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Hi Barry – thanks for your reply.
Just tested with one of our other community pages and that is working via an import.
That one is: https://www.facebook.com/events/1448867615385733/
The one that gave me the API error whose community page previously worked fine is:
https://www.facebook.com/FerretSheltersDirectory
The event is:
https://www.facebook.com/events/810216152346274/The previous event (which is no longer there but is in our event listing as a past event) is https://www.facebook.com/events/1492625560953437/permalink/1506613996221260/
Thank you!
Hi Brook — thanks for taking the time to write. And sorry, for the delay in my reply. Am trying to migrate pc’s and that is never a smooth process!
Actually, I sort of have this partially working but not sure how to proceed as I don’t think it’s working quite the way we had anticipated it would.
We have Events Pro and FB Events both attached to a Business Directory installation on WordPress so events are going to be adding in from FB community pages, potentially, from around the world. I would think that irrespective of where an event is located it should work. However, that is what seems to be part of the problem.
Right now, in Eastern Daylight Time in New York an event that is coming in from Facebook may be coming in correctly (I think as sometimes the plug-in seems to have a mind of its own — but for the moment, our shelter event tests seem to be ok for EDT). BUT what is happening is when an event arrives from a different time zone it is published as if the time is Eastern Daylight Time. So, for example, if I add an event here in Connecticut for December, 2014, it shows a one hour time shift as if it were actually Daylight Savings time.
Further, if an event is posted arriving from Facebook that is Portland, Oregon, it is showing as 6 pm Eastern Time rather than 3 pm Pacfic Time.
That doesn’t sound like a corrupt installation… it sounds like the plug-in is unable to acquire the correct time information from Facebook?
I previously only saw 1 event from the UK that was so far off, I never made the connection for a posting time shift. But someone just posted an event on the West Coast and the 3 hour shift stood out clearly.
Now I actually did try to do a totally new installation on a totally new website about a week ago to do a test so I would not have to upset this directory. I am not a WordPress expert and am very reluctant to mess with our shelter directory which is working well to trouble-shoot an anciliary plug-in we purchased merely to be a convenience for our shelter participants. However, when I went to add the Facebook events, it wouldn’t allow me – I guess because it’s installed here. Even removing the installation on the one website wouldn’t let me to reinstall it on another. 🙁
If the “time shift” is just the way it is going to work, I guess we will have to decide if it’s worth the annoyance of having to manually repair the time for each event. It ports the rest of the information fine. Of course, nothing can ever work perfect – I recognize that. It doesn’t “update” for edits made to the event on Facebook (that WOULD be superb!); so some manual intervention is always going to be needed. But the time shift is a bit tricky as it means everyone is going to have to look out for it.
Thanks for any insights you can offer.
We had high hopes that this would be a useful way for our sheltering community to be able to consolidate disparate information that is all over the place on Facebook into one concise spot.Hello Julie –
Sorry for the very long delay in replying.
Had other issues to deal with on my installation.
Did get this working ALMOST working properly with Standard time but does not seem to want to deal with any events that are scehduled to occur to start during Daylight Savings Time. So I have retried using the New York setting.Did not do it. 🙁
However – I did create and add the file you asked me to produce.
Here is the result:
http://ferretshelters.org/phpinfo.php
If this doesn’t work, guess will just have to tell everyone to forwarn people that times are approximate and event times are incorrect.Oh – and sometimes it import duplicate copies for brand new events. 🙁
Julie – have not yet tried to do the php file – been fighting storms here.. but am still working on the issue to see if first I have the time setting correct. I know it’s just a matter of the right combination of removing the event; wiping out the FB codes on the Facebook Event plug-in; uninstalling it; reinstalling it; and then getting the time stamp correct – or at least that is what it seems for me.
I got it to import with a 1 hour time shift. Now trying for the magical proper time.
Hope to be able to concentrate this weekend again.
Sorry Julie – totally forgot I had to reset, and then DELETE and then reinstall in order for it to start importing again… yes, the process around this situation is enough to make one’s head spin… not sure if it will help you all understand the under-pinnings a bit better. But it seems to me that depending on how the installation is done, then it cannot be modified without ramifications. Mine clearly was installed with a WordPress UTC setting and trying to set to a city selection just was not going to work.
Will report back again tomorrow after the auto import as for certain direct import does not function — I tested that this morning and the extremely bizzare time shift was still there. So that clearly does not work on my particular installation. 🙁
It is set to publishes. But, one last try as I THINK I found the problem… and this is sort of embarressing . . .
I have reverified the UTC time — NYC is not UTC+5 it is UTC-5 ….. trying it in the morning didn’t make it nearly as obvious as trying it at night when military time and the date shift showed up in wordpress…. so I have cleared everything to zero’s, deactivated, and then “reinstalled” with the proper keys and secret for Facebook and will see what the morning brings . . . for the 2 groups with events…. am still not sure why it wouldn’t import events — but maybe it had to do with not importing something it already identified as having been imported previously.
Will report back in the morning….
But we do know that the NYC setting did not work at all — so will stay with this for now.
Thank you, Ann
Morning report —
Did NOT import the event. (Clearly unhappy auto importing twice). However, it was sitting in the “import from FB” list. So I Imported manually. Which it did – with a 2 hour later time shift.So – using UTC+5 sets the time 2 hours later. Using NYC sets the time 8 hours earlier.
