After upgrading to v4.2 previous facebook comments and likes are gone

Peter,
What version of JFBConnect were you using on the original site? You mention 1.5.21, but that must have been a typo. Also, can you let us know:
* Are you using standard Joomla article, or some other content extension?
* How are you forcing the URLs to be the same? Is that the normal SEF URL generated by Joomla, or are you using a 3rd party Joomla extension (or something else)?

There's a few reasons comments can change. The comments are tied to a specific URL from JFBConnect v3.2+. If you were using an older version than that (I hope not), the comments are likely un-retrievable.

Additionally, JFBConnect tries to generate the best canonical URL for your pages. Since Joomla 1.5 used sections and 2.5 uses nested categories, sometimes the canonical URL we generate can change as well. However, looking at the URL you posted, the comments box is tied to the exact URL in the address bar, so that shouldn't be a problem if on the 1.5 site the URL was indeed the same.

Do you have a backup dev site of your 1.5 site that we can look at? That may help for comparison.

Thanks,
Alex

Peter,
The comment box from the 'old' site is using the really old method of inserting the comment box onto the page. Specifically, it's using the method we used back in version 3.2 of JFBConnect, which Facebook no longer allows on 'new' pages. Now, you have to use a URL to associate the comments to a page, where as before, you had to use a unique ID for each page (on the one you pasted, the unique ID happens to be 332972eb40a0fb32454f53ff12aa4ee3).

So, either your old site was using a really old version of our Content plugin or you were manually inserting the comment box on each page and specifically telling JFBConnect to use the old method. Do you know how the comment box is being added to the page? That will help us provide a solution.

It is still possible to use the 'old' unique-id method on the pages that you don't want to loose the comments.. but for new content, we'd recommend using the Content plugin (if possible) to automatically insert the comment box.

Let me know how you're adding the box and we'll help you proceed.

Thanks,
Alex

Peter,
Thanks for the update. Using the comment module explains things. JFBConnect still does support the old 'xid' method. Do you have the "Use href or legacy mode" set to 'xid' on the new site as well? You'd want that set to ensure that the unique ID (xid) is used on the new site as well. From what I see, it looks that the href mode is being used.

Ideally, going forward, what you'd do is on any 'old' content, you'd enable a module that is uses the 'xid' method. Then, for any new content you create, you'd enable a module that uses the 'href' method. Facebook has said they won't allow new 'xid' boxes from being created, but that's honestly not the case.. they obviously still do. However, at some point, that may break. They may even (one day) remove support for xid altogether, which means that pages that use it may loose all of their comments. So, it's best to move to the href method on as many pages as you can (new or lightly commented pages, for example).

There are other ways to mix the xid and href methods if the above wouldn't work for you, but it won't be a completely easy process.. however, we'll help however we can!

Thanks,
Alex

Peter,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. That sounds like a good plan. As for the override, I believe the comments module full functionality is in the default.php file, so you're in luck. Frankly, all the code shouldn't be in there.. but you're lucky it seems like we were lazy in this instance!

If you need any help, just let us know!

Thanks,
Alex