BT SOCIAL CONNECT

JOOMLA EXTENSION
User guide
Version 1.0.0

Copyright 2014 Bowthemes Inc. | support@bowthemes.com

Table of contents
I.

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 3
1.1.

Related Link: Details - View Demo .....................................................................................................3

1.2.

Product Features ........................................................................................................................................3

II. INSTALLING, UPGRADING AND UNINSTALLING ............................................................... 4

2.1.

System Requirement .................................................................................................................................4

2.2.

Downloading .................................................................................................................................................4

2.3.

Extension package installation ............................................................................................................4

2.4.

Manual Installation ....................................................................................................................................6

2.5.

Module Upgrading......................................................................................................................................8

2.6.

Uninstalling ...................................................................................................................................................8

III. FUNDAMENTALS ....................................................................................................................... 9

3.1.

Understanding Admin Panel ......................................................................................... 9

3.2.

Setting up social login ................................................................................................... 11

3.2.1.
a.

Goal ............................................................................................................................................................ 11

b.

Steps ........................................................................................................................................................... 11

3.2.2.

Joomla component ......................................................................................................................... 11

a.

Social login configuration ................................................................................................................ 11

b.

User configuration............................................................................................................................... 21

c.

Users Fields ............................................................................................................................................. 22

d.

Users Manager ...................................................................................................................................... 29

3.2.3.

Joomla module ................................................................................................................................. 33

a.

Module mod_ btsocialconnect ..................................................................................................... 33

b.

Demo mod_ btsocialconnect ........................................................................................................ 37

3.2.4.

3.3.

Workflow ............................................................................................................................................ 11

Joomla plugins ................................................................................................................................. 37

a.

Plugin bt_socialregister ................................................................................................................ 37

b.

Social register demo ........................................................................................................................... 38

Social Auto Submit..................................................................................................................... 38

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3.3.1.

Workflow ............................................................................................................................................ 38

a.

Goal ............................................................................................................................................................ 38

b.

Steps ........................................................................................................................................................... 38

3.3.2.

Joomla component ......................................................................................................................... 39

a.

Publishing settings .............................................................................................................................. 39

b.

Image Setting......................................................................................................................................... 40

c.

Channels ................................................................................................................................................... 41

3.3.3.

Joomla plugin.................................................................................................................................... 44

a.

PluginBt_socialpublish and Bt_k2socialpublish .............................................................. 44

b.

Facebook shared post demo .............................................................................................................. 46

3.4.

Social widgets.............................................................................................................................. 46

3.4.1.

Workflow ............................................................................................................................................ 46

a.

Goal ............................................................................................................................................................ 46

b.

Steps ........................................................................................................................................................... 46

3.4.2.

Joomla component ......................................................................................................................... 47

Social widgets ................................................................................................................................................. 47

3.4.3.
a.

Module Mod_bt_socialwidget ...................................................................................................... 50

b.

Demo Mod_bt_socialwidget.......................................................................................................... 50

3.4.4.

3.5.

Joomla module ................................................................................................................................. 50

Joomla plugins ................................................................................................................................. 51

a.

Plugin Plugin-button-addwidget ............................................................................................... 51

b.

Widget button demo ........................................................................................................................... 51

Statistics and Message Logs .................................................................................................. 52

3.5.1.

Message ............................................................................................................................................... 52

3.5.2.

Statistics .............................................................................................................................................. 55

IV. ADVANCED SETTINGS ........................................................................................................... 56

V. COMMON ERROR USING PRODUCT.................................................................................... 57
5.1.

Post article error ...................................................................................................................................... 57

5.2.

Facebook error ......................................................................................................................................... 57

VI. CONTACTING BOWTHEMES ................................................................................................. 58

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I. Introduction
BT Social Connect is a multi-task social networking tool for Joomla. This component
helps turn your site into a social hub. Main features are social auto submission
(including Facebook and Twitter), social log in and registration, add-on social
widget, and article statistics and message logs management. Effortless social
marketing gives effective outcome with BT Social Connect.

1.1. Related Link: Details - View Demo

1.2. Product Features
Smart Auto-post

Share multiple Joomla articles automatically to one or more social networks

(Facebook, Twitter) by effortless steps at once.
Convenient social login and registration

Integration with popular social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkeIn) to

quickly register account with customizable database fields.

Support for registration and login display module.

Flexible social widgets

Perfectly insert social widgets to articles (Joomla, K2) or display them as modules at
wanted positions with being demo preview function enabled.

