Podcast Audio File Streaming Error

Hello,

Our s2Member protected audio files stopped streaming.

We use s2Member Pro with an Amazon S3 bucket and a CloudFront distribution for audio and video files.

In member only pages the video streams without a problem.

And both video and audio files can be downloaded by members.

Working with AWS Amazon support services we determined that the bucket is good. Which we already knew because the files can be downloaded.

I’ve tested the podcast using WinAmp, OnAir and Feedreader.

In OnAir and WinAmp I get a 404 error for the audio files.

In feed reader I get an Error # 2032 message rather than a 404 file not found error.

When I research Error # 2032 I get info that it is a path problem:

http://www.wowza.com/forums/showthread.php?13688-JW-player-getting-Error-2032

http://cookbooks.adobe.com/post_Flex_Error__2032__Stream_Error-17265.html

Here is a sample link from the member only page to the download:

https://www.domain.com/?s2member_file_storage=s3&s2member_skip_confirmation=yes&s2member_file_download=/file.mp3

And here is a sample link from the member only podcast:

http://www.domain.com/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-remote/s2member-file-inline/file.mp3

Can you give us any pointers so we can get our member only podcast back online?

Thank you,

Chris

Updates:

We’ve been trouble shooting several aspects and the audio files still do not stream.

We use WPEngine for our host. Last week they activated their CDN for us and we asked them to deactivate it to remove that variable. It is deactivated and the audio files still do not stream.

We’re working with Amazon AWS support at the same time as we’re working with s2Member and WPEngine.

I’ve disabled all plugins which do not remove site functionality.

Per the above, the CDN is disabled, and we may be waiting for cache to clear here and there–I don’t know.

An s2Member generated URL (from the feed source) gives a 404 error. However a direct link to a test MP3 file in the bucket works.

And using the same direct link to any of the audio files gives this:

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. 
The document tree is shown below.
<Error>
< Code >AccessDenied< / Code >
<Message><strong>Access Denied</strong></Message>
<RequestId>5CB63805E1624050</RequestId>
<HostId>
cTS8lnIZDQ4WPTSRER1an2OtVrW1ucKUAdGlfRnOvnBqRJW1PkfjHhq8qzuTwu5T
</HostId>
</Error>

Any ideas on this error message?

Could this be a change in file permissions on the S3 bucket?

Thank you for your help.

Chris

BTW It’s disappointing that I cannot paste links to these issues here because this is a public, searchable forum. This dramatically decreases the resolution turnaround. I’m MORE THAN WILLING to pay for premium support to get this and other s2Member related issues resolved Rapidly and Privately, which would dramatically increase s2Member profitability.

Really not feeling the s2Member love here.

For anyone else going through a similar situation…

The audio files do not stream and we verified the CDN is no longer a factor.

In order to get the podcast media to serve, in the Amazon S3 bucket I set the audio files to be Public. And we use a URL linking directly to the bucket, without the s2Member protection in it. So now our member only podcast streams free to the world.

Thank you for any help s2Member can share…

For the last three days we’ve also had Amazon AWS support and our host WPEngine working to try to find an answer to this issue.

It’s a shame there is not better support available and that there is not an integrated solution where support is available and each support component knows what the other elements are and how they interact. It doesn’t help troubleshooting when one support team doesn’t not provide answers and the other ones don’t know how s2Member works with their products.

Hello? Anyone there?

Thank you for your inquiry.

I am reviewing this thread now.

“Bumping” will not bring attention to a thread, as we get to threads in order of the time of last reply.

Thank-you for your patience.

Based on the error message you are receiving (This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it), I believe this to be an invalid configuration in Amazon. There was a similar problem to yours here, where a User describes similar issues, and Jason discusses some information regarding this error:

http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/download-links/page/2/#post-27447

If you are still experiencing issues after you have changed your bucket policy at Amazon, let us know here, and please send us a Dashboard login via Private Contact Form here:

s2Member® » Private Contact Form

Thank you Bruce,

I did the steps outlined in the link but now the files are open to the world.

We need to secure the media files and make them available only to our members.

I’ve tried creating new S3 buckets, editing bucket policies, creating new distributions, letting s2member automatically create and configure distributions, and I’m stuck.

