Facebook Tab Manager issues

Let me know if you’re still having trouble with settings not being saved in the current release. I’m working on consolidating the documentation, which is here but with some updates scattered around my blog:

https://www.carrcommunications.com/wordpress-plugins/facebook-tab-manager/

Here’s a summary on the particular feature you said was inadequately documented, which is relatively new.

To display an existing page in the fbtab template, you can add the query string ?fb=tab to the end of the page url. You can also turn on features by adding query parameters such as resize=1 (invoke the resizing JavaScript) new=1 (links should open in a new window) head=1 (execute wp_head) and footer=1 (execute wp_footer). Example:
https://www.carrcommunications.com/contact/davids-resume/?fb=tab&resize=1

Version 2.7 also includes a Documentation screen on the admin menu.

David,

I have updated the plugin with each incremental update, and the problems I had before continue. I am currently using version 2.7. I tried three different browsers: Chrome, Firefox, and IE9.

The save settings button on the settings page is interactive, but pressing it has no effect. Checkbox selections are not saved. I have no idea why this isn’t working. I would assume that it must work for you or you wouldn’t have released the plugin.

Also, when I use the query string in a tab page to repurpose content, I still get the scroll bar.

Note: I’m using the plugin on two sites. One site has the scoll bar. The other does not. Here are the links.

https://www.facebook.com/35milesfromshore

This second one the scroll bar on the right is gone, but there is a scroll bar on the bottom. The scroll bar on the bottom is due to the fact that the image at the top has not been resized to fit the smaller dimensions of the tab page. Images should automatically be resized by the plugin. I know it’s possible. Just view my site on a mobile phone.

https://www.ClickHereOnlineMarketing.com

Here’s the link to the Facebook page that has no scroll bar on the right but has one on the bottom. Note also that I can’t get rid of the sharing links because the save settings ins’t working.

https://www.Facebook.com/ClickHereOnlineMarketing

I did find a coding error on the Settings page. Download 2.7.1 for a fix.

The resize feature does not resize your images or any other content. It outputs a standard bit of Facebook JavaScript that resizes the iFrame and it really only applies to the height (allowing you to have content taller than 800 pixels). Using the URL query parameters to re-purpose an existing page or post only makes sense if that content does not include any images or divs that exceed the width limit.

The Click Here Online Marketing Special Offers tab appears to be outputting the correct JavaScript, and I’m not sure why you’re getting the vertical scroll bar. The horizontal one looks to be caused by the banner image being too wide. The FireFox error console says something about an image not downloading correctly on that page, but I’m not sure why that would affect script processing.

Okay, I updated to 2.7.1. I went to the settings page; selected the options I thought would be necessary to get rid of the sharing links at the bottom of the page. I hit save settings. And the settings were saved. I then viewed my facebook page and saw that the sharing links were still there. So I obviously have no clue which checkboxes I need to select to remove those links. here are the ones I did select:

sharing_display
sharing_add_header

I then went to a text tab page that I have setup. I selected a number of checkboxes trying to get rid of both sharing links and related posts links. I don’t know how you’re supposed to know what to select other than trial and error. In any case, when I hit save settings nothing happened. So the problem appears to be on the tab creation page as well as the tab settings page.

Emilio

You should be able to turn off all the filter functions on the_content except the ones in bold. Then check to see if you’ve lost anything that you didn’t want to tuurn off.

Alternative: I put out a 2.7.2 release that supports a query string parameter of minfilters=1 to turn off all but the bare essentials needed for paragraph formatting and WP text functions.

So you can use that with the repurposing of existing posts where the query string would be ?fb=tab&resize=1&minfilters=1

you can also tack this onto the end of your fbtab urls and see if that works better for you.

https://mydomain.com/fbtab/mytab/?minfilters=1

David,

I appreciate your efforts in trying to resolve these issues. I think you have an opportunity to have a must need plugin. However, your tireless efforts have resulted in a tangle of code that has managed to make my WordPress backend unusable.

Now I’m not a hundred percent sure your plugin is the cause of a problem that only surfaced today, but I have deactivated your plugin to do more testing.

Today I was trying to compose a post. I had a number of problems with time out errors and an inability to save the post in draft mode. I have to do some more testing, but when I deactivated your plugin I was able to save in draft mode without any problems.

I have no idea what the correlation is between this problem and your plugin, but I’ve never had this problem before.

As for the plugin, the save settings still doesn’t work on the tab page. The minfilters=1 didn’t have any effect. And selecting all of the_content checkboxes didn’t seem to get rid of the share links.

I’ll do some more testing on my side. I’m sure we’ll get things working properly eventually.

Emilio

David,

I saw that you released update 2.7.3. So I thought I’d give the plugin another try. Here’s what I found so far.

• As I mentioned previously, the save settings does work now on the settings page. It still does not work when setting up a FB tab. I tried IE9 and Firefox. The button isn’t even interactive.
• The problems I was having with weird behaviour with WordPress seem to have dissappeared. But I haven’t composed any new posts.
• Selecting all of the_content checkboxes except those in bold did not get rid of the links at the bottom of the facebook page.
• You gave two examples of the minfilters=1 query string. In one example you added it by placing ; in front of the string. In another example you added an & in front. When I use the & and the string minfilters=1, that gets rid of the links on my page.

facebook.com/ClickHereOnlineMarketing/Special Offers

The latest update got rid of the vertical scroll bar that I had on some pages. See here.

facebook.com/35milesfromshore/reviews

So it looks to me like the one remaining issue is the save settings on a tab page. Everything else seems to be doing what it’s supposed to be doing.

Emilio

You seem to have some unique issues with the settings screen that I haven’t been able to reproduce.

With a query string in general, a ‘?’ starts the series of variables and ‘&’ is used for subsequent ones as in https://test.com/mypage/?var1=1&var2=two

The & is represented as & when encoded as an HTML entity.

David,

I have no idea why you can’t duplicate the problem unless you’re not using a Windows machine. I know how to press a button. It doesn’t work.

Emilio

David,

I have a client that I’d like to use your plugin on their site. But I still have the major issue with the tab pages not being able to save any of the settings I make. any chance I can give you my logon credentials to my site so you can see foryourself what’s going on? Or not going on?

The only other option I have would be to just make regular pages and use a query string to strip out the unneeded links.

Emilio

Emilio,

Another programmer submitted a series of fixes that may address the problems you’ve experienced. So you might try the latest update.

I’m sorry I didn’t see your note about asking me to log in and check your setup. If you still need help with that you can contact me at [email protected] with the credentials.

Emilio and I finally resolved this after some email back and forth. He was actually confused about the screen shot of the Facebook Developer utility I had included as inline documentation. The Save Settings button in that screen shot looked kind of like part of the UI because of the way the colors blended. I never would have thought of that.

Anyway, I’m putting out a new release that has the Save Settings button in that image cropped out so no one else will be confused.