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?

Veolaver

does this same as this bug ? developers.facebook.com/bugs/329388920478094 – Oddment

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.

Ahern

I hit this issue and found that it was caused by an og:image URL with unescaped spaces. So +1 for the tip on inspecting URLs – Sgraffito

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.

Extravert

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.

Skulk

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.

Shurwood

Answer 5

Just wait and try again. Worked for me, after a couple of minutes.

Concern

Answer 6

Also check if you don't have e.g. a php redirect (www.site.com to site.com), that gave me lots of open graph errors, too. So I decided to remove it.

Concern

Luigi, thanks for the tips. No php redirect, no luck trying again a few minutes (or a day) later. Two more things I've learned: first, no site on tumblr.com seems to parse. Not sure if Facebook and Tumblr don't play well, or just the Linter and Tumblr. Second thing: the Linter doesn't seem to run properly in Google Chrome; there, I get a parsing error for EVERY web page, whereas in IE the error only appears for tumblr sites. Still looking for a good answer. You said it worked for you, has it worked for you on Tumblr?? – Veolaver

Answer 7

I found that Facebook gave me this error if any of my "og:" meta tags other than "og:image:secure_url" contained an https:// link.

The best debug procedure seems to be to remove all meta tags from your page, then add them back one by one, and fix any that cause the linter to break.

Providence

Found my problem! I was using {Permalink} in my og:url at the top of the page, and because it wasn't in a post it was resolving as blank. A blank entry, of course, is not a valid URL. Still trying to get it to permalink in the posts, but for now at least I'm error-free. Thanks Tobias! – Veolaver

Answer 8

I got this error when the HTML of my page included an IMG tag that pointed to a server that Facebook's linter couldn't reach (corporate firewall).

In other words...

THIS WORKS

<html>
  <head></head>
  <body>
    Hello World
  </body>
</html>

THIS DOES NOT WORK

<html>
  <head></head>
  <body>
    Hello World
    <br><img src="http://server.facebook.cannot.reach.com/some/file.jpg">
  </body>
</html>

When I removed the IMG tag or changed it to point to a public server, the debugger tool worked.

I contacted a couple friends who work at Facebook and asked them to lean on the folks in charge of the Debugger tool to provide more descriptive error messages.

Cherry

Answer 9

I had the same problem where my URL I was using in the debugger had this:

www.mysite.com?s=&blah=yes

Facebook didn't like the s query string not having a value.

Archdiocese

Answer 10

Aren't you setting incorrect link?

CASE 1: // OK
<meta property="og:image" content="http://exsample.com/test.jpg" />

CASE 2: // Error parsing input URL, no data was scraped.(No Image Mime)
<meta property="og:image" content="http://exsample.com/" />

Leatriceleave