WPBook 1.2 Released

(Updated: 1.3 has been released, so I’ve disabled comments here – please raise any still open issues there.)

Just checked in changes for WPBook version 1.2 – get it from the WordPress Plugin Directory or on this blog.

The biggest change here from 1.1.1 (and why I decided to make it 1.2 rather than 1.1.2) is a change to the mechanism used to create the user profile boxes. Although it worked for some users, the previous method (relying on an fb:ref url pointing to the recent_posts.php page inside the WPBook theme) was at best inconsistent, and could even cause uncaught exceptions.

The new mechanism, which sets the profile FBML in a function and uses an fb:ref handle to refresh it, seems to be more generically robust and should improve things, especially for anyone who had the “No content to display” error when trying to add the profile box to the profile.

Also in this release are some administration page improvements (thanks Brandon) and timestamp on posts.

As always, comment below if you have issues, and if you get your blog setup using the plug please leave a comment on this page.

32 Comments

  1. I’m having trouble adding my blog app to my tabs on my profile page. Any tips? Thanks for the great plugin. It totally surpasses all the other mirrored blog apps.

  2. Sorry forgot to mention, I’d really like to replace the tabs for the other FB blog apps with which I’ve been experimenting with my own app tab (your app that is).

  3. Loaded this plugin today. Works great and sooooo very nice. Thank you! Only problem I’m having is that opening some of my posts from the facebook box will take me to the post, but then suddenly start opening unlimited blank pages in IE7. Luckily, the browser is tabbed, so I can just go to Task Mgr and kill it. Any idea why this might be happening? Thanks!

  4. I successfully installed WPBook and the posts are showing up properly on the Canvas, but the new post is not showing up in the profile box.

  5. No idea – what’s the url of your page in facebook, and of the blog outside facebook?

    Do you have any plugins which might be using javascript to try to insert content into the page or something?

    The way WPBook works, it is showing a custom WordPress theme inside an iFrame in Facebook – so scripts which assume they have access to the top level window (in the DOM) can fail.

  6. When you say “the new post” you mean you created one new post after installing the plugin, and that doesn’t show in the profile boxes, or none of the “recent posts” show up in the profile boxes?

    Facebook does some caching, so it is possible you need to wait for the delay to expire and refresh your profile page – give it a few minutes and try again.

    What’s the url of your app inside facebook, and what’s the url of the blog? Then I can see if anything stands out.

  7. The page you point to is a page, not a profile – did you follow the rather complicated steps necessary to get it on a page? (see included instructions in the plugin folder.)

    You have to add the page to your app, from the app’s about page, then go back to your page, go into edit mode, and edit the app you just added, until you arrive on a mostly blank page which says:

    Thank You!

    This application has been added to your page’s profile.

    You can return to your page to see the updated information.

    Thanks!

    I added it to my page and it seemed fine – included all the latest info.

  8. Okay, I went back and edited the app in my page and it updated the list. But when I go look on a friend’s profile, the list has not been updated in their box. Could this be because of the new update? I installed the plugin just before you sent out the new update. Do I need to tell everyone to do something to get the app on their profiles working again?

  9. I looked around and it is showing up okay on my profile and one friend’s profile, but not on the first friend’s profile that I was talking about.

  10. @Deona – you should definitely be using 1.2

    If your friend added the app to their profile while you were using a version older than 1.2, have them visit the canvas page of the app – http://apps.facebook.com/claynewsnetwork in your case – and that should fix the issue for them.

    Since the older versions used a different way of adding info to the profile, it is possible that older users of the app will need to visit the canvas page to trigger the newer method. (They don’t have to re-add to profile, just visiting the page ought to do it, and it will be transparent to them).

  11. I love your plugin and found it the most effective at getting blog posts integrated with facebook.

    One error I am getting is when a comment is attempted to be posted directly from facebook. When a user tries to post a comment the page will go to a blank page.

    Here is my application url http://apps.facebook.com/tizishblog/

    Thanks for any help with this!

  12. Hi,

    I get the following errors from Facebook when I try to access the application

    Runtime errors:

    URLExceptionEmpty URLs not allowed here

    fb:iframe: Empty URLs not allowed here

    Any ideas?

    Thanks for a great plugin!

  13. The errors suggest to me that the Facebook Application is setup incorrectly – did you follow the instructions in the included pdf or link from inside wordpress?

