"Email link" not working

Posted by: Richard Schletty

14th June 2019, 6:18 am

Richard Schletty

@rcschletty

14 Jun 2019
6:18 am

I tried using this option but I cannot get it to work: "Email link then redirect to confirmation page"

When I click on the link in the email that is sent, it goes to the product page but nothing is downloaded. For example:

https://catholicliturgyinsong.org/product/la-santisima-trinidad-c-salmo-8-que-admirable-senor-es-tu-poder/?somdn_rremdl=somdn_rremdl&somdn_rrtdid=3228&somdn_rrdkey=MzIyOA=&somdn_rrskey=MTU2MDQ4NzkxMg=&somdn_rrpkey=MzIxNQ=&somdn_rrukey=MQ=&somdn_rrtype=ZW1haWw

I have no choice but to go back to the option "Instant download (Default)"

There are some curious entries in the Error Logs. Email capture was enabled. I also tried "Redirect to confirmation page" and all that happens is that the user is forwarded to the product page. Nothing is downloaded. Same thing happens if I click on the link manually.

From my Error Logs:

[11-Jun-2019 18:23:06 America/Chicago] Redirect for email download attempt failed. User not logged in and email capture is not enabled. Defaulted to Instant Download.

[11-Jun-2019 18:18:58 America/Chicago] A user attempted a redirect download using a different user ID than the one used to raise the link. User ID# 0 in the download data, User ID# 1 currently in session. Temp download ID# 3173.

EDIT:

I discovered that iThemes Security Pro was blocking the downloads. First, I tried disabling this "System Tweak":

Filter Long URL Strings: Limits the number of characters that can be sent in the URL. Hackers often take advantage of long URLs to try to inject information into your database.

But that did not solve the issue. When I deactivated iThemes Security Pro, the download links started working. I will try to determine exactly which setting in iThemes Security is blocking the download links.

Last modified: 14th June 2019, 6:35 am by Richard Schletty

  • Richard Webster

    @rwebster

    14 Jun 2019
    6:44 am

    Hi mate keep me posted on your findings.

  • Richard Schletty

    @rcschletty

    14 Jun 2019
    6:46 am

    Richard Webster said on 14 Jun 2019, 6:44 am:

    Hi mate keep me posted on your findings.

    I will. Thanks. Still testing. It's definitely an iThemes Security issue.

  • Richard Webster

    @rwebster

    14 Jun 2019
    6:52 am

    I'll explain what's going on in case it's a problem, because not working with a security plugin would make me a little sceptical.

    Basically when an email download link, or redirect download is created, various pieces of information are stored as a record in the database. This includes the product ID, variation ID (if applicable), user data, a secret ID number etc. When the redirection has finished or when the page is loading from an email link, the data being collected (like in that URL you posted) is cleansed, decoded and compared to what is stored in the download record. If any of it doesn't match, the download fails. This is so users can't create bad links, or download files meant for someone else. It's not Mission Impossible, but just a simple security measure.

    There's nothing really magical going on, just some data checking.

  • Richard Webster

    @rwebster

    14 Jun 2019
    7:05 am

    If the security plugin has some logs maybe it creates a log when it blocks the download. It might give us some info to go on.

  • Richard Schletty

    @rcschletty

    14 Jun 2019
    7:37 am

    My product pages offer single downloads of MP3 and PDF files, plus download of multiple files as a ZIP package. This is the way your plugin is set up and I do like this option.

    However, it now appears that iThemes Security was NOT blocking all download links. I happened to be clicking on single files and getting nowhere. The one time that I clicked on a ZIP package, I happened to have iThemes Security deactivated – and that's what led me down the wrong path.

    So, I thought the solution would be forcing ZIP creation for individual files. I have turned on that option but I am still unable to download individual MP3 or PDF files – regardless of whether I force ZIP creation.

    As mentioned above, there was never any problem with "Instant download (Default)".

    So, this emailing of a download link is a huge fail for me.

    I guess one possible cause, though, is that most of these Spanish file names do contain special characters such as é, ñ and í. But if this were the issue, one would think that ZIPs of multiple files would also have messed up download URLs.

  • Richard Webster

    @rwebster

    14 Jun 2019
    7:41 am

    I'd have to dig into your setup to find the cause. Would you mind opening a support ticket from your account page here, and give me a login username and password for an admin account?

    I'll be able to find the reason.

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