My "Services" ad gets posted only momentarily before dissapearing

[ishan1225]

I can run the files without an error, my ad gets posted momentarily. I can see it in my ads (on my Kijiji profile) and also receive an email from Kijiji about the ad going active. However, the ad almost immediately disappears before the script finishes (cannot be seen on my Kijiji profile) and seems to be removed. I don't receive any notice from Kijiji as to if they deleted it. Is this script somehow deleting the ad towards the end as some cleanup maybe, or is it Kijiji? If so what can I change to allow the ad to stay up?

[jackm]

Are you posting multiple of the same ad? Kijiji tries to remove duplicate ads, but usually it also notifies you that it has removed one of your ads when it does so.

Try changing the ad title to something that isn't the exact same as another one of your existing ads.

[ishan1225]

I think the ad-title was unique, I will give it another shot later tonight just to be certain

[jordanmehravar]

Depending on what you're posting, Kijiji may restrict each IP to one account. Are you posting with multiple accounts?

[jackm]

This is only happening when posting ads under the 'service' category?
I myself am still able to post and repost ads without any issues, but all of my ads are posted in the buy/sell categories.

[anonwhitemouse]

Yes, the difficulty is only in posting/reposting into the Services category. Other categories do not give me any difficulty posting/reposting so far. This was not a problem for around 1 year up until a few days ago and I changed nothing on my end.

[jackm]

So either the Kijiji backend has special rules for ads under the services categories, or it might have something to do with the relatively small posting limit for ads in within those categories, or maybe the API here is just not sending along some other parameter that Kijiji is expecting when posting the ad.

Just to clarify, you are also not receiving any emails from Kijiji that your ad has been removed automatically?

[anonwhitemouse]

Correct, no emails received regarding removed posts. I tested to see if I get them by posting an ad in the wrong category (manually) and they deleted it and sent me a deletion email which worked as expected. I get no such deletion email with the Services posting problem.

I do know that in the Services category you are allowed only 2 active posts, but I have not violated this limit.

[grab-a]

Hi,

I am getting the same issue.

Some of my ads post without problems but when I try to post in specific categories (like Services) I am getting errors:

Image upload success on try #1
Image upload success on try #1
Image upload success on try #1
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python3.4/runpy.py", line 170, in _run_module_as_main
"main", mod_spec)
File "/usr/lib/python3.4/runpy.py", line 85, in _run_code
exec(code, run_globals)
File "kijiji_repost_headless/main.py", line 195, in
main()
File "kijiji_repost_headless/main.py", line 51, in main
args.function(args)
File "kijiji_repost_headless/main.py", line 95, in post_ad
api.post_ad_using_data(data, image_files)
File "kijiji_repost_headless/kijiji_api.py", line 201, in post_ad_using_data
raise KijijiApiException("Could not post ad.", resp.text)
kijiji_api.KijijiApiException: Could not post ad.
See kijijiapi_dump_20181019T190113.html in current directory for latest dumpfile.

In dumpfile there is only HTML of Kijiji page.

When I give it another try and run another ad, I am getting:

Image upload success on try #1
Image upload success on try #1
Failed ad post attempt #2, giving up.

It seems error appears only in specific categories.

I am not getting these errors when I'm posting to Buy/Sell sections, and everything seems to run smoothly there.

[rainventures]

Im getting the same problem now- ads were working yesterday, not today though.

category is tires, not sure what the problem is- IP ban?

[QwertyCoolMT]

any solution for this? I too have noticed this with my "service" ads.

Seems as if the computer they were being posted on has been flagged, all ads (buy & sell too) fail to post with a dump file that shows nothing really.

however the same ads, without change on a different computer, work fine.
except the service ads which will not crash, but spear to post successfully, but not actually show up on kijiji.

[anonwhitemouse]

I suspect they have disabled API posts in the Services category, exclusively, since the end of September.

I confirm your description where the ad says it posted properly in the response you get after posting the ad, but doesn't actually show up in Kijijij's ad list in the Services category, exactly as you describe.

Other categories have had no noticeable change in behavior and operate just fine.

[QwertyCoolMT]

I was originally able to post ads in that category more recently, say November 9th?