Available social widgets are following: Facebook comments, Facebook Activity Feeds,
Twitter Feeds
Powerful management

Manage article statistics and message logs (submitted/pending/error articles,

statistics of used elements of widgets, user connections and channels) through the
friendly CPanel.
Cross-browser support
Compatible with Joomla1.7, Joomla 2.5 and almost all web browsers: Firefox, IE7+,
Opera 9.5, Safari, Netscape, Google Chrome, Camino, Flock 0.7+

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II. Installing, Upgrading and Uninstalling

2.1. System Requirement
Server requirements PHP 5.0 or above with GD library is enabled. Please follow this
link to check it
MySQL 5.0 or above
Joomla 1.7.x or above;
Client requirements

Firefox 2.x, 3.0.x, 3.5.x, Internet Explorer 6 or above.

2.2. Downloading
BT Social Connect is a free extension for Bowthemes members. To download the
product, you must be one of our memberships. Register here.
If you are a Bowthemes member already, please download BT Social Connect here.
There are 7 days to decide to use the product or not since the product is downloaded.
Within these days, if the product cant make you satisfied, your money will be refunded.
Click here to send us refund request email.

2.3. Extension package installation

STT

Extension name

Extension type

Description

bt_socialconnect

plugin

Connect to social networks

Share information of

plugin

bt_socialregister

registration to your social

networks

button_bt_socialconnect

plugin

Add social widget into

articles
Share articles from Content

bt_socialpublish

plugin

Component to social
networks

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Share articles from K2

5

plugin

bt_k2socialpublish

Component to social
networks

module

mod_btsocialconnect

Display login and

registration of users
Display widgets that are

mod_btsocialconnect_widget

module

taken from BT social

widgets

Channel
8

Facebook page

Channel

Share messages to network

extension

socials

Widget

Add or show articles in

extension

module

Widget:
Facebook
-

Facebook activity feed

Facebook comment

Facebook embedded
post

Facebook Like box

Facebook Facepile

Facebook
recommendation bar

9
-

Facebook
recommendation box

Linkedin
-

Linkedin apply button

Linkedin company
insider

Linkedin company
profile

Linkedin job

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Linkedin member
profile

Twitter
-

Twitter feed

Google
-

Google badge

Google comment

Google interactive
posts

Login button
Social share

2.4.

Manual Installation

Please follow these steps to install the product:

Step 1: Go to Extension Manager
Step 2: Browse the install package
Step 3: Click Upload & Install

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Illustrated image of successful installation:

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2.5.

Module Upgrading

Upgrading of this extension to newest version can be easily done by following again
installation steps above. But we recommend you to back up your changes of source
code and language files in this module before starting any upgrades. In case you have
trouble with upgrade, you can restore.

2.6.

Uninstalling

For uninstalling the product, please follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to Extension Manager
Step 2: Click to Manage tab
Step 3: Choose Component style
Step 4: Mark checkbox of the component
Step 5: Click Uninstall button

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III. Fundamentals
3.1. Understanding Admin Panel
Back-end access: Choose Component from the main menu. Click BT Social Connect to
start configuration process.
All configuration parameters are divided into the following areas:

Dashboard: Control panel for whole system

User Manager: Manage all registered users

User Fields: Customize database at users panel

Channels: Connect to social networks

Social Widgets: Manage all applications of social networks

Messages manager : Manage all posts that are created and shared to social networks

Statistics: Show the number of users, connections, widgets, channels, messages

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3.2. Setting up social login

3.2.1. Workflow
a. Goal
- Set up connections between a user account and social networks including settings
of social network configuration
-

Set up user account when registering account via social networks or email

Set up shared content and registered information on social networks

b. Steps

Step 1: Configuration of Joomla Component: set up social connections and options

of user profile

Step 2: Configuration of Joomla Module: display connections and database fields for
users to register or login their accounts

Step 3: Configuration of Joomla Plugin: share registered information of users when

connecting with social networks
After finishing those three steps, users can register or login account easily. If a user
registers an account via a social network, user profile will be shared on this social
network.
3.2.2. Joomla component

a. Social login configuration

Go to Joomla administration => Select Components from Main menu => Choose BT
Social Connect to start => Hit Option => Choose tab Social Setting to configure for
social network connect.

