Important Update to our Blogger Integration
Over the next couple of weeks Blogger will gradually roll out redirects to country-code URL’s (or ccTLD’s) for all Blogger sites. Per Blogger’s support page:
If you’re in Australia and viewing [blogname].blogspot.com, you might be redirected [blogname].blogspot.com.au. A ccTLD, when it appears, corresponds with the country of the reader’s current location.
This update will unfortunately cause a major issue with our Blogger Widget installation, where the same post will show different sets of comments depending on which ccTLD your readers visit.
The good news is that Blogger sites using our Template installation are all set and will not be affected by this change. You don’t have to do anything, so kick back and relax.
The not-so-good news is that if you are using our Blogger Widget installation, you will need to switch over to our Template installation to ensure that everything runs smoothly. It really is essential that you do this. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t bother you. Don’t worry, we’re here to help and we hope to make this as painless as possible.
Please note:
- You won’t lose any of your existing comments if you follow the instructions below.
- Custom domains are not affected by this change. However, we would ideally like to discontinue our Widget installation. The Template install is much more stable, and future backend updates will most likely only apply for Template installations. We realize that it’s a pain, but it will be worth it in the long run.
Here’s how you can switch over to the Template installation:
- You will first need to uninstall the Widget from your site. The following instructions are for the updated Blogger interface. If you are using the old Blogger interface, please switch over to the new interface temporarily. You can do that by selecting the “Try the updated Blogger interface” link at the top of your Blogger dashboard.
- Go to your Blogger account and find the blog that you have the IntenseDebate Widget installed on in your blogs list. Click the down arrow, then click Layout.
- Locate IntenseDebate in the sidebar and click the Edit link.
- Select Remove from the edit screen, then select the orange Save arrangement button at the top of the page.
- Next your will need to reinstall IntenseDebate using the Template installation method. To do that go to your Blog Tools tab in your IntenseDebate account. Select Reinstall and follow the installation instructions. You should be all set.
- If you want to switch back to the old Blogger interface, click on the little gear symbol on the right side of the page below your profile picture. Then select the option to switch to the “Old Blogger interface” and you’ll be all set.
Again, we’re here to help. If you come across any issues, you can contact us here. Make sure you include the URL of your blog when you contact us.
We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. For more information about Blogger’s ccTLD redirect change please check out their support documentation here.
Like this:
Posted by Michael Koenig in Blogger,News
No difference for the custom domain …
Yes, good point. I will update the post to include that.
However, we would ideally like to discontinue our Widget installation. The Template install is much more stable, and future backend updates will most likely only apply for Template installations.
We realize that it's a pain, but it will be worth it in the long run.
I switched over to the template installation and everything looks perfect except for one thing. When looking at my homepage there is no longer a comments link (comments #) at the bottom of posts. I went through my ID settings and everything. Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!
the issue is also not solved after changing to template installation. The earlier comments are also missing!!! It is causing huge issue for me now!!
Will I lose all the comments that I have using the old way (widget mode) ?
Wow, I’m a Blogger user. I hope nothing happens on my blog :S
I replied to your email. We'll get everything sorted out.
Thanks for your patience!
No, as long as you follow the instructions above, all of your previous comments from your Widget install will still show up. Feel free to contact us with any specific questions related to our site through our contact form so we can better assist.
I replied to your email. Please send in your template using the instructions I sent and we'll take a look.
Thanks!
I took a look at your site here and your all set – you have installed ID using our Template install. Let me if you have any questions.
For anyone else, the easiest way to determine if you have the Widget or Template install is to go to your Layout tab in your Blogger dashboard, and check if you have the Widget installed in your Gadgets. You can use the instructions that I published in the blog post above.
If you're feeling particularly adventurous you can go to your site and search for our code in your page source. Depending on what the code is, you will be able to determine if you are using the Template or Widget install.
Here's how you can do it:
1. Go to a blog post on your site. We'll use @topjer's site as an example.
2. View the page source for the post. You can do that by right clicking on the post and selecting the option to "View Page Source."
3. When you view the page source, use the search feature in your web browser (usually ctrl + F), and search for "IntenseDebate".
If you have the Widget installed you will see:
< div class ='widget HTML' id='HTML19'><div class='widget-content' ><s cript defer ="defer " type="text/javascript" src= "http://www.intensedebate.com/comment/#################/blogger" >< /script >< / div>
Notice "widget-content." That indicates that it is our Widget installation and not the Template.
If it were the Template installation, then the code snippet would look like this:
< div class='widget Blog' id='Blog1' >
< script src ='http:// http://www.intensedebate .com/js/ bloggerTemplateLinkWrapper.php?acct=################ >< /script >
In that snippet you'll notice "bloggerTemplateLinkWrapper." That indicates that it is a template installation.
