Google FriendConnect API
I've been following the #pubcon conversation with interest, and here is the official announcement :). All I can say... look here. Thanks to Matt and Anindo of Google for their help on this!
PDF Tags: Google, Social Media
Category: Social Media
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
Other posts you might like:
79 Responses to “Google FriendConnect API”
Comments closed, if you feel you have something to say:
drop me a line.
by webdesign on 12 March, 2009 at 16:12
Nice possibility for FriendConnect i will be looking to implement it soon :) Do you know if alot of users already make use of this ? or do they have to make a Friendconnect account ?
by Chung Bey Luen on 12 March, 2009 at 16:30
Great plugin, thanks.
by JoostdeValk on 12 March, 2009 at 17:13
Let's see what happens now.
by LeeRobertson on 12 March, 2009 at 18:16
Wow that was fast!
Trying it out now.
Pingback: Blog de Xoxe » API de Google Friend Connect disponible al fin!
by Elendil on 12 March, 2009 at 20:28
One question, how to made for, when I click in a nickname, go to profile of Google Friend Connect?
by Joost de Valk on 12 March, 2009 at 20:31
I'm afraid I'm not fully sure I get your question right, but it takes you to the google friendconnect profile on the current site at the moment, as the API doesn't give back more data yet... As soon as they return other URL's, I'll start using those.
by Elendil on 12 March, 2009 at 20:41
I see, thanks for this plugin!
by AnneJanRoeleveld on 13 March, 2009 at 01:18
It works very well! Thanks for sharing this.
An issue to solve: the nickname is written without spaces between your first and surname.
by Joost de Valk on 13 March, 2009 at 06:58
Yeah I know, I'm looking into what's causing that :)
by donnacha on 13 March, 2009 at 02:37
So, could the same post give people the choice of signing in with either Google FriendConnect or Facebook Connect if you also used the Facebook Connect plugin?
by Marc on 13 March, 2009 at 06:32
Joost, if you could make a plugin to do this, it would be greatly appreciated.
The Facebook Connect plugin for WordPress listed on http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/WP-FBConnect isn't very good at all.
TechCrunch has a much better implementation of Facebook Connect, but it looks like they're using their own custom WordPress plugin.
by Joost de Valk on 13 March, 2009 at 06:59
Isn't TechCrunch using the plugin those Spanish guys wrote? I think they're called Sociable (exactly like my plugin is).
by BillyVierra on 14 March, 2009 at 12:46
While I like the idea of having a Facebook Connect plugin as well, I think that it would be a better idea to get Google to add it in to their code, kind of like you have both AIM and Yahoo as well in this code... I know this is wishful thinking but it makes a lot more sense than having multiple plugins that in reality all do the same thing with different sites :)
by Marc on 16 March, 2009 at 04:51
I don't think TechCrunch is using Sociable. I remember reading a comment from one of the TechCrunch guys a few months ago saying that they did the implementation in-house.
by Morgaine on 27 July, 2009 at 21:33
I use this plugin in combination with the RPX plugin, which provides my visitors with oodles of ways to sign in, among which Facebook and Twitter. Just added the Google Friend Connect plugin today, but it seems to be working fine.
by Marc on 13 March, 2009 at 06:23
I was wondering what's the difference between this plugin and http://code.google.com/p/google-friend-connect-plugins/wiki/WordPressPlugin ? It looks like they do the same thing?
by Joost de Valk on 13 March, 2009 at 07:00
Mine is based on that code but has loads of improvements already, as well as a backend for you to enter your FriendConnect ID etc. Check the full changelog here.
by Joe on 15 March, 2009 at 14:21
I just want to test whether or not my Gravatar shows up when i Don't sign in theu FriendConnect.
by Joe on 15 March, 2009 at 14:21
I just want to see if my Gravatar shows up when i Don't sign in thru FriendConnect.
by Joost de Valk on 15 March, 2009 at 14:42
Hey Joe, apparently it doesn't... I'll check what's causing this bug in the FriendConnect plugin.
