Facebook Sharing an xplain

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alanmcd
Posts: 100
Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2005 3:02 pm

Facebook Sharing an xplain

Unread post by alanmcd »

I have published an xplain slideshow. It can be seen here:
http://www.meta.com.au/dmdocuments/xpla ... codes.html

But when I try to share it on Facebook either via the use of the share shortcut on the xplain OR during a manual post of the url,,,

I get a file not found error
xplainfberror.PNG
What file is not being found? And how do I fix this so there is at least the first slide shown in the post?
The url is valid

thanks
Alan
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alanmcd
Posts: 100
Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2005 3:02 pm

Re: Facebook Sharing an xplain

Unread post by alanmcd »

OK - firstly I think this is a bit misleading
FBProperties.PNG
It infers that the xplain name needs to be included in the URL - but it shouldn't be. If it is, the og:url is broken

Secondly:
FBDebugWarnings.PNG
FB Sharing Debugger says the og:image tage needs to be stated in full - not abbreviated with . notation
so it needs to be
<meta property="og:image" content="http://www.meta.com.au/dmdocuments/xpla ... review.jpg" />
not
<meta property="og:image" content="./estimatecostcodes/preview.jpg" />
as it is generated

and even though the debugger says that there is a problem with the preview.jpg file and the fb:app_id is missing, it finally seems to load properly after forcing the re-scrape a few times. It seems to insert an id of 0 so maybe it can be inserted there by xplain when publishing?

So it appears we need to post edit the xplains to put the image url in - in full
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Alexander Halser
EC-Software Support
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Location: Salzburg, Austria
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Re: Facebook Sharing an xplain

Unread post by Alexander Halser »

Interesting, Facebook used to accept relative image URLs before. Not sure why they have unlearned resolving a relative path...

Please try the - yet not official - build 1297:
https://www.helpandmanual.com/download/ ... p-v131.exe

It implements a small change: if the redirect URL is specified, it uses the URL to build a fully qualified image path. In your case, the URL should read "http://www.meta.com.au/dmdocuments/xplain/" (folder only) or "http://www.meta.com.au/dmdocuments/xpla ... codes.html" (full path with page name matching the output file name) which will generate a

Code: Select all

<meta property="og:image" content="http://www.meta.com.au/dmdocuments/xplain/estimatecostcode/preview.jpg" />
That's a temporary solution though, because the redirect URL might not be the same as the URL of the actual Xplain. So we might need to implement a separate setting for the actual URL. Does FB still require an app_id from you? Any complaints about the not secure target address?
Alexander Halser
Senior Software Architect, EC Software GmbH
alanmcd
Posts: 100
Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2005 3:02 pm

Re: Facebook Sharing an xplain

Unread post by alanmcd »

Thanks Alexander,
The FB Debugger does complain about the missing app_id but then it goes ahead and create a 0 (zero) one anyway.
I'll give the beta a go shortly
Alan
alanmcd
Posts: 100
Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2005 3:02 pm

Re: Facebook Sharing an xplain

Unread post by alanmcd »

The 1297 version works fine. The app_id is a warning but at least now it shares without issue - thanks
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