I flushed our site’s Amazon settings using the hack PHP method provided by s2Member.
I created a new S3 bucket with default settings and no changes or policy editing.
I entered our keys into s2Member
I let s2Member create and configure the download and streaming distributions
I cleared our server cache

I can get the file to stream using the direct URL from the bucket:

http://ourbucketname.s3.amazonaws.com/ourfilename.mp3

…but it will not stream using the s2Member URL:

http://ourdomainname.com/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-remote/s2member-file-inline/ourfilename.mp3

This narrows things down to the link between the bucket, distribution, s2Member and the URL.

Note: It really hamstrings things and slows this resolution down that I cannot post questions in a provate manner where I can share my URLs with s2Member.

Thank you for the support. But this is an unnecessarily long and slow process to get resolutions to problems which have an s2Member component.

Again, I will pay HANDSOMELY for direct support such as we get from Amazon AWS and from our web host WPEngine. Neither of those resources fully understand the magic of s2Member and cannot answer integration questions.

Chris

UPDATE – I noticed an error in my previous reply:

The URL for the bucket is incorrect, that address gives an Access Denied XML page.

And per the above, when I edited the bucket policy it removed the access denied and 404 file not found errors–but then there was no authentication and the media was available to everyone.

We want to use s2Member to protect our media files for member only access.

It was working then something changed.

Chris

Hello,

A quick followup question… just in case.

Is this the correct URL to use when s2Member has our bucket, keys and has created the CloudFront distributions:

http://ourdomainname.com/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-remote/s2member-file-inline/ourfilename.mp3

…or did any part of this change recently?

/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-remote/s2member-file-inline/

…or is there a more preferred URL?

Thank you,

Chris

Thanks for the information.

I’d like you to try one more thing, please.

Create a new bucket, and use the information here to flush your current Amazon S3 Settings:

Knowledge Base » Reset the Amazon S3/CloudFront integration

Then, use the new bucket to set up ONLY Amazon S3 Integration (not cloudfront yet), and put your test file into the bucket. Create a test page and use the s2File shortcode to retrieve the file:

[s2File download="example-file.zip" /]

After you’ve done that, if your integration’s not working still, please send us a Dashboard and FTP Login so we can troubleshoot this. You can send those details here:

s2Member® » Private Contact Form

---

Is this the correct URL to use when s2Member has our bucket, keys and has created the CloudFront distributions:

http://ourdomainname.com/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-remote/s2member-file-inline/ourfilename.mp3

…or did any part of this change recently?

/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-remote/s2member-file-inline/

…or is there a more preferred URL?

This is the way to link to the file with Advanced Mod Rewrite rules. You can find info on what makes this work here:

Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Download Options -› Advanced Mod-Rewrite Linkage

For testing purposes, the best way to downloads is to use the Shortcode for downloads.

Hello,

I followed the instructions and cleared the Amazon info from s2Member successfully.

I created a new bucket (with default settings and no permission changes made) and entered the info into the s2member section for Amazon S3.

I did not use any CloudFront info.

I created a test page, open to the public, and put in the short code as above, with a link to an MP3 file in it.

When I visit the page the short code converts the file into a URL but not a link.

If I try to open the link in another tab it takes me to Windows Explorer to download the file.

If I try to go to the URL in a browser where I’m not logged into the site it takes me to our membership options page.

So it seems that this step works, and s2Member is protecting files in the bucket–even though the link is on a public page.

I’ve sent you SFTP login and site admin info via the contact form.

What is the next step?

Thank you,

Chris

Thanks for the information.

So it seems that this step works, and s2Member is protecting files in the bucket–even though the link is on a public page.

Good. The next step is to introduce your CloudFront integration. If it fails to work correctly (using the same method to get to the files as in the previous test), turn on debugging w/ HTTP connection logging for ALL of WordPress®. You can find that here:

Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Log Files (Debug) -› Logging Configuration

Try to access the file again, and then turn the HTTP connection logging back off. This will slow down your site if you leave it on for a long period of time. Just test the file download and turn if back off. Let me know once you’ve done that, or if CloudFront integration works this time.

Bruce,

Thank you for the continued support.

I added the Amazon CloudFront keys, and I checked the box:

Auto-Configure your Amazon® S3/CloudFront combination?
Yes, automatically configure my Amazon® CloudFront Distributions & Amazon® S3 ACLs for me.
s2Member will auto-configure and/or delete & re-configure your Amazon® CloudFront Distributions for you.

I got this message:

Unable to auto-configure Amazon® CloudFront Distributions.
Error code: 400. Error Message: Unable to update existing Amazon® S3 ACLs. Unable to update existing Amazon® S3 Bucket Policy. Bad Request

Thanks for the follow-up.

