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#763 Facebook plugin

Parent Category:
DPCalendar
Category:
Calendar plugins
Last Updated:
Allon Moritz, Wednesday, 20 September 2023 10:37
Created:
Thursday, 01 May 2014 17:47
Hits:
11785

This feature is part of the DPCalendar Professional subscription.
SubscribePHP 7.4PHP 8Joomla 3.10Joomla 4.4Joomla 5

Introduction

The Facebook plugin publishes updates on your Facebook page when an event is saved. To be able to import the pages you need to get first an app id and app secret string from the Facebook developer console.

Please read also this blog post, how the Cambridge Analytica leak influences the eco system and the DPCalendar - Facebook plugin.

Meta tags

The Facebook plugin adds automatically to the event details and the list views the required meta tags for Facebook shares. More information about sharing and the open graph attributes can be found here. They even have a debugger where you can paste your url to test how it will look like when you share the url.

The plugin adds the following OG attributes to the head of the page:

  • og:type Is set to "event"
  • og:title The title of the event or calendar
  • og:description The description of the event or calendar
  • og:url The current page
  • og:image The full image of the event or calendar
  • og:image:alt The full image alternative text of the event or calendar
  • og:image:width The full image width of the event
  • og:image:height The full image height of the event
  • fb:app_id The application ID

App Id and App secret

In the following steps we tell you how to obtain the Facebook API key, API secret, Access token and Access Token Secret to your DPCalendar - Facebook plugin.

  • Log in on the Facebook Developer Page you have to click on "Add a New App" to get the App information needed by the DPCalendar plugin.
  • Define a display name and an E-Mail address and click on "Create App ID".
  • Do the captcha authentication.
  • Choose "Facebook Login" as Scenario and click on Next.
  • In the menu bar on the left side of the page, click on Products -> Facebook Login -> Settings.
  • Set your web site url with the following parameters as Valid OAuth redirect URIs: https://www.example.com/administrator/index.php?option=com_dpcalendar&task=plugin.action&dpplugin=facebook&action=import. Replace example.com with your web site url. This is required, otherwise the import will not work.
  • At the bottom of the page, click on "Save Changes".
  • In the menu bar on the left side of the page, click on "Dashboard". That's the page where you can get then the App ID and App Secret.
Facebook app

Import the Facebook pages

  • Click on the import button in the plugin edit form.
  • Copy the "App ID" and "App Secret" from the facebook developer console into the DPCalendar import wizard.
  • Click the "Import" button.
  • Accept the permission questions from Facebook.
  • The pages should be imported into the DPCalendar Facebook plugin.
Facebook api keys

Autopublish Event updates

The DPCalendar Facebook plugins offers the possibility to publish automatic updates on your Facebook page timeline when an native event is edited. You can define which actions should be triggered and if child calendars should be included in the publish actions.

If you want to modify the content of the published messages you have to make language overrides of the following constants:

  • PLG_DPCALENDAR_FACEBOOK_STATUS_EVENT_CREATED
  • PLG_DPCALENDAR_FACEBOOK_STATUS_EVENT_UPDATED
  • PLG_DPCALENDAR_FACEBOOK_STATUS_EVENT_DELETED

How to make a language override can be found in the official Joomla documentation.

Facebook actions

Private events

For your private events you have to use the Ical plugin. There you have to add a new calendar with the url to your Facebook events.

To get the url log in to Facebook and visit the Events section. On the right side you will find the section with the upcoming events and birthday ical urls. Click it to expose a menu. You want the first item, "Export".

Facebook private ical

DPCalendar Options

These settings are the same for every calendar configured in the plugin.

Page ID [Type: Text]
The page ID the events should be received from.
App ID [Type: Text]
The app ID from the Facebook app console to authenticate. Please check the documentation for more information.
App Secret [Type: Text]
The app secret from the Facebook app console to authenticate. Please check the documentation for more information.
Access Token [Type: Text]
The access token will be generated during import of the pages.
Calendars [Type: Dpcalendar]
Select the calendars to publish updates to your page stream on Facebook.
Include Child Calendars [Type: Dpradio] [Default: No]
Should changes in child calendars be published too?
The following options are available:
  1. Yes
  2. No
Publish Create Event [Type: Dpradio] [Default: Yes]
Should a new status be posted when a new event is created.
The following options are available:
  1. Yes
  2. No
Publish Update Event [Type: Dpradio] [Default: Yes]
Should a new status be posted when an event is updated.
The following options are available:
  1. Yes
  2. No
Publish Delete Event [Type: Dpradio] [Default: No]
Should a new status be posted when an event is deleted.
The following options are available:
  1. Yes
  2. No

Plugin Options

Caching [Type: List] [Default: Joomla]
Select whether to cache the calendar data.
The following options are available:
  1. Joomla
  2. Database
  3. Never
Cache Time [Type: Text] [Default: 900]
The time for the cache in sec.
Sync Start [Type: Text] [Default: -3 year]
The relative start date to sync from.
Sync End [Type: Text] [Default: +3 year]
The relative end date to sync from.
Sync Steps [Type: Text] [Default: 1 year]
The sync steps.

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