This summer has been a busy one with our development team being down due to Daniel’s health issues. With that being said, Daniel has been working feverishly over the last 3 weeks to get several Plugin updates completed. The first one is a huge update to the Social Review Engine.
With all the changes Facebook has made recently and the recent release of WordPress 4.0, an update was definitely required. We have made some significant strides in increasing the overall functionality of the plugin and we have also fixed quite a few of the small bugs which have popped up over the last 3 months.
This update is available in the “My Account” area if you are a current SRE Owner, but you can also Auto Update from inside your WordPress Admin as well. Please understand that since this update is so new it might take 24 hours on some Hosts until it pops up as a new update for you.
Here’s the Changelog:
Our Next Update
We are also working on a major update to the Social Deals Engine Plugin. This update includes a much better look, better code, faster speeds, and more options than ever before. Plus the mobile responsiveness will be much improved as well. Look for this update in the next few weeks.
Special Offer Pricing this Week
In celebration of this new Update Release, we are offering Special Pricing on a few of our Top Selling plugins, the Social Review Engine, and the Social Review Theme. To see all the current offers, check out the Deals Page here at WP Social (built with the Social Deals Engine WooCommerce Edition).
Click Here & Save!
Can you provide more info on the facebook integration fix? I thought that all apps that post to the users timeline now need permission from facebook – and the review process is far from simple.
PhilEvans1 Actually the review process is simple. You submit and explain what the plugin does and your APP should be approved in 24-48 hours. I have now done 4 APPs. 2 for each blog I have added SRE to (since SRE requires 2 Facebook APPs). When you explain in your review submission that the content which is getting posted to the user’s Facebook Profile is the Review that they just wrote and in the content getting posted to your Fan Page is the same Review, you should not have an issue.
Have you submitted one for Review yet?
Mike
MikeJohnson PhilEvans1 Hi Mike. Not yet as I have 55 sites using the plugin its been a headache I have been avoiding and cannot much longer. I need to find a submission expert I can pay to do it for me 🙂
I’m not sure what is meant by the review process. Could you be more specific about the steps we should take to make sure the Review Engine will work again?
BertBeukema https://developers.facebook.com/docs/apps/review
PhilEvans1 BertBeukema Yeah I read this, but it doesn’t tell me the specifics with regards to the Social Review Engine. What options should I select during the review process for instance? Facebook wants me to tell them what functions I want to use from their API. To me it’s unclear what SRE needs to functions in this context, which makes any review towards Facebook a bit mute.
BertBeukema PhilEvans1 I will be posting a new sequence of Tutorials to the Knowledge Base to cover this. I know it can be confusing if you do not know Facebook APPs very well. I was able to do it on my first try, but then I know the system very well. Remember, they will re-review it if need be. The requirements are simple. You need to be able to connect the APP with your site and post to user’s and your own Fan Page Wall. That’s it. If you over complicate it, that’s when you could fail the review.
Once again, the important thing to note is that in this process, you are posting a user’s own comments to their Wall. That is the point of emphasis. Plus, by virtue of the APP, you are also doing this with their permission.
MikeJohnson BertBeukema PhilEvans1 Well I tried this, but all my apps were denied by the Facebook review. The reason for denial was that the instructions were not detailed enough. So if you could tell me what you input exactly, then I can try to reapply. God knows what Facebook thinks are ‘detailed instructions’.
MikeJohnson PhilEvans1 Hi Mike, I’ve tried to submit one app, but no luke with the review yet. Can you post the screenshots of the review you submitted and maybe the text you’ve used? It seems to me that we all can use the same settings and text?
I cannot find the slider settings after updating. All reviews are in 1 list now
keesjan Deactivate and then reactivate the plugin. That should fix it.
MikeJohnson BertBeukema PhilEvans1
Mike – I also need instructions, like Bert here, they are asking for FULL Instructions showing the use of the FB App and how it posts. I’ve had to create privacy pages, and a large logo for the App, then when I requested Posting rights, there is this long involved requirements asking for screenshots showing the app in use on your site, and they didn’t think that was good enough?
