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EDIT :: README.txt

=== Smash Balloon Social Post Feed - Simple Social Feeds for WordPress === Contributors: smashballoon, craig-at-smash-balloon, am, smub Tags: Facebook, Facebook feed, Facebook posts, Facebook account, Facebook page Requires at least: 4.1 Requires PHP: 5.6 Tested up to: 6.7 Stable tag: 4.2.6 License: GPLv2 or later License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html Formerly "Custom Facebook Feed". Display completely customizable Facebook feeds of a Facebook page. Supports Facebook oEmbeds. == Description == Display Facebook posts on your WordPress site in an attractive feed. **Completely customizable**, **responsive**, **search engine crawlable**, and **GDPR compliant** feeds. Automatically powers any Facebook oEmbeds on your site. *"The perfect Facebook plugin with amazing support! What else do you want? Get it!"* - [JoeJeffries](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/you-dont-already-have-this?facebook) *"I honestly cannot recommend this Facebook plugin enough. The plugin itself is gorgeous and super customizable, and if you run into trouble...support will get you out of it. Five Stars across the board."* - [pamsavoybarnett](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/love-this-plugin-w-awesome-support?facebook) **Please note:** This free Facebook plugin allows you to display text and links from Facebook posts. To display **photos, videos, comments,** and more, we offer a Pro version of the plugin. See the Pro Version section below for more information. ### Features **NEW: Now Supports Facebook oEmbeds** WordPress is no longer able to support Facebook oEmbeds without the use of a plugin. Install Custom Facebook Feeds on your website to support oEmbeds. No developer app required. **Super Simple to Set Up** One of our main priorities has always been to make our Facebook plugin as easy as possible to setup and use. Get up and running in less than 1 minute with our signature quick setup - no Facebook Developer App required. **Display Feeds from Your Facebook Page** Use the plugin to display Facebook feeds from a Facebook page that you are an admin of. **Completely Customizable** By default the feed will adopt the styles of your WordPress theme, but your feeds can be completely customized to look however you like using our visual feed customizer - with tons of options to customize every part of your feed. **Elementor and Divi Ready** Custom Facebook Feeds has a built-in Elementor and Divi block for easy page building. Simply launch your Elementor or Divi builder and find the related Custom Facebook Feed block in the sidebar like any other block. **SEO Friendly** The Facebook feed content is crawlable by search engines adding SEO value to your site. This is unlike other Facebook plugins embed the feed using iframes which are not crawlable. **GDPR Compliant** Automatically integrates with many of the popular GDPR cookie consent plugins and includes a 1-click easy GDPR setting. **Responsive and Mobile Optimized** The plugin layouts look great on any screen size and in any container width. **Unlimited Feeds from Unlimited Different Facebook Pages** We don't limit how many Facebook feeds you can display on your site. With the use of a shortcode or block you can insert a feed into posts or widgets anywhere on your site. **Built for Speed** Built-in caching means that your Facebook feeds load lightning fast. Set how long the cache lasts until the feed updates again. **Like Box Widget and Visual Header** Include the official Facebook Like Box widget at the top or bottom of your Facebook feed and display a beautiful visual header with your Facebook page or cover photo, profile picture, bio, and number of likes. **So Much More** Show and hide certain parts of each Facebook post, choose whose posts to show in the feed, customize colors, font sizes and styles, the number of Facebook posts to display, set max text lengths, translate text, custom CSS, and much, much more. ### Pro Version (Custom Facebook Feed Pro) In order to maintain the free version of the Custom Facebook Feed plugin on an ongoing basis, and to provide quick and effective support for free, we offer a Pro version of the plugin. Custom Facebook Feed Pro allows you to display photos, videos, the number of likes, shares, reactions and comments for each Facebook post, choose from multiple layout options, filter Facebook posts by type or #hashtag/string, load more Facebook posts into your feed, and more. [Click here](https://smashballoon.com/differences-between-the-free-version-and-pro-version-of-the-custom-facebook-feed-plugin/ "Differences between free and Pro version of Custom Facebook Feed plugin") for a full list of all differences between the Custom Facebook Feed free and Pro versions. * [Find out more about Custom Facebook Feed Pro](https://smashballoon.com/custom-facebook-feed/?utm_campaign=facebook-free&utm_source=readme&utm_medium=findout "Custom Facebook Feed Pro") * [Try out the Custom Facebook Feed Pro demo](https://smashballoondemo.com/?utm_campaign=facebook-free&utm_source=readme&utm_medium=demo "Custom Facebook Feed Pro Demo"). ### Benefits of Displaying a Facebook Feed on Your Website * **Increase social engagement** between you and your users, customers, or fans * **Save time** by using the Custom Facebook Feed to generate dynamic, search engine crawlable content on your website * **Get more likes** by displaying your Facebook content directly on your site * **Improve your SEO** as all of that quality keyword-rich Facebook content from posts and Facebook comments is directly embedded into your website * Display your Facebook content your way to perfectly match your website's style * **No Coding Required** - choose from tons of built-in customization options to create a truly unique feed of your Facebook content. * The Custom Facebook Feed plugin is **updated regularly** with new features, bug-fixes and Facebook API changes * Support is quick and effective * We're dedicated to providing the **most customizable**, **robust** and **well supported** Facebook feed plugin in the world! ### How to use the Custom Facebook Feed plugin Once you've installed the plugin there are only a few steps to get up and running: 1) Use the button on the 'Facebook Feed' settings page to log into your Facebook account and authorize the plugin. 2) Save the plugin settings and add the `[custom-facebook-feed]` shortcode to any page, post, or widget where you want the Facebook feed to be displayed. That's it! You can then customize the Facebook feed as needed using the settings on the Facebook Feed > Customize page. For full step-by-step setup directions with screenshots, see [here](https://smashballoon.com/custom-facebook-feed/docs/free/?utm_campaign=facebook-free-readme&utm_source=howto&utm_medium=setup "Custom Facebook Feed Free Setup Doc"). ### Requesting support Customer support is a huge deal to us. We pride ourselves on always providing quick, effective, and courteous support to all of our users. If you're having an issue using the Custom Facebook Feed plugin then just let us know and we'll be there to help as soon as possible. You can either open a ticket on the support forum on [WordPress.org](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/custom-facebook-feed/ "Custom Facebook Feed Free support forum"), or directly on the Custom Facebook Feed section of [our website](https://smashballoon.com/custom-facebook-feed/support/ "Custom Facebook Feed website support form"). We also have a large collection of help documentation and FAQs [on our website](https://smashballoon.com/custom-facebook-feed/faq/ "Custom Facebook Feed support FAQs") for all common issues related to the Custom Facebook Feed plugin. == Installation == 1. Install the Custom Facebook Feed either via the WordPress plugin directory, or by uploading the files to your web server (in the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory). 2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress. 3. Navigate to the 'Facebook Feed' settings page to configure your feed. 4. Use the shortcode `[custom-facebook-feed]` in your page, post or widget to display your feed. 5. You can display multiple feeds of different Facebook pages by specifying a Page ID directly in the shortcode: `[custom-facebook-feed id=smashballoon num=5]`. == Frequently Asked Questions == For a full list of FAQs and help with troubleshooting please visit the **[FAQ & Troubleshooting](https://smashballoon.com/custom-facebook-feed/faq/)** section of the Smash Balloon website = Are there any limitations on which Facebook page feeds I can display? = The Facebook feed you're trying to display has to be from a publicly accessible Facebook page. This means that you can't display the feed from your own personal Facebook profile. This is to do with Facebook's privacy policies. You can't display a non-public Facebook feed publicly. If your Facebook page has any restrictions on it (age, for example) then it means that people have to be signed into Facebook in order to view your page. This isn't desirable for most Facebook pages as it means that it isn't accessible by