I need some help with a problem I've been having but I'm not sure if it's an issue with the module or the Facebook platform so bear with me please, and if anyone can help I'd be very grateful.

I used to run this module (starting with beta4) without entering any application ID on the settings page. This worked fine so I left it like that for a while. Then I decided that having an application ID might be a good idea (to enable comments administration) so I registered for the ID and entered it in the settings page.

Now all the previous comments that were on my website have disappeared!

I assumed that Facebook is associating the comments with the app ID and is therefore now no longer associating my site with the old comments so I deleted the app ID from the settings page in the hope that the comments would come back.

Now the comments box will not even load (just the loading animation) unless I put an app ID in the settings page.

I am now forced to use an app ID if I want the comments box on my website (even though it worked before without it) and I appear to have lost the old comments for good.

Is there any way I can get the old comments back?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Comments

mt3ch’s picture

mt3ch CreditAttribution: mt3ch commented

I read on http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/comments that the ID associated with the comments object defaults to the URL-encoded page URL; so perhaps this default ID is associated with the old comments. Either way, I can't get it back to make the old comments show up. Is something in the module is preventing this?

I can see if I remove the app ID from the settings page then the source code of the pages reads,

window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
    FB.init({
    appId: "",
    status: true, 
    cookie: true,
    xfbml: true
});

i.e. there is no app ID there, default or otherwise. Perhaps this is relevant? I don't really know.

mt3ch’s picture

mt3ch CreditAttribution: mt3ch commented
Category: support » bug

This response to my question in the Facebook Developers Forum confirms that the old missing comments are associated with the default ID (the URL-encoded page URL) so the old missing comments cannot be shown while using a new Facebook app ID.

In order to get the old comments back I need to be able to revert back to using the default URL-encoded page URL as the ID. However, the module does not appear to revert to the default URL-encoded page URL after removing the app ID from the settings page. After removing the app ID from the module settings page and leaving the field blank, the comments box will not load at all. In the web page source code the app ID appears as just an empty string (see comment #1).

I now believe this is a bug.

ferdi’s picture

ferdi CreditAttribution: ferdi commented
Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

I'm not sure I understand what's going on here. The app id has nothing to do with the page urls !
Please reopen if you think I'm missing something.
Thanks