Blog

Twitter’s recent API updates

January 13, 2024

I regret to inform you that Twitter’s recent API updates now require apps to be on paid plans for continued functionality. More details can be found here.

To address this, we’ve transitioned our Twitter app to a paid plan. However, the plan has a limit of 10k tweets per month, which is currently affecting our app’s performance. We are actively working on resolving this issue to ensure the continued functionality of the Twitter app. However, it has forced us to limit our app functionality to 2 requests per 24 hours for each license key.

Thank you for your understanding.

How to Find an Instagram User ID

September 6, 2020

You can find your Instagram ID using one of the following methods:

Method 1:

  • Browse to this address https://www.instafollowers.co/find-instagram-user-id
  • Enter any Instagram Username in the respective field and click the Check button.
  • It will provide the Instagram ID immediately.

Method 2 (if the 1st method didn’t work):

Browse to this address https://www.instagram.com/microsoft/?__a=1

  • Replace the “microsoft” word in the address above with the Instagram account username you need its ID.
  • In the response of browsing to the new address, search for the word “id” to find it. The first match you’ll find is the ID of your entered username. Please check the example screenshot attached below.
  • *** Please also make sure you are logged into an Instagram account on your browser while you browse to the above address.

Instagram User ID

How to Find an Instagram Location ID

December 30, 2019

Instagram assigns its registered locations with a Location ID, which is a string of numbers. Some plugins and feeds can use that location ID to act as a filter to display photos from that place, much the same way you can filter using hashtags.

But how to find that number isn’t self-evident. So here’s the quick way to find Instagram’s location ID for any given place.

1. Log In

Log into the Instagram website (instagram.com) using a web browser.

2. Search for Location

In the search bar, type the name of the place. As you type, you’ll see a list of results update in real time. This will be a combination of places, hashtags, and usernames. What you want to look for are the locations, and they’re identified with the map marker icon, like this:

3. Open Location Page

Click on the location result. You’ll go to the location results page, which will have a map at the top and a grid of photos from that location below.

4. Copy Location ID

Look in the browser’s URL bar. You’ll have something along these lines. What you want is the string of digits in the second-last section, like this:

5. Copy & Paste Location ID

Copy those numbers and paste them into whatever plugin or feed you’re using.

Instagram App approval instruction

May 18, 2018

We have an approved Instagram App created for our demo website http://socialdashboard.me/ that I have listed it’s App review video screen-casts and descriptions here and you can create your own videos the same as these videos and send to Instagram for approval.

First please note: you only need to go for app review if you want to allow other Instagram users in addition to your own Instagram user to connect to your app. If this app is only using by you, app review is not require and your app in not needed to be in Live mode.

Here is a complete list of descriptions we sent for Instagram Review:
Do not forget to replace {Replace with your app name}, your user and your pass with your own.

Permissions required:
basic, comments, likes

Description:
{Replace with your app name} is an Instagram App created for {Replace with your app name} PHP Application. {Replace with your app name} is a social media management platform that individuals or companies can use to coordinate a social media presence across multiple channels or accounts, through a single interface.

Description for review:
{Replace with your app name} is an Instagram App created for {Replace with your app name} PHP Application. {Replace with your app name} is a social media management platform that individuals or companies can use to coordinate a social media presence across multiple channels or accounts, through a single interface.
With this application users can create a social media stream including all of their social networking activities with multiple social network profiles, and manage all of them in one place.
This application receives the information through different API web services. Users authorize the app on their websites and the application fetches their social media account’s data and display this information inside their personal account on {Replace with your app name} platform on their websites.
Our app displays Instagram users data only to themselves and only after receiving their permission. The app requires to have basic, comments and likes permissions on Instagram platform to be able to allow user to mange their Instagram account.

Our app needs basic permission to be able to fetches Instagram users’ photos and videos using their Instagram ID.
Our app also needs access to Instagram history data that can not be achieved via a sandbox user and needs to send comments and links instead of user so our app needs approval.

Thank you so much for your time.

Video screencast:

Example Privacy Policy URL:
https://socialdashboard.me/privacy-policy/

Example Terms URL:
https://socialdashboard.me/terms-of-service/

Comments Permission:
Our app requires this scope to be able to process the user request of sending a comment on a post on his/her Instagram profile.
Our app get this permission when the user wants to add his Instagram account to his/her account on {Replace with your app name}. Then we use this permission when he tries to post a comment on a photo or video on his Instrgram account.
The video screencast is showing the experience of this permission in our app.