people who don't have a Facebook account and that your Facebook page can't be crawled and indexed by search engines. An easy way to determine whether your Facebook page is set to public is to sign out of your Facebook account and try to visit your page. If Facebook forces you to sign in to view your page then it isn't public. You can change your Facebook page to public in your Facebook page settings simply by removing any age or location restrictions you have on it ([screenshot](https://smashballoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/facebook-page-restrictions.png)), which will then allow the Custom Facebook Feed plugin to access and display your feed. = Can I display feeds from multiple Facebook pages? = Yep! Create as many feeds as you like from different Facebook pages. Just click "Add New" to create a new feed and then embed it anywhere on your site. = Can I display feeds from a Facebook Group? = As of April of 2024 the plugin is no longer able to display posts from a Facebook group. This is due to changes on Facebook's end. = Can I display the feed from a personal Facebook profile? = Due to Facebook's privacy policy you're not able to use the plugin to display all of your posts from a personal profile, only from a public page, as posts from a personal profile are protected for privacy reasons. You may have limited success in displaying certain posts from a personal profile but most posts are not able to be displayed. If you're using the profile to represent a business, organization, product, public figure or the like, then we'd advise converting your profile to a page per [Facebook's recommendation](http://www.facebook.com/help/175644189234902/), as there are many advantages to using pages over profiles. Once you've done so, the plugin will be able to retrieve and display all of your posts. = Does the plugin work with Facebook oEmbeds? = Yes. Support was added to allow the plugin to power your Facebook oEmbeds as official support for these is no longer available in WordPress core. Just connect your account on the oEmbeds settings page inside the plugin and the plugin will power all Facebook embeds on your site, old and new. No developer app or account required. = Can I show photos and videos in my Custom Facebook feed? = This free plugin only allows you to display text from your Facebook posts. To display photos and videos in your feed you would need to upgrade to the Pro version of the plugin. Try out a demo of the Pro version on the [Custom Facebook Feed website](https://smashballoon.com/custom-facebook-feed/demo/?utm_campaign=facebook-free-readme&utm_source=faq&utm_medium=media "Custom Facebook Feed Demo"), and find out more about the Pro version [here](https://smashballoon.com/custom-facebook-feed/?utm_campaign=facebook-free-readme&utm_source=faq&utm_medium=pro "Custom Facebook Feed Pro"). [Click here](https://smashballoon.com/differences-between-the-free-version-and-pro-version-of-the-custom-facebook-feed-plugin/ "Differences between free and Pro version of Custom Facebook Feed plugin") for a full list of all differences between the free version and Pro version. = Can I show the comments, shares and likes associated with each Facebook post? = This is a feature of the [Pro version of the plugin](https://smashballoon.com/custom-facebook-feed/?utm_campaign=facebook-free-readme&utm_source=faq&utm_medium=comments "Custom Facebook Feed Pro"). To display comments, shares and likes you would need to upgrade from the free version to the Pro version. = Is the content of my Custom Facebook Feed crawlable by search engines? = It sure is. Unlike other Facebook plugins which use iframes to embed your feed into your page once it's loaded, the Custom Facebook Feed uses PHP to embed your Facebook feed content directly into your page. This adds dynamic, search engine crawlable content to your site. = How do I embed the Custom Facebook Feed directly into a WordPress page template? = You can embed your Facebook feed directly into a template file by using the WordPress [do_shortcode](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/do_shortcode "WordPress.org do_shortcode reference") function: `<?php echo do_shortcode('[custom-facebook-feed]'); ?