I've created a simple Iframe app and attached it as a tab on my fanpage.
On this page I have a classic share link:
http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.fb-iframe-app-url.com">SHARE IT NOW!</a>
The iframe app is hosted on my server and here ive defined what usually works for images:
<meta property="og:image" content="http://domain.com/image.gif" />
However it seems all this kind of data, is fetched from the fanpage itself - which means I cant control those elements.
Do anyone have experience with customizing share thumbnail and text from within an iframe app-clicked share url?
Related
Using the "Share" link of a page does not always show the picture of the page as thumbnail in the Facebook link. For example, linking the page http://www.tekes.fi/tekes/tulokset-ja-vaikutukset/caset/2013/managed-outcomes-tuotantotalouden-logiikkaa-terveyspalveluihin/ to Facebook by using the red "Share" > "Facebook" link at the bottom of the page makes the link show in Facebook so that the picture of the article also shows in the link. However, linking the page http://www.tekes.fi/nyt/blogit-2013/katoavatko-tyopaikat/ in the same way does not show the picture in the Facebook link. The "Share" links in the pages are implemented by using the AddThis Toolbox.
When copying the urls of the above links directly to Facebook, both of the links are shown with pictures in Facebook as they should.
Could you tell us what could cause the problem with the "Share" link? Is there something wrong with the "Share" link implementation? Is there a solution to this problem? We have tried to add a
<meta property="og:image" content="<picture url>" />
tag to the pages with no effect. The Facebook debugger tool (https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug) tells about both of the pages the same things: that the 'og:image' property should be explicitly provided, even if a value can be inferred from other tags, and that the provided og:image is not big enough and that an other image will be used instead.
Here are some other urls where the picture shows correctly when sharing it to Facebook using the "Share" link:
http://www.tekes.fi/nyt/uutiset-2013/suomen-peliteollisuus-nousi-kahteen-miljardiin/
http://www.tekes.fi/nyt/uutiset-2013/suomalaisyritys-pistaa-kampoihin-pelikonsolijateille/
http://www.tekes.fi/nyt/uutiset-2013/verkosta-vauhtia-liiketoimintaan-ict-ammattilaisten-avulla/
Here are some other urls where the picture does not show correctly when sharing it to Facebook using the "Share" link:
http://www.tekes.fi/nyt/uutiset-2013/yritys-suomen-puhelinpalvelu-tarjoaa-hyvan-kanavan-yrittajille/
http://www.tekes.fi/tekes/tulokset-ja-vaikutukset/caset/2013/lasten-sijoitukset-vahenivat-raisiossa/
The magic begins with using <figure> tag around article image. In this case, sharing works better. For example in Facebook and Google+.
I have a share button on my site (I use AddThis tool)
and Open Graph meta tags with article as a type:
meta property="fb:app_id" content="No"
meta property="og:image" content="LogoUrl"
meta property="og:image:type" content="image/jpg"
meta property="og:image:width" content="200"
meta property="og:image:height" content="500"
meta property="og:url" content="LogoUrl"
meta property="og:title" content="title"
meta property="og:type" content="article"
My url looks like that: [mySite]/9095210/1811, so for every different url, I insert different thumbnail, title and description.
My images are from an absolute url.
The problem: I see the details in facebook share preview window, only after the second time I click on the share button. On the first time the facebook share window appears, but without any details. If I continue and share the link in the first time (as in the times after) I see all the details in my facebook. So, the problem in only in the facebook share preview window.
Anyone meet this problem already, and maybe can help?
I had the same problem, and the solution was the next:
You need to create an application in the facebook developer area: https://developers.facebook.com/apps
And need to put the application id to the the fb_init just like this:
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/hu_HU/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=YOUR_APP_ID";
After providing the correct appliaction id, my problem has been solved.
A similar issue is explained in the "facebook for developers" in sharing , best practices
Pre-caching images.
When content is shared for the first time, the Facebook crawler will scrape and cache the metadata from the URL shared. The crawler has to see an image at least once before it can be rendered. This means that the first person who shares a piece of content won't see a rendered image.
There are two ways to avoid this and have images render on the first Like or Share action:
Pre-cache the image with the Sharing Debugger
Run the URL through the URL debugger to pre-fetch metadata for the page. You should also do this if you update the image for a piece of content.
Use og:image:width and og:image:height Open Graph tags
Using these tags will specify the image dimensions to the crawler so that it can render the image immediately without having to asynchronously download and process it.
The third way, which is the way we do it, is to put in the link, and facebook responds with "fetching a preview" , close it and re-post. This works very well.
I hope that I understood your problem correctly and that this helps you.
I have a odd problem - when I share a link of a page from our website, the image does not show as a thumbnail (sometimes). It has the correct meta data but its almost like it times out.
For example
http://modetro.com/our-favourites/vintage-retro-sankyo-japanese-flip-alarm-clock-mode-no-401-space-age-mid-century
Has the meta tag
<meta property="og:image" content="http://modetro.com/image/cache/data/ebay/vintage-retro-sankyo-japanese-flip-alarm-clock-mode-no-401-space-age-mid-century/652436936_o-340x340.jpg" />
If I share this link on FB it does not show the thumbnail? I have used the debug tool for this and other pages and SOMETIMES it gets the image and sometimes doesn't? any ideas why?
According to Facebook, they have a glitch that they are working on .. see this page here
I have a Page Tab app on Facebook currently and want to promote it in the timeline, but when I do I'm not getting a thumbnail.
I've added in the thumbnail meta tag:
<meta property="og:image" content="MY_IMAGE"/>
but it's still not showing - am I missing something? The link to the image is actually in the app code itself and points to an image 111 x 74px in the images folder of the app, so it's not on a different site or anything - and it's an absolute link.
The app link is here FYI: https://www.facebook.com/ValerieCafe/app_451324494932654
Any suggestions appreciated.
I didn't know there was a debugger for Facebook apps online:
https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug
I'd missed the meta tags out, and actually the way the app was built was not letting Facebook crawl it properly so once I figured out all those problems it works fine. Although, Facebook does seem very slow if you want to change the image used as a thumbnail - it needs at least 24hrs to catch up.
One of the problems I face while sharing a link of my blogger post on facebook or linkedin is that the thumbnail shared is my picture (which is the only picture on the page). I would prefer no thumbnail being shared.I tried using
<meta property="og:image" content=""
I.e the content is kept as blank, yet it shows a thumbnail. How do i set it to no picture?
You can't. Facebook/Linkedin will crawl your site and decide on it's own what images to offer the user. The og:image meta tag is just a suggestion and not a directive.
The only way to share without image is for the user to remove it.
Update: there is another way. You could detect (on the server) FB/LinkedIns crawler and serve them HTML that does not contain any images. That way they wouldn't have anything to display (just text). I don't know if that's possible on blogger. And if you go down this path, check FB/LinkedIn's TOS if this is allowed (doing this with google, for instance, will get you banned).