Status Updater
For each new post published, the Status Updater plugin updates the status / or profile of the desired social network. Current update options include: Facebook status, Facebook shared link, Facebook page wall, Facebook group wall, Twitter status, Myspace status.
If you use social networks for promoting your blog posts, this plugin (should) save you a lot of work.
Latest news
February 5, 2010: Facebook changed the user interface today. Chances the plugin stops working are near 99.9%, please wait for the next version, coming as soon as possible.
Requirements
- A wordpress blog hosted somewhere :)
- Php 4 or higher
- Curl library
- In order for the cron job simulator to work, your theme must use the wp_footer function correctly (it is mandatory in themes, but you never know if the theme is standard compliant)
Installation
- Unzip and upload ‘fb-status-updater’ directory to your ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in the Admin panel
- Fill required data in the plugin options page
- Ensure the fbSessionData.txt file, in the /wp-content/plugins/fb-status-updater/ directory is writable from PHP
Features
- You might set up basic options and let the plugin run every time you publish a new post (or every time a scheduled in the future post becomes available) or, by activating the “Advanced status composition” option, fine tune how and where to push each post
- Update a Facebook profile status
- Update a Facebook Fan Page status
- Share the post as link, with title, summary and a picture, on a Facebook profile
- Share the post as link, with title, summary and a picture, on a Facebook fan page wall
- Update the Twitter status
- Use your favourite link shortener service with the Twitter Status
- Update a Myspace profile status
- Edit the status “template”. The pushed status is usually made by 2 tokens: post title and post url. You can change the order of the 2 tokens as you like, as well as add any other work/char. Example:
Hey did you know %POST-TITLE% -> %POST-URL%
Enhancements / todo list
- update a Facebook Group wall
- share the post as link on a Facebook Group wall
- add Stumble up on as share option
- add Linkedin as share option
- add tinyurl, http://yourls.org/ to the available shortener services
- find a way to store FB login credentials in a place where other plugins do not have access to
Changelog
- 1.5.6 the plugin was not updating Facebook pages and Myspace profile anymore, solved
- 1.5.3 “the plugin was not working on windows servers” bug fixed, “in some cases the post image wasn’t cought correctly, if not specified in the custom fields” bug fixed, “facebook asking for date of birth to confirm account” issue fixed
- 1.5.2 tr.im bug fixed, “facebook is asking for captcha a little too much” bug fixed
- 1.5.1 custom image not stored along with the post bug fixed, “header cannot be sent…” bug fixed
- 1.5 better user interface, share as link on page wall option available, choose your favourite url shortener service, many bugs solved
- 1.4 Myspace status update, Facebook share as link
- 1.3.2 removed the plugin activation function that screwed up on so much environments; minor bugs fixed; decide from the advanced section if a specific article should be sent to both social networks or just one, the one you want; “Facebook not updating” issue with debug; “share as facebook link” request not yet implemented, I know you’re waiting for it
- 1.3 url shortener service on j.mp (if your server has the php json library, otherwise on is.gd); different status for facebook/twitter with advanced options; facebook group wall support; strict control on wall id fields (more difficult for users now not understanding that a wall id is not a url); default status template: decide where you want the url, the title and any other word/char
- 1.2.3 plugin activation bug solved
- 1.2.2 some more bugs fixed
- 1.2.1 some more bugs fixed
- 1.2 minor fixes + cron job for posts published in the future + twitter status update
- 1.1 log email format issue solved, added one more wall to post to, send one post just one time
- 1.0 First public release
Download
Download the Facebook Status Updater plugin now!
Previous versions
Issues
- If your Facebook password contains the + symbol, the plugin won’t be able to login. You should choose a different password that might contain other symbols. Currently working on this issue but can’t say when it will be solved.
Security Issues
Using this plugin might bring some security issues to your Facebook account. Please read carefully.
The Fb Status Updater plugin stores your Facebook login credentials into your own wordpress database (that’s how wordpress can use your Facebook account each time you publish a post).
If you believe your wordpress database is not a safe place to store such data (if someone else beyond you has access to it, if you think an hacker can somehow connect to it and see its data), do not use this plugin.