Links Permission:
Our app requires this scope to be able to process the user request of sending a like on a post on user’s Instagram profile.
Our app get this permission when the user wants to add his Instagram account to his/her account on {Replace with your app name}. Then we use this permission when he tries to post a like on a photo or video on his Instrgram account.
The video screencast is showing the experience of this permission in our app.

Facebook App approval instruction

May 18, 2018

We have an approved Facebook App created for our demo website http://socialdashboard.me/ that I have listed it’s App review video screen-casts and descriptions here and you can create your own videos the same as these videos and send to Facebook for approval.

First please note: you only need to go for app review if you want to allow other Facebook users in addition to your own Facebook user to connect to your app. If this app is only using by you, app review is not require and your app in not needed to be in Live mode.

Here is a complete list of descriptions we sent for Facebook Review:
Do not forget to replace {Replace with your app name}, your user and your pass with your own.

Description:
{Replace with your app name} is a Facebook App created for {Replace with your app name} PHP Application. {Replace with your app name} is a social media management platform that individuals or companies can use to coordinate a social media presence across multiple channels or accounts, through a single interface.

Description for review:
{Replace with your app name} is a Facebook App created for {Replace with your app name} PHP Application. {Replace with your app name} is a social media management platform that individuals or companies can use to coordinate a social media presence across multiple channels or accounts, through a single interface.
With this application users can create a social media stream including all of their social networking activities with multiple social network profiles, and manage all of them in one place.
This application receives the information through different API web services. Users authorize the app on their websites and the application fetches their social media account’s data and display this information inside their personal account on {Replace with your app name} platform on their websites.
Our app displays Facebook users data only to themselves and only after receiving their permission. The app requires to have email, public_profile, user_posts, user_videos, user_photos, user_likes, publish_actions and manage_pages permissions on Facebook platform to be able to allow user to mange their Facebook account.
Thank you so much for your time.

user_posts:
Our app requires this permission scope to be able to get the Facebook user timeline posts on user’s wall in our App.
Explanation for usage of “user_posts” permission in our App:
1. Browse to https://socialdashboard.me/ website.
2. Click “Sign in using Facebook” button or click “Create a new account” to create a new account or use our test account as our App is already in Sandbox mode and it can not accept authentication requests from non-developer accounts:
USER: your user
PASS: your pass
3. After login to the website, select Manage Social Accounts from the left navigational menu and check that you have added/connected your Facebook account to your {Replace with your app name} management area.
4. Click the Facebook account from the left navigational menu and click on “Your Timeline” and you will see your Facebook user timeline posts on the right panel.
The video screen-cast is showing the experience of this permission in our app.
user_posts:

user_videos:
Our app requires this permission scope to be able to get the Facebook user videos on user’s wall in our App.
Explanation for usage of “user_videos” permission in our App:
1. Browse to https://socialdashboard.me/ website.
2. Click “Sign in using Facebook” button or click “Create a new account” to create a new account or use our test account as our App is already in Sandbox mode and it can not accept authentication requests from non-developer accounts:
USER: your user
PASS: your pass
3. After login to the website, select Manage Social Accounts from the left navigational menu and check that you have added/connected your Facebook account to your Social Dashboard management area.
4. Click the Facebook account from the left navigational menu and click on “Your Timeline” and you will see your Facebook user videos along with your other posts on the right panel.
The video screen-cast is showing the experience of this permission in our app.
user_videos:

user_photos:
Our app requires this permission scope to be able to get the Facebook user photos on user’s wall in our App.
Explanation for usage of “user_photos” permission in our App:
1. Browse to https://socialdashboard.me/ website.
2. Click “Sign in using Facebook” button or click “Create a new account” to create a new account or use our test account as our App is already in Sandbox mode and it can not accept authentication requests from non-developer accounts:
USER: your user
PASS: your pass
3. After login to the website, select Manage Social Accounts from the left navigational menu and check that you have added/connected your Facebook account to your {Replace with your app name} management area.
4. Click the Facebook account from the left navigational menu and click on “Your Timeline” and you will see your Facebook user photos along with your other posts on the right panel.
The video screen-cast is showing the experience of this permission in our app.
user_photos:

publish_actions:
Why do we need this permission?
Our app requires this scope to be able to process the user request of:
a. publishing a post on user’s Facebook timeline
b. or delete a post from user’s timeline.