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Let's refer the Social setting in this section:

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Facebook

Set up configuration for Facebook

Facebook active: choose yes/no to connect with Facebook or not

To interact with Facebook users, system has to use Facebook App ID and Facebook
Application secret to interact with Facebook database.
-

You'll need to create an application

athttp://www.facebook.com/developers/. This will give you an API key and
secret specific to your app.

1) Go to https://developers.facebook.com/apps
2) Click on Create New App

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You can use Api key and App secret to connect with Facebook
Google

Set up configuration for google

Google active : choose yes/no to connect with google or not

Set up Google App ID and Application secret:
-

Sign-in to Google and go to Google API console, click APIs & auth/
Credentials on the left sidebar, click big button Create new client ID.

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Use Client ID and Client Secret to connect Google Plus

Twitter

Set up configuration for Twitter

Twitter active: choose yes/no to connect with twitter or not

Set up Twitter App ID and Application secret :
-

Go to the Developers website: https://dev.twitter.com/apps. Sign in with

your Twitter Account. Click Create a new application button on the upper
right

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Fill all information on callback url into your website

And you use consumer key and consumer secret to connect with Twitter

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Linkedin

Set configuration for Linkedin

Linkedin active : choose yes/no to connect with LinkedIn or not

Set up Linkedin App ID and Application secret:
-

You need to be logged in to your LinkedIn account to be able to access their

developer page. So first, login to your LinkedIn account and then follow the
link above to get to their developer page. They should be looked similar to
the one shown in the image below:
Go to https://www.linkedin.com/secure/developer
After clicking button Add new Application, you use API Key and Secret Key to
connect with LinkedIn.

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Registration Options

Registration Flow

Include2 options:
-

Automatic: Get users profiles automatically from social accounts

Normally: Load users profiles from social networks to registration

form. And users register an account themselves.

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b. User configuration

USER SETTING
Remove

Delete username and set your email as your ID

username
Ignore

Skip the activation of users accounts (only for registration via

activation

social networks)

Auto login

Automatically sign up and log in

Login

Redirect to the supplied link when logging in the website

redirection
Logout

Redirect to the supplied link when logging out the website

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redirection
USER SOCIAL SETTING
Facebook

user Login in the website automatically when an users login in their

auto login

Facebook

User type

Include 6 options:

Auto: Let social username be login account

Prefix Social ID : Prefix of a social network and its ID

profile, for example: Facebook (fb), Social
ID:100006338614342 and username:
fb_100006338614342

Prefix Social Username: prefix and username of an social

account.

Social ID: Social id profile of social networks.

Social Username: Username of social networks.

Social Email : Users email that connects with social

networks

c. Users Fields
Each user may have different information like: Avatar, Gender, Birthday Thats why
this component was built with Users Fields. Users fields which store users information

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are assigned to elements of social networks.

It contains a list, toolbar, filter and

ordering.

Add a new User field

At User fields manager area, click New button. You will be delivered to add-new
user field area

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Tab Default Field

Title

Giving title of user fields here

Alias

Not entered , alias will automatically generated

Type

Choose one from 05 types: Dropdown, Image, String, Text and Date

Default

This parameter will be shown after choosing type. There are different

Value

parameters corresponding to divergent types. This value is just default,

when the extra field is assigned to a category, and can be changed.
-

If you choose String type, please enter a single text line.

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If you choose Image type, please hit Select button to select

image path.

Dropdown type: Its a normal text box to enter label. And

Default value

Date type: Its a date picker, please pick a date

Text type: Its a text editor. This type allows us to enter content
such as: text, image, link

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Status

Choose 2 Status for user field (published or unpublished)

Ordering

Order user field here. Only use this parameter when new user field is
created.

Required

Required data entry

Show in

Show field in registration form

registration
Show in

Show field name in list tab user in administrator

listing
Description

Enter description of user field here

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Tab Assignment

All data Assign

Choose element to assign field

All new fields are supported to assign to available fields of

social networks. When registering an account, system will add
more users information based on assigned fields.
You can change orders of users fields at Administration to arrange orders of fields at backend and front-end.

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Back-end

Register front-end

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d. Users Manager
List of registered users for management

Add a new user

To add a new user, click button New.

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On Add a new user, there are 4 following tabs.

