Civic Cookie Control: Sorry, this api key is not valid. Please contact Civic at queries@civicuk.com.

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Matthew Bunn

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Aug 15, 2013, 8:31:06 AM8/15/13
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Can anyone help me with this error? I have generate the code and insterted in my main page template but when I load the site it keeps saying the API key is invalid.......?

Gerasimos Tzoganis

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Aug 15, 2013, 8:39:18 AM8/15/13
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Hi Matthew,

If you are using the free or the single site paid version of Cookie Control, that error message is most probably because you have generated the apikey for a domain different from the one you actually use it on.

For example, you might have specified in the configurator the domain www.example.com, and now you try to use it on example.com, or vice versa. You can modify the domain where you want to use your Cookie Control and generate your code again by logging in here:
http://civicuk.com/cookie-law/pricing?configure=true

Greg Rouchotas

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Aug 15, 2013, 8:39:49 AM8/15/13
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Hi Matthew,

The only reason you would get this error message is if the domain you have provided does not match up with the domain you are using.
If you can provide me with your domain name or send me a link to you site then I can have a look.

Thanks
Greg

Matthew Bunn

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Aug 15, 2013, 9:27:50 AM8/15/13
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Hi guys, thanks for your responses.

When generating the code I entered domain www.multiseis.com

I am currently developing a new website which is in a password protected directory "www.multiseis.com/xxxxx"

I assume this is why it is not working as I would have to include the /xxxxxx suffix to the domain?

If that's the case then I wont worry about it for now and will just test when the site is live.

Many thanks,
Matt




Gerasimos Tzoganis

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Aug 15, 2013, 9:55:15 AM8/15/13
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Hi Matt,

Actually the suffix should not make any difference. I 'm not sure why you are having problems, can you send me the full url to the page where you are deploying Cookie Control please? Also you could send me a temporary username and password so that I could have a look if you want. You can send them to me by email if you don't want them to be public.

Regards,
Gerasimos

Matthew Bunn

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Aug 15, 2013, 10:13:33 AM8/15/13
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Hi Gerasimos,

Thanks a lot. I will be happy to send you the link and temporary login. Sorry I am not familiar with Google Groups and cannot seem to find your email address....?

Best,
Matt

Gerasimos Tzoganis

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Aug 15, 2013, 10:18:36 AM8/15/13
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I just sent you an email. You can reply to it with the url and login.

Regards,
Gerasimos

Matthew Bunn

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Aug 15, 2013, 10:21:07 AM8/15/13
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Hi Gerasimos,

I think I have figured out the problem.

Navigating to website using: www.multiseis.com causes a problem with the cookie controller
Navigating to website using: multiseis.com loads the cookie controller OK.

Is there no way of having the cookie controller work for both?

Obviously some people will access with the www. (from google etc) and others will just type multiseis.com

Best,
Matt


Gerasimos Tzoganis

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Aug 15, 2013, 10:38:16 AM8/15/13
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Hi Matt,

From what I see in our records it should be the other way round: OK for www.multiseis.com and not OK for multiseis.com. Is that not correct? That is because I see that you have specified the domain www.multiseis.com.

No, Cookie Control's apikey works like a Google or a Facebook apikey and is bound to a specific domain. You cannot use it on different domains, unless you purchase a multi-domain license.

However, I think you could just do a permanent redirect from multiseis.com to www.multiseis.com. That would actually be better for SEO purposes too.

Matthew Bunn

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Aug 15, 2013, 10:41:55 AM8/15/13
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Hi Gerasimos,

It works with www.multsieis.com but it does not work for multiseis.com.

I believe there is probably some confusion in the records because I think I generated cookie code a while ago for domain: multiseis.com so should be records for that domain under my personal email account.

I think what I will do is setup a permanent redirect from multiseis.com to www.multiseis.com - good idea!

I'll see what happens. Thanks so much for your help.