[QwertyCoolMT]

Also, this program uses requests, its made its own API, there's no official kijiji posting API afaik.

[jackm]

My guess would be that the Kijiji backend uses some additional checking when making new ads in the Services categories. I haven't had any time to dedicate to checking or proving this yet though.

There's probably a missing parameter or some additional step(s) that need to be done for a successful ad post. In the end this tool is just trying to mimic what the user would be doing when manually posting a new ad.

[grab-a]

@jackm I tried a solution you posted here:
#100 (comment)
but it is still not working:

Failed ad post attempt #2, giving up.

I also tried to sniff packets with Wireshark but they are encrypted (obviously) and tried to use Live HTTP Headers Chrome extension to sniff headers but couldn't find parameter you talk in linked post.

Did you found another way of solving this problem?

[jackm]

Go up to a higher layer and use the browser's built-in developer/debug console. You can view incoming and outgoing HTTP requests including all the headers, body content and any HTTP POST data fields being used.

Coming at it on the IP layer via Wireshark won't be helpful as you've found out and this is too low level anyways.

[Jester8813]

I have ran into this same issue. Use to work no problem but now a few seconds after the script posts the ad disappears only using the script. I am posting in the Home Renovations and Building Materials category. I looked to see if there is any new fields. But there wasn't as far as I can see. Please if you have any info, help.

[arsalansids]

Seems like this is still an issue, same thing is happening to my attempts. Any workarounds to getting ads in the services category up?

[socialcode-rob1]

I'm running into the same issue.
Works with Buy/Sell but not Services.

Would it be worth it to put some error handling or warning into the CLI on post/report to Services?

[TrendMend]

I am having the same issue...

[zachatkinson]

Same issues here. Trying to post office space for rent. Everything was working FINE until Friday. My client asked me to add a few more properties, and I took the opportunity to clean up my Bash script (I set a CRON job up to run my Bash script every morning for fresh posts.) .

Seemingly I can't post ANYTHING to my personal account, as even manually inputting the ad in browser results in an email saying ad posted, but not showing at all if I try to view in browser.

Could this be an IP related issue? I have tried posting to my personal account, which is not used at all with the bot. Even then, posts deleted right away.

[zachatkinson]

Ah HA!

At least with office space, my client and I noticed a change... seemingly the free option is GONE! Anyone else seeing this?!

[jjc647]

Ah HA!

At least with office space, my client and I noticed a change... seemingly the free option is GONE! Anyone else seeing this?!

The whole platform is becoming garbage and paid ultimately cutting out their most core user base. I was the most avid user of kijiji until they started putting all these limits blocks and censors on. Now i have to focus my ad posting elsewhere hopefully it stays free.

[zachatkinson]

New Update. My client and I were trying to figure out what the heck happened here. I am willing to bet, it is an IP ban. Some background:

The Start
My client rents out several properties across Canada. Previously, he was outsourcing the task of manually reposting each of these ads daily, but I suggested to him using this script alongside a CRON job on our server to ensure the posts are updated daily.

I got to work and generated the necessary item.yml files and once I ensured everything was posting fine locally, I created a shell script on my server to repost each ad daily. Everything at this point was running without a hitch.

My client reached out to me about a week ago with a number of new properties to add to the script. I generated the needed files once again, and test posted locally to ensure syntax was correct. All went well.

Building a "Better" Bash Shell Script
After I got the new posts in, I decided to get clever and use some variables in my script alongside a loop that outputs some variables for quick diagnosis in case of any errors. I ran my new script locally several times to test it was working and had to iron out some details which led to more testing. Finally, I was happy with the output of my new script.

One of the things I decided to do in the new script to make item.yml file generation easier was forgoing providing a username and password, providing them as arguments in the shell instead. My password had special characters that messed up the script several times until I properly escaped them. I think at this point testing the script with this fundamental error threw flags up by kijiji, as I was providing bad login credentials, and my loop was providing those bad credentials 38 times!

