Share and Like

We'll gladly help how we can. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure what you're asking:

I have added a like button and share button the articles on my site and I wish for the articles to liked and shared not the page they are on or the site.

The Like and Share buttons are all tied to a specific URL. That URL can be the current URL or one that's specified (if you're using the SocialShare module or {JFBCLike ..} tag). If you're using the content plugin to automatically add the social sharing buttons, the Like/Share buttons should always be for the 'current' page the user is viewing.

If you're not seeing that behavior, or having difficulties setting things up to Like a specific page (let's say you want all Like's to be for your home page), we can help you with that. We honestly wouldn't recommend making all of your Likes work for your home page, so you know, that was just an example.

Also, providing a URL to a page with 'issues' can help us understand the issue better as well.

Thanks,
Alex

Rob,
The share feature shares a URL. You can add a comment for that URL, but you can't share the whole article text within Facebook. The way it should work is that a user shares an article, possibly with a comment. In their Timeline their comment will show along with a preview of the URL that was shared. That preview should include the proper information about the article, like the title, description (the first few sentences for instances) and possibly the image.

The preview is generated based on Open Graph tags that are set on the page. JFBConnect has Open Graph plugins that should set these up properly based on the component you're using, or try to 'guess' the best values.

So, you really shouldn't have to have any/much interaction with the Share button and you certainly shouldn't have to create a Like/Share button for each article on your site. JFBConnect has multiple ways to automatically add the button to a category of content.

Should you need assistance doing that, or have any questions about the above, just let me know!

Thanks,
Alex

Ahh... thanks for the clarification (and sorry for not getting back sooner).

The JFBCContent plugin will do what you're looking for. When it adds the Like (and other sharing) buttons to your content, it will use the 'destination' link, not just the current page. So, when you've set your homepage (or some other page) to show a category blog or featured articles view, the sharing buttons should show but will be for the actual article URL. Those sharing buttons will also use the automatic Open Graph tags set on the article, not the current page.

If you're using the SocialShare module or the raw {JFBCLike} tag, there's no way for JFBConnect to understand the 'context' of where you've put the Like button. Therefore, unless you've set the destination URL to something different, we'll always use the home page. With the content plugin, JFBConnect 'knows' that it's an article that the share is for and where the Like should actually be attributed too.

I hope that helps explain, but if not, or you're running into issues using the content plugin, just let me know!

Thanks,
Alex

I created an article and when I shared it with the share on that article it took the info from the homepage and not the article. Not sure why. Oddly with the article I have featured on the homepage at the moment it reads perfectly and adds the description, image and all else exactly right. But when I share the article from the articles page it displays an old edit of the text in the description. Is this because I shared it before and facebook has cached it somewhere or is it a joomla side issue. I have purged the cache etc. So not sure.

It could be a few things. The URL that JFBConnect is generating can be slightly different than the one you're sharing when you're on-article, so Facebook may have cached one version and re-fetched the 'new' one when shared.

But anyway I'm digressing a little, the reason I asked about this in the first place was because I wrote a second article as a test and when I shared the test article from the homepage it drew the info from the home page and used an unpublished module. Are there delays between facebook registering content from articles or again could this be an issue on my side, I think I have the settings correct but not 100% sure.

The first time you share or Like an article, Facebook will try to fetch the Open Graph tags for that page. Then, it will re-fetch/update those values every few days (depending on many factors). You can check the values that Facebook sees *and* update Facebook's cache immediately by running your page through their URL debug tool .

If that information looks incorrect, or different, let me know the page you're sharing from and the actual article URL you are sharing. Then, we can test and see if there are any oddities.

Thanks,
Alex

Yup, the URL Debug Tool can be a huge asset in narrowing that type of stuff down. The next release will also have an improved Open Graph Debugger built-in so that you can more easily see what Open Graph tags JFBConnect is setting for each page on your site.

I hope that helps, but should you need anything else, just let me know!

Finally, if you haven't already, please consider leaving a rating and review for JFBConnect, or our support, on the Joomla Extension Directory. It certainly isn't required, but is very appreciated:
extensions.joomla.org/extensions/social-...ook-integration/7215

Thanks,
Alex