Again, this is just a pro-tip and not something you will need to do. The easiest way to figure it out is to go to your Layout page and look for the Widget.
thanks for your explanation michael, it's easy to understand
Hey!
I have installed new template yet not able to see my comments. Comments are seen in my mail but not in blogposts.
Please send me your Blogger template as an attached XML file to support [at] intensedebate [dot] com.Also, please send me a couple of links to specific comments that aren't showing up. For information on how to do that please see http://support.intensedebate.com/permalinks/ . Thanks
I have the same problem on mine.
Hi there,
When I first installed ID, I was using a regular xxxxx.blogspot.com URL. Then I got myself a custom domain name, and IntenseDebate seemed to think I then had two different blogs/sites. To this day, my account shows both URLs–and it seems that comments are going to/coming from the blogspot URL and not the custom domain name.
Is this going to make things complicated when I switch over to the template comment code instead of the widget? I really don't want to lose my comments.
I originally used the template method to install Intense Debate, but had the same problem as Random Deals above. Ramdom Deals said: "I switched over to the template installation and everything looks perfect except for one thing. When looking at my homepage there is no longer a comments link (comments #) at the bottom of posts. I went through my ID settings and everything. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!"
Ditto for me.
I sent you mine as well. I've always used the template install, but it quit working about 2 days ago.
I wrote a message asking for help on this but have not had any response. I have followed all directions above, but a problem remains with some of my recent posts (before reinstalling). Comments are being saved separately so some appear and others not. Here is my site: http://www.thepinesofrome.blogspot.com Could you please help me out with this? Thanks!
Currently we don't offer a way to map comments to a new domain, so that's likely causing the issue. Please email details at support [at] intensedebate [dot] com. Also, please send specific links to the comments in question. We have some great instructions on how to access the comment link and send it to me. Thanks.
Sorry for the delay. We're working our way through all existing support requests and you should receive a response soon. We've been a little backlogged with emails due to this transition.
Thanks for your patience!
Thanks. You should receive a reply soon. We've been a bit backlogged due to this transition and are working our way through all of the support requests. Thanks for your patience – we'll get everything sorted out.
I am having a problem that on occasion my intense debate comments disappear and bloggers comments show up instead. So for instance, today I had two people comment using the intense debate comments for a blog post written today, then an hour later I saw that those comments were gone and someone had commented on the post with the blogger comments. I tried reinstalling Intense Debate with no luck, the blogger comments still appear.
I've had this problem before and it comes and goes. Sometimes even the Intense Debate comments come back and replace the Blogger Comments.
Any help would greatly be appreciated!
Thank you for your time.
Blogger introduced a new mobile theme which unfortunately doesn't support IntenseDebate. If you activate the mobile theme that will reactivate Blogger comments. If someone posts a comment using the mobile theme, they will post through Blogger comments which will then override IntenseDebate so it won't load on posts in your normal theme.To prevent this from occurring, please disable your mobile theme in your Blogger admin panel. Sorry for the inconvenience.
I can't uninstall ID since the change – comments are all over the place and not showing on the blog. Have tried repeatedly to uninstall ID and it won't go!
I was using the widget, but I've just unistalled it and reinstalled as template version. I don't know if I did something wrong but it's not working =/ I'm afraid to lose all the comments on my blog =/
Should I try to reinstall it again?
Hi there
I noticed today that on a particular post – all my IntenseDebate comments have disappeared and only a Blogger comment is there.
I've checked about the mobile theme as mentioned above and it's not even active.
Any advice as I don't want to lose my comments – and I don't know how to get all my old IntenseDebate comments to show up again.
I installed this morning.
I used the 'only on new comments option'. The old coments are still there, but one new comment from this morning that didn't display before the install still will not show up.
Ordinarily I would let it go, but the commenter really liked a book that I wrote…
Is there any way to recover the comment?
For all I know, any new comments might also go into limbo.
Something similar just happened to me. My latest post has deleted all my intense debate comments and now has a single Blogger comment on it. How do I disable the mobile theme and is there a way to recover those comments? Thanks! I'm super confused! :S
- Onna
I am happy to say I have figured it out! For the last few weeks I've still been getting comments through the Blogger platform instead of Intense Debate, I had a post with over 60 comments and ID just DISAPPEARED! Comments GONE:( I was confused on how this was possible since when I installed ID I selected to install in on ALL NEW POSTS. Tonight I got another comment through Blogger and I approved it. As soon as I did this, I went to the post and ALL my ID comments were gone, after sitting here wondering WTF? I searched Google and everything, couldn't find a fix even though many people were having the same issue. I decided to delete that comment that person left on the Blogger platform and HOLY CRAP all the comments that disappeared WERE BACK! WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WEIRD! It worked for me! Hopefully anyone else with that same issue will find a fix through following what I did:) Needless to say I won't be approving anymore "Blogger" platform comments anymore. Best of luck!