IP Flagged, Alongside Accounts?
I'm assuming all these tests in succession must have flagged my IP. As despite the syntax being corrected, none of my posts were made. Further, the following day when my CRON job ran on my server, the repost function ran on each post and deleted the current post. Unfortunately, due to these accounts being I assume tied to my "bad" client IP when the server tried to access the same accounts all my script could do was remove the current ads, but could not post new ones.

I was not even able to manually post to my own personal Kijiji account, which further pointed to IP issues.

The Solution
After attempting to manually post with my client and getting the above issue (no free account available) we determined these accounts were probably flagged. We generated a new list of email accounts and created the related kijiji accounts. My client was able to manually post to the new accounts, but I was not.

Undefeated, I decided to ssh into our server and update the login credentials in one of our item.yml files. I then ran the post function and it worked without a hitch. Thankfully, our server IP had not been blacklisted! We were able to post to Kijiji again!

What Next?
Alright, so far I've only posted from the command line manually, without providing user and password as arguments. After testing that I'll upload my new Bash script and ensure the CRON job is pointing at it. If all posts tomorrow morning, I think it's safe to say this is an account and or IP issue. Hope this helps others in the same boat. Sorry, it's so long-winded, but I wanted to give as much detail as possible!

[zachatkinson]

Hey all!

So I spoke way too soon. I can't post from my server or locally, seems they have me figured out :O. Any suggestions from anyone else?

[jjc647]

Hey all!

So I spoke way too soon. I can't post from my server or locally, seems they have me figured out :O. Any suggestions from anyone else?

I've had the same issue for almost 3 years and cost me tons of business and time wasted. I tried everything including different proxy servers and using posting styles that align with their policies in different categories but still all fails. Now I'm forced to use this site called viuble which is the same as kijiji just not as big. I'll have to find a way to drive traffic there because dealing with kijiji tech support is a waste of time and a super inefficient and terrible website overall. If you find a solution please let me know.

[sal1010]

I had this same issue however it would only happen when I would use google chrome (xp version). If I use firefox its fine.

I emailed them regarding this issue and it was resolved. I am very curious to know what was causing it and how they fixed it on their side as it seemed it was an issue coming from my browser and not them.

If anyone can figure out why I solute you.

[Jester8813]

As much as I loved using this repository, I couldn't figure how to fix my ads being removed, Since I am not familiar with python, I wrote my own ad poster that uses the selenium library in c# console. I do appreciate the work you guys put into this program and the amount of support you guys try to provide fixing the issues.

[ArthurG]

I am considering making a PR to disable all service ads from being used with this extension. You would no longer be able to post or generate any service ads. Does anyone have any opinions on this?

[QwertyCoolMT]

Is there a reason why, exactly?

…

-- Erich D'Atri-Guiran

On Feb 3, 2020, at 12:54 PM, Arthur Guo ***@***.***> wrote: I am considering making a PR to disable all service ads from being used with this extension. You would no longer be able to post or generate any service ads. Does anyone have any opinions on this? — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[ArthurG]

Service ads do not post properly at the moment.

[QwertyCoolMT]

I've Looked at this myself in the past trying to fix it,,, it must be possible, at the end of the day its all requests underneath. I suppose unless we have a solution to the problem its better to diable it so people dont flag their accounts unnecessarily.

…

On Mon, Feb 3, 2020 at 1:03 PM Arthur Guo ***@***.***> wrote: Service ads do not post properly at the moment. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#112?email_source=notifications&email_token=AFC7XVDKLJQJBU7SJ6AZB5LRBBL5JA5CNFSM4FUB4LO2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOEKUZURA#issuecomment-581540420>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFC7XVHWLQ27SCQPQYO4NMLRBBL5JANCNFSM4FUB4LOQ> .

-- Be well, Erich D'Atri-Guiran

[getsec]

@ArthurG Yeah, ok that makes sense, so its not correctly posting. I'll work on something with selenium 📦

[tombohub]

I cannot post service ad doing it manually and I've never run any scripts. Did you figure out why?

[Aluui]

Hey everyone, here are a fix to the "Free Post Option Being Removed" issue:

Issue If you are having issues posting your ad in a category that was previously free, it happened to me.
Kijiji has changed your account from an individual account to a professional account due to your heavy Ad posting.

The solution: Contact Kijiji support and tell them you are just an individual.