Sometimes no location import

[Christoph]

I have imported a lot of face books events. In some cases the location was not imported.
For example https://www.facebook.com/events/803660996380724/ or https://www.facebook.com/events/1552201918377344/

[Brook]

Howdy Cristoph,

Thanks for including the events. I just tried importing both of those myself. When I imported them the created a venue within WordPress. I am assuming it is the same for you: Screenshot. However, as you can see the address is the title of the venue. This is because the venue information is incomplete. On Facebook you will notice in the first link that it does not provide you a “Show Map” link to view the event on the map. This is because even Facebook does not understand the address, and thus can’t locate it.

The best solution is to edit the events on Facebook and type in the full universally understood address. Note: On very rare occasion there isn’t a universally understood “official” address. When this happens sometimes you can get Facebook to find it, sometimes not. And even if you can get Facebook to understand as it apparently does in the second event you linked to, Google Maps still might not. Which is what is happening right now with the second event. But, hopefully there is a more specific official address you can input for the second event, and thus fix it.

Does that all make sense? Does that answer you questions?

Cheers!

– Brook

[Christoph]

Thank’s for your answer but it doesn’t help me.
I delete all import events and locations and make a new import. But is it still the same probleme. For some events no venues are generated.Not even the title of the venue.
This event doesn’t create an venue https://www.facebook.com/events/1601554556750020/
ans this not https://www.facebook.com/events/545495162255630/

An other example:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1562096517378412/ no venue
and https://www.facebook.com/events/959640610722480/ is ok

I can’t edit the events on Facebook because I’am not the owner.

[Brook]

Thank you very Christoph for keeping track of the Facebook IDs and sharing the examples. That makes it a lot easier to test and replicate.

I just tried importing this event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1562096517378412/ – One that imported without a venue for you. For me the venue populated. When I view in the admin area you can see the venue listed as seen here. In your admin is the Venue completely blank, or is it just incorrect?

If it’s blank, it is possible you are facing timeout issues. When doing a lot of imports at once, and depending on your server a lot might be as few as 5 or as much as 50, the process can timeout and hit or other resource limitations. When that happens the data can be imported improperly. Were you importing multiples at once? If so, how many?

We have been exploring ways to try and improve mass imports. Currently though, there is no good work around save for doing fewer imports at once.

Please let me know! If we can zero in on the probable cause, then we can try and figure out how to fix or work around it.

Cheers!
– Brook

[Christoph]

In my admin the Venue is completely blank. And it is no corresponding entry in the venue database.

I do no mass import. I try also a single import.
Very strange that it works for you.
Do you have another idea?

[Brook]

Very interesting. Thanks for the extra information.

We did do a pretty big overhaul of our Facebook tickets application and released it Yesterday. Facebook updated their API, and so we had to make some changes to keep up with them. Have you updated to Facebook Events 3.9.4 yet? If not, there is a very fair that will solve the problem for all future imports. Malformed venues has been one of the symptoms of newer API keys running on the old API. In order to fix an already imported event, you would need to delete it, empty trash, and reimport.

It is also possible that will not fix it. If you continue experiencing issues would you mind copy/pasting your system information into a private reply here? I would like to have a look at a couple more things. Your system information can be found in WP Admin > Events > Settings > Help.

Thanks Christoph!

– Brook

[Travis Ware]

This is also not working for me. I have imported 28 events and only a few of them will import the Venue, and none import the actual address to the event on Facebook. Please help! The particular venue which will not import is RIPCORD (https://www.facebook.com/ripcordbar?fref=ts). Here is a sample event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1441443526166303/?ref=5

http://www.bayoucitypups.com/

Thank you!
Travis

[Brook]

Good to know. Thanks for letting us know, Travis. It does look like a very similar problem, if not identical.

In our forums we do our best to keep each topic focused on one user. To that end Travis, would you mind opening a new topic so we can help you? If I were I would specify whether or not you are running version 3.9.4 of Facebook Events. If not I would also post your system information. Your system information can be found in WP Admin > Events > Settings > Help. There is also a fair possibility that this issue could be resulting from a plugin or theme conflict. So if you are in a hurry to find a workaround testing for conflicts (click here for a guide) would not be a bad idea either, and then sharing the result in that topic.

Cheers!

– Brook

[Christoph]

This reply is private.

[Brook]

Thanks for testing out the new version and sharing your system info, Christoph .

I am going to try to reproduce your autoimport settings on a testing site. Just so you know it looks like you have about 20 Facebook groups setup to automatically import each time you visit the Import: Facebook page. That definitely is along the lines of a “mass import” that I mentioned earlier, and it is quite possibly the source of the problem. Once you have that many groups going you could theoretically start facing timeouts and incomplete data. But, before changing your settings I want to see if I can reproduce this and then hopefully find a good workaround. Please give me a day to investigate and then report back.

I have one question for you though. Do you remember when you generated your Facebook API key? Was it last month, or last year, or years ago?

Thanks, Christoph.

– Brook

[Christoph]

I don’t know exactly but it is at least on year ago when I create the Facebook API ID

I can’t believe that the “mass import” is the reason for the problems. I try also import only one event and the same error occur.

Thanks for help

[Brook]

I don’t know exactly but it is at least on year ago when I create the Facebook API ID

Thank you, that is very helpful to know. If it was in the last 2-3 months there might have been a possibility it was a different problem. But this completely rules out that possibility.

I can’t believe that the “mass import” is the reason for the problems. I try also import only one event and the same error occur.

I need to give you a little backstory. You have 27 Facebook Groups setup to automatically import in WP Admin > Events > Settings > Facebook. When you visit the Import: Facebook page, we must query all 27 of those groups. It’s a very lengthy query. Basically, because of all of those groups every import you do is a mass import. Even if you only type one event in for the manual import, the plugin still has to run a query for all 27 groups, which returns over 100 events!

I just deleted that event form my system, and the venue, then emptied both trashes. I recreated your exact settings and reimported https://www.facebook.com/events/1562096517378412/. It worked exactly as expected, the venue was created and so forth.

This really leaves two possibilities:

1. You are suffering from a plugin conflict. If you were to delete that event from your database, empty the trash. Then head over to your venues and delete an empty venues that have no events in them, and empty the venue trash. Then follow this guide test if there is a conflict. We could determine if this is the cause.
2. You could be facing a resource limit problem due to the amount of Facebook Groups you have setup to auto import. Do you need all of those groups? It appears to me that some of them are not even valid groups. The fewer you have, particularly fewer invalid ones, the better. Your site will run faster and it may even fix some glitches.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

– Brook

[Christoph]

I have tried everything as you suggested it. I delete all and use only one Facebook group even reinstalled the plugin. But nothing worked.

I noticed an interesting detail. Please look at the screenshot:

Every event where the location is printed in blue ist imported well, only the event where the location line ist black don’t import the location.
But why it works for you?

[Christoph]

Here again the link to the screenshot

[Christoph]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m0cmv7y10t5mhq3/Screenshot%202015-05-07%2017.40.54.jpg?dl=0

[Author]

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