Published on Monday, August 16 2010
That’s what I get for trying to make too many changes in one release. Sheesh.
WPBook 2.0.2, released last night, is already superseded by 2.0.3, which I just tagged for release.
Bugs fixed:
- Extra whitespace in wpbook.php after the closing ?> tag
- Cleaned up includes to break on functions rather than midstream
I think that will solve the most immediate issue folks are having.
As always, let me know what you’re seeing here or in the support forums.
Published on Wednesday, July 7 2010
Test Boxes, photo by David Bleasdale, cc-by license
I’ve just tagged version 2.0.0 of WPBook for release, but haven’t yet changed the “stable” tag in the readme.
What that means is that if you’re using WPBook, you won’t seen any automated notification of a newer version being available. You’ll have to go to the WPBook download page and find 2.0.0 at the top of the “other versions” list.
Please do so, especially if you are willing to help test the new features.
What is there to test? Most importantly, a new feature which imports comments made by users on your Facebook wall (or the wall of a Facebook page) in response to excerpts posted by WPBook on those pages.
In other words, if you have “publish to Facebook Stream” enabled and working for your personal wall and/or the wall of a Fan Page, when you publish a new blog post, and that post gets published to the FB wall, and users make comments on that wall post, those same comments will get imported to your WordPress hosted blog.
Read more…
Published on Tuesday, April 14 2009
I’ve been looking into the Facebook Comments Box, which launched in February.
Photo by suburbanslice
It’s a perfect example of what I’m seeing as a growing trend, in which various “social widgets” actually replace functionality which should be built into the platform hosting the site. Bundling together the ability to use your Facebook identity with the actual management of comments themselves looks like progress but I think it’s really a step backwards.
Read more…
Published on Monday, February 9 2009
(Update 2/10/09 – posted a quick bug fix 1.1.1 version just now – fixed two quick bugs in the facebook resizing code. Note that 1.1.1 may not show up in your autoupdate queue inside WordPress for 24 hours as WordPress doesn’t check every time you load the page)
Tagged and released version 1.1 of WPBook earlier today – get it from the wordpress plugin directory or this blog.
New in 1.1 (more info in the README with the plugin):
- Option to show “view post on www.blogurl.com” links associated with each post – shows the blog post in its original context
- Option to move the “share” link and “view original” link to the top or bottom of posts
- Option to show/hide the “add to profile” button
(Thanks to Brandon for all of the new settings).
Also I believe I’ve got the profile.setFBML working – meaning users no longer have to copy default FBML anywhere. At least it works in my two test blogs – let me know if it works for you.
I’ve also included better (I think) documentation, including screenshots of Facebook admin screens, to try to demonstrate the process of setting up an application.
If you’re using WPBook, please visit this page and add your blog in the comments.
Remaining open issues:
- Sociable.es Facebook Connect plugin conflicts. You’ll have to update the facebook client provided with the Connect plugin as described here
- Custom home pages – if your WordPress blog has a homepage that is not the default list of recent posts, I don’t know if this version will work for you – sorry, it is on my list to address but the theme currently assumes a default home page setup
- Javascript/CSS plugin conflicts – if your other plugins use css or javascript to set the height of the body or html elements to 100%, this will interfere with Facebook’s own iframe sizing javascript.
Enjoy!
Published on Tuesday, December 2 2008
In some ways it is exciting to see the launch of Type Pad Connect but in others it seems a Faustian bargain.
You get some spiffy features, including the ability of other bloggers to leave comments (which appear to be) on your site using OpenID, with threading, and with avatars; but in the process you put all your comments (and your relationship with your blog readers) in someone else’s hands.
It also seems like the real benefits of using TypePad Connect come from network effects – once everyone has a TypePad Profile and every blog uses it for comments, the benefits will be great. But what about when only some of your users have TypePad profiles, or want TypePad profiles? What about letting people comment with identities they already have rather than creating yet another profile / lifestream?
Ok, so maybe the title’s a bit strongly worded, and if you’re already using a hosted blog, or using TypePad for blogging, maybe it doesn’t where your comments actually live. But I don’t think it will work for me.
Read more…
