Completed: November 2011
Partner: Screenpilot

Custom theme

www.theshopsatwailea.com

Completed: November 2011
WordPress Theme: MyCuisine

www.ciaofromdebbie.com

Completed: August 2011
Partner: St. Dwayne Design

www.providencecc.net

Sigma Alpha Lambda

Completed: June 2011
Custom theme

www.salhonors.org

In order to use this plugin, I had to create a custom app in Facebook.  This was fairly simple, but hard to figure out all that was required and where things were located.  So I thought I’d give a quick tutorial on how to do this for those of you who are curious.

Step 1: Setup Facebook Application

1. Go to: http://developers.facebook.com after logging into Facebook.
2. Click on “My Apps” on the top menu bar
3. Click on “+ Setup New App“
4. Type in the App Name
5. Agree to the terms and click “Create App“
6. Enter the security code correctly on the next page

Step 2: Edit App Settings

1. In the About edit settings, at a minimum, fill out:
   1. Description
   2. Contact email
   3. Privacy Policy URL (while not required, it’s a good idea) – see this article for more information
   4. Terms of Service URL
2. In the Web Site settings, fill out:
   1. Site URL
   2. Site domain (This field is important.  If you leave this field blank, the buttons for sharing and logging into Facebook to leave a comment on your WordPress web site will not work.)

Step 3: Install WordPress Plugin

1. After logging into the Administration panel of your WordPress site (please note, this is only for self-hosted WP sites), go to Add New under the Plugins menu.
2. Type “Simple Facebook Connect” into the search field and click “Search Plugins“
3. Click “Install Now” under Simple Facebook Connect
4. On the resulting page, do not click “Activate Plugin”.  Instead, go to the section that lists already installed Plugins (i.e. Plugins listed under the Plugins heading)
5. You will see a large list of Plugins that start with SCF.  These are all the plugins you can utilize, but you must start by activating “Simple Facebook Connect – Base“
6. Under the Settings page (after activating the plugin), click on “Simple Facebook Connect“
7. This is where you will input the settings that the main app page contains i.e. API Key, Application Secret, Application ID
8. Click “Save Changes”

This is an important note, if you utilize SCF – Share Button or SCF – Comments or any number of the other plugins that create a button on your posts, you may find that the button does not show even though the code is there.  The reason for this is you left out or incorrectly typed the URL of your WordPress site in the Facebook App settings.  See Step 2, Web site Settings -> Site Domain.  Also note that if you’re using an older version of the commenting features of WordPress, you may need to manually insert the code for SCF – Comments to work properly.  You will find the details on what you need to do near the bottom of the page under a header title “Special note about the comments plugin” on the SCF plugin’s website.

Also note that I had some trouble with the Share button in Safari.  Putting the following code in the wp-config.php file of WordPress took care of the issue:
define('SFC_SHARE_USE_XFBML',false);

I will leave it up to you to install other SCF plugins that you want to utilize, but you may find that you want to automatically post the feed from your WordPress blog onto Facebook.  Another plugin I found useful for this feature is WPBook.  To install, search for the plugin in the directory.

Setting up WPBook Plugin

1. Once the plugin is installed and activated, you will go to the WPBook settings listed under the Settings heading.
2. Here you will use the API and Secret codes you used for SCF from the main Facebook App page.  Once you have those keys in place, click Save and then you will have more options for editing the plugin settings.  Please note, for this Plugin, you will need a canvas URL for the app you created.  This can be set under Edit Settings -> Facebook Integration and type in a name in the field for Canvas Page
3. Go through the various settings to figure out how you want to post to your wall or to a group wall or the like.
4. If you want to import Facebook comments to your WordPress blog, you’ll need an Infinite Session Key.  Once this key is created, you put it into the settings page for the WPBook plugin.  To get the key:
   • Login to your own facebook account.
   • Browse to: http://www.facebook.com/code_gen.php?v=1.0&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY (replace YOUR_API_KEY with your app’s API key) Click through the simple instructions on the page. After that, you’ll be provided with a one-time code like 5P4I8D.

So there you have it.  It’s fairly simple, but there are a lot of steps to work through.  Hope this helps you integrate Facebook into your WordPress site.

Leader Life Coaching

Completed: November 2010
Theme: Sleex

www.leaderlifecoaching.com

A colleague recently told me about a study LL Bean conducted inadvertently.  After doing some research, LL Bean noticed that they had NO orders from the catalog so they decided to cut down on the amount of catalogs they were sending out.  When they did this, internet sales dropped drastically.  Upon further research, they realized that internet sales spiked when the catalogs were mailed.  The customers where flipping through the catalogs and then going online to order.  I can relate to that.  There is no replacement for flipping through a catalog full of shiny, colorful pictures.  I can view 15 outfits on one page of a catalog that would take at least 3 clicks of the mouse to view online.  I can dog-ear the pages that really interest me and leave them in a convenient location for my husband (although, I’m pretty sure he hasn’t picked up the jewelry catalog I left by his chair).

So being a web person, you might expect me to jump on the ebook/emagazine bandwagon, but I just can’t – yet.  There is something I’m really excited about, though.   This same colleague shared with me how he gets Wired on his iPad and how he can touch the photos and they become videos or 3D photos.  This is a great use of the technology.  Instead of converting the magazine into a PDF and throwing it on an iPad,  Wired has made an interactive magazine that is only available on electronic mediums.  This same idea can be used for textbooks in schools.  It would make learning coming alive for the students.  This makes me ALMOST want to run out and buy an iPad – almost.

But for now, I’m happy with my stack of magazines sitting next to my favorite chair and most of the friends that come over and flip through them are too.

Completed: November 2010
Partner: CreativePY
Theme: Sleex

www.newlifelamesa.org

Completed: November 2010
Partner: Zebo Media Group

www.bradentoncrc.org

http://www.expand2web.com/blog/why-use-wordpress-to-power-your-small-business-website/