Basically, it’s like they are asking for log-in rights to my blog, to see how this works, did you run into any of that? And, if you did not, I’m sure excited to see those new Tutorials in the Knowledge base on how to get approved?
Thanks, -Brett
MikeJohnson PhilEvans1 vmwebsites
Mike, as VMWebsites says, I would like to see screenshots of the review being submitted… as I posted above, I’ve had a heck of a time just trying to get it approved, and it’s probably because I’ve not worded the reply for what they are looking for.
Can you please share with your exact replies?
> Added templating system for reviews
Where would I find this, I cannot locate the templating system?
BrettSimpson This feature is specifically for theme developers (or users who want to have a developer customize the look of the Social Review Engine on their site). So they can easily change the look of the review form as well as the reviews. Similar to what we have in the Social Deals Engine and what WooCommerce uses.
I will be posting screen shots and the exact wording in the tutorials which won’t get posted until next week since I am running a promotion over the next few days.
BrettSimpson MikeJohnson BertBeukema PhilEvans1 Is there any update on this topic, it seems very silent. Right now, our review engine isn’t working anymore and customers are complaining big time!
BertBeukema BrettSimpson MikeJohnson PhilEvans1 Hi Bert. I don’t work for the company – I am user like you.I have another app due for review next week and my 1st time thru the process. I will let you know how I get on and any tips.
Well it seems there is some major confusion about this module even with FB. It seems some essential elements such as the Facebook Login Integration & Publishing permissions aren’t implemented or not correctly. You can see in the image below what FB is asking me to do, which should be handled by the module itself (especially the login integration). Something is just not right and the FB integration of this module (it’s top selling USP) isn’t working anymore which is damaging our business. I think someone should very quickly update the customers on this development as this isn’t moving forward.
BertBeukema Daniel is working this with Facebook as we speak to give a clear cut example of how to go through the review process and what to request. The plugin and the configuration is working fine. We have done dozens of tests now and even have had new reviews posted correctly to Facebook. It is a matter of making sure the Facebook APP and the required permissions are set in the APP in order for it to work.
Daniel has already updated this in the knowledge base.
Mike
MikeJohnson BertBeukema Mike, I can’t see any changes in the knowledge base it’s all old content. Our system isn’t working so i’d like to know what we’re doing wrong if your reviews are coming through. As I said i’ve been talking to FB developers and they are all confused by how this module actually works. For review I need to provide a total end-to-end list of actions and results, which I can’t provide because our module simply doesn’t post to Facebook. The image above is real and FB is asking these questions directly, but I can’t answer them. I’ve provided many multiple long steps on actions and many screenshots but still it is a problem. So I don’t know what magic you’re using but in our Woocommerce system it’s simply not going forward.
BertBeukema MikeJohnson Its a very cut and dried process without any gimmickry. A user submits a review. When that review is approved by the site admin (YOU) it is then posted to that user’s Facebook Wall, Your Facebook Fan Page, and to your Twitter account. That is it. What are you telling Facebook that has the review team confused?
Remember, the key here is the content being posted to the user’s wall is the Review they submitted. You might add additional information to the post about the product which was reviewed and it will also have the Review Submission page URL attached, but that is it. The process also has the user giving their permission during the review submission process as well.
Does this help alleviate any confusion you may have?
MikeJohnson BertBeukema Mike, this process isn’t happening in our site. With help of FB i’ve created a test user for our APP with full publishing rights. None of the postings work these days. When I approve the test user’s review it is posted to our site, but not to FB nor to any other social network for which we have created app-links.
As you can see in the image this is a test user from FB which has entered a review on our site which i’ve just approved. That’s it: nothing more is published to any other channel. The second image shows the test user’s wall: nothing is there.
So either i’m doing something wrong or the module isn’t working correctly. You can mail me directly at bert@houseofliquid.nl to get admin access if you’d like. But as far as I can see from all tutorials all data / settings are as it should be.
For the record: our review submission is in exactly the same terms as your’s, even much more expanded because if I only enter these steps it is always declined. And even with our expanded explanation the only thing FB can give me is the screenshot you see above.
Something is just not right here.