>`. = My Facebook feed posts are not showing up, or all I can see is the Facebook Like box but no posts = Please refer to [this FAQ](https://smashballoon.com/facebook-feed-doesnt-show-can-see-like-box-posts-gives/?utm_campaign=facebook-free-readme&utm_source=faq&utm_medium=errors "My Facebook feed posts are not showing up, or all I can see is the Facebook Like box but no posts") for potential solutions on how to resolve this issue. = Changing the font in your Facebook feed and using Google Fonts = Please refer to [this FAQ](https://smashballoon.com/changing-the-font-in-your-facebook-feed-using-google-fonts/?utm_campaign=facebook-free-readme&utm_source=faq&utm_medium=fonts "Changing the font in your Facebook feed and using Google Fonts") for directions on how to use Google fonts in your Facebook posts. = Can I display my Facebook posts horizontally or in multiple columns? = Please refer to [this FAQ](https://smashballoon.com/can-display-facebook-post-horizontally-multiple-columns/?utm_campaign=facebook-free-readme&utm_source=faq&utm_medium=horizontal "Can I display my Facebook posts horizontally or in multiple columns?") for directions on how to display your Facebook posts in multiple columns. = My Facebook feed appears to have stopped updating / working = If your Facebook feed doesn't appear to be showing the most recent Facebook posts then the most likely explanation is that the recent posts in your feed may be shared from a user's personal profile. Facebook's privacy policy doesn't allow posts that you share from personal Facebook profiles to be shared outside of Facebook as the posts don't technically belong to your Facebook page, they belong to the user who posted it to their personal Facebook profile. There's an example of a post shared from a user's personal Facebook profile [here](https://smashballoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/sharing-photo-facebook-profile.jpg "Example of Facebook post shared from personal profile"). Please note, this isn't a limitation of our plugin, it's a restriction which Meta (Facebook) places on it's content in order to protect the privacy of their Facebook users. **Potential solutions** * You could re-post the Facebook post to your page rather than sharing it to your Facebook page. If you re-post the content as your own post on your Facebook page then the content now originates from your Facebook page and will be displayed in the Facebook feed on your website. * If you were to share a post from another Facebook page or public source, rather than sharing it from someone's personal Facebook profile, then it would show up in your feed outside of Facebook, but by default any posts that originate from a personal Facebook profile are protected by Facebook's privacy policy and is the private content of that Facebook profile owner. = I'm receiving an error message when trying to display my Facebook posts = Please refer to our [Error Message Reference page](https://smashballoon.com/custom-facebook-feed/docs/errors/?utm_campaign=facebook-free-readme&utm_source=faq&utm_medium=errors "I'm receiving an error message when trying to display my Facebook posts") for information on how to resolve common error messages. = Creating a Masonry grid layout from your Facebook posts = Please refer to [this FAQ](https://smashballoon.com/creating-a-masonry-grid-layout-from-your-facebook-posts/?utm_campaign=facebook-free-readme&utm_source=faq&utm_medium=masonry "Creating a Masonry grid layout from your Facebook posts") for directions on how to create a Masonry grid layout from your Facebook feed posts. = Avatar pictures aren't showing up in my feed = The most common reason for this is that an add-on or extension you have installed in your web browser is blocking the pictures being loaded from Facebook. Try checking to see whether you have any add-ons or extensions installed in your browser and, if so, try disabling them to see whether that solves the problem. == Other Notes == = At Smash Balloon we have two goals: = 1. Creating and maintaining the most useful, functional, customizable, robust and down-right awesomist Facebook feed plugin your website has ever seen. 2. To provide the quickest, friendliest and most mind-blowingly amazing product support you have ever experienced. == Screenshots == 1. By default the Facebook feed inherits your theme's default styles and the Facebook feed is completely responsive 2. Completely customize the way your Facebook feed looks to perfectly match your site 3. Use custom CSS to customize every part of the Facebook feed 4. Display Facebook events in your Facebook feed 5. Configuring the Custom Facebook Feed plugin 6. General Facebook Feed options - Custom Facebook Feed Layout and Style page 7. Facebook Feed Typography options - Custom Facebook Feed Layout and Style page 8. Misc Facebook Feed options - Custom Facebook Feed Layout and Style page 9. It's super easy to display your Facebook feed in any page or post == Changelog == = 4.2.6 = * Tweak: Added support for our new [Feed Analytics](https://smashballoon.com/?utm_campaign=facebook-free-readme&utm_source=changelog&utm_medium=feedanalyticsannouncement) product. Get insights as to how your feeds are being used by site visitors. = 4.2.5 = * New: Added a menu item to easily install our new [TikTok Feeds](https://wordpress.org/plugins/feeds-for-tiktok/) plugin! * Fix: Fixed links in the submenu for other social feeds not working as expected. = 4.2.4 = * Important: Due to Meta (Facebook) changes, how our plugin supports Facebook oEmbeds has also changed. If you are using the oEmbed feature to display Facebook oEmbeds, you will need to reconnect your account. Visit the oEmbeds page within the Facebook Feeds settings page to do the reconnection before May 14, 2024. = 4.2.3 = * Important: Meta (Facebook) is ending support for group feeds. [See our related FAQ](https://smashballoon.com/doc/facebook-api-changes-affecting-groups-april-2024/?facebook&utm_campaign=facebook-free-readme&utm_source=changelog&utm_medium=groupdeprecation) for more information. Existing feeds with a Facebook group source will stop updating as of April 2024. * Tweak: Added a notice to the plugin settings page to inform users of the upcoming Facebook API changes affecting group feeds. = 4.2.2 = * Tweak: Plugin hardening. = 4.2.1 = * Tweak: Improved and hardened our code base to improve reliability. * Tweak: Added more functionality that protects your Facebook data. = 4.2 = * New: Added an onboarding wizard for new users to easily get started with Facebook Feeds. * Fix: Fixed PHP 8.x warning (PHP Deprecated: Calling static trait method) = 4.1.9 = * New: Added a menu item to easily install our new [Reviews Feed](https://wordpress.org/plugins/reviews-feed/) plugin! * Tweak: Updated our Gutenberg Block to be more user friendly. * Fix: Fixed our integration with Cookie Yes to work with recent updates. = 4.1.8 = * Fix: Feeds with masonry layout selected would still show as a list feed. = 4.1.7 = * Fix: Fixed incorrect links in the plugin admin area. = 4.1.6 = * Tweak: Vue.js code is now loaded from a local file shipped with the plugin rather than an external CDN for use with the customizer in the admin area. * Fix: Fixed a compatibility issue with the Complianz Cookie Consent plugin integration. * Fix: Added additional plugin hardening. * Fix: Fixed PHP error that would occur with group feeds when using PHP 8+. = 4.1.5 = * Fix: An error message will now display if there was a problem connecting an account. * Fix: The Post Date could not be disabled. = 4.1.4 = * Tweak: Updated compatibility with the upcoming WordPress 6.0 release. * Tweak: Made improvements to how notices are displayed on our plugin settings pages. * Fix: Fixed a PHP error that would occur during some API error reports. = 4.1.3 = * Tweak: Updated our logo and color scheme throughout the plugin to match our new [website](https://smashballoon.com/). * Tweak: Minified the CSS and JavaScript files for better performance. * Fix: Added links to the issue in our API error helper doc in error messages for easy debugging on our website. * Fix: Dismissing dashboard notifications would prevent the ability to create new feeds until the page was refreshed. * Fix: The customizer sidebar would be partially hidden when using JetPack's Masterbar feature. * Fix: Added support for oEmbed URL with the structure "https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1234567890&id=1123456789" = 4.1.2 = * Fix: Settings that only apply to page feeds were also being displayed in the feed customizer for group feeds. * Fix: Like box position options were not available. * Fix: For legacy feeds, the shortcode setting "account" was not working. * Fix: Due to a change in Facebook video link format, oEmbeds would not work for some new versions of Facebook video links. * Fix: Fixed the setting "Header outside scrollable area" not applying on the front-end of the feed. * Fix: Fixed incorrect line spacing in the post content. * Fix: Sharing a link in a post with no post text would result in the link being displayed twice. * Fix: Tooltips in the settings pages were being cut off in certain circumstances due to a bug with the CSS code. * Fix: When the "AJAX theme loading fix" setting was enabled it would result in the JavaScript file for the plugin not being added to the page successfully. * Fix: Disabling the "View on Facebook link" option would also disable the share link. = 4.1.1 = * Fix: Updating from version 2.x to version 4.1 would not transfer legacy sources. * Fix: Improved plugin hardening by removing unused