Explanation for usage of “publish_actions” permission in our App:
1. Browse to https://socialdashboard.me/ website.
2. Click “Sign in using Facebook” button or click “Create a new account” to create a new account or use our test account as our App is already in Sandbox mode and it can not accept authentication requests from non-developer accounts:
USER: your user
PASS: your pass
3. After login to the website, select Manage Social Accounts from the left navigational menu and check that you have added/connected your Facebook account to your {Replace with your app name} management area.
4. Click on the “Post an update” button from the top right corner of your dashboard to open the “Post an update” window.
5. Fill in the form and click “Send” button to post the update to your Facebook page.
6. Click the Facebook account from the left navigational menu and click on “Your Timeline” and you can see your Facebook user posts on the right panel.
The video screen-cast is showing the experience of this permission in our app.
publish_actions:

manage_pages:
Our app requires this permission scope to be able to get the Facebook Pages that the user administrates.
Explanation for usage of “manage_pages” permission in our App:
1. Browse to https://socialdashboard.me/ website.
2. Click “Sign in using Facebook” button or click “Create a new account” to create a new account or use our test account as our App is already in Sandbox mode and it can not accept authentication requests from non-developer accounts:
USER: your user
PASS: your pass
3. After login to the website, select Manage Social Accounts from the left navigational menu and check that you have added/connected your Facebook account to your {Replace with your app name} management area.
4. Click the Facebook account from the left navigational menu and you can see all the Facebook Pages you administrate them if have any in your Facebook account. You can click on any of the Pages listed to see your posts on the right panel.
The video screen-cast is showing the experience of this permission in our app.
manage_pages:

You must also create these two files on your website too:
Privacy Policy URL:
https://socialdashboard.me/privacy-policy/

Terms URL:
https://socialdashboard.me/terms-of-service/

If you didn’t get approval for any of these permissions, you need to get into Facebook direct support and ask the problem from a support person.

How to manage PHP Social Stream assets

April 16, 2018

In this article, I am going to show you how to manage PHP Social Stream asset files on your website.

1. First of all, disable automatically adding of asset (.css, .js) files in your social stream. e.g:


<?php
include( './social-stream/social-stream.php' ); // Path to PHP Social Stream main file
echo social_stream(
array(
'id' => '1',
'type' => 'wall',
'network' => array(
...
),
'theme' => 'sb-modern-light',
'breakpoints' => array('4', '4', '3', '3', '2', '1', '1'), // Number of items (columns)
'add_files' => false // Disable automatically adding asset (.css, .js) files
)
);
?>

2. Second, add asset files manually to top of your html content within <head></head> tag. e.g:


<head>
<?php
// For All - Common
echo '<link href="'.SB_PATH . 'public/css/colorbox.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />';
echo '<link href="'.SB_PATH . 'public/css/styles.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />';
echo '<script type="text/javascript" src="'.SB_PATH . 'public/js/jquery-1.12.4.min.js"></script>'; // You can remove this line if you already have jQuery added on the page
echo '<script type="text/javascript" src="'.SB_PATH . 'public/js/sb-utils.js"></script>';
// Only for wall
echo '<script type="text/javascript" src="'.SB_PATH . 'public/js/sb-wall.js"></script>';
// Only for timeline
echo '<link href="'.SB_PATH . 'public/css/timeline-styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />';
echo '<script type="text/javascript" src="'.SB_PATH . 'public/js/sb-timeline.js"></script>';
// Only for carousel
echo '<link href="'.SB_PATH . 'public/css/lightslider.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />';
echo '<script type="text/javascript" src="'.SB_PATH . 'public/js/sb-carousel.js"></script>';
// Only for rotating feed
echo '<script type="text/javascript" src="'.SB_PATH . 'public/js/sb-rotating.js"></script>';
?>
</head>

Make sure social-stream.php lib is included before all these codes.

