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Setup Facebook Contact Importer | Forum

Topic location: Forum home » Support » General Questions
Neil
Neil May 22 '13
I have noticed that many of you are struggling to setup the FB contact importer. I also had many issues, but have finally found a working solution.

The main problem is that Facebook runs in HTTPS, a secure protocol and for the contact importer to work your contact importer files must also be secure in order to be compatible with a Facebook.

Now like many of you I setup my site in HTTPS using an SSL certificate, this made my whole site secure and I was able to setup the contact importer without a problem, however running your whole site in HTTPS does provide a solution for the Facebook contact importer, but then gives other issues for other parts of the site.

So after a lot of searching and testing I came up with a simple solution that provides a secure URL for the Contact importer but leaves your site runnning using standard http protocol.

So lets start from the top. First you need to setup your SSL certificate. Depending on your hosting provider, this may be a free option through your Cpanel or you may have to contact your hosting to set it up for you. I was able to setup my SSL via Host Gator Cpanel with a couple of clicks.

Once your SSL is setup you need to access your .htaccess file located in the main folder of your oxwall site. You will need to download the file to your computer and open it up with an editing program.

On line 2 of the .htaccess file you will find the code - RewriteEngine On

You must post the following code underneath this line.

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /contactimporter/fbcanvas
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]




Once you have done this, upload the .htaccess file back to your server.
Redirect to you site, nothing should have changed. Now redirect to - yoursite.com/contactimporter/fbcanvas - you should see the url change to HTTPS.

Now you need to setup your Facebook app.

1. You should create an application here:
https://developers.facebook.com/apps/



2. Once application is created you should do the following:


- Fill in the 'App Domain' field. Type your website domain, I have included on my domain, but you can write it without.


-Scroll down where it says 'Website', click on it and paste your site URL (with http: and www if applicable) into the Site URL field.


-Scroll down where it says 'App on Facebook', click on it and fill in the 'Canvas URL'. It should look like http://yourdomain.com/contactimporter/fbcanvas/ where yourdomain.com is your site URL


-The secure canvas URL is the same as above, except you must include https at the beginning. https://yourdomain.com/contactimporter/fbcanvas


- Now click "save changes" at the bottom of the page.

Pay attention to the App ID and App Secret (marked with red), they will be used in the step 3.



3. Go to your website > Admin Panel > Plugins > Installed Plugins > Contact Importer > Settings section. Fill "APP ID" and "APP Secret" into the correct fields and hit save.


This is not the perfect solution, however it works.









The Forum post is edited by Neil May 22 '13
Alia Team
Alia May 23 '13
Thanks for sharing.
Chris
Chris May 23 '13
It was supposed to my post, but i was logged in with the wrong account. Anyway i hope this helps.
omer
omer Feb 5 '14
in new facebook apps page there is no 'Canvas URL' what will we do? Update :  ok i found but not working... 
The Forum post is edited by omer Feb 5 '14
ross Team
ross Feb 5 '14
What exactly is not working? Have you done everything correct according to the tutorial: http://docs.oxwall.org/plugin-tuts:facebook-connect ?
omer
omer Feb 6 '14
not facebook connect i am talking about connect importer... 
ross Team
ross Feb 9 '14
sorry, click on the Settings in the right column, then click add a platform, there will be Canvas URL


omer
omer Feb 10 '14
ok i added before but importer searching and no result if you want try  http://www.istanbulusma.net/
ross Team
ross Feb 10 '14
I just created new application and everything works just perfect, please check your app ID and app secret settings. Please try to create another application As we could not reproduce the issue with this plugin on our test websites. 
omer
omer Feb 11 '14
here you created, is it a local laguage prolem? i entered id ve secret copy paste... can you show how i write this adress my web site name  http://yourdomain.com/contactimporter/fbcanvas/ i dont have ssl so i didnt write ss canvas


The Forum post is edited by omer Apr 8 '14
ross Team
ross Feb 11 '14
everything is shown in the tutorial: http://docs.oxwall.org/plugin-tuts:contact-importer I see there's Kanvas URI's in Turkish, probably there, I can't say for sure as I don't know Turkish. 
The Forum post is edited by ross Feb 11 '14
omer
omer Feb 14 '14
i dont have ssl...
ross Team
ross Feb 16 '14
what are you implying?
admin
admin Mar 12 '14
Mobile users are having problems accessing my site, Throwbackbook.com, search return for mobile devices show text links duplicated on the same page and do not work! Please help!
The Forum post is edited by admin Mar 12 '14
ross Team
ross Mar 12 '14
your post is not related to the topic, please create a separate post. It's not the first time when you do that "admin". 
omer
omer Mar 22 '14
Quote from ross what are you implying?

i dont have ssl and i am writin just http not https
ross Team
ross Mar 24 '14
Omer, I don't follow you. What is the exact problem? Just follow the instructions in the tutorial. 
omer
omer Apr 1 '14
problem 

that connect windows rolling working but no result? always same window...

The Forum post is edited by omer Apr 1 '14
ross Team
ross Apr 2 '14
Omer, PM me your oxwall admin details and FB account access details and I'll try to configure it for you. 
Allan
Allan May 29 '14
Worked great Neil  thank you.
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