Free VirtueMart Open Graph Meta Tag for Facebook sharing

[Jumbo!]

Most of the VirtueMart websites are using Facebook Like button widgets in their websites. But when a person clicks on the like button you need to pass correct structured data to Facebook so that your product information gets displayed correctly with the correct product image on the liker's timeline. So it is just not about liking your page but letting people know what exactly they like. It brings greater business possibilities to your online store and helps retain customers. And the only way to pass correct information to Facebook is through OGP tags. That's exactly what this plugin does within a minute.

VM OG Meta Tag Plugin enables you to integrate your Joomla and VirtueMart website into the Open Graph Protocol. The Open Graph Protocol enables you to integrate your Web pages into the social graph. By adding Open Graph tags to your website, you can classify and describe the content you attach Like buttons to. This allows Facebook to present the right image, category, and other information about your site when Likes of your content appear in news feed stories and user profiles. Your page will show up in the same places that Facebook pages show up around the site (e.g. search), and you can target ads to people who like your content. The structured data you provide via the Open Graph Protocol defines how your page will be represented on Facebook.

It not only takes care of the VirtueMart pages but also takes care of your general Joomla Pages and Articles. You can even use the plugin on the site which does not use VirtueMart.

It's a FREE plugin that can be downloaded and used by everyone without any limitation.

Compatible with Joomla! 4, Joomla! 3, Joomla 2.5, VirtueMart 4, VirtueMart 3, VirtueMart 2.6 and VirtueMart 2.0.

Detailed Product Description: https://www.virtueplanet.com/extensions/vm-og-meta-tag

Free Download: https://www.virtueplanet.com/downloads/vm-og-meta-tag/

We have installed this plugin on our VP Merchant Template demo site. Check the source code of the site to see the OGP Meta Tags on any page. Click on the Like button on the product details page and you will find the product details with the correct product image in your Facebook timeline.

Link to the demo site: https://demos.virtueplanet.com/vm3/

[Jumbo!]

VM OG Meta Tag Plugin has been update. The latest version 1.1 of the plugin is now available in your site.

[Jumbo!]

VM OG Meta Tag Plugin has been update to version 3.0. Now it is compatible to Joomla! 3, Joomla 2.5, VirtueMart 3, VirtueMart 2.6 and VirtueMart 2.0.

[franayala]

Hi Jumbo!

And how to get the Facebook App Unique ID to configure the plugin?

Thanks!

[Jumbo!]

• Login to Facebook
• Go to Facebook Developers Application page : https://developers.facebook.com/apps
• Choose one app that you set up for a target before
• Within the description, you will find APP ID.

[hk]

Hi Jumbo,

Is there any Set Up documentation for this plugin?

I just downloaded and installed. Aftering providing the App ID and making the plugin Enabled, it crashed with below error:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STATIC in /home/xxxx/public_html/plugins/system/vmogmetatag/vmogmetatag.php on line 59

Can you please assist.

Joomla version: 2.5.20

[Jumbo!]

The setup of the plugin is extremely straight forward. You just need to fill up the information fields in the plugin and enable it.

You are seeing PHP error in your site. Which version of PHP are you using in your site?

[hk]

Hi Jumbo!,

My PHP version is 5.2.17
Once I delete the vmogmetatag.php file, my site is up. So I guess its something to do with the plugin.
Can you please check.

[Jumbo!]

The plugin needs PHP 5.3+. PHP 5.2 is not supported.

[hk]

Thanks for the info!
Let me use the plugin after I get my PHP upgraded.

Can you let me know, what is the purpose of Facebook App ID for this plugin?

[Jumbo!]

You can track the shares and do many other things with your own App ID. To learn more visit: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph/getting-started

[jjk]

Hi Jumbo!
just wanted to let you know that there might be a problem with version 3.0 of this plugin when using the latest VirtueMart 3.0.19.x. When I have the plugin enabled, VM category views don't switch language with the first click on a language flag in a multilingual shop. After the first click some meta tags fail to switch their language. See here:
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=136543.msg477296#msg477296
However, as far as I can see, the plugin doesn't use onAfterInitialise in the code, as described by Milbo in the forum thread.

[Jumbo!]

Thanks jjk. I will check it.

[Ventsi Genchev]

First I want to thank Jumbo for the great plugin.

I have the following question:
The pictures of my products are 1000x1000 pixels. When shared on Facebook, the top and bottom of the photos are missing. Accordingly they look very bad. Is there salvation for this?
The only thing I have as an idea is that maybe the product picture should be less than 400x400 pixels. Then the photo will remain on the left and the text on the right.
I do not know. Please give an idea.


Something else - I noticed is that Facebook has a problem with the weight of the product if it's in kilograms.
I do not know why, but the following data is provided: weight: units "content =" KG" (in capital letters).
So I have to make the following changes to the vmogmetatag.php:
from:
$this->setData('product:weight:units', $product->product_weight_uom);
to:
$this->setData('product:weight:units', strtolower($product->product_weight_uom));

Once again I thank you for the plugin. I've tried many others (including some have bought), but this plugin is, in my opinion, the best.

[Jumbo!]

Thanks for your input on product weight unit.

Facebook shares expect your images to be is a specific proportion. Use images that are at least 1200 x 630 pixels for the best display on high resolution devices. At the minimum, you should use images that are 600 x 315 pixels . Refer to this Facebook documentation to learn more - https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/best-practices