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Marco Luthe Online! » WordPress Stuff » Disqus, Changed Comments And Facebook Connect

Disqus, Changed Comments And Facebook Connect

June 28th, 2010 | View Comments

I recently had the problem that I wanted to re-import some comments that I had made some (minor) changes to into the Disqus system using the Disqus Comment System plugin. Well, just bluntly hitting the “Export Comments” button in the Advanced Options didn’t help… the changed comments were not imported and remained in their unchanged form.

In order to find out how to proceed, I sent an email to the help desk and got the following response from Ryan (quoting):

Hi Marco,

In this case the best way to do this is to delete your site shortname in Disqus and create a new one to start over. If you have any trouble with removing it, shoot me your shortname and registered email address in a new email message.

Thanks,
Ryan (end of quote)

Well, actually, it wasn’t that easy. Here is what happened:

  • I deleted the site and all comments from Disqus using the “Delete site and comments” button at the bottom of the “Settings -> General” page.
  • Next, I registered the same site again.
  • Clicking the “Export Comments” button using the WordPress plugin lead to the “Sorry, something went wrong…” message. Disabling and enabling the plugin again did not make a change – exporting the comments wouldn’t work.
  • I had a hunch that it might have had to do with the Disqus API key that you can get at disqus.com/api/get_my_key/ (as described here). So I disabled the plugin, deleted some lines from the WordPress database (see below) and enabled the plugin again – and it started as if it was installed for the first time, retrieving the correct API key (just changing the API key directly within the WordPress database didn’t help).
  • After that, the “Export Comments” button worked perfectly.

Here is the SQL statement you need to find the lines within the WordPress database:

SELECT  *
FROM  `wp_options`
WHERE  `option_name`  LIKE  '%disqus%'

Problems with Facebook Connect

After “re-installing” the plugin, I had to fill in the “Facebook Connect” API key. Since I did not know where to get it from, I tried “(Click here to get one)” on the “Settings -> General” page within Disqus, but Disqus just could not finish the retrieval. Then I found this article which describes how to retrieve your API key from Facebook by using this link: www.facebook.com/developers/apps.php.

I was surprised to see at least 10 entries referring to Disqus. As is seems, the connection worked in the first place to create a new API key, but it could not be completed for Disqus.

Everything is fine now… I deleted all entries but one and used the API key from the remaining one.

Sometimes, it’s a rocky road to find the solution – but persistence is not (always) futile. ;-)

Filed under: WordPress Stuff · Tags: , , , , , ,

  • http://www.allkins.co.uk Dominic Allkins

    Hi Marco

    I had exactly the same problem with the API key and ended up with about 10!!

    Eventually found the same page as you. I think it's more likely a FB thing than a disqus thing though.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rehan-Ahmed/100001302022122 Rehan Ahmed

    Sorry for the last comment. I was trying to check how Disqus works. On my website its not working properly I don't know why.

  • http://www.saphod.net/ Marco

    What exactly is not working properly? You need to elaborate here if you want someone to help you.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rehan-Ahmed/100001302022122 Rehan Ahmed

    Thanks Marco

    Disqus don't work properly in IE8. Here I tried to reply you through reply button but Disqus gave me Javascript error.

    I follow your article step by step but when I try to login through facebook, pop-up window gives me blank white page with the following URL

    h t t p : / / w w w . mydomain . com /wp-content/plugins/disqus-comment-system/xd_receiver.htm?fb_login&fname=_opener&guid=0.24887269951170204&session=%7B%22session_key%22%3A%222.DPWk3AEIjhJ_HeDe6Macmg__.3600.1285585200-100001302022122%22%2C%22uid%22%3A100001302022122%2C%22expires%22%3A1285585200%2C%22secret%22%3A%22BRj7ZXSIjJX3I50DBwGDqQ__%22%2C%22base_domain%22%3A%22mydomain . com%22%2C%22sig%22%3A%226111b8b9581ffb3a17354c51734887b5%22%7D

    I have following code in my xd_receiver.htm

    < script src=”h t t p : / / static.ak.connect.facebook . com/js/api_lib/v0.4/XdCommReceiver.js type=”text/javascript” >< /script >

    In Facebook Application I entered h t t p: / / mydomain . com / in site url and h t t p: / / mydomain . com in base url. API key properly configured with Disqus.

    I don't know where is the problem.

    [Edited by moderator because URLs above were not wanted to show as links and script tags did not show up properly.]

  • http://www.saphod.net/ Marco

    Hmm… I don't know why it is not working with your site. Have you tried asking the Disqus people about this (http://help.disqus.com/home)? Or you could as well try the WordPress Forum. BTW: Which version of the plugin are you running?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rehan-Ahmed/100001302022122 Rehan Ahmed

    I'm using http:// wordpress. org /extend/plugins/disqus-comment-system/ version 2.50 with WP 3.0.1. I already sent an email to help @discuss .com but I havent received any answer yet.

    When I try to login through Post AS button and click on Facebook->Sign in with Facebook then IE-8 gives me following JS error

    Message: 'DISQUS.config.sso.width' is null or not an object

    Line: 1

    Char: 42439

    Code: 0

    URI: http://mediacdn . disqus . com/1089/build/system/disqus.js?

  • http://www.saphod.net/ Marco

    Sorry, can't help you there… I am still running an older version of the plugin on the current WP version, and it works fine. Won't change anything until I am sure everything is fine.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rehan-Ahmed/100001302022122 Rehan Ahmed

    Can you provide me the url of plugin older version? Let me try that. I don't know why plugin show you so many blank lines in my post. I just changed the paragraph.

    I can't reply you through reply button on IE8 because its not working and I have facing same Javascript error on your site but at least I can post my comments thorugh Facebook profile.

  • http://www.saphod.net/ Marco

    http://wordpress.org/extend/pl.....m/download/

    … and this time, the paragraphs were fine. :-D

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rehan-Ahmed/100001302022122 Rehan Ahmed

    I'm using http://webdev.casualgenius.com.....subdomains/ wordpress plugin. If I try to post my comments in my subdomain category e.g http://america.mydomain.com/post-name-abc then Disqus gives me a error because in Facebook Application I have mentioned http://mydomain.com/ in url and mydomain.com/ in base url. I don't know either is there any solution or not.

  • http://www.saphod.net/ Marco

    To see if there is a problem, maybe just deactivate that subdomain plugin and try if Disqus works after that. I'd also contact all support possibilities (Disqus, plugin author…

    I stopped counting the times that two plugins conflicted with each other. Knock on wood: on my blog, everything seems to work out fine so far.

  • http://www.holiday-home-web-design.ajm7.com Holiday Home Web Design

    This is just what I want for my website. I intend to install disqus comment system on my WordPress site.

  • http://www.seo-services.ajm7.com seo services

    Is Disqus easy to install and administrate in WordPress?

  • http://www.saphod.net/ Marco

    Yes, really easy. Just install the plugin and you’ll see.

  • http://twitter.com/pythonskynet Musthafa

    not able to login to facebook using disqus in my website: http://teknoise.com, please check and get me the solution

  • http://teknoise.com/ Musthafa

    now working fine guys, thank you very much

  • http://www.mattkay.ch Matt Kay

    Hi.
    My facebook connect do not work when I want to post a comment on my blog (www.mattkay.ch). Google, twitter and all the others are working without any problem, but facebook not!
    Any help?

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