Facebook and Instagram platforms recent changes’ impacts on our products

April 6, 2018

Hi there,

Yesterday, Facebook announced changes to the Instagram and Facebook platforms “to continuously improve Instagram users’ privacy and security.” These changes, that got effective immediately, impacted all third-party applications, including Social Board and all of our other social media related products. We are working to address any impact, and want to give you an update on what’s happening.

While there are many changes being made to the Facebook and Instagram platforms that impact the content we collect, rest assured that the majority of features and functionality you turn to Social Board for will continue to operate uninterrupted, including many Instagram and Facebook use-cases.

Our developers are resolving issues and restoring services throughout Social Board and all of our other social media related products but, until further notice, the following features are disabled:

  • Instagram User Feeds will no longer collect content. All other type of feeds will continue to work.
  • Facebook Page Feeds will no longer collect content using the App Tokens generated with newly created Facebook Apps. We can still provide you with a quick solution for this problem if you contact our support desk.

Subsequently, we will announce you about all the changes we are going to make in our products to bring back these features as much as we can.

At the end, we disagree with the way Facebook implemented these changes, but we respect the data privacy concerns rocking the industry today, and strongly champion the need for better controls on user data.
We look forward to our future product launches and resolving any issues that arise from yesterday’s update. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Axent Media

Create a customizable product on your website using WooCommerce

May 6, 2017

Do you have an online store selling tangible or non-tangible products? Have you ever been decided to allow your online customers to create their loving product like gift boxes, products packs, perfumes, t-shirts, gift cards, hats, mugs, promotional gifts and so on that are unique by uploading their own images and photos?

In this article I’m going to introduce you a WordPress/WooCommerce plugin which allow you to add this functionality to your WooCommerce powered online store easily so, you can start accepting customized product orders from you online customers.

The plugin is called “WordPress Social Board“. This plugin is fully integrated into WooCommerce and uses WooCommerce shopping cart. You bind your custom product forms to WooCommerce products and they can be automatically added to the WooCommerce cart at the final step of the product designing step.
You can also make relationships between multiple form steps using a powerful conditional system.
Your customers will get a calculated cost for their requested product in each step depending on the features they request or the items they add into their designed product and the final product will be added to the cart with the total calculated price.

Where do I get the plugin?

To start with, first get the plugin from the following URL:

Download the plugin

You can also take a look at its live demo here:

Plugin live demo

After downloading the plugin you will be given a zip file including another zip file in it named wc-multistep-designer-*.zip that it is the original plugin file.

Installation

Installation of WooCommerce Multistep Form & Product Designer is straight forward and on average should take no longer than just a few minutes.

1. Open your WordPress admin dashboard. Click on Plugins » Add New.

2. Click on the Upload Plugin button and you will see a screen like the one below.

3. Click on the Browse button and select the plugin file (zip files only) from your hard drive and click the Install Now button to upload and install it.

You will be taken to “activate a plugin” page just like this one:

4. Click on Activate Plugin link to complete the plugin installation. You can also activate the plugin by clicking on Activate link later on the Installed Plugins page.

Now you have installed the WooCommerce Multistep Form & Product Designer plugin. You would have to read the Creating a Customizable Product, and Binding Forms To Products sections.

Creating a Customizable Product

Here I will show you that how to create a sample mug and bind it into a WooCommerce product with this plugin.

  1. Browse to, WordPress admin dashboard.
  2. Go to WC Multi-Step » Add Form, fill out the “Form Detail” section according to the image below and save the form.

  1. According to the image below, click on the Add new step button to create a new step.

  1. You will find your created step right beside the “Last Step” with a green flag that refers to the “Start Step” of the form.
  2. Click on the “Step” input box and change the step name to 5. Custom design as follows.
  3. Click on 6. List step elements button right above the step box.

  1. On the “Manage Step Elements” page, click on the 7. Radio button. You will get redirected to the “Element Details” page to create a radio option group.

  1. Fill-in the “Element Details” page according to the image below and click on the 10. Add Option button to create a radio option.

  1. Fill-in the “Option Details” form according to the image below and save.

  1. You will be redirected back to the “Element Details” page again.
  2. Click on 10. Add Option button once again and fill-in the “Option Details” according to the image below and save.