by Joost de Valk on 15 March, 2009 at 15:07
Ok I've just fixed it :) thx for helping me notice the bug, 1.0.3 on it's way!
by EvertJan on 15 March, 2009 at 15:45
That's quick! I've implemented it on Onbezet.nl now. Thanks.
by pala on 15 March, 2009 at 18:30
no .css file in 1.0.3?
by Joost de Valk on 15 March, 2009 at 19:48
No the css has been reduced to two lines, and is added in the head, to save a file call.
by Joe on 15 March, 2009 at 18:54
Wow, you are awesome! Nice, quick turnaround on that one. Maybe Google should pay you. :)
by Evert Jan on 15 March, 2009 at 20:26
Btw, it seems that "Notify me of followup comments via e-mail" is not working when using GFC when replying, since it uses a @friendconnect.google.com address to subscribe.
by Joost de Valk on 16 March, 2009 at 10:00
No it won't work, I'm checking to see whether there's a way to disable it when you're logged in through FriendConnect.
by Showbiz Intriga? Get It From Boy! on 15 March, 2009 at 22:15
does not work for me. says it has a broken fc something on directory..error manifests in ALL comments. commenter name is replaced by the error message.so i disabled it. and everything is back to normal. i hope you fix this. i really like the idea behind this plugin.
by Joost de Valk on 16 March, 2009 at 10:00
please copy paste the complete error message here, and I'll look into it :)
by Joe on 16 March, 2009 at 04:08
Joost,
Great work, I love the plugin, One thing: I cannot seem to get the Friend Connect user avatars to appear in my comments list. Any idea why? It seems to default to the Gravatr icon now for ALL users.
by Joe on 16 March, 2009 at 04:20
I am using the typical gravatar code to display them, as shown: ""
by Joe on 16 March, 2009 at 04:21
Ok that didn't display properly, sorry: get_avatar( $comment, $size = '50')
by Joost de Valk on 16 March, 2009 at 10:03
Hmm that's weird,
echo get_avatar($comment,$size='48' );works here, as you can see, as people have FriendConnect avatars too... Any error in either the page of the error log?by Joe on 16 March, 2009 at 12:46
Nope, no errors at all. Gravatars work fine, as per your fix, but the Yahoo avatars on the actual comments is not working.
by Joe on 16 March, 2009 at 12:49
Here is an example: the one comment on this page, from "kgboogie", is via FriendConnect...but as you can see the avatar is defaulting to the "grey man" icon, while this particular FC user DEFINITELY has an icon, as they noted it did in fact display below the comments box after signing in: http://www.terracurve.com/2009/03/06/belize-resorts-show-off-its-underwater-paradise/#comment-1774
by Joe on 16 March, 2009 at 15:04
Hey man, any ideas? I am desperate here...I tried re-editing my comments.php file to its original state, but even that didn't work. What could I possibly be missing?
by Joe on 18 March, 2009 at 22:50
Any word on this issue? I understand I may very well be the only one experiencing this, but cannot seem to figure out what may be the cause. Do you know of any JavaScript or other plugins that may be causing a conflict?
by Mark on 16 March, 2009 at 10:21
Hey Joost!
Fantastic work here, well done! I have a question though, I would love to know if what the best Facebook Connect plugin is out there, cos the spanish one and the official Facebook one is not that great..
Thank you very much!
by Joost de Valk on 16 March, 2009 at 10:26
I honestly don't know...
by T3MEDIA on 16 March, 2009 at 15:28
There is one that works with plaxo... Its more of a hack than anything else.
