Trying to use Facebook Comments

[Trill]

I'm working on a "News" area of my forum, and I'd like the comments to be via the Facebook API rather than replies to each thread.

Facebook Comment Parameters: developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/fbml/comments/ (note the xid at the top of the parameter list)
Basic version of the comments API: developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/comments/

Assuming I understood what the "xid" parameter does, the best way to have a different set of comments of each news article/thread is to use the thread ID for the xid. Thus, I made the following edit to the code:

<script>
var newsid=document.location.href.split("thread=")[1];
</script>

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script>

<script>
document.write('<fb:comments href="http://godricshollow.info" num_posts="6" width="450" xid="'+newsid+'"></fb:comments>');
</script>

However, this is still showing the same comments on all pages. I figure I must be doing something wrong, as this should be showing a different set of comments depending on which thread I'm in (if I'm using the xid parameter properly). *shrugs*

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Chris]

*** Not familiar with FBAPI ***

However, I'm not seeing an url to the forum where it's been implemented and off the bat I see a problem withvar newsid=document.location.href.split("thread=")[1];

if url is for example http://support.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=coderequests&thread=394614&page=1#4528111

the red would be your final newsid, I assume you only wanted 394614. So unless you have additional coding that limits the activation of that code somehow (which a forum url would reveal) then you'd probably want to use
var newsid=document.location.href.match(/thread=(\d+)/)[1];
Assuming the API defaults to a standard comment stream if the xid is invalid then that would explain why it always shows same comments

[Trill]

Sorry Eton, here's where the code is implemented: godricshollow.info/index.cgi?board=dailyprophet&action=display&thread=1239

Later I plan on adding a location check to make sure the viewer is in a thread (/action=display/) of that board. I figured while diagnosing the problem, the less code interfering, the better. You can see that viewing the boardindex of that board also shows the same comments that are in the thread.

I've added in the variable correction, but there doesn't seem to be any difference in the comments displayed.

[Chris]

Sorry for the delay but I had to take a glance at the API docs first, this is what I came up with

<div id="fb-root"></div>

<script>
if(/&thread=(\d+)/.test(document.location.href)){
var getP = location.href.split('?')[1].split('#')[0].replace(/&?(\w+)=(\w+)/g,function(m,p){if(!/(board|thread)/.test(m))return ""; else return m;})
document.write('<scr'+'ipt src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></scr'+'ipt>')
document.write('<fb:comments  href="http://'+location.hostname+'/?'+getP+'" num_posts="6" width="450" xid="'+getP+'"></fb:comments>');
}
</script>

Placed it on a test forum and it loaded separate comments for each individual thread

If you also want it showing on preview pages then you'll need to get the board and thread info from the form itself and manually reconstruct the GET parameters.

[Trill]

Perfect! Thank you very much. It works perfectly now. I notice you corrected the comments href parameter so facebook feeds link to the exact page now, which is even better.

[Chris]

Cool...
Actually to support custom domains it might be better to construct href using pb_forum rather than location.hostname so there would be no difference between viewing a thread with standard url or custom url.

[Trill]

No worries. I'd prefer the Facebook updates linking to the custom url rather than the pb url. I'll be adding an alert to members using the pb url that they should switch to using the custom domain anyway. Thanks again!

[Chris]

In that case you might want to try changing

<fb:comments href="http://'+location.hostname+'/?'+getP+ ...

to

<fb:comments href="http://godricshollow.info/?'+getP+

As you see, the href is the primary factor used to determine which comments to show, the XID is more of a preventive measure since without it the API creates one from the GET parameters in the url meaning you could get a "box swap" if viewing "&page=2" as opposed to viewing "&page=1". Someone using the standard url won't see comments made from the custom url and vice versa. By hard coding it like that, comments made from standard url (despite your warning alerts, comments WILL BE MADE) would be visible from the custom url and vice versa. A single, unified identifier for the thread should mean a single comment box regardless of which url is used.

[Trill]

You're right, that's very true. I just noticed, it seems that the API is recognizing different URLs depending on the order of items in the PB URL. I'm getting different comments from the same thread:
http://godricshollow.info/index.cgi?action=display&board=dailyprophet&thread=1239
http://godricshollow.info/index.cgi?board=dailyprophet&action=display&thread=1239

[Chris]

Jul 7, 2011 19:35:28 GMT -8 Trill said:

You're right, that's very true. I just noticed, it seems that the API is recognizing different URLs depending on the order of items in the PB URL. I'm getting different comments from the same thread:
http://godricshollow.info/index.cgi?action=display&board=dailyprophet&thread=1239
http://godricshollow.info/index.cgi?board=dailyprophet&action=display&thread=1239

The code I posted made no attempt to put the GET parameters in any particular order which is why you're getting that result. I made a few changes mainly to maintain a specific order for the XID (board first then thread) and also support custom domains. Give this one a shot (haven't tested since I have no custom domain to test on)

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
(function(customDomain){
if(/&thread=(\d+)/.test(document.location.href)){
    var getP = ['',''], loc = customDomain||location.hostname;
    location.href.split('?')[1].split('#')[0].replace(/&?(\w+)=(\w+)/g,function(m,p1,p2){
    i={board:0,thread:1};
    if(p1 in i)getP[i[p1]]= p1 + '=' + p2; return m;
    });
    getP = getP.join('&')
    document.write('<scr'+'ipt src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></scr'+'ipt>')
    document.write('<fb:comments href="http://' + loc + '/?' + getP + '" num_posts="6" width="450" xid="'+getP+'"></fb:comments>');
}
})("godricshollow.info")
// -->
</script>

If custom domain is omitted then it will use the domain from the url.

[Trill]

That seems to work perfectly, irrespective or URL order or domain. Thank you!

[Chris]

Just so you know, I'll be stealing this to replace the problematic Gigya commenting system, so thank you...

[Trill]

Not a problem. I saw Wormo's thread in Support about the API key, then found the Profile Comments code at wormocodes: very cool.

[Wormopolis]

Ricky's reply made me sad.

[Former Member]

hi RedBassett! FB comments don't work on ProBoards?