  1. You will be redirected back to the “Element Details” page again and you can see your step form elements as below.
  2. Click on the 18, 19. Back button twice to come back to the step designer page.

  1. On the step designer page, click on 4. Add new step button once again, rename the step to “Design mug” and click the 6. List step elements button.
  2. On the “Manage Step Elements” page, click on the 20. Design button. You will get redirected to the “Element Details” page to create a design element.

  1. Fill-in the “Element Details” form according to the image below and click the 24. Add design view button.

  1. Fill-in the “Design View Details” form according to the image below and 27. Save.

  1. Click on the 28. Layers button to open the “Manage Design Layers” page.
  2. Click on the 29. Image button, enter a title for your new layer and click OK.

  1. The media library window will be opened and you should upload/select the image for your layer and 33. Pick.

  1. Click on the 34. Text button to create a new text element, enter a title for your new text layer and click OK.
  2. Click the 37. Save Layers button to save your layers.

  1. Come back to the “Element Details” page again by clicking the Back button for twice.
  2. According to the screenshot below, try adding the Design Views for all the other viewports of your product if you need.

  1. Click the Back button twice to come back to the step designer page again.
  2. On the step designer page, click on 4. Add new step button once again, rename the step to “Select box” and click on 6. List step elements button once again.
  3. On the “Manage Step Elements” page, click on the 7. Radio button. You will get redirected to the “Element Details” page to create a radio option group.
  4. Fill-in the “Element Details” form according to the image below and click 41. Add Option button.

  1. Fill-in the “Option Details” form according to the image below and save.

  1. You will be redirected back to the “Element Details” page again.
  2. Click on 41. Add Option button once again and fill-in the “Option Details” form according to the image below and save.

  1. You will be redirected back to the “Element Details” page again and you will see your create radio options in the Options tables.
  2. According to the screenshot below, try adding the radio options for all the other gift boxes you desire.
  3. Click on the 48. Back button for twice to come back to the step designer page at the end.

  1. Move your mouse on the “Custom design” step and click the 49. Anchor icon titled “Connect this step to another step” inside the “Custom design” step rectangle box. After clicking the Anchor icon, a dashed line will be appear under your mouse pointer that you can move it on the another step “Design mug” and click to make a connection between these two steps.
  2. Click on the 50. Edit Connection pencil icon to open the “Manage Connection” popup.

  1. On the “Manage Connection” popup, click on the 51. Add Condition button to create a new connection condition.
  2. Create a condition according to the screenshot below and save.

  1. Close the popup window and come back to the “Form Steps Designer” again.
  2. Move your mouse over the “Custom design” step, click the 49. Anchor anchor icon once again and make a connection between “Custom design” and “Select box” steps too.
  3. Click on the 52. Edit Connection pencil icon between “Custom design” and “Select box” steps to open the “Manage Connection” window again.

  1. Create a condition according to the screenshot below and save.

  1. Close the window and come back to the “Form Steps Designer”.
  2. Make just a connection (without any condition) between “Design mug” and “Select box” steps too.
  3. Make just an another connection between “Select box” and “Last Step” steps too.
  4. You will finally have all the steps related like the screenshot below.

Important!

You would already need to assign your multi-step form to a WooCommerce product.
To assign a form to a product, continue reading this section

Your multi-step product form is ready!

To see how your multi-step form would be displayed on your website after assigning to a product, click here or see the live demo here.

Binding Forms To Products

This plugin works with WooCommerce so, you should assign your multi-step form to a WooCommerce product/service. The product/service page will be automatically filled with the details of the multi-step form you assigned to the product and will finally be added to the WooCommerce shopping cart.

To assign a form to a product follow the steps below:

  1. From WordPress admin dashboard, browse to Products.
  2. Edit the product you would like to assign your multi-step form to, from your products list.

  1. In the Product Data block, select Multi-Step Designer from the left tab.
  2. Select the form you would like to assign to your product/service from the Bind to form drop-down list.
  3. Do not forget to save your changes by clicking the Update button.

Custom product showcase

Conclusion

In addition to simple installation process and easy to use and integrate this plugin with WooCommerce this plugin has many of other useful options which you can use to make it suitable for your website. With an appropriate price of $28 you can add a great functionality to your website that would cost a lot if you hire a developer for that.

Did you love this plugin? Please, write me your idea.

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