Best,
Matt



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Sarah Austin

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Aug 25, 2013, 12:10:14 PM8/25/13
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The fact that the www.domain.co.uk and domain.co.uk are treated as two separate domains is surely a major weakness in this code. I now have a choice of buying two licenses for one website or spending time redirecting multiple pages. I have started on the latter and come across an issue where one page is refusing to load as it has too many redirects applied to it, I am still sorting it out. I potentially have more than 40 client sites to do this with too, one of them over 80 pages and lots of 'entrances' to many of them, nightmare!

In cPanel page redirects are offered with or without the www. and I would have thought this should be possible when signing up for a single domain with Cookie Control?

Other than that, of course, nice new 'BAR' option with the paid-for option. 

Gerasimos Tzoganis

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Aug 26, 2013, 5:35:35 AM8/26/13
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Hi Sarah,

Thanks for the feedback.

The domains www.domain.co.uk and domain.co.uk are indeed different domains. Apikeys almost always are bound to a specific sub-domain, and this is the case for example with google or facebook API keys.

Note that having your website served by two different domains is generally bad for SEO reasons. See for example this article: http://www.awebguy.com/2011/02/seo-tip-www-or-no-www/

Now, I think you are trying to set up the redirects in the application level (using php for example) and that is why you are facing difficulties. You should more simply do that in the server. If you are using Apache as a server and want to redirect from non-www to the www domain you can simply add these lines in the .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On
rewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain.co.uk [NC]
rewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

Regards,
Gerasimos

Mark Steven

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Aug 26, 2013, 5:44:28 AM8/26/13
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It shouldn't be necessary to create multiple redirects. You can set a global redirect (for example, using .htaccess in the LAMP stack) with one rule that will handle everything for you, or do it at DNS level.

As Gerasimos pointed out the widely recommended way of resolving requests for both www.mydomain.com and mydoimain.com is via a 301 redirect to whichever host you prefer as the canonical host. It means there is only ever a single URL for each item of content which is a situation preferred by search engines.

However, having said all that, we're still listening: Cookie Control 6 has not been out for long and we're still collecting user feedback. If we continue to get a lot negative feedback on this issue it's something that we'll reconsider.

Claire Windridge

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Nov 25, 2014, 5:35:12 AM11/25/14
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Hi there

I am not sure if you have solved this yet, but having come across the same problem I have resolved it by noting that you said you would worry about it when you went live with your site.

Were you getting this error message when previewing your site within the software you created it?  If so, you will get the error message on preview as you are not viewing the site on the same domain for which you have created the cookie widget; you are previewing the site via local host.

Therefore as long as the domain is the same in your cookie widget, then it should work when you go live with your site.

That's what happened to me in any event.  Hope it helps, all the best.

gaurrav khanna

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Dec 1, 2014, 4:46:26 PM12/1/14
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I am in the same boat? Please help. I am using the code in the right domain but when I load the site it keeps saying the API key is invalid.......?

Robert Heinig

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Jan 16, 2015, 3:34:07 AM1/16/15
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I have the same problem.
The Domain is correct, we have 2 API keys, only one does not work anymore, it worked for month before.
If you write to "'que...@civicuk.com'" there is no reply.

Greg Rouchotas

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Jan 16, 2015, 4:40:22 AM1/16/15
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Hello Robert,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. You key is valid. I've replied to your email privately.

Thanks
Greg

marc wilson

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Feb 2, 2015, 11:48:27 AM2/2/15
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"The domains www.domain.co.uk and domain.co.uk are indeed different domains"

Erm - no, they aren't.  The domain in that scenario is domain.co.uk.

Among other things, I am a hosting and registration provider.  You don't have to separately register the www variant, it's just a question of adding A records.

The unqualified domain and the www variant are, in essence, machine addresses, i.e. hostnames.  They are two A records on the same domain.

Your policy would be a little clearer if your terminology were correct.  Don't misunderstand me- I understand your policy; the blank and www variant of domains are conventional usage, but there's nothing magic about them= you can set up an arbitrary number of A records for a domain. If there were a single licence level for a domain, it wouldn't be possible to have an API key that included a "domain" check.

But please be clear- you're not licensing at domain level at all, you're licensing at hostname level, and your "multi-domain" licence should be a "multi-host" licence.

 
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