admin pages. = 4.1 = * Tweak: The Facebook app used to connect groups has changed. If you are using a Facebook group feed, then please reconnect your group accounts using the new app when convenient to prevent any future issues. When reconnecting, follow the included directions on how to add the new app to your group settings. * Tweak: All Facebook data is now encrypted in your WordPress database. * Tweak: Access Tokens are no longer able to be viewed on the settings page. * Fix: Manually connecting an account while on the "Settings" page would not work. * Fix: Fixed a PHP error when a string was used for the cache time setting. = 4.0.5 = * Fix: Fixed an issue that was causing the "All Feeds" page to be inaccessible to some users. = 4.0.4 = * Fix: The call-to-action in the Like Box widget would not display properly at certain window widths in some browsers. * Fix: If a feed name contained an apostrophe then additional slashes were being added each time settings were saved. * Tweak: An alert bubble is added to the Facebook Feed menu item when there are new notifications available. = 4.0.4 = * Fix: The call-to-action in the Like Box widget would not display properly at certain window widths in some browsers. * Fix: If a feed name contained an apostrophe then additional slashes were being added each time settings were saved. * Tweak: An alert bubble is added to the Facebook Feed menu item when there are new notifications available. = 4.0.3 = * Fix: Added additional plugin hardening. = 4.0.2 = * Important: With this update, the Custom CSS and Custom JS settings have been deprecated. Please see below for details. * Tweak: If any Custom CSS was being used in this field then it will be automatically moved into the native WordPress Customizer "Additional CSS" field instead and continue to work as normal. * Tweak: If any Custom JavaScript was being used, then this update will prevent that JavaScript from working. There are [directions here](https://smashballoon.com/doc/moving-custom-javascript-code-out-of-our-plugins/) on how you can migrate this JavaScript into a specialized plugin instead. = 4.0.1 = * Fix: Fixed a compatibility issue with the Complianz Cookie Consent plugin integration. * Fix: Removed the limit to the number of sources shown at one time when creating a feed. * Fix: When using a narrow screen, modals inside the feed creator in the backend would be cut off. * Fix: Fixed an issue where settings were not preserved even when using the preserve settings option and deleting the plugin. * Fix: Improved security hardening. * Fix: Fixed some options and tables not being removed from the WordPress database on uninstall. * Fix: Locations of feeds sorted by source would not work if the source ID was not a number. * Fix: Fixed PHP warnings when viewing dashboard notifications. * Fix: Fixed locale setting causing a PHP warning if not set. = 4.0 = * Important: Minimum supported WordPress version has been raised from 3.0 to 4.1. * New: Our biggest update ever! We've completely redesigned the plugin settings from head to toe to make it easier to create, manage, and customize your Facebook feeds. * New: All your feeds are now displayed in one place on the "All Feeds" page. This shows a list of any existing (legacy) feeds and any new ones that you create. Note: If you updated from a version prior to v2.19 then you may need to view your feeds on your webpage so that the plugin can locate them and list them here. * New: Easily edit individual feed settings for new feeds instead of cumbersome shortcode options. * New: It's now much easier to create feeds. Just click "Add New", select your feed type, connect your account, and you're done! * New: Brand new feed customizer. We've completely redesigned feed customization from the ground up, reorganizing the settings to make them easier to find. * New: Live Feed Preview. You can now see changes you make to your feeds in real time, right in the settings page. Easily preview them on desktop, tablet, and mobile sizes. * New: Elementor and WordPress widgets. We've added new Elementor and WordPress widgets to make it easier to embed your feeds. * New: Color Scheme option. It's now easier than ever to change colors across your feed without needing to adjust individual color settings. Just set a color scheme to effortlessly change colors across your entire feed. * New: You can now change the number of columns in your feed across desktop, tablet, and mobile. * New: Easily import and export feed settings to make it simple to move feeds across sites.

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