Thread

I have been alerted that links in my feedburner RSS feed read via Google Reader are yielding “Invalid GET data” errors. I found this thread:

http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/135163/

But the resolution given, that there’s a stray colon or semicolon lurking in the customized settings, doesn’t apply to me. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a way to ensure Feedburner functions properly?

Thanks.

Do you have a link to the feed in question?

Which version/build of ExpressionEngine are you using? You can find that out at the bottom of any control panel page.

The current version is 1.6.8 and the build is 20091002.

Is this a new problem? Did things work before?

What about the non-feedburner version? What happens with it?

Am running 1.6.7 and I believe this is a “newish” problem - I haven’t heard anyone complaining before today. I don’t know the particular start date.

The feed in question is:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/smartbitchestrashybooks

Should my first step to be an upgrade or is there a prior thread about this that I missed?

Wow, I stink at providing enough details. My apologies. Maybe tomorrow I’ll post: “My expression engine is broken. Can you fix it?”

Hi Sarah-

We always recommend upgrading, as their were some security upgrades in 1.6.8 😊

It seems that the only links that are not working, are the titles. Feedburner is appending this to the url, which is breaking EE:

?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+SmartBitchesTrashyBooks+(Smart+Bitches,+Trashy+Books)&utm_content=FeedBurner#When:18:54:35Z

Have you tried fishing around your Feedburner settings? There might be something in there that can be disabled.

I am starting to get this error report from my readers, starting from yesterday and yeah it’s just the title link.

I am using EE 1.6.7 build 20090515.

It was working fine before this came up.

Hi Sarah,

If you remove the parentheses from your feed title does that then work properly?

Cheers

Greg

Hi Greg:

I just removed the parentheses and it didn’t change the Invalid GET data error.

I confess to being a bit of a noob when it comes to RSS intricacies, and I’m at a total loss what to change to make this better.

Hi Sarah,

If I look at your links generated by Feedburner then the parentheses are still there:

<a href="http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/free-digital-short-story-from-avon/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+SmartBitchesTrashyBooks+Smart+Bitches,+Trashy+Books">http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/free-digital-short-story-from-avon/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+SmartBitchesTrashyBooks+(Smart+Bitches,+Trashy+Books</a>)&utm_content=FeedBurner#When:10:49:10Z

I suspect that this must be configurable somewhere within Feedburner. If I manually remove the parentheses then the generated links work correctly.

Cheers

Greg

If I remove the parenthesis from the configuration, I’m told the feed is no longer valid. I wonder if I have to build the feed from scratch. Anyone else having this problem find a solution?

So frustrating.

As I said earlier, I had the same problem and I have just fixed it by removing the round brackets from feeburner’s stat settings:

Feed: ${feedUri} (${feedName})

to

Feed: ${feedUri} ${feedName}

Hi SarahW,

Frychiko’s solution (thanks Frychiko) does seem as if it might solve the problem. Please do try it and let me know how you get on.

Cheers

Greg

Hey folks:

Thank you for the suggestion. I’m trying it now - Feedburner keeps telling me, after I make the edit and remove the parenthesis, that the URL doesn’t reference a valid XML file.

I’d like to punch feedburner in it’s XML and whoop it’s RSS for good measure.

Hi SarahW,

Does it work if you just just use the feedURI in the Stat settings?

Feed: ${feedUri}

instead of:

Feed: ${feedUri} (${feedName})

Cheers

Greg

Hi Greg:

First: you are technicolor awesome for continuing to help me with this. Thank you.

Second: nope - if I edit the config down to Feed: ${feedUri} I get the XML error just the same once I save the changes.

Third: thank you again.

Hi SarahW,

Okay. I’ve just been into one my old Feedburner accounts and converted it to the Google version and been able to edit the Stats configuration without error and also the feeds work properly. Interestingly, my feed works with or without the parentheses. Have you set up any of the options under the Optimize tab?

Cheers

Greg