If you think your own database is safe, please note that any wordpress plugin can access the wordpress database. If you plan to try and install many new plugins and don’t exactly know what they do, do not use this plugin because a malicious one could just sniff your FB authentication data and send it by email everywhere.
The Fb Status Updater plugin itself should be safe, it all depends on the environment it is asked to work.
If this is not clear or if you have any doubt, feel free to leave a comment (and subscribe to rss comment in order to read the reply :))
I have things configured to update my FB company page, but it also is updated my status profile.
I have select “Push to Facebook page as link” only, but it is sending a link and a profile. So I get 2 listings showing up on the Page for each post.
@Greg
Okay, never mind. I had to change some settings and now it’s working perfectly. Am so happy with this that I will have to hit that donate button.
Finally the plugin works again… at least in parts. If in the headline there is an ampersand or any special character, the title is cut at this point (and if it’s not for the link but for the status, there is no URL posted). I’m talking of Facebook, not Twitter..
any ideas?
however, many thanks for this great plugin!
Can anyone give me the steps on my above question?
@Thomas
Same issue here…
Does anyone have details on how to make this work for a group page. I still have no idea who to push my WP post to my group >> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=167803599615
Can someone guide me on this?
This is really a great plugin which is going to be so helpful for my company (and all our customers!)
I was trying to set up the plugin with a post that will go out tomorrow, and it looks like the twitter and facebook settings will go out no prob, but when i try to enter in a custom message and mood for myspace and save, it deletes the custom message and replaces it with the mood.
Im still thrilled with this plugin, thanks so much for making this! (i have yet to see any plugin offer myspace support!!!)
Now that LinkedIn has opened up its API, are you planning to add integration? If so, do you need any assistance with testing etc?
Hello,
Its not working again for last 2 weeks here is the log email
The plugin was suddently logged out of facebook failed. Possible reasons:
1) the facebook server that was hosting the plugin session has been turned down
2) you logged into Facebook with the same account while the plugin was working
Hi,
Looks like this will be a great plugin if I can get it work! =P
I am getting a confirmation/captcha error where it is asking my security question. How can I get in so I can answer this and get the plugin to start working? The log text says it’s because it’s seeing it come from “an unfamiliar location”. When I click the “Check Login Credentials” it comes back ok.
Where should I go from here? Thanks!
–JL
s’ok…seems to have sorted itself out…wierd…
Thanks anyways! I will have to click the “donate” button now! =)
One last thing…
I can’t change back to the is.gd URL shortener no matter what I do. Since I selected another service, I can’t change it back. Thought you would like to know and maybe there is a solution?
Thanks boss! =)
–JL
I love the updater, but is there any way to use my own url shortner, or at least my blog’s permalink’s on Twitter like it used to do? Maybe some syntax I can use in the custom status box?
Great plugin.. I’ve tried a bunch of different ways to get my blog to update my facebook fanpage only, and this is the only way ive met with success! The only issue I’m having is the link format… when I post a new blog and its pushed to my fanpage, it posts either http://website.com/?p=966 or http://www.website.com/http://www.website.com .. and neither way links back to my blog. Is there any way to designate a static link to all postings? I’d love to be able to link every post back to my blog page at http://www.website.com/blog
thanks again!
Brian
I’m sorry, I can’t take care of any issue until jannuary. Unfortunately my schedule on projects is too busy right now
I have a created a custom field name tinyurl where I add the value of the shortened version of my post’s web address. I’d like to use this in the default status template thus %POST-TITLE% %TINYURL% so that when the post is published to Facebook, for instance, it will show my shortened URL. Can anyone tell me the best way to achieve this? The included shortened url services, i.e. bit.ly i.mp, etc. don’t seem to work on mine…
Is it possible to push the shortened url to FaceBook, as I like to use bit.ly’s stats to see click throughs etc?
Amazing plugin. I was wondering if there was any way that it could work with scheduled posts. I am moving more toward scheduling all my posts so that way I don’t have to do much work during the week. Feel free to contact me at whatsfordinners@gmail.com thanks
I manage retirementyenta.com and are using your Status Updater plugin. For the past several days, the facebook pages (not individual profile) are not being updated. Has anyone else had this issue? Is it a code change on the facebook end that is causing the problem?