Could you following the instructions I posted regarding HTTP Logging, except run it only for testing the connection to the autoconfigure of CloudFront?

I dug up a thread from about a year ago discussing this error, and it appears it may be related to your server’s configuration for cUrl.

See: http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/unable-to-auto-configure-amazon-cloudfront/

Let me know when you’ve done that, and I’ll take a look at your log files and let you know what’s going on.

Hello Bruce,

The Amazon CloudFront distributions are active and enabled (streaming and download), based on the setup that gave the error above (i.e. they are there even though the error message indicated they could not be created).

However when I test the page we created (at the URL given in the private contact form: http://ourodmainname.com/s2member-test/) with the short code you gave I get two different results:

A. If not logged into a browser:

The URL redirects to this long URL and eventually presents the Member Options page for the site:

https://ourdomainname.com/member-options/?_s2member_seeking%5Btype%5D=file&_s2member_seeking%5Bfile%5D=pg-20130319.mp3&_s2member_seeking%5B_uri%5D=Lz9zMm1lbWJlcl9maWxlX2Rvd25sb2FkPS9wZy0yMDEzMDMxOS5tcDM%3D&_s2member_req%5Btype%5D=level&_s2member_req%5Blevel%5D=1&_s2member_res%5Btype%5D=file&s2member_seeking=file-pg-20130319.mp3&s2member_level_req=1

Because it redirects to the member options page (even though the test page is not secured), I think that means the file is secured and attempting to authenticate.

However,

B. When logged into the site in the browser:

The URL redirects to THIS long URL:

http://djun182nahesd.cloudfront.net/pg-20130319.mp3?Policy=eyJTdGF0ZW1lbnQiOlt7IlJlc291cmNlIjoiaHR0cDovL2RqdW4xODJuYWhlc2QuY2xvdWRmcm9udC5uZXQvcGctMjAxMzAzMTkubXAzIiwiQ29uZGl0aW9uIjp7IklwQWRkcmVzcyI6eyJBV1M6U291cmNlSXAiOiIxNzYuMTAyLjQuNzkvMzIifSwiRGF0ZUxlc3NUaGFuIjp7IkFXUzpFcG9jaFRpbWUiOjEzNjUxMDU1NzJ9fX1dfQ__&Signature=sqDoJt0ufKcgnrimEa5jLn2PZ4k4ogk3iyNq8A8fX7KT1kw4UA8lIeIg7K9bOTo2VnxLxDt6opYBZgvMFNFMC9qTY0O5HEk0b8-ImijMc~2yRrgmAOINL6yNBPwwA-055KYd9PE1b1-CQpSgL9SpFiWQPA-chHEr9oqCt7YAhe8_&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIAUEXIUBJCOLVNLQ

…and ultimately gives the same old error message:

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.

AccessDenied

Access Denied
C85C3D5F362C53B4

ivxIvpFMhTeIKZfOVqu9HfBFXEIRbMO7TIsSavTcQvZVMA5mJ/rRgNF/zq8ZhCBo

I will turn on the logging as you requested.

Chris

Bruce,

The logging was enabled already.

Stupid question: Should I leave logging disabled all of the time?

We’ve got logging on and we regularly review the logs to see why and where transactions are failing with PayPal and our members (see any one of the numerous tickets last year and this year about that nightmare).

So if I turn off logging we’ll lose the recording but our site will speed up?

Is there a middle ground?

Thank you,

Chris

The logging was enabled already.

Stupid question: Should I leave logging disabled all of the time?

Generally it’s a good idea to leave on the normal s2Member logging, but HTTP logging for all of WordPress is generally unneeded except for these edge cases.

I’m talking about this logging:

Did you have that logging enabled?

Thanks.

No, that logging was not enabled.

But I did enable it now so we can see what’s what soon.

Thank you for helping us find a solution to this.

Chris

Hello Bruce,

I understand there is a conflict using s2Member and the same Amazon S3/CloudFront info on more than one site.

Can you clarify this for me?

Can I can use the same Amazon account (S3 keys and CloudFront keys), but use a different bucket on each site?

E.g.

One AWS Amazon account
One AWS Amazon account Security Credentials set (Access Key and Secret Key, and Key Pair ID and Private key)

and

TWO (or more) S3 buckets in the single AWS Amazon account above

and

TWO (or more) WordPress websites, using s2Member Download options with the above single AWS Account info…

but

…using the different buckets for each site’s configuration in the s2Member Download Options > Amazon® S3/CDN Storage & Delivery.

