#682 doesn't bid (Page: "Attention Buyer")

[Bernhard Kuemel]

    Automated esniper bug report.
    esniper version 2.31.0
    libcurl/7.38.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1k zlib/1.2.8 libidn/1.29 libssh2/1.4.3 librtmp/2.3
    Error encountered in function parseBid in auction.c line 633
    auction = 161696228442, price = 0.01, remain = 604260
    latency = 0, result = -1, error = 0
    buf = 0xd6fc90, size = 46124, read = 0xd6fc90
    time = 1430868376, offset = 0
    pagename = "Attention Buyer", pageid = "(null)", srcid = "(null)"
    specified options or config values:
      1 x username(u) = ***
      1 x seconds(s) = 0
      1 x (P) = ***
    unknown pagename

[Bodo]

Not easy to solve.

In the bidding process ebay does not show the expected page, but an intermediate page with the message "Attention Buyer There may be certain restrictions, permission requirements or limitations related to the importation of bullion and/or precious metals into your country." and a "Continue" button.

First there is a general problem with such intermediate pages. I don't know in which cases ebay displays these warnings. Would it be OK to automatically continue the bidding process? Should we have a white list of warnings that will be skipped automatically? (How to distinguish the different warning messages?)

If we decide that esniper should continue, we need some technical investigation. The page contains a form with many hidden fields. Some fields contain the information we just entered before, but probably there are additional fields to tell ebay whether the user submitted the normal bidding form or the warning continuation form. We have to find out which form fields are necessary.
(Currently esniper does not handle form fields automatically. It is hard coded what to parse from the HTML pages and which form fields to send.)

This is a rare case as it is only related to specific articles. Someone would have to analyze and experiment. (Anyone interested in doing this?)