I installed the Template version many moons ago, but did not have the wit to ask it to convert all my previous posts to Intense Debate too. I've discovered I really want ALL my posts to have ID. My blog is Blogger.
If I reinstall the template, version, will it fix it, without losing all the comment history to date, or will something evil happen…?
Hi I did the switch over and all is working well except the CommentLuv plugin, is there a fix?
Thanks for clearing this up Michael. Many site owners using blogger platform had been waiting for this update.
- Blake
I've done the update and now all my previous comments have disappeared and there is no "comments" section on new posts. Please help.
Thank you.
Yes, there is an option to install on all posts when you reinstall. That will add ID to all of your older posts. You can reinstall at http://intensedebate.com/update/blogger/.
It sounds like it has to do with Blogger's mobile template. You will need to change your Mobile Template Setting so that you use the "Custom" option. That should correct the issue. Please see the following screenshot for details:
https://skitch.com/mkoenig/8qmcq/blogger-mobile-s…
Here's some background information:
Blogger recently introduced a new mobile theme which out-of-the-box does not support IntenseDebate. If you activate the mobile theme that will reactivate Blogger comments. If someone posts a comment via the mobile theme, they will be posting through Blogger comments which will then override IntenseDebate so it won't load on posts in your normal theme.
To prevent this from occurring, please change the mobile template setting to "Custom" and let me know how it goes.
To clarify, was that comment made in the Blogger comment system and didn't show up prior to installing IntenseDebate? If that's the case then that sounds like it is unrelated to IntenseDebate since the comment didn't show up in Blogger.
Sorry to hear that. Please send us details at http://support.intensedebate.com/contact and include the URL of your site along with some links to posts that should have comments. Thanks.
What specifically isn't working with the plugin? Please make sure it's active at http://intensedebate.com/plugins/. CommentLuv is a third-party plugin and our support is limited for it since we didn't develop it. For additional CommentLuv support please visit their support page at http://support.commentluv.com/ticket/.
Sorry for the delay. Were you able to get everything sorted out? If not, please send me details of what specifically doesn't work at http://support.intensedebate.com/contact and please include links to where we can recreate the issue.
Sorry to hear that. We have instructions on how to manually uninstall at http://support.intensedebate.com/troubleshooting-…. Please contact us at http://support.intensedebate.com/contact for additional assistance.
Hi Michael, __Thanks for the reply. __I have had intense debate for several months. The comment was made after your updates and didnt show up on my blog. I was only aware of it because of an automated email from intense debate. That led me to your site where I realised that I had an outdated version of intense debate. I have updated as per the site's instructions and the older blogger comments are still there but the one intense debate comment is missing. I know it seems like a minor issue, but the commentor had provided great feedback on my latest novel.__
There is a fix for this! You will need to change your Mobile Template Setting so that you use the "Custom" option. That should correct the issue. Please see the following screenshot for details: https://skitch.com/mkoenig/8qmcq/blogger-mobile-s…
Do you still have the email notification? If you do, please send specific links to the comments in question. Please see http://support.intensedebate.com/permalinks for instructions on how to access the comment link and send it to me.
Hi,
I was just wondering: are you planning to integrate with Blogger's new mobile theme at some point? So many people – including myself – read blogs on phones now it seems a shame that people are stuck with a web version of my blog rather than the mobile version, just so I can use ID comments.
I'm considering moving back to Blogger comments because of this but I don't want to lose all my ID comments! So I'm hoping you guys are working on something…
Thanks, Suki
I uninstalled ID, made a back up of my template, and followed instructions to reinstall to the letter. But it isn't working. It keeps giving me this error message :
"Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly. XML error message: Content is not allowed in trailing section. Error 500"
What does this mean? I am extremely frustrated. None of my comments are showing. My blog is http://inrhythmwiththehorse.blogspot.com/.
Switching to the "Custom" option should make ID compatible with the mobile template. Please give it a try and let me know.
Please send me your template as an attached XML file to support [at] intensedebate [dot] com and I'll take a look. Please reference copy/paste your comment in the email so we know what to look for.
love this explination and it was easy to see that I am all set.
I wasnt confident in there just 'not being a widget box' on my template page lol