I’ve created multiple AWS Amazon accounts because I thought everything was required to be unique.

It would save me (us) a ton of grief if we can use one AWS account with one set of Security Credentials across all sites, but use a unique bucket for each site.

As a side note, I don’t know where the limitation lies, but it really would be useful if more than one site could use the same bucket.

Thank you for your help.

Chris

Chris, I’m pretty sure you can use the same AWS account with different buckets for each s2Member installation. I haven’t tried it myself, but it wouldn’t be hard for you to test it.

Hey Cristian,

Thanks for the support.

I believe this also, and I realize it’s easy to test–but I’m leary of testing this because we upset our members a couple of months ago when we accidentally used the same bucket on our staging site as we had on our live site. Needless to say all media died on our site and we didn’t know what the hell had happened! …and my director made me sit in the corner for an hour because I didn’t know what caused it. Oh, yeah, I also didn’t get fruit cup with dinner. :)

When something breaks on our site our 11,000+ paying members come out of the woodwork at us like the robots did in the end of iRobot, the apes in planet of the apes, or the aliens on the pyramid after that poor last, defenseless predator… I am Legend, 28 Days Later–you get the picture.

If I jack things up again I’ll be buried in concrete with Jimmy Hoffa.

Can you give me a definitive answer on this? :) …as in, “Yes, 100% if you use the same security credentials in another s2M, on another site, but use different buckets in each one, why you’ll be just fine.”

Amazon AWS support let me know they do not see a problem on the AWS side using the same security credentials in more than one site.

– – –

Another issue is we actually DO NEED to use the SAME bucket on the other site! Else we’ll be paying for duplicate AWS bucket storage. Is there a work around in s2Member that will allow is to do this?

Thank you,

Chris

lol, you made me laugh. :)

Yes, I understand your situation.

Well, that was asked only a few days ago, and Jason confirmed that it’s fine. http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/amazon-s3-for-more-than-1-membership-site/

Can I set up an account on Amazon S3 and then have both membership sites access the same data i.e. I can upload the video once, but both membership sites could securely access? This will save having to upload each file twice.

But since your Amazon account behaved unexpectedly in the past, I’d still take precautions, including a plane ticket to Argentina.

Hello my friends at my home away from home…

Back to the main issue:

The MP3 audio files will download but they will not stream using the s2Member generated URLs!

On our Amazon AWS account:

I set up a new S3 bucket with the default (protected) configuration.

On our staging site:

I cleaned s2Member with the s2-hacks.php URL/?reset_aws=yes
I added the S3 bucket and keys and saved.
I then added the CloudFront keys, with auto config checked, and saved.
The download and streaming distributions were created flawlessly.

I go to a media file with the URL for streaming and IT FAILS (it used to work!):

http://ourdomain.com/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-remote/s2member-file-inline/filename.mp3

I create a post and add the URL for download and IT WORKS:

http://ourdomain.com/?s2member_file_storage=s3&s2member_skip_confirmation=yes&s2member_file_download=/filename.mp3

IT REALLY, REALLY seems that s2Member is not creating a valid STREAMING signed URL (or the URL we have used for a long time has now changed).

Amazon AWS support keeps pointing to the streaming singed URL in their responses to us. They tell us that the bucket is set up correctly and the file is there. And if download works but streaming fails that it is the streaming signed URL failure.

btw The ticket at Amazon AWS support is three times as long as this ticket here in s2Member.

They referred me to:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9873273/aws-cloudfront-private-streaming-setup-using-and-expirable-links-generation-usin

And I’ve lost loads of time testing with the Amazon S3 Policy Generator:

http://awspolicygen.s3.amazonaws.com/policygen.html

And I’m very careful about bucket naming: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/BucketRestrictions.html

Thank you for hlpeing resolve this! :)

Chris

I go to a media file with the URL for streaming and IT FAILS (it used to work!):

http://ourdomain.com/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-remote/s2member-file-inline/filename.mp3

I create a post and add the URL for download and IT WORKS:

http://ourdomain.com/?s2member_file_storage=s3&s2member_skip_confirmation=yes&s2member_file_download=/filename.mp3

Does this work? It’s the one you say worked but with the mod_rewrite format. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Download Options -› Advanced Mod-Rewrite Linkage[/hilite]

http://ourdomain.com/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-storage-s3/s2member-skip-confirmation/filename.mp3