Bert
I would be happy to pay for someone (Daniel?) to walk thru the review approval once and give all your users the screenshots of the steps used.
I realise that the app approval is not your responsibility – but facebook’s meddling with permissions does make the process far more difficult than it was.
PhilEvans1 Once we are sure we have the 100% solution here we will post a detailed tutorial in the knowledge base. Daniel is looking at this now to see why we have it working fine and some of you do not.
MikeJohnson I’d like you to test this out on our system as it seems it isn’t functioning at all anymore. For us, we need a fix before the end of next week or we’ll switch to Yotpo which has been able to answer all our questions within 4 hours.
BertBeukema MikeJohnson There is a very distinct difference between what Yotpo does and what SRE does. They don’t do any of the social posting and as much as they like to claim to being SEO optimized, they are not. All they use is a simple Facebook connect. They don’t need any complex configurations. That makes it easy. Our plugins and APP are working fine on our site, it is obviously an APP configuration issue. Without getting inside your system and seeing what you did and how you set it up, it makes it very hard to diagnose.
That being said, we should have a solution shortly which give you the clarity you require.
MikeJohnson Mike, i’d love to share our admin with you in order for you to check our system. You’re right about Yotpo but currently we’re using a module that doesn’t work at all. Not only FB but also Twitter & LinkedIn are down. I’ve checked and triple checked our settings for all channels but it’s 100% the same as the tutorials show it should be done. As we can only follow these tutorials and input some API keys into the module there is not a whole lot more we can do.
BertBeukema MikeJohnson That is very weird. You have something else going on. Save your Permalink settings to reset the custom post type and see if that makes a difference.
PhilEvans1 BertBeukema BrettSimpson MikeJohnson I thin it would be best if in de settins on each sociale connection you amke (FB, Twitter etc. a kin dof test result of teh connection is set: / settings validated
MikeJohnson Nope, permalinks have been set multiple times. Perhaps the reason i’m frustrated is because just today i’ve had 3 problems with 2 sites and all have been fixed by our suppliers within 4 hours.
With WPsocial, i’d expect at least a modicum of support in this way, i mean it is a paid module. This is also the main reason for looking elsewhere: when something doesn’t work I want support and I want it reasonably quick instead of moping around on a message board for days at end. Wpsocial has never even asked me if they could look into our admin config, which would be the start of any support issue imho. Just my 2 cents.
BertBeukema MikeJohnson That seems to be the only answer. We will get to your ticket shortly.
Mike
Is there a Customer Forum where other users post questions and get help? I see the Feature Request but I don’t need to request a new feature, I need to talk to other people who have used the product and see if anyone else has come across my issues. I don’t seem to be able to find documentation other than the handful of items in the Knowledge Base which don’t go into the custom functions or using PHP code instead of shortcodes to do what I need. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
MikeJohnson BertBeukema Mike, it’s been 8 days since you said you would provide support, we haven’t heard anything from you. We’ve decided to move to another system and delete this plugin. Please help me understand: why would you start a company, release paid products and then not provide support on it? It’s simply unheard of in this business. Even petty developers can provide support quickly for their modules, even free ones. We are very disappointed by all the promised made but never delivered on. Please refund the cost of the module to our account as it’s not working.
BertBeukema MikeJohnson We do not have any tickets open? What is your ticket number? Please submit a ticket for your refund as well. The comments section here is not for support and refunds.
MikeJohnson BertBeukema Ehm Mike, you said ‘we’ll get to your ticket shortly’. Certainly you could have entered this yourselves or simply contact me? You knew we had a major problem, some pro-active customer engagement would have been normal practice. In any case I’ll make a ticket for you.
BertBeukema MikeJohnson I am sorry, but by the way you talked, I assumed you had a ticket in already. This is why we have a strict policy on NOT doing support in the comments here. This is for comments on the articles posted. I have been nice and allowed all comments to be posted here, but we will not do support here. Submitting a ticket gets you tracking and dedicated help. We cannot afford to do support in 100 places. We need to be able to do effectively and without structured support you lose control. I don’t know of any other business that does support in blog comments. Thanks for understanding.