Seems I would have to delete the event or again, go “trick” the FB events into thinking it was a fresh installation and setting my time zone to UTC+3 (if I am calculating correctly…not sure anymore) in order to trick it into working properly. Not sure what will happen when DST occurs and we have our shelters depending on this to work for them. Right now, am not signing them up for it, but can only avoid it for so long…
Thank you,
Ann
Hi Julie –
Well it did NOT import the event…..So… I manually imported it from the import FB events where it actually did show it sitting in the events list.
When I did, it happily imported the event — but with an 8 hour time earlier time shift rather than 10 hour earlier shift… Progress? 🙂
Soooooooo….
I deleted the event under events and have reset the time setting to UTC+5 hours. Let’s see what happens overnight again and
1) if it imports and 2) what I get for a time stamp.
Ann
Hello Julie – OK – went through everything using New York City for location rather than the UTC+5 … and will see what happens by morning.
Ann
Hi Julie – will try this later today. But I can verify that one event that had been manually input seems to be perfectly fine and is holding the time perfectly even with the changes to the time in settings. So that does not seem to be affecting it.
Will report back tomorrow what happens overnight.
Thank you,
Ann
Julie – Well – it did import the new event with the setting changed to daily; UTC-5 (rather than NYC). HOWEVER, the event came in 2 hours later than scheduled… LOL so instead of running from noon to 4 pm it is showing as running from 2 pm to 6 pm.
Soooooooooooooo — should I move to Greenland or Phoenix? UTC-3 or UTC-7 to get it to work correctly?
Though I still would like to start fresh if you can give me instructions for that.
Thank you.
Ann
Hi Julie –
I added a new event and imported that. Same behavior. 10 hour shift ahead. 🙁 PC is fine. As for the server, I’m hosted with Godaddy, so can’t imagine that is the issue.
At this point I think it makes more sense to back up a bit.
I am rather more concerned that I can’t do a fresh installation and try to get my auto-import working again.
As I indicated, nothing is importing at all. No new events or new organization events are being added. Nothing. They show up in the list ready to import, but they do not auto-import….
Also as I indicated, when I totally removed FB events, and reinstalled, I did NOT have to populate any information – everything was still there from before – so it really never uninstalled if all the settings remained. Files may have uninstalled, but settings are what drive those files and clearly that is what is corrupted.
This had been working fine. It was when I was alerted to a 1 hour time shift in the events for Ferret Assn of CT that I went to trouble shoot it by reading the forums and changing the time zone to UTC-5; and then to NYC. That’s then when I tried changing to a twice-daily and then hourly auto-import in an effort to see if the correction repaired the problem that everything went hay-wire. Then I proceeded to manually import and the 10 hour earlier time stamp was showing up. If I recall for 1 or 2 days, the auto-import worked with a 1 hour shift, while the manual import had the 10 hour shift. Then the auto-shift stopped working completely. Maybe when I went to NYC? can’t recall now (will change back and see what happens overnight tonight – can’t hurt at this point).
I can live without manually importing events. I cannot live without auto-importing events for my organizations. Even if it’s 1 hour off on the time, I’ll move my time zone to make it work. It’s a rotten work-a-round, but I’ll do it.
But to even try to do that, I have to be able to COMPLETELY wipe out the FB events package. Now how do I do that? Does it also mean I have to remove the app from FB as well? And then go through the entire process all over again?
Thank you.
AnnHi Julie – made perfect sense and tried it all and a few other things this morning. Still not working… Here’s what I did.
First, I do have several organizations listed under Events>Settings>Facebook — those are the ones that are no longer importing including FerretAssocationofConnecticut
I have been using the Events>Import:Facebook to test and actually I do not have to enter the id — it automatically goes out and seems to identify the events on facebook with little check-marks in front. I’ve clicked those and that is what is being imported with the 10 hour time shift. I am not entering an event id. However, I just tested it using the event ID rather than the check box and it does the same thing – brings it in with a 10 hour time shift. And yes, I shut off all plug-ins other than Events, Events Pro and Events – Facebook.
Then I did the uninstall and reinstall of the Facebook Events. Now the odd thing is that I did not have to re-enter any information regarding my license or Facebook App ID or App Secret or any of the organizations. Everything including all the settings were pre-filled.
I tried deleting, reactivating twice. Second time I tried, before reinstalling, going into Events-Calendar and making a couple of changes and “saving” them hoping to overwrite any settings that might be holding over previous data from the Facebook application. Did not matter. It still reapplied all my previous settings – so that may help narrow down where the issue lies.
Again – we have 2 problems – the incorrect time when it imports manually and no automatic importing at all – and it seemed when it did, I had a 1 hour time shift – but can’t test that at this point as that functionality is not working.
Thanks,
AnnHi Julie — Yes – I’ve tried that. But it actually is not importing at all – nothing. Not even if I disable the plug-in and re-enable it.
When it was working I had a one hour time shift.
Now the only way I can get an event in is to manually import it and I still have the 10 hour time shift.
So it is essentially – broken.
The events showing on my site at the moment have been entered the good old fashioned way – by hand.
What I have not tried is to remove the plug in and to reinstall it. Should I do that? And if I do, my only question would be does the FB key and secret remain the same or do I remove it on FB and start all over again… I have about 5 or 6 organizations – but at this point it isn’t working so haven’t added any others.
Thank you.
Ann
Hmm – so sorry – I thought I posted a reply.. must not have “taken.” Anyway – here are two of the facebook events. They are published, but I did them manually with a couple of minor edits to be sure I saw the difference.
https://www.facebook.com/events/703577889661553/
https://www.facebook.com/events/245524008947762/
