Linter gives "Error parsing URL" error

Question

GOAL: I'm trying to apply a Like button to my blog - this is my first time trying it.

BEHAVIOR: The button shows up, but when someone clicks "Like", the word "error" shows up in red next to the like button. No interaction with Facebook occurs.

FIX TRIED: I've tried both the iframe and the html5 implementation, same behavior using both methods.

FIX TRIED #2: The word "error" shows up as a hyperlink suggesting I use the Facebook Linter, so I did. However, when I put in my URL, the Linter gives this error:

Error Parsing URL: Error parsing input URL, no data was scraped.

I've tried my blogs main URL (douganddaniele.tumblr.com) and the URL of an individual post (http://douganddaniele.tumblr.com/post/14308744801/settling-in).

I'm using the Linter here: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug

PLEA FOR HELP: Clearly there is something here that I'm misunderstanding. Can someone help?

Answer 1

You'll get this if FB has issues parsing any of the og tags. You can usually find the issue by following these steps:

1) First thing to check, go through and make sure there isn't anything obvious. Often if you're using something like WordPress simple things can get complicated. View the source and make sure everything is as you think it should be.

2) Visit any URLs. Linking to incorrect og:url or og:image URLs can cause this error.

3) Your og:image URL should be https (as of Oct 1st, 2011). You will get this error if it is not (at time of writing, this sort of thing can change).

If you follow these steps and still have issues then go back to basics. Remove all tags and add each one individually, running the debugger every time. At least that way you'll learn which tag is causing a headache.

Answer 2

It seems there are many cases where developers are encountering the message:

Error Parsing URL   Error parsing input URL, no data was scraped.

and they are unable to solve this. I think the best way to tackle this problem is to get Facebook to provide more detailed error messages. Please go to their bug tracker and comment, subscribe, or add to the repro counter.

Answer 3

I had the same issue but it was constant. . .turns out a corrupted jpg in the og:image tag caused the error. I re-saved the image as a png and it started working again.

Answer 4

I get this error when my .htaccesses files haven't

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$

sometimes i dont add this line in order to prevent direct linking of images and stuff. if i take it off, the debug tool goes ok.