If you embed your Facebook page into your website, read this update!

(Talk with your webmaster if any of this sounds like Greek.)

For years, it was possible to use a variety of methods, including IFRAMES to embed a Facebook page (or a Facebook group, if you found the trick) into a website.  You could engage your customers and draw them to your social media with a "Like" button, a scrolling view of page posts, and a list of other "Like"-ers.  A great way to draw attention to your Facebook community without paying FB for it.  ;-)

On June 23, 2015, the rules are going to change.

Facebook is upgrading their API (application programming interface) and the popular "Like Box" will disappear.

This is the message  you get if you are attempting to create a new "Like Box" for your website.

It will be replaced with the Page Plugin app.  (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/page-plugin)

The interface that sets the size and source of the embedded box remains the same.  However there are two important differences in how the plugin displays:

1)  The width of your new "box" is set in pixels and can no longer be set as a percentage of the width of the page or sidebar where it's embedded.
2)  Embedding in your page requires JavaScript just inside the  tag and a second script in the location where you want the box to appear.  That means, no more IFRAMES or other alternative methods.

If you are using a content management system (eg, WordPress, Joomla, etc) to maintain your website and you have been using a plugin or module to embed your Facebook page, check with the developer ASAP to determine if they will upgrade their plugin to accommodate the new rules.

SDOC is in the process of evaluating all of our clients websites and upgrading their source code so their Facebook embeds will continue to appear properly.  We are manually embedding Facebook's scripts into the theme (look and feel) files without the use of modules or plugins for those customers using open-source content management systems.

There's plenty of time to make the change so give us a call or contact your webmaster ASAP to ensure your social media integrations will still look great after June 24!