s info so I take a closer look at your installation? s2Member® » Private Contact Form

I’ll also ask Jason about this.

Thanks for the heads up on this thread.

~ Investigating now.

Thanks for reporting this important issue.

I just tested this and it seems to be working OK on my end. I tested tinyURL, Google, and also a custom shortener using Bit.ly. These all seem to be working from my end, running the latest release of WP/s2Member.

Did you also swap the username in the Bit.ly URL? You have to swap out “demo” with your username too.

login=demo&apiKey=key&format=txt&longUrl=%%s2_long_url%%

NOTE: If Bit.ly is down for any reason, s2Member will always default to tinyURL or Google, even if you have a custom shortener defined. s2Member will try your custom shortener first. However, if it fails, it will go back and use tinyURL or Google.

Please let us know if problems persist :-)

you were right about the login/demo thing, but even so, I am experiencing the same issue. Bitly isn’t working as it’s still defaulting to Tiny or Google shorteners. Both of which show expired immediately.

Would it help if I made a quick screencast video showing what I am experiencing?

Sure, you can post a screencast of it.

I just tested this in my installation with my bit.ly credentials and the access link was shortened with bit.ly successfully.

Could email me the URL you’re using for bit.ly? Don’t post it here because it’d have your username and API key. s2Member® » Private Contact Form

Thanks, got your email.

I entered my bit.ly URL and in your setting for the custom URL shortening service, saved, generated an access link and it was shortened with bit.ly.

Maybe the credentials you entered in your test had something wrong? Make sure there is no charater missing in your API key, and the key and username should belong to the same account too.

Let me know how it goes. :)

@Jason Ward

You said…

Which both give expired errors.

That sounds like it could be related to the underlying link itself (i.e. the URL before it is shortened). If the link you are generating has already been used, or is expired, it won’t matter what shortening service you’re using, because the underlying URL on your site will still lead to an expired link warning, issued by s2Member.

Registration Access Links automatically expire after 2 days.

Another thing to be aware of, is the Paid Subscr. ID field when you generate a Registration Access Link manually from the Dashboard. If you generate a Registration Access Link with a Paid Subscr. ID value that is NOT a new unique value, the link will issue an expiration error, regardless of which shortener is in use.

Please let us know if problems persist :-)

Screencast received. We will review shortly.

Ok, so I sorted out the Bitly shortener. So now the only issue is that everything is showing up as expired when I try to create a link in the “Members registration access links”. I am copying and pasting the subscriber id from either Paypal or within the S2member plugin “browse member” section. Maybe I am not getting what a unique ID is? But I seem to recall doing things exactly like this in the past with great results.

It’s a bit frustrating because if I am screwing up somewhere (which is would appear I am), I’m not certain what I am missing.

cheers,
Jason

Thanks for the follow-up :-)

Ok, so I sorted out the Bitly shortener.

Awesome!

So now the only issue is that everything is showing up as expired when I try to create a link in the “Members registration access links”. I am copying and pasting the subscriber id from either Paypal or within the S2member plugin “browse member” section. Maybe I am not getting what a unique ID is?

Great question. I will try to clarify that a bit further. A new unique Paid Subscr. ID, is one which has NOT been used by a customer on your site yet. If you grab the Paid Subscr. ID from an existing customer’s account, that’s not going to work in a Registration Access Link, because s2Member has already allowed this customer to register in the past, with the same Paid Subscr. ID (e.g. they’re already a User of the site).

Normally you would only generate Registration Access Links manually, in special circumstances. For instance, if your site was experiencing down time, and a customer never completed registration; or if they never got the email from your site – something like that. In cases like that, they’ve NOT registered yet. So, you could simply pull the Paid Subscr. ID from PayPal (i.e. a transaction ID, or the subscription ID), and use that when you create a Registration Access Link for the customer manually.

In other cases, if you just want to create Registration Access Links manually for whatever reason, you will need to generate a new unique Paid Subscr. ID for each customer. If they paid you through PayPal, or another payment gateway, you could use the transaction ID or subscription ID supplied by the payment gateway. Or you can just make one up if you like. A Unix Timestamp would work for this. Whatever you prefer really, as long as it’s unique (i.e. has NOT been used by a customer registering for access to your site yet).

Please let us know if problems persist :-)

Well, there we have it folks! I have a much better understanding of the process & the “rules”. Thanks so much for the clarification.

cheers,
Jason