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[SmartCrawl Pro] Open Graph issues getting worse, not better

Smart Crawl Pro is getting worse at some things, not better.

Example:

Two weeks ago, Open Graph was working perfectly on our Facebook page. Now it’s not.

Please see the following two screenshots.

Image 1:

https://racquetnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/OPEN-GRAPH-ISSUE-1-JPG.jpg

Image 2:

https://racquetnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2PEN-GRAPH-ISSUE-1-JPG.jpg

Here is the post that is linked to, in case anybody wants to take a look.

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 20:30:16
More SmartCrawl Pro discussions
SmartCrawl Pro
    • brentjohner
      • The Incredible Code Injector

      Hi Jaxom.

      All Open Graph Images must be 600 x 315 to work properly.

      OK. Thank you. Did not know this. But if this is the case, it means that we now have to upload images that are exactly 600 x 315 in addition to the thousands of product images we have already uploaded — which means that we will not be using this feature of Smart Crawl.

      • Jaxom
        • Dragon Rider

        Hi brentjohner

        This is not a Smart Crawl Issue it is how Open Graph (Industry Standard) is set.

        All Social Media and those nice Rich Snippets in Google Searches all use Open Graph Data.

        If the Open Graph settings in each page header do not match the requirements of Open Graph it will either publish without an image or grab the nearest image and center to center cut it to 600 x 315 and show that image. Hence why you get funny looking images on Social Media.

        It might be an idea to add to the things we’d like list the ability for WPSMUSH to crop images to 600 x 315.

        Jaxom

  • Lindeni Mahlalela
    • Recruit

    Hello brentjohner

    I hope you are doing great today. I am sorry for the inconveniences you are having with regards to SmartCrawl and I hope to help in any way possible.

    I have checked the screenshots you shared and the most noticeable differences are:

    1. The description are different in the screenshot which means what you have set in SmartCrawl OpenGraph data for the post/product is not what is captured by Faceebook.

    As Ash has mentioned it might be due to the plugin I have provided or another one that set OpenGraph data on your site. If you want to customize the OpenGraph content then you should consider deactivating my plugin or if you still need it modify it such that it only works for product post type and not any other post type or page. I provided the plugin as a means of generating Product OpenGraph data, it is independent of SmartCrawl which means it will continue to work without SmartCrawl and SmartCrawl will continue to work without it.

    SmartCrawl uses the custom content you set on SmartCrawl OpenGraph tab for each post while the plugin assumes you haven’t set that content and takes the post title and uses it for the og:tittle tag and takes the post excerpt or post content and uses it as the og:description tag, so if you have both plugins active then one might override the other. It seems the custom plugin is overriding SmartCrawl.

    Please note that I have provided the plugin “as is” without any warranties and or guarantees but as a starting template on which you can build to get the OpenGraph data. You should modify this plugin to add conditions of what to generate the OpenGraph Data for.

    SmartCrawl does not set the product specific OpenGraph data but the custom plugin does, so in order to solve this I have modified the custom plugin so that it uses the Title and Descriptions set using SmartCrawl OpenGraph if available or use the post title or post/excerpt if necessary. I have updated the plugin on your site and also attached it here.

    This will make the plugin only generate meta tags specific to the products. The code already include a condition to render on pro

    2. The image is cropped instead of being displayed as is.

    As Jaxom said above, there are some recommended dimensions to be used for the OpenGraph data. Please see read the “4. Optimize images to generate great previews” section on this document: https://developers.example.com/docs/sharing/best-practices/

    I hope this helps, Please let us know if you have any further issues and we will be more than happy to assist.

    Have a nice day.

    Lindeni

  • brentjohner
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    Thanks to everyone for the assistance on this. I know people are trying their best.

    Over the past few months I have gradually moved from Consistently Disappointed with Smart Crawl to Getting Excited About Smart Crawl.

    This event has moved me back to Consistently Disappointed.