With it... you have people sign up from a smorgasbord of websites.
by JoeAscanio on 16 March, 2009 at 19:40
Just want to see if the FriendConnect icon appears beside the comment...it won't work on my blog!
by JoeAscanio on 16 March, 2009 at 20:32
is anyone else having this issue?
by Evert Jan on 17 March, 2009 at 09:02
Joost,
When I am not logged in through GFC, I see only 16 replies on this page instead of 41! Is this a feature or a flaw?
by Evert Jan on 17 March, 2009 at 09:05
And now that I logged out from GFC, I do see all comments. I had never logged in to GFC from this PC before and I didn't see all comments until I first logged in. After logging out, I still see all comments. Strange huh?
by Evert Jan on 17 March, 2009 at 09:11
Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce this. Even after deleting cookies, I can't find anything wrong now. I am lost... ;)
by Peter on 17 March, 2009 at 09:05
BUG: Your blog does nothing. if I login with the FriendConnect, is refreshed only.
by PeterBicsak on 17 March, 2009 at 09:18
Problem: This e-mail address I use both systems. (gravatar and GFC)
by shibuya246 on 18 March, 2009 at 18:25
when i sign in on your webpage under the POST YOUR COMMENT button, it loaded my details and then refreshed the entire page and focused me back at the top. Is that supposed to happen? I have the same issue when I implemented on my own site and got an endless loop refresh somehow.
by Joe on 18 March, 2009 at 19:48
Testing Gravatar again.
by shibuya246 on 19 March, 2009 at 13:44
How can we also use this plugin to have a full login for the site rather than just the comment section?
by Joe on 21 March, 2009 at 13:09
Has support for this plugin stopped?
by Joost de Valk on 21 March, 2009 at 13:16
No certainly not, looking into some bugs right now, unfortunately (well actually, luckily :) ), I have a full time job so my time to code is limited.
by Joe on 21 March, 2009 at 23:42
I completely understand, I am in the same boat!
by shibuya246 on 22 March, 2009 at 08:06
idea - would it make sense to save the GFC ID as a separate field in the table as well?
by Ricky on 25 March, 2009 at 03:54
There is a weird bug that was happening when I tried to login to your site yesterday and is happening on my site today. Someone else looks like they are having the same issue. When you login, GFC says "Settings, Invite, Loading Profile..." as soon as it starts to load, the page refreshes and it gets caught in an endless loop. Do you know how to fix the issue?
by Ricky on 25 March, 2009 at 03:59
I believe the part causing issues has something to do with
by Caneblu on 28 March, 2009 at 16:34
Hi Joost, thanks for the great plugin. Three questions, you provide friendconnect.js on package.. why? is different from original hosted at Google?
Is not better use the original one, also for caching improvements?
Thank you :)
by DavyWolf on 29 March, 2009 at 17:01
I have enabled the Google friend connect wordpress plugin on my site isoar.info, but it's not showing the gravatars.
by Joe on 5 April, 2009 at 04:45
Still unable to get the plugin to display Gravatars OR Google Friend Connect avatars.....
by RobertWallis on 6 April, 2009 at 17:16
It's great that you are putting so much effort into this plug-in. The major problem with Friend Connect is it's lack of penetration. As soon as all the wordpress installations get a sniff of the benifits it will ramp up the user base and that's when things will really take off.
Although the site I run isn't wordpress based efforts like yours will help up all out in the long run.
Cheers and thanks!
by RobertWallis on 6 April, 2009 at 17:28
Note to self... scan for typos before hitting post!
Seems to work great though.
The only gripe I have isn't with the plugin, but with your canvas page.
Why don't you style it so it fits in with the site?
I'm sure that as friend connect evolves, allot of interaction and exploring will take place on the "canvas.html" page.
Getting it to "fit in" is only a 5min job!
:-)
by Carrie on 8 April, 2009 at 01:06
I am working on a website for a friend and I am getting this funky error when trying to activate the plugin:
Cannot redeclare fc_wp_get_avatar() (previously declared in xxx/xxxx/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress/src/fc_plugin.php:54) in xxx/xxxx/public_html/wp-content/plugins/friendconnect-1.0.3/fc_plugin.php on line 98
Was wondering if anyone else had this problem.
by Carrie on 8 April, 2009 at 01:12
OOps never mind, this is what I call a blonde moment of the day!
