That’s a good point… I’d also like to know more on how to proceed with this.
This is actually a Facebook bug, not a problem with the plugin. See here:
http://bugs.developers.facebook.net/show_bug.cgi?id=15200
According to that page, the bug is supposed to be fixed now (since March 14 2011). Are your tabs now working properly from https?
Quick followup. The recent changes to facebook and the plugin seem to make it where this issue is better defined. A SSL Certificate would seem to resolve the problem. No SSL now provides the big red ‘insecure content’ box for users in https. Plugin developer has more discussion about this on his site. Thanks Jason for the bug link info.
I have not seen the ‘insecure content box’ but am finding that if I arrive at my page through https (one of my admin accounts is set to use secure connection), the tab is actually missing from the list. when i switch to use Facebook as page, this remains true — unless I manage to switch it to http, when it becomes visible and functional again.
I have also found via application administration that “a secure callback url” (presumably for both canvas and tab) is now required. This gets to Mitch’s points, and the question: how can SSL be provided? Is this something on the plugin end, or something we have to configure on our server? Again to reiterate (from the Facebook Developer thread):
“THIS IS NO LONGER A BUG. Facebook has essentially *required* (for all practical purposes) that your content be hosted securely. Deal with the new reality and get about setting up and hosting your apps properly.”
Have not checked developer site for the discussion but will do so.
Ah, I get it now. As in indicated in the Developer’s blog, the latest version of the plugin “only fixes the problem if your web server is configured to support HTTPS” — i.e. you need to “spring for the required SSL certificate.” My host, Site5, makes a shared SSL certificate available, but this does not appear to work. Dedicated SSLs are something like $50.
For now, I will go the other route of administering tabs via Facebook apps. The one I’m using now, Static HTML: iframe Tabs, is effective for creating basic pages using iframes and html. You can actually use the html source from a Facebook Tab Manager page actually. This app is also worth checking out if you’re looking for a more robust website builder. Obviously this means maintaining a redundant set of content — but this was actually the case with FTM pages anyway, since the plugin does not provide for designating existing WordPress posts or pages as Facebook tabs.
You can now designate an existing post or page as a Facebook tab by adding a query string parameter to the end of your post address, as in http://www.carrcommunications.com/contact/?fb=tab.
This makes the post or page display in the template I use for Facebook content. This is only workable if the content of your page flows nicely into the format. For example, if you have a 600-pixel wide image it’s not going to display without a scrollbar in the 520-pixel wide IFrame for a page tab.
Other query string parameters you can use are head=1 (execute wp_head actions) footer=1 (ditto for wp_footer) and resize=1 (include JavaScript to try to resize the iFrame to fit the content)