    What are you putting as your callback url in your facebook application?

  14. Michael – have you followed all the directions in the instructions?

    What do you mean when you say: “it isn’t showing up on my pages”? Are you trying to add the facebook app to pages in facebook?

  15. @Alex –

    1. what’s the URL of your app in facebook?
    2. what’s the url of your blog?
    3. what “crazy links error” are you getting? what does it say?
  16. I like it. I have been trying this on my personal site (click my name above to view) and I’ve been playing with facebook connect on my band site that I’m building (www.funkradiomachine.com). I think the latter has a few advantages, but both are very well done. Nice work!

  17. @joseph Where are the directions?

    Did you read the README.txt file or the install_instructions.pdf or install_instructions.html that came with the plugin when you downloaded it?

    Or, did you check the instructions (same ones as install_instructions.html) that are linked to from the settings page for the plugin itself?

  18. Hi, John. I added your plugin to a new site and am concerned that I may have installed it incorrectly. The new design on Facebook appears to have muddied the waters with your directions; some of the language is now different and it is a little confusing. At any rate, the app appears to work, in that it posts to my profile and page with the content, but it does not update unless I visit the app page. When I return to my profile, all is updated. Also, I noticed that for a while the links on the app in the profile point to the app’s page (as they should). However, after a certain amount of time goes by, they begin to redirect to my WP site. Give me an e-mail and I can send you some screen shots of my setup (if you want/need). Oh, the apps URI:

    http://apps.facebook.com/matthewjones/

    Thanks.

  19. Jon – sorry that the directions are a bit off.

    The profile box should update whenever you create a new post, publish a post from draft, or edit a post and save it.

    Sometimes there is a delay – Facebook caches profiles heavily – of up to 10 minutes before that new profile box content shows up for all users.

    Sometimes the call to update the profile box fails – but you’ll know if that happens as it actually throws an uncaught exception (in the current version) so things blow up. (Doesn’t hurt the blog, but it looks messy to you as the blog author – end users don’t see it).

    I’ve no idea why any of the links in the app would redirect to your wp site. I went and looked now and didn’t see any – is that still happening to you?

  20. It is 1:28 AM (eastern), March 17) and I checked my profile app box. The links to the stories go directly to my website at the moment. If I were to go to the application’s page, and then come back to my profile and hover over the links in the app box, they would now be linking back to the app’s posting page. I just posted something new on my site. I am not going to visit my Facebook page at all. I want to see if it is updating automatically. I’ll post back.

  21. Okay, I just checked. My profile app box still has links directed to my website and has not updated to the latest post. As I write now, I am going to visit the app page and see if it updates back to my profile app box….

    Yep, it updated everything. My profile app box is now propagated with updated links and the new content is showing. I just checked a friend’s profile with the app box and it is updated as well (it was not early this morning when I first posted above), or at least it appears updated on my end. Any ideas? I’ll keep fumbling around, seeing if I can find out anything.

  22. Hmm. I added your app to my profile, and will check back in a while – right now the links are all pointing to the same place (the app in Facebook).

    Visiting the app page does call the same “update” function that writing a new post or editing a post.

    It is possible for that call to fail – which it does intermittently – which might explain it not updating in your profile. But I’ve no idea what might cause it to point to the wrong place.

    I’ll keep looking into it and let you know if I find anything.

  23. OK, I’m now seeing the same behavior – links in the profile box turning back into links to the blog, not the FB app.

    Seems to be related to the scenario where you’ve posted a new blog post, so the profile box gets updated, but you haven’t visited the apps page inside FB.

    I will hopefully get a fix for this out (along with a number of admin side improvements from Brandon) this weekend – sorry for the delay (SXSW was this last weekend).

  24. Funny, but since posting above, I have not seen the looks revert back to my site. So far, they have continued to point to the apps page. Strange.

    Hey, I just appreciate you taking a look at it. Let me know if I can doing anything on my end to help.

  25. “Seems to be related to the scenario where you’ve posted a new blog post, so the profile box gets updated, but you haven’t visited the apps page inside FB.”

    You’re right on. I just updated two of the posts and the links in my profile app box have revert back to my site. I will visit the app page inside FB and manually update.

    Thanks for keeping up.

Comments are closed.