Problems with Lynda.com

Dev Community Dev/API Corner
1

Hi guys,



when i try to start the Lynda.com-app nothing happens. It just says “loading” för a couple of seconds and then nothing.

I have the latest build of Plex, and tried to uninstall then reinstall the Lynca.com-app. Nothing helps.

Anyone else have this problem? Would be really nice to get this working!

2

Sorry this is not working for you, I wrote this plugin and will take a look in a couple days after the new year festivities …

3

This is weird, I have it working here just fine. where are you located ? can you access the videos through the website ?

4

I’m also having a problem with the plugin, and thought I’d use this thread (seems he never replied) instead of starting a new one.



First off, brilliant work with this. I really like what you’ve done and thank you!



So, the issue I’m having is that I have a paid subscription and I put the correct login information in the Preferences section (with ‘Remember me’ on) and it flashes a message: “Success, you are now logged in. Please enjoy the videos”

However, the paid sessions still have $$$ (not sure if that’s supposed to go away when you log in) and if I try to play them I get this message: “This video requires a subscription. Please log in. If you do not have a username and password, please register at http://xxx.lynda.com”



I’m running the latest version of the plugin that’s available via Plex Online. I’ve updated to the latest Plex (I’m running on OSX). I’ve unistalled and re-installed the plug-in.



Any suggestions or fixes for this?





Thank you.

5

hummm … I have not used it in a long time nor looked the code. it could be that the site has changed. I will have a look tonight.

6


Thank you very much!
7

I am not sure what is going on. I saw the login procedure is a bit optimistic and tells you the login was successful even when it was not !!



Could you please try this version (simply 2x click on the .plexapp file to install)



lynda0.8.plexapp (1.06 MB)



Also could you double check your credentials by logging in into the website through a browser?



Not having a login myself makes it hard to debug this kind of issues

8


Just tried this myself - no luck. :-(

Edit: I tried re-entering my password in Preferences. Now it gives me an error ("you need to provide a valid username and password") when I click OK on the preferences dialog. I double-checked the XML file, and it looks like it's storing the correct username and password there. I can log into the lynda.com website fine...
9

I think I figured out the login problem. I don’t know much about plugin development but I figured I’d take a peek at the code in init.py. It looks like the Login() function was sending the login POST to http://www.lynda.com/user/login/modal, but that’s actually just the address of the blank login form. The form POSTs to https://www.lynda.com/login/login.aspx, so I changed init.py to use that address:



response = HTTP.Request('https://www.lynda.com/login/login.aspx',values=valuesLogIn,cacheTime=0).content


The other thing is Lynda seems to send us to an error page if we send stayPut=True in the POST. I'm not sure what stayPut does, but the plugin seems to work correctly when I set it to False:


valuesLogIn = {"username":username,"password":password,"stayPut":"False"}


I don't know how to package the plugin into an installer .app, but I've attached my modified .bundle file. (Extract the .bundle file and put it in ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/)
10

Thank you very much for that. Websites change all the tme and /modal was working at one point.



I will modify the official plugin and release it.



Thanks again

11

Hi Pierre & GRGZ,



Thanks again for looking into this. I’m only now seeing your replies, though I thought I’d get an email alert when this thread received posts.



At any rate, the fix doesn’t seem to be working for me. I’m using the newly supplied bundle file as instructed, but now regardless of the fact that I’m entering my correct login details, I get this message:



“You need to provide a valid username and password. Please register…”



I tried logging into Lynda dot com to make sure I wasn’t having a senior moment, but it was successful. My login info is correctly being entered. (I must have tried over 20 times).



GRGZ, were you successful in logging in? It’s implied but never stated.



Please let me know if there is a different way I need to install the file you zipped. I simply dropped it into the folder you specified after extraction. When it didn’t work, I thought to stop the Plex application and service, and retry. When that failed I deleted the pre-existing Lynda.bundle file so that only the Lynda.com.bundle remained. No dice. Then I renamed the Lynda.com bundle to Lynda.com and restarted. No luck. Finally, I uninstalled the plug-in, re-installed and tried all of this over again. Bust.



Any ideas?

12


I fixed my earlier typos regarding the names of the files. Thanks.
13

Whoops, sorry, it looks like I screwed up the filename when I zipped it up. As you noticed it should be just Lynda.bundle. (At least it is now…)



To answer your question, yes I was able to log in after making the fix. Also, it looks like Pierre has posted the official fix (which is working for me), so you should get it automatically now. Or you can select Plex Online / More… / Check for Updates. I think the .bundle file should be dated August 16 or later.



One thing you can try (not sure if it helps but I did it at some point during troubleshooting) is to shut down Plex and delete:

~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Caches/com.plexapp.plugins.lynda

~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Data/com.plexapp.plugins.lynda



and possibly



~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Preferences/com.plexapp.plugins.lynda.xml



(You’ll have to re-enter your credentials in the Preferences dialog if you delete the .xml file.)



Hope that helps.

14


Just wanted to thank you for all of your help.

Alas, I couldn't get it working. I tried all of your suggestions, but it simply rejects my credentials as invalid. When I go to a web browser and attempt to login in with the same credentials it logs me in just fine. I'm thoroughly stumped.

I tried installing and reinstalling one more time, just in case, but with the same result. Not sure what's different on my system, but it looks like a no go for me.
15

@BGS, if you feel comfortable with it you can use the private message feature to send me your credentials and I can try debugging it on my side.(feel free to change you password to a generic thing first) actually, that’s an idea, does your password or username contain any special characters ?

16


Hey Pierre,

I tried to send you a PM with my credentials, but I got a message saying "This member cannot receive new messages". How can I get this to you?
17

Had reached my max number of messages, I cleaned up my inbox, please try again now.

18


Sent.
19



I just came across this thread. I installed Lynda.com tonight and am also a member. I enter my user name and password and get the message that I'm logged in but when I try to go to any of the training files it never goes off of the list.
20

Hi Steelhack,

I haven't heard from Pierre since I sent that message. I'm still in the same boat. He's really busy at the moment. We'll just have to be patient until he can find some time to look into it.