WordPress.com Connection User-specific?

  • Resolved sawyerjw

    (@sawyerjw)


    11 years, 2 months ago

    I am trying to connect the Publicize component of JetPack to my client’s Facebook account. When she logs in to her site, the Sharing settings show everything ready to be connected. When I log in with my own account, I get a banner at the top saying that my account must be connected to WordPress.com in order to activate Publicize. My account has admin rights as well as hers. Why am I not showing as connected, but she is? Surely, the connection can’t be user-specific…

    Thanks in advance for any assistance.

    John

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/jetpack/

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Plugin Author Jeremy Herve

    (@jeherve)

    Jetpack Mechanic 🚀

    11 years, 2 months ago

    The connection is indeed user-specific. This way, you can choose to Publicize your own posts on your Facebook account, while ignoring the posts written by other authors on the site.

    You can, however, choose to share a Publicize connection with all other users on the site. To do so, you’ll have to check the “Shared” option when making the connection. You can see this option on this screenshot:
    http://jetpackme.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/screen-shot-2012-11-07-at-7-48-30-pm.png

    Thread Starter sawyerjw

    (@sawyerjw)

    11 years, 2 months ago

    Thanks for the response, Jeremy. Seems a bit of a Catch-22 to me. The screenshot you provided assumes the connection has already been set up. In my case, I’m logging in to a client’s website to set up the connection for her. It won’t let me set up a connection because my user account is not connected to my WordPress.com account. Yes, I could connect my WP.com account, but then her site is using my WP.com account and not her own.

    It seems to me because JetPack is globally connected to her WP.com account that Publicize should allow connections and then ask if they should be user-specific. Otherwise, the only way I have to create the connection in the first place is to log in with my client’s account credentials. That can be done, of course, but it defeats the purpose of having separate accounts which I always recommend for client sites.

    Plugin Author Jeremy Herve

    (@jeherve)

    Jetpack Mechanic 🚀

    11 years, 2 months ago

    The screenshot you provided assumes the connection has already been set up.

    That’s correct. Since you need to be logged in to a personal Twitter / Facebook / Yahoo / Tumblr account to make the connection, only the account owner will be able to activate Publicize from their own account.

    Yes, I could connect my WP.com account, but then her site is using my WP.com account and not her own.

    Sorry for the confusion. Publicize requires user-specific connections because the connections are linked to personal Social Media accounts. But when you connect Jetpack to your WordPress.com account, the connection is global.

    Thread Starter sawyerjw

    (@sawyerjw)

    11 years, 2 months ago

    Sorry, but this still doesn’t make any sense. If I’m logged in to my client’s WP site as myself, I can’t even activate a service without connecting Publicize to my WP.com account even though JetPack is already connected to my client’s WP.com account. If I connect Publicize to my own WP.com account, then activate Facebook with my client’s FB login so that her posts go to her fan page, what is the point of having the connection run through my WP.com account? Why should it not run through her WP.com account which is what JetPack is already connected to?

    I can understand having the option to make a connection available to all users. It’s the process of establishing that connection that doesn’t make sense to me. What am I missing here?

    Plugin Author Jeremy Herve

    (@jeherve)

    Jetpack Mechanic 🚀

    11 years, 2 months ago

    If I’m logged in to my client’s WP site as myself, I can’t even activate a service without connecting Publicize to my WP.com account even though JetPack is already connected to my client’s WP.com account.

    If you are an admin on the site, you can activate and deactivate Jetpack modules without connecting the site to your WordPress.com account.

    Jetpack modules, and Jetpack options in general, are linked to your site URL. You could make that global connection with your own account, set up the site and each Jetpack option, and then once you’re all done, you could disconnect from WordPress.com in the Jetpack menu, and connect back using your client’s WordPress.com account. The options won’t be lost, and your personal account won’t be linked to your client’s site anymore.

    If I connect Publicize to my own WP.com account, then activate Facebook with my client’s FB login so that her posts go to her fan page, what is the point of having the connection run through my WP.com account? Why should it not run through her WP.com account which is what JetPack is already connected to?

    I understand how confusing this can be, and I completely agree with you here: it doesn’t make sense to have the connection run through your WordPress.com account, when you do not publish the posts, and when the Facebook account is not yours. In this case, the connection should be made through her WordPress.com account.

    I think this makes more sense on a multi-author blog.
    When running a multi-author blog, where each author might want to push their own posts to their personal Social Media accounts, you want each author to be able to enable Publicize from their own account. These authors might not want to give access to their personal Social Media accounts to another administrator on the site, so the Publicize connection is linked to their personal WordPress.com account.

    Basically, Publicize is a personal service, linked to a personal WordPress account and a personal WordPress.com account. You can choose to share that connection with others if you want to, but others should not be able to enable connections on your behalf.

    I hope this helps a bit.

    Thread Starter sawyerjw

    (@sawyerjw)

    11 years, 2 months ago

    If you are an admin on the site, you can activate and deactivate Jetpack modules without connecting the site to your WordPress.com account.

    Right, I understand that. That’s not the issue here.

    I understand how confusing this can be, and I completely agree with you here: it doesn’t make sense to have the connection run through your WordPress.com account, when you do not publish the posts, and when the Facebook account is not yours. In this case, the connection should be made through her WordPress.com account

    So, ultimately, the only real option is to log in to her WP site with her account credentials (not mine) and set up Publicize under her account.

    When running a multi-author blog, where each author might want to push their own posts to their personal Social Media accounts, you want each author to be able to enable Publicize from their own account. These authors might not want to give access to their personal Social Media accounts to another administrator on the site, so the Publicize connection is linked to their personal WordPress.com account.

    I get that. The problem is that there’s no way to make the connection if they DO want the admin to do it for them short of logging into WP with their credentials. As an admin I should have the ability to make a connection under my own login if the user is okay with that.

    Obviously, the design of Publicize provides no alternative to logging in with the user’s account. That being the case, I’ll quit bugging you about it. I appreciate your patient responses. 🙂

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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