Tab User login

Name

Enter name here. Its required

Login name

Enter user name to login. Its required

Password

Enter password to login

Confirm

Enter password confirm

password
Email

Email of user login

Last visit date

Date of last website logging-in by user

Last reset date

Date of last resetting by user

Receive system Basic information and activity log of user account

emails
Block this user

Block user

Short

Enter description of category here

Description

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Tab Details
This tab detail will show all fields loading from table users fields. That is the user
formatted width value which is default or depended on user insert.

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Tab Assigned user groups

This tab shows default permission for registered user groups.

Tab Connections

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This tab shows connections of users that have been connected with their social
networks.
3.2.3. Joomla module
a. Module mod_ btsocialconnect

At Module mod_ btsocialconnect, there are 2 alternative layouts to use:

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Layout default

Layout popup

Alternative
Layout
Align option

Include 2 layouts: default and popup

Include 3 options:

Display type

Right: login and register button at the right of the web page

Left: login and register button at the left of the web page.

Center: login and register button at the center of web page.

Include 2 options:
-

Modal: Click button to show popup register and login form.

Dropdown: Click button to show top to button register

and login form.

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Mouse event

Include 2 options:
-

Click: click button to show form.

Hover: hover button to show form.

Logout button

Display logout button

Registration tab

Display registration form or not

Login tags

Entered tags will active login form with mouse events. Tags
separated by commas. Example :a.login, #loginform .buttonlogin

Registration

Entered tags will active registration form with mouse events. Tags

tags

separated by commas. Example :a.registrationlink, #registerform

.button

Width Login box The width of login form

Width

The width of registration form

registration box

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Login

Redirect site when logging in the website

redirection page
Logout

Redirect site when logging out the website

redirection page
Show

Include 2 options

name/username

Name: display name of users

User name: display usernames

Show avatar

Display profile avatar

Logged modules

Display modules for online users

Module position

Position of displayed modules

Encrypt
Form

Login Submit encrypted login data (requires SSL). Do not enable

this option if Joomla is not accessible using the https://
protocol prefix.

Demo image of Popup layout:

Modal

Drop down

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b. Demo mod_ btsocialconnect

3.2.4. Joomla plugins

a. Plugin bt_socialregister
BT social connect Register

{name}: to be assigned to name of users

Registration

{site_url} : to be assigned to url of website

message

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Site logo in
social share

Link to images. The image contains users

information that is shared with social networks.

b. Social register demo

3.3. Social Auto Submit

3.3.1. Workflow
a. Goal
- Set up shared content, for example, settings of link of articles and images
- Create channels to connect with social networks
b. Steps
- Step 1 - Configuration of Joomla Component: Set up shared content and create
channels to share articles
- Step 2 - Configuration of Joomla Plugin: Set up shared content including title,
description, images and channels when creating a new article.
After finishing those two steps, you can create a new article which will be shared on
selected social networks.

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3.3.2. Joomla component

a. Publishing settings

Enabled

To share articles with connected social networks

publishing
Count

of Count the number of clicks of shared posts

posts
viewed
Short url

Include 4 options:

None: maintain the original link

Bitly:

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Shorten URL easily via your bitly account

-

Google:

Shorten URL easily via your Api key account of Google

-

Tinyurl: Shorten URL free

b. Image Setting

Crop thumb

Allow to crop a thumbnail image when sharing articles (thumbnail

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image is stored at link: images/bt_socialconnect/thumb/)

Thumb width

The width of thumbnail image

Thumb height

The height of thumbnail image

c. Channels

Channels: Create social connections to share articles.

Create a new channel.

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Choose channels to connect

Include 2 tabs:

Tab Detail :

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The illustrated image is same with the image of Choose channel to connect step.
Name

Name channel

Alias

Insert channel Alias (If you add nothing in this field,

system will automatically create alias for the channel in
above field based on its name)

Status

Set published or unpublished mode

Ordering

Set the order following which channel are displayed

and arranged.

Created

The time to created=> create

time

Channel

Name of channel have => has been created

Description

Description of channel

Tab options

Click Load facebook page button to connect social accounts and the system will get
all your Facebook pages:

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Click the check box to the page to share it when you create an article.

3.3.3. Joomla plugin

a. PluginBt_socialpublish and Bt_k2socialpublish
(BT Social Publish Content)- (BT K2Social Publish - Content)

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Message

{title} : Title of post

template ,

{shorturl} : Short urls such as bitly, google

{url} : Original link of article

{authorname} : Authors name of article

{introtext:x}: introduction of article and x is the

Description
template

maximum number of texts

Category

{fulltext}: Full article

Select some categories or default (all categories) to share articles

with social networks

Social

Select some social channels or default (all channels) to share

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channel

articles

Default
image

Image preview for the post.