    I keep hoping that Smart Crawl will make my life easier, but every time I try to use its potential it just drags me back into tech support black holes that I do not have time for.

    I am closing this ticket and going back to accepting the unfulfilled potential of this plugin.

  • Lindeni Mahlalela
    • Recruit

    Hello @brentjohner,

    I am sorry for any inconveniences you are having with regards to SmartCrawl and if there is anything we can do to help you get on track please let us know.

    I am not sure if you noticed in my last post above that I have updated the custom plugin I made for you and I have added this on the post:

    … so in order to solve this I have modified the custom plugin so that it uses the Title and Descriptions set using SmartCrawl OpenGraph if available or use the post title or post/excerpt if necessary. I have updated the plugin on your site and also attached it here.

    Which was an attempt to resolve the conflict between the titles generated by the plugin and those generated by SmartCrawl. This had the advantage of you not having to add custom content right away as you can have the content auto generated by the custom plugin for those post you still have to customize. This means you didn’t have to delete the plugin unless it was causing more issues than it solves.

    Did not know this. But if this is the case, it means that we now have to upload images that are exactly 600 x 315 in addition to the thousands of product images we have already uploaded — which means that we will not be using this feature of Smart Crawl.

    Unfortunately the image sizes are defined and enforced by Facebook and SmartCrawl cannot in anyway change this, it will only accept the images you add to the OpenGraph data but will not enforce the sizes as they are enforced by Facebook.

    You can still use SmartCrawl with the images you already have if you have them in the size of 1200×1200, they should work on Facebook with you having to modify them or re-upload new ones. If necessary you can redefine new the new size and register it as a new thumbnail size by adding this code to your theme’s functions.php

    Set the image size by resizing the image proportionally (without distorting it):

    add_image_size( 'custom-size', 600, 315 ); // 600 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall, soft proportional crop mode

    Set the image size by cropping the image (not showing part of it):

    add_image_size( 'custom-size', 600, 315, true ); // 600 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall, hard crop mode

    Set the image size by cropping the image and defining a crop position:

    add_image_size( 'custom-size', 600,600, array( 'left', 'top' ) ); // Hard crop left top

    When setting a crop position, the first value in the array is the x axis crop position, the second is the y axis crop position.

    Sourced from: https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/add_image_size/

    Once you have added the csutom sizes you can then use a plugin to automatically generate images of the newly defined size, a good plugin for this job is: https://wordpress.org/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails/

    I am so sorry if this is too much for you but I am only trying to help and I have already done enough now but unfortunately there are some guidelines and limits that we cannot control. I have already gone beyond the scope of this support forum and provided a solution I hoped will solve the issues and I have adviced that you build on it to achieve your goals, I am sorry if that is not enough.

    With regards to SmartCrawl not being able to do some specific things out of the box, you may want to submit a feature request in our Features and Feedback forum and other members will see your request and vote on it, if there is a demand for that feature our developers may consider it for development, if there is an urgent need for a solution you may also hire a professional developer in the Jobs Board, please note that in the jobs board you will be hiring independent developers or companies and no WPMU DEV staff is allowed to allowed to take Jobs there.

    Please let us know if you have any concerns or feedback and we will be happy to assist.

    Have a nice day.

    Lindeni

  • brentjohner
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    Hi Lindeni.

    I appreciate everything you have done, but I can’t keep up. The solutions you are offering are at Level 10 while I am down at Level 2.

    I don’t think I am asking for anything beyond this … I would like Smart Crawl to do the things it says it will do without me having to submit support tickets. Having used it for several years now, I can say it has never lived up to this standard.

    I don’t want to be adding additional plugins or additional code. I don’t want people like you to have to jury rig anything extra.

    I don’t know. Maybe I am expecting too much.

    But I this morning I had four support tickets in for this one plugin. That’s too many for me. I don’t have time. I will use the parts that work and forget about the parts that don’t.

    Thanks again for everything.