Facebook w/ embedded preview image (solved)

[MaxLOL]

Hi guys,

I read the topic viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11627 with great delight. This funcionality would be a great asset for my work.
But despite all efforts i failed miserably. The preview image doesn't show. I've set up a dummy pano and followed the instruction step-by-step.

Embed P2VR.png (564.11 KiB) Viewed 4403 times

FTP source.jpg (128.43 KiB) Viewed 4403 times

FTP source detail.jpg (164.21 KiB) Viewed 4403 times

Additionally, I don't understand the reason why you need to use a transformation output on the preview file.
--> "• Select the Preview image. Tip: output the project first so you have your output folder, then put your preview image in the folder first, size 800px x 420px, then select the preview image in your output folder, again in my case the path was: iss2/preview.jpg. Use Pano2VR transformation output."

Maybe somebody can enlighten me, why it doesn't work in my case. I'm sure that i'm missing sth, but can't wrap my head around it.

[Hopki]

Hi,
I have just made a test to make sure it still works: http://hopkimedia.co.uk/facebook/index.html
You can copy the URL into your own Facebook time line to see if you see the preview. Set it to Only Me if you don't want everyone to see it in your time line
What I did was fill out the parts needed in the embed-pano2vr.ggt, here are my settings.
Note I chanced my outputs folder name to facebook:

Screen Shot 2018-05-03 at 17.32.43.png (317.84 KiB) Viewed 4391 times

For the preview yes use the transformation output to make a nice image for your post, it can be rectilinear or stereographic or what ever you want but 800 x 420px is the size I use.

When done upload to your server.

I then used the debug page to see if all is well.
Here is the link to the debug site. LINK

Type in the URL for your pano in the input URL text field and click Debug, it will complain that its not been used in Facebook but ignore this and open it up.

The attachment Screen Shot 2018-05-03 at 17.32.43.png is no longer available

Make sure you see your preview image, now copy the Fetched URL and paste into your Facebooks time line.
Regards,
Hopki

[MaxLOL]

Hi Hopki,

thank you very much! I always forget about the Debugger. FB couldn't find the "og:image" and it seemed to have trouble with the URL.

I removed the "http://" as well as the slash (/) at the end of the host name (see first screenshot OP).

I created a fresh output, then reuploaded the .xml & .html files to the server and scraped it with the Debugger. And it worked.

Awesome!

[wiso]

hello,
had the same problem with the preview picture since one and a half year...

now it works!

thank you maxLOL for the hint:

"I removed the "http://" as well as the slash (/) at the end of the host name"

regards,
wiso

[dennisvanduijn]

Hi Hopki,

It seems like Facebook recently dropped / crippled some sharer functionality. De URL you provided (http://hopkimedia.co.uk/facebook/index.html) does not make Facebook to load a preview when shared anymore. The debugger gives warnings and errors. Same is true for all my previously sharable projects. Are you aware of this and most important, is there a solution worth sharing?

Kind regards,

Dennis

[Hopki]

Hi Dennis,
I made another example: http://hopkimedia.co.uk/village_green
I added to my facebook time line which did not show the preview image.
I went to the debugger and entered http://hopkimedia.co.uk/village_green
Then I copied the Canonical URL, which does look the same, however when I paste into the timeline it looks like this:

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A% ... skWtlrLyUA

This then shows the preview, you can then remove the URL from the post.
Note: Once done, if you wanted you can delete the post and then just use the forts URL: http://hopkimedia.co.uk/village_green
And it will still work, but only after you have jumped through all the hoops above.
Cheers,
Hopki

[dennisvanduijn]

Thanks! In the meantime Facebook seems to have fixed it without the need for any hoops.