I saw that I had the google wordpress plugin still in the plugin directory. Once I erased it. It worked. Thanks for the great plugin!
by drcypher on 20 April, 2009 at 14:34
I think I will install this plugin too :)
by 24Seven on 25 April, 2009 at 09:11
Hope your plugin works better than the one offered from the GFC link. Will give it a shot.
by 24Seven on 25 April, 2009 at 09:33
Fits like a Glove - Great Work!
by Kate on 7 May, 2009 at 06:27
I just started a new blog that I put live tonight. I also installed GFC for the first time, in addition to installing your plugin. But, while the GFC widget is showing up in the sidebar, the "Sign In" button (from the plugin) is not. I did a view source and I see that the plugin code is being generated in the header. Any idea what might cause the button to not show?
It may be a simple answer... I'm just not familiar enough with it to know! :) Any help would be appreciated.
by Michael on 10 May, 2009 at 09:53
You might try going into "Discussion" under "Settings" in your admin panel and unchecking the "Must be a registered user and logged in to comment" box. I had to do this to get the button to appear, but in all honesty, I was using the GFC plugin that is hosted and shown on the google friends connect web page. (I also used Joost's plugin before I tried the google GFC plugin and got the same result....that is, button doesn't show when the "Must be a registered user...." box is checked.) One of the things Joost stated when he advertised his plugin is that we could have this option...having registered and logged in users. Joost, if you're reading this, please fix this because I really NEED this for my site. Also, I would really like to use your plugin because it's pretty straightforward compared to the other GFC plugins.
by Kate on 10 May, 2009 at 15:08
Thanks for the tip, Michael. I already have it unchecked, though. Hmmm.... Hope I get it figured out. I'm planning on looking at it again today. Thanks again!
by Kate on 10 May, 2009 at 23:26
I should clarify/update: I just checked again, and I didn't see anything in the header. (Is there supposed to be?) I could've sworn I saw something the other day. Thanks in advance for any help!
by Kate on 11 May, 2009 at 23:20
Sorry, one more update. I was running the site through the validator, and I noticed that some of the code from the plugin is indeed being generated. Here's a snippet from the end:
Thanks again for any help you can provide!
by Kate on 15 May, 2009 at 20:38
Sorry about that... I was trying to show that a break tag and a div with the id "profile" were being generated when the plugin is activated. But, that is the only "extra" markup that I see in the code. Still no Google Sign In button. I'm having more people join the site and I'd like to get this sorted out. Again, I appreciate any help! :)
by Nick on 23 May, 2009 at 00:58
Has there been any resolution to the 'page constantly refreshes' problem? Would really like to get this great plugin working on my site!
by Matt on 31 May, 2009 at 12:53
Hi there, I love the idea of this plugin, but I can't seem to get it to work. All it seems to do is disable the commenting function. I'm using a revolution theme; is it possible that the plugin isn't compatible with that particular theme..?
by Caleb on 11 September, 2009 at 16:41
Hmm, for some reason this isn't working for me. When I require registration to comment, all I get is the "You must be logged in to post a comment" message. There's no GFC login or anything.
In your instructions you say to add "" right after the " You must be ..." area in comments.php. However, in my theme comments.php doesn't contain this line. The line is instead located in comments-form.php
So I modified comments-form.php like so:
You must be <a href="/wp-login.php?redirect_to=">logged in to post a comment.
But I'm still not having any luck. The user is only directed to create an account on the site, not a GFC account. Any ideas?
by Caleb on 11 September, 2009 at 16:42
oops, looks like the comment form stripped out my code.
by Jerome on 14 September, 2009 at 01:50
Hi, I am using wp-framework 2 theme for wordpress. I installed your plug-in and I entered my information in the back-end. What is suppose to happen now? I don't see that sign-in button anywhere on my pages or next to my comment form. ???
by forhair on 19 October, 2009 at 00:20
Thank you for this information, very useful.