Displaying an image when the topic is shared on social media.

enzo

Hi all,

The behavior I'm after is what you'd get when, for example, you share a newspaper publication on social media, where the main image accompanying the publication is loaded into the social media post.

This feature is important because social media publications with images are way more engaging and they help drive traffic into my forum. Is it possible at all to do this?

Thanks.

phenomlab

@enzo When you share a post, the image displayed by default (I think - I could be wrong, but this is my experience) is either the first image in the topic, or any thumbnail defined.

<baris>

Yeah it should show the topic thumb or the first image. For example this url results in the below preview

enzo

I think I believe what's the issue. I've been using a permalink to the post instead of a link to the topic. This made me realize that the only way to share the topic's url is by using the URL in the browser.

Is this so, or maybe I'm missing something? I just tried republishing the topic link on Twitter and now an image appears, however, it's the default image I set for twitter in the admin panel. Any chances I can trigger the behavior you folks described (the image in the topic)?

Thanks for your time and sorry if these issues are too basic!

phenomlab

@enzo Not basic at all - we'd never think like that anyway as this isn't how this community operates. For an example, have a look at the post I made below around a card view I'd developed.

https://community.nodebb.org/topic/17814/card-view-with-css-and-some-custom-js/25

You'll notice that thread has the same media image used as the below

https://sudonix.org/topic/608/switch-between-list-and-card-view-function/71

enzo

Thanks again for your reply @phenomlab. Unfortunately, I still cannot get the image included in the post that created the topic.

For example, let's say I create a new topic. Within this topic I add an image (btw, I'm using the S3 plugin, so all images are hosted there, not sure if this affects the behavior). I publish the topic and then I check the previews here: https://socialsharepreview.com/. The URL that @baris suggested above would not pass this test, as the social preview website says there's no image.

phenomlab

@enzo said in Displaying an image when the topic is shared on social media.:

(btw, I'm using the S3 plugin, so all images are hosted there, not sure if this affects the behavior)

This is a good point. Can the S3 bin be viewed publicly? If not, then this may restrict the ability to retrieve the image. On checking the URL from @baris, there is nothing wrong with this

The same applies to mine

Are you using any browser plugins that could potentially alter the result?