If you do not insert any image, image preview is automatically
taken from one of images in your article. That is default mode for
image preview.

b. Facebook shared post demo

Following image shows how the Facebook shared post demo looks.

3.4. Social widgets

3.4.1. Workflow
a. Goal
Creating widget plugins for all applications of Facebook, Twitter, Google and
Linkedin helps users show widgets on websites, and insert widgets in articles or
anywhere on website in the form of code plugin.
b. Steps
-

Configuration of Joomla Component: create widgets and their configuration for

website
Configuration of Joomla Module: select one or more created widgets to display on
website as module if users need

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Configuration of Joomla Plugin: set up plugins which are added in articles. Add-on
widgets are displayed at exact position of articles
3.4.2. Joomla component
Social widgets

The creation of Social Widgets is based on applications of social networks such as

Facebook , Linkedin , Google or Twitter
Create a new Social Widget:
Click Add button to create an application. On Select a widget type window, just
click applications name to use it.

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After creating a new one, you can see the newly created demo. And click circle to
display demo

There are 3 tabs in demo:

Preview

View demo after creation

Plugin

Insert text in box to where you want to display widget.

insert

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Code
html

Insert code into your html page to displaythis widget

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3.4.3. Joomla module

a. Module Mod_bt_socialwidget

And show module in front end with choose => choosing Facebook Like Box
b. Demo Mod_bt_socialwidget

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3.4.4. Joomla plugins

a. Plugin Plugin-button-addwidget
BT SocialConnect - Addwidget Content: Supplying a button that allows users to add
widget items into articles

When adding widget items into articles, these widgets will be exactly displayed at the
position as the position of added widgets.
b. Widget button demo
Following image shows the position of widget when you add widget:facebookcomment box widget into articles.

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3.5. Statistics and Message Logs

3.5.1. Message

Message manager can manage all the shared articles. Not only can articles be created
from Content and K2 Component but it also can be created from direct click on the
New button to add message.
Create a new message:

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Title

Title of article

Message

Message of post

Link

Link of shared article

Full text

Full text of article

Image url

Image of article

Channel

Select channel accounts to share article

Status

There are 3 options:

-

Pending (default): Message is waiting for approval

Submitted: Message is sending to ticked social channels

Error: error message

If messages are pending or error, you can click on Submit button to send articles
again. After successful sending, the state is changed from pending or error to
submitted. Otherwise, there is an error notice in the end.

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Manage created messages:

Created by

The person who shares articles

Type

Types of social channels

Title

Title of article

Link

Link of article

Message

Content of shared article

Content type

3 content types of shared articles:

-

Joomla content: articles from Content Component

K2 content: articles from K2 Component

Custom Content: articles from BT Social Connect Component

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Log

Save sending history of article

Number of click

The number of clicks on shared articles

3.5.2. Statistics

The statistic
User statistic: User connection, Message post
System statistic: Error messages, Used widgets, Used channels

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IV. Advanced Settings

(Add-on settings)
Advanced Setting instructs how to add more third-party extensions on BT Social
Connect. Its being updated and written in document of BT Social Connect
Commercial version. Check out here to see it.

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V.

Common error using product

5.1. Post article error

This error may be occurred if you use multiple social connections to share an article.
And connecting date takes more amount of time than it should do in limited time.
Bowthemes offers an approach to reconnect data so this error notice will not affect
sharing and saving your articles.

5.2. Facebook error

Terms of sharing articles:
Facebook has increased the length limit of a status from 160 to 420, 500, 5000 and
now is 63,206 characters

Common errors:
The url you supplied is invalid or This link could not be posted.
The article cannot be shared if the Url is wrong

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VI. Contacting Bowthemes

All Bowthemes products include forum support, email support and ticket support.
Please refer your membership package to select the compatible kind of support, as we may
be able to solve the problem without delay.
Website: http://bowthemes.com
Forum support: http://bowthemes.com/forums/
Email support: support@bowthemes.com
Ticket support: http://bowthemes.com/submit-a-ticket
If you encounter any issues with Bowthemes extensions and templates, email us at
support@bowthemes.com and we will be happy to answer your questions.

This document is proprietary and confidential. No part of this document may be disclosed in any
manner to a third party without the prior written consent of Bowthemes Team.

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