Had this working for a few weeks and then started having problems. Upgraded to the newest version when it came out a couple weeks back which fixed it for about a week, but now I only get errors when trying to publish to Facebook. Wish I know how to fix it…
“Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Compilation failed: missing ) at offset 43 in /home/.feets/purefinesse/definethemoment.net/news/wp-content/plugins/fb-status-updater/inc-fb-status-updater.php on line 566
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/.feets/purefinesse/definethemoment.net/news/wp-content/plugins/fb-status-updater/inc-fb-status-updater.php:566) in /home/.feets/purefinesse/definethemoment.net/news/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 850″
Great plugin… Had a few troubles back a month or so ago, but it’s all up and running now. Haven’t had any problems for the last few weeks though – and it’s been working on it’s own like a charm.
For your URL shorters you listed as on your to-do list, you had tinyurl and another one there. Would you might adding Hootsuite’s ‘ow.ly’ support? This is Hootsuite.com’s shortener (they have a killer statistics package). That would be amazing… Thanx very much.
If you could get the group post working that would be great as of now the plugin does not work with Facebook Groups. Excellent plugin!!!!!!!! Just need it to work for groups.
I am some what new. How do I set this up? I went through the set up process and I am now puzzled. Any help would be nice.
I just started using this plugin for a company website and the first time I used it it worked beautifully. The second time, though, it pushed to twitter but not as a link to the facebook page. Is there any way to fix this? Thanks.
Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Compilation failed: missing ) at offset 43 in /home/redlens/public_html/wp-content/plugins/fb-status-updater/inc-fb-status-updater.php on line 566
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/redlens/public_html/wp-content/plugins/fb-status-updater/inc-fb-status-updater.php:566) in /home/redlens/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 865
1.5.5 is no longer working for me. It will not push links or status updates to my Facebook fan page.
I see the following error in the log email (identifying information redacted):
There was an error while assemblig parameters to share the link on the facebook page.
userId: [REDACTED] pageId: [] composerId: [REDACTED] postFormId: [REDACTED] fb_dtsg: [REDACTED]
The plugin has been working great up until the 8th of Dec. Anyone else having issues or is this just me?
I always encounter this error.. please help me thanks
Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Compilation failed: missing ) at offset 43 in /home/redlens/public_html/wp-content/plugins/fb-status-updater/inc-fb-status-updater.php on line 566
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/redlens/public_html/wp-content/plugins/fb-status-updater/inc-fb-status-updater.php:566) in /home/redlens/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 865
I got the Facebook Profile and Twitter updates to work, but I can’t our Facebook Page to update. I keep getting error emails about it as well. It looks like 1 or 2 parameters are always missing (userID and pageID). The setup looks correct as well. I even tried with my personal FB Acct at 1 point, and that seems to work. Any ideas why this would happen?
I seems not to work with scheduled posts. Can somebody else confirm? Or found a solution?
Hello,
It seems that your plugin is not working if WP is installed in a subdirectory… Could you please check?
Hi Fransesco, amazing plugin and it’s working great on profile pages. However on facebook fanpages it’s not working anymore (probably in certain conditions). I think it has something to do with the feature “who do you want to share with”, which is implemented on FB some weeks ago. I have tried to find the bug, but without success. I will try again in one of the next days, because it’s really awesome to synchronize the blog with the fan page. Hope you give it a try in the beginning of 2010.
@Addow
Having the same problem, I get this message:
There was an error while assemblig parameters to share the link on the facebook page.
userId: [1189633973] pageId: [] composerId: [c4b31359a8065862ebbe51] postFormId: [ab6ee7a4d7bd0fd3b04270557eee579f] fb_dtsg: [14hNs]
Let me know if you have any luck Addow.
greg@trekalaska.com
@shaun
I think pretty much everyone is affected and it seems to have something to do with the privacy changes made recently on FB.
I get this error, I hope we can get this fixed, installed and we can donate and support your efforts.
