Facebook Connect is Now Available as a WordPress Plugin
I just heard today about the new Facebook Connect and was completely excited to be able to add another use for my much beloved Facebook account! The install was a little problematic so I thought I might simplify this task for you.
I am going to show you how to install the application made available by www.sociable.es…yes, that means the website is in Spanish (which added to the difficulty of this installation). I am going to assume you have upgraded your self-hosted blog to WordPress 2.7 and you have a Facebook account.
Give it a try…look on the sidebar to the right until you see the Connect with Facebook button…see how easy it is to expand your community.
Facebook Connect WordPress Plugin
Wordpress plugin that allows direct integration of WordPress blogs with Facebook using Facebook Connect:
- Build a community
- Login using your Facebook account
- Send comments to Facebook profile feed
- Invite your friends to the blog community
- See last visitors
Download the latest version hear (V.0.9.6)
1. Download the plugin
2. unzip the plugin file
3. upload the entire plugin file to your /wp-content/plugins directory
4. login to your self-hosted WordPress account
5. In the left-hand menu click on Plugins/INSTALLED and scroll down to
6. Click on ACTIVATE…wait for activation notice
A. Click on GO TO FACEBOOK DEVELOPER APP – this will open up a facebook developer page
B. On the upper right click on SET UP NEW APPLICATION
C. Choose and enter an Application name (this is what your users will see when they try to connect to your site, i.e. The Moxie Mom Blog)
D. Enter your Callback URL (your domains root url: i.e. http://www.themoxiemomblog.com)
E. Scroll to the bottom and click SUBMIT
F. Now you have created your application – copy the API key and paste into your Facebook Connector Options
G. Copy your API Secret and paste into your Facebook Connector Options
8. I checked comment auto-approval, send user comments and connect via SSL
9. Click UPDATE OPTIONS…wait for saved notification
10. Scroll down the same page and click on CREATE TEMPLATE…wait for notification
11. Scroll down to Template ID and click on ACTIVATE TEMPLATE
12. In the left-hand menu click on Settings/FACEBOOK CONNECTOR
VOILA! You’re done…with this step
1. In the left-hand menu click on Appearance/WIDGETS
2. Click on FacebookConnect ADD
3. move this to wherever you would like in your sidebar
4. Edit the settings to suit your taste (Title, Welcome Msg, Footer Msg, Invite Msg, Visitor Ttl, Login Msg, Member Msg, Max Users and the type of login button) Click DONE and then SAVE CHANGES
Surprise! But…there is one more tweak if you are up for it
- Scroll down until you see
<p><input name=”url” type=”text” class=”comment-input” value=”<?php echo $comment_author_url; ?>”/> Website</p>
- Click on Appearance/EDITOR
- Click on COMMENTS (comments.php)
or wherever you would like to insert this facebook plugin button
- on the next line hit enter a couple of times to give you some space to work with
- paste in
Or use our<br>
<fb:login-button></fb:login-button><br>
<br>
Now you have a nice widget in your sidebar that displays your recent visitors and a facebook button in your comments box for easy login
P.S. Important: If you dont see the Facebook Connect login button and the user photos (on IExplorer), you need to modify your “header.php†theme file:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd”>
<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” xmlns:fb=”http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml”>
It has made it easier for your community to leave you comments too. Go ahead ang give it a whirl…
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If I can do it! You can do it too! Celebrating Texas country living, down home cooking, family life, figuring stuff out and being a stay-at-home moxie mom computer geek.
Blessings,
Wendy Merritt
The Moxie Mom
XXO (A kiss on each cheek and a hug)
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I notice 3 different facebook connect plugins available.
Wordpress,Sociableand Comunnity
Details of all 3 listed hear..http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Facebook_Connect_Plugin_Directory
Any reason why you chose Sociable as your preference. ???
I am a newbie and everything is one big learning curve at the moment.
Cheers
DeDe
http://www.GoinBridal.com
I also selected the Arthemia theme, loving it but still playing around with its settings..
Wendy Merritt
Reply:
February 26th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
At the time I installed the plugin I didn’t have as many choices as you have today. The sociable plugin was one of the first to emerge. Please feel free to try one of the others and let me and the blog readers now what you like or didn’t about it. Thanks for the great link DeDe.
Blessings,
Wendy
yeah for the themes i am thinking to use wordpress.and the plug in are a great way to do it successfully. very good article and i appreciate it. good work keep going.Ils ia very informative.
Optical Migrane
Thanks very much, I’m not sure whats going to take over the world first, Facebook or WordPress?
engagement rings
Reply:
February 26th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
The rate things are going, facebook, hands down
Hi Wendy,
Thanks for this. Can you believe that I forgot an essential step for activating Facebook Connect – then when I googled the plugin I stumbled across this post.
Surprise of surprise we are using the same theme as well – wow! Talk about Law of attraction! Hope to connect with you on Twitter and thanks again.
Wendy Merritt
Reply:
February 26th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
You are so welcome! I hope you enjoy this theme as much as I have. It just has so many possibilities. I was on a site the other day and didn’t even realize that it was the same theme! Have a blessed day, Ghada.