What is the deal with the PPS connection to Radio Reference?

[EMTMFD]

I know this has been discussed here several times, and I have updated to the latest version -beta 22 on separate machines, still no luck

I run PPS as administrator (which I find hard to believe in this day an age is appropriate), no dice. I have been a long time ProScan user that has built in RR connectivity, as well as several other software apps that use that feature. Why can't we get this right? - Very frustrating to say the least!

 

[bob550]

I can certainly sense your frustration. But if you were to describe your problem in greater detail, we can assist you better. Other than that, your post feels more like a rant than a call for help.

 

[N6ML]

One poster reported that they had to clear/retype the username/password that PPS has "remembered", then it started working (with the Beta22 version).

There's no reason to run PPS as administrator - I would not recommend doing that.

 

[EMTMFD]

I can certainly sense your frustration. But if you were to describe your problem in greater detail, we can assist you better. Other than that, your post feels more like a rant than a call for help.

You are correct on the frustration.

Here is the error message. I can't seem to find any log files or info that would indicate if this was even attempting to connect. Note I cleared out the remembered credentials, restarted the application - showed a blank username/password - entered a known good account and password - no special characters in the username etc. etc.

Same results!

Let me know if you want further details.

Mike

 

[N6ML]

If you want to dig into it a bit, you could use Wireshark to capture the network traffic when it's trying to connect. I just did this, and was surprised to see that it's NOT using HTTPS, so you can actually easily see the SOAP requests, including the user and password, in plain text. That should reveal if PPS is sending the correct username and password, and if RR is rejecting it.

 

[bob550]

Let me know if you want further details.

Nope, I'm good for now. Thanks.

 

[EMTMFD]

I fired up Wireshark on the machine, and poking around, it appears the return from RR is a malformed packet. My creds are displayed correctly.

When I run the Proscan connect to RR I get the same handshake, but the packet is not flagged as malformed.

I hope this is a help to any of you developers / users.

 

[N6ML]

"Malformed packet" is not coming from RR - it's Wireshark attempting to dissect the XML data, and failing for some reason. I see it too, yet my login works. Comparing the request sent by PPS to one sent by SDRTrunk, they definitely are different. The SDRTrunk request shows the <authInfo> as a subcomponent of <getUserData>, where the PPS request shows a <q1:getUserData> that's basically empty, followed by a <q2:autoInfo>. That doesn't look right ... but strangely it seems to work for me (and many other users, but obviously not all). I may dig some more when I get time....

Edit: looking some more, it appears that the PPS method uses an HREF in the getUserData to point to the authInfo. That may actually be valid. I don't know XML well-enough to say....

 

[EMTMFD]

"Malformed packet" is not coming from RR - it's Wireshark attempting to dissect the XML data, and failing for some reason. I see it too, yet my login works. Comparing the request sent by PPS to one sent by SDRTrunk, they definitely are different. The SDRTrunk request shows the <authInfo> as a subcomponent of <getUserData>, where the PPS request shows a <q1:getUserData> that's basically empty, followed by a <q2:autoInfo>. That doesn't look right ... but strangely it seems to work for me (and many other users, but obviously not all). I may dig some more when I get time....

Edit: looking some more, it appears that the PPS method uses an HREF in the getUserData to point to the authInfo. That may actually be valid. I don't know XML well-enough to say....

Thanks for your input! Much appreciated. I also have the info from my Proscan connect which I assume may be similar what you are seeing in the sdrtrunk run.
If you want a look at any of this, pm' me with an email address and be glad to upload it to you!

 

[Uni1]

Please message me if you are having issues. We will need your login info.

 

[N6ML]

From the SOAP response that @EMTMFD shared privately, I see: <subExpireDate xsi:type="xsd:string">Never - Feed Provider</subExpireDate> - I wonder if PPS is expecting a date, and gets confused by this?

 

[ProScan]

From the SOAP response that @EMTMFD shared privately, I see: <subExpireDate xsi:type="xsd:string">Never - Feed Provider</subExpireDate> - I wonder if PPS is expecting a date, and gets confused by this?

The element name is 'subExpireDate' but the data type is 'string' so I'm real sure it doesn't matters.

 

[N6ML]

The name is 'subExpireDate' but the data type is 'string' so I don't think it matters.

Unless you have access to the PPS source code, you don't know what matters. They may be parsing the string and expecting a date that is in the future to validate that your account has not expired.

 

[ProScan]

Unless you have access to the PPS source code, you don't know what matters. They may be parsing the string and expecting a date that is in the future to validate that your account has not expired.

Not PPS but the api.

https://api.radioreference.com/soap2/?wsdl&v=15

 

[N6ML]

Actually I do. My program uses the same api.

https://api.radioreference.com/soap2/?wsdl&v=15

The API gets you the data. What you do with the data once you have it is another matter.

 

[ProScan]

The API gets you the data. What you do with the data once you have it is another matter.

True. It should be used just for showing the subscription expiration date in a text format and nothing else.

{edit} my program uses it like this

Label.Text = "Expires " + userinfo.subExpireDate;

Also if PPS is expecting a date like you suggested then the symptoms would be totally different. I didn't mean to hijack this or anything like that. I won't post any more.

 

[EMTMFD]

@ProScan - your comments are not a hi-jack! In fact I captured the output from ProScan to show them how it worked fine! (the best piece of sw I use - no lie!).

I am going to reset my PWD and ship the credentials off to @Uni1 so they can have a look.

Regards!