Hey,
a new post has been published on your blog and the Status Updater plugin v1.5.5 attempted to push it on social networks.
There was an error while assemblig parameters to push the status on the facebook page.
profileId: [] targetId: [] composerId: [c4b314e65e60197a751faa] postFormId: [a0b30e4c1f3ff46b2567b2ea5bf01aea] fb_dtsg: [L7oSp]
If this error persists, disable the plugin and wait for an update
The whole process took 5.847 seconds.
To disable these email, just go to the plugin settings page, delete the “Log email” field and save.
Cheers!
Francesco we look forward to an update!
Please be advised Status Updater is having issues with Wordpress 2.9
Hey Status Updater Plugin Community,
I bet if we put our minds together we can fix this issue without much help from Francesco. He’s done enough, don’t you think?
I am getting the same error referenced above on line 566 of inc-fb-status-updater.php. The contents of that line is:
preg_match(‘/ProfileStream.clearStatus("(.*?)"/i’, $pageResponse, $targetId);
Does anybody know enough about the preg_match function and/or the FB API to know why this line is failing? (My guess would be a change in the $pageResponse variable related to Facebook’s newest change in their service, but I don’t know.)
Also, my debug email includes the same lines referenced above:
“There was an error while assemblig parameters to share the link on the facebook page.
userId: [redacted] pageId: [] composerId: [redacted] postFormId: [redacted] fb_dtsg: [redacted]”
In the above message, the pageId field is noticeably empty. Might that piece of information help anybody identify where we need to modify Version 1.5.5 to make everything right again?
Thank you very much,
Adam
Hi,
The update to v1.5.6 is working again for FB but I’d like to disable the email requirement. How can I do that? It would be great to have an option to enable/disable because you only need to enable it to debug.
Thx,
Francesco, you are a top man!!! Hope you had a very Happy Christmas and have a marvellous New Year.
Great Plugin Francesco! I have a problem, my images don’t get posted when I link update. I have an tag in my post, but the plugin doesn’t seem to post any image. What are the exact rules to make the plugin recognize images inside posts? This is a sample img tag I use:
Thanks in advance.
Ok tags has been filtered from my comment. Anyway, I have an img tag in my post which looks like this:
img src=’http://mysite/wp-content/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/thumbnails/120.jpg&w=200&h=150&zc=1&ft=jpg’
but images don’t get posted. Thank you.
hello,
this is a good plug in for wordpresse
But can have a option to publish on xmlrpc post ?
hi Francesco,
Happy new year
Thank you for your great plugin
I have just one wish.
How can I have a profile link aspect on my facebook page.
The page link should have the same aspect as the profile link.
Regards
Philippe
Hi Franscesco, thanks again for looking into the issues some weeks earlier. I wish you awesome 2010! You deserve it, really. You made my year!
@George E Kennedy Jr
No problems with WP 2.9 here, but probably your post dates from right before the latest plugin update.
Thanks again, F. Regards, Addow
Anyone know how to disable the email log? It’s working fine and I don’t want the flooding of emails unless there is an issue.
Hi, first thing I wanted to say thanks for a great plugin! Just got it up and working with no problems. One thing I am wondering if you could somehow combine the “post as link” and “post to status” options on facebook? I like how it includes the picture when you post as a link, but it doesn’t allow you to customize what it says like you can when it is posted to your status. Adding a customization to the post as link part would be sweet! Thanks again!
Facebook works great for me, but I can’t seem to get any plug-in (from any developer) to update my Twitter page. I rechecked the credentials. Any thoughts or tests?
@pato — bump. I also am finding with WP 2.9.1 and Status Updater 1.5.6, that my scheduled posts are not being pushed to Twitter and Facebook when the post publishes.
But it does work great for me on posts that just get published without having been pre-scheduled, and it also works when I use the Advanced settings menu for Status Update on the post and go to a formerly scheduled, now published, post and choose to re-send.
I really like this plugin, I hope you can help me with this problem, thanks so much.
PS in case it’s important to note, wp_footer() is properly called in my templates.
Also, just had to say it again — great plugin with great features.