One imported event, 3 problems

[Cliff]

We’re using the following:
-Free The Events Calendar v2.0.11
-Licensed The Events Calendar: Facebook Events v1.0.4
-Timezone patch fix from: https://gist.github.com/codearachnid/4705028#file-tribe_patch_convert_to_timezone-php-L3

-The event on FB: http://www.facebook.com/events/481937115201213/
-Imported website event: http://blacksburglivemusic.com/event/j-p-harris-the-tough-choices-sycamore-deli-2/

One imported event, 3 problems:

Problem #1
No Google map button or map display on any event imported from FB. The Event Calendar is set to display Google map buttons and maps. They’re simply not on the imported events.

Problem #2
All events are imported with the Organizer listed as “The Cellar”. I’ve checked our events and there’s no field for Organizer. But there is a field for Host and every event we’ve created says “Blacksburg Live Music” in that field. So why are events being imported with “The Cellar” as the Organizer?

Problem #3
The time imports are hit-and-miss. This event clearly has a start & end time. Yet the Facebook plugin imports the event without a time listed. It does this sporadically for other events. Yet on others it imports the start & end times properly.

For comparison’s sake, another imported event:
-Facebook page event: http://www.facebook.com/events/436971759702189/
-Imported website event: http://blacksburglivemusic.com/event/ben-parker-the-inn-at-virginia-tech/

No Google map button or map display. Wrong Organizer again! Where is it getting “The Cellar” from? But a correct time displayed…random!

Seriously, folks, I’ve owned this plugin for 8 months now and the only major improvement you’ve made in that time has been to stop the plugin from importing events over-and-over. And the PST timezone problem still isn’t fixed without me having to manually insert the patch fix myself. My point here is that I purchased this plugin 8 months ago and its still not working as advertised. Frankly, my patience after 8 months, is running very thin. I’ll tell you now..I’m not purchasing The Events Calendar PRO until the FB importer starts working close to flawlessly.

[Jonah]

Hi Cliff,

I’m sorry to hear about all the issues. We’re doing our best to fix bugs and run support for this and all our other plugins, while at the same time working on feature improvements. So, our Facebook Importer hasn’t seen too much happen in the way of changes or improvements but we have been addressing the bugs as they come up.

I’m going to have Tim from our developer group jump in here for #3 but I’ll address #1 and #2 for you.

1. Do you have these two check boxes checked for your imported events? http://cl.ly/image/3f2B3k0s0z2Z – those need to be checked in order for anything to show up. Check that first.

2. When I imported your (http://www.facebook.com/events/436971759702189/) event, it imported the organizer as “Blacksburg Live Music”. I’m not sure why it’s not doing this for you. It could be a conflict with another plugin. Have you tried deactivating all other plugins to rule that out?

As I said I’ll get Tim to follow up on #3.

Thanks,
Jonah

[Jonah]

Cliff, would you mind either posting your email here or emailing to pro [at] tri [dot] be so I can pass on your info to Tim?

Thanks,
Jonah

[Cliff]

[email protected]. Just kidding, use cliff [at] the website domain listed below.
Sitting on the Twenty Twelve theme right now: http://www.blacksburglivemusic.com
All plugins are currently disabled except The Events Calendar and Facebook Events plugin.

Imported a third event
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/150118195145222/
Imported event: http://blacksburglivemusic.com/event/cody-mcguire-gillies/
Same result: No Google map button or map display. Incorrect Organizer.

The screenshot you provided appears to come from the event properties itself. That works if I edit an individual event and toggle those buttons. But it’s my expectation that the events are imported with the button toggled since I have it set in The Events Calendar settings under the General tab. Besides, I’m sitting on 107 FB events to import — that’s impractical to edit each of them individually unless it’s a feature that one get if they upgrade to the Pro version (that, I’d understand).

[Jonah]

Hi Cliff,

Unfortunately we don’t have defaults for the Google Map options. I’ve just created a ticket to hopefully get this added in a future release because I think you make a really good point.

– Jonah

[Leah]

No Google map button or map display on any event imported from FB. The Event Calendar is set to display Google map buttons and maps. They’re simply not on the imported events.

Hey Cliff,

I did some testing on this, and it turns out that the Show Map check box is by default not checked when you import an event. Once I went back in and checked that box, the map showed up on the event page. Happily, Jonah wrote some code to get around this issue, so that the Show Map option is enabled for all imported events. You can check out his solution here: https://gist.github.com/jonahcoyote/5032062

We’re still working on your other questions, but I wanted to update you.

Cheers,
Leah

[Cliff]

I’m pretty sure the Organizer problem is in your calendar — not the Facebook importer. After some trial-and-error I’ve found that events are imported without an oranizer. However, when/if I modify an event manually from the Events control panel and add “The Cellar” to just 1 event the calendar then puts it on every event. If I then go back and remove “The Cellar” the calendar removes it from everything. So, as long as I don’t have an Organizer on any event then all events don’t show improperly.

The Facebook importer however is still sporadically importing events without start & end times. Two days ago I manually imported 100+ events from FB to my calendar for the month of March and 9 were imported without start/end times. Every one of them I checked against the original FB event to confirm that start/end times were set. They were on FB but were imported without them.

I appreciate you posting a link to code to fix the map embedding but I’m not even going to bother with it. Instead I’d rather see you all release an update incorporating that so that I can simply upgrade via WordPress instead of manually replacing code (because I’m not a developer/programmer versed in tinkering with PHP). I hope you understand. Just put out a new release please.

[Jonah]

Hi Cliff,

Sorry to hear about all the problems.

Re: the organizer issue – this is strange. Have you deactivated all other plugins to rule out a conflict there? Or, revert to the Twenty Eleven/Twelve theme to see if it’s an issue with your theme? Please make sure you try that first to see if that helps. I’ll need to get access to your administration to be able to troubleshoot further if that doesn’t resolve things. Please email this to pro [at] tri [dot] be, attn. to me and reference this thread.

Re: the import dates issue – this is strange as well. Again, try the above troubleshooting steps to see if that helps. Can you provide your page/organization you are importing from so I can test it on my end? Also, please specify the names of the events that are not importing with dates.

Re: the default map option – this will be incorporated into a future version but no ETA as to when it will make it in.

Thanks,
Jonah

[Jonah]

Hi Cliff (and anyone else here having the same issues),

We’ve just released version 1.0.5 of our Facebook Import plugin that addresses this issue as well a number of others. Please update the plugin, test things out and report back here if you are still experiencing issues.

Regards,
Jonah

[Author]

Posts