Problems with the Facebook Like API
Facebook are currently having major issues with their social API, which means that the Like buttons on many sites simply return an error.
Symptoms include:
- References to connect_to_node_error.php
- The page at (URL) could not be reached.
If you are using my plugin (or any means of showing the like button), there is a big chance that it will currently not work. The Facebook team is surely hard at work fixing this, and I will post an update here when things seem to be working again.
Update 2010-06-02 02:45
from Mike Vernal <mvernal@f> 2010-06-01 17:16:47
Sorry for delayed update. I wanted to let you know where we were.
We’ve been having trouble with outbound connectivity from the tier of machines that power the Like button. We’re still debugging this issue, but we’ve restarted the tier of machines a few times, and the situation does seem to be improving.
We have a number of people from our engineering and operations team continuing to work on the issue and hope to have a more definitive update shortly.
Sorry for the inconvenience here, and thanks for bearing with us.
-mike (Platform Engineering)
Update 2010-06-04 21:00
From Matt Trainer 2010-06-04 11:11:29
Hey all,
We’re reopening the bug to investigate the “Cannot be reached” bug. Thanks for the detailed repros.
For the international folks out there – we’ll look into extending the timeout, but the issues your sites are seeing are most likely linked to that issue and not the central issue of this bug.
Updated to WordPress 3.0-dev
I just updated to WordPress 3.0-dev which among millions of other things has support for custom post types! Movies and Galleries are natural candidates for getting their own post type, and bundled with custom taxonomies for each post type will be very interesting indeed!
Other cool things to look forward to include custom menus and a lighter admin interface, designed to keep you focused on the content.
Facebook Like plugin for WordPress updated
My Facebook Like plugin for WordPress has just been updated to version 1.3.6, and includes the following changes since 1.3.1:
- Added support for entering a custom CSS style.
- Added support for passing custom arguments from the template tag.
- Added an option to use the default Facebook height. Just leave the height option blank in the settings for this to take effect.
- Added support for entering a custom height for the like button, which can be used to trim excess whitespace after the button.
Contact me if you have any suggestions or bug reports.
WP Facebook Like 1.3.1 released
Version 1.3.1 of WP Facebook Like, the WordPress plugin for easily integrating the Facebook Like button with your site, is now out! Changes include:
- Added support for disabling the automatic inclusion of the Facebook Javascript SDK.
- Added full Facebook language support.
- Added support for Facebook Open Graph.
You can now get the button in Pirate English, Upside Down English and Klingon in addition to all the “normal” languages.
WP Facebook Like 1.2.0 released
A new version of WP Facebook Like, the WordPress plugin which integrates the Facebook Like button has been released!
The only new feature for this release is the ability to enter a Facebook Application ID, which enables the comment box, if you choose the XFBML version of the like button. More information on how to enable this feature can be found in the options panel of the plugin.
WP Facebook Like 1.1.0 released
A new version of WP Facebook Like, the WordPress plugin to integrate the Facebook “Like” button with your blog has been released. This is a feature release and changes include:
- Added option to choose permalink type. Good if you want the button outside the WordPress loop
- Added help text to all settings on the options page to make it easier to know what to do
- Added support for internationalization. To contribute a translation, contact me at the the plugin website.
- Added option to choose to only show the like button on single posts.
- Fixed Removed double URL encoding
New Options page
As always, contact me if you encounter any issues or want to request a feature.
WordPress 3.0, Beta 2 released
WordPress 3.0, Beta 2 has just been released. Changes in this beta include:
- Revised menu user interface
- Changes to the WordPress exporter and importer to make it more flexible
Preload the cache in WP Super Cache
Preload the cache in WP Super Cache — the new version of the popular caching plugin for WordPress will support preloading the cache, which seems to increase the performance a lot, compared to the normal on-demand caching.
Trying out a new theme (2010)
Yes, it happened again. I’m not sure why I feel the need to change the theme every six months, but here we go again. I am using the Traction theme this time, so we’ll see how this pans out.
The Facebook Like plugin updated with new options
I have updated the WordPress Facebook Like plugin once again, now pushing the version to 1.0.3. The changes include:
- Choose between the xfbml or iframe embedding method (xfbml is default)
- Choose the button text
- CSS class description
This basically means that if you have problems with the xfbml because of other plugins, you can try out the alternate “iframe” embedding method just by changing a setting in the options page. It is also now possible to alternate the text of the like button between “Like” and “Recommend”.
The button is wrapped around a div with the wpfblike class if you want to do custom positioning and styling.
Update: I pushed an emergency fix with version 1.0.4 containing a fix for Internet Explorer. Thanks to JAH for noticing.