Combination link shows only product page default image in social links

[Mark]

If I post the link of a combination in it shows up correctly on the product page, but not on social media. In places like Facebook, it shows the default image for the product not the combination image. This is a bit annoying when I post the combination to customers who want to see the blue product, so I post them that, but they only see the red variant in front of them on social media.

In a similar problem which could be technically related, if I request a pull for the images related to a combination, it pulls the default product image and not the combination image.  For example if I request images for the blue variant, the image_link field contains the product default image, not the combination image. The image_link field for that combination should contain that combination's image link, not the product's default image link.

If I post this to say, my Facebook shop, the title says "Blue Product" and but actually displays the red product so this is not great, it looks pretty amateur to shop visitors, this is because image_link is wrong

@datakick

Edited October 11, 2022 by Mark

[datakick]

1 hour ago, Mark said:

If I post the link of a combination in it shows up correctly on the product page, but not on social media. In places like Facebook, it shows the default image for the product not the combination image. This is a bit annoying when I post the combination to customers who want to see the blue product, so I post them that, but they only see the red variant in front of them on social media.

That's because the combination link is constructed using hash parameters instead of query parameters. Hash parameters are ignored by servers, browser actually never sends them. If the url looks like this:

https://domain.com/en/category/product#attribute-color=blue

Browser will send only request for https://domain.com/en/category/product , and server does not know about attribute-color.

Currently, combination selection is done only in browser javascript code, on page load. And that is, of course, not performed by facebook crawler. Facebook sees only the default page, with default image and default combination. 

[Mark]

Ok, so is the answer to construct using query parameters?

 

Note the second part of my post: If I pull the image for a combination out of the database, it actually pulls the product default image, ad not the combination image, meaning that all my facebook combination products are have the wrong image, due to image_link field being wrong.

[datakick]

57 minutes ago, Mark said:

Ok, so is the answer to construct using query parameters?

 

Note the second part of my post: If I pull the image for a combination out of the database, it actually pulls the product default image, ad not the combination image, meaning that all my facebook combination products are have the wrong image, due to image_link field being wrong.

That functionality is not implemented in core at the moment. We actually have this on our todo list. It's not only facebook that has issues with this, this also prevents proper GMC links for combinations, reviews associated with specific combinations, etc...

[Mark]

2 minutes ago, datakick said:

That functionality is not implemented in core at the moment. We actually have this on our todo list. It's not only facebook that has issues with this, this also prevents proper GMC links for combinations, reviews associated with specific combinations, etc...

Yes quite significant this. Great that it's in the works to fix. Hopefully sooner than later as cannot really push the shop anywhere with all the combination images wrong, google Facebook etc ...  Hopefully in the meantime I can come up with some query in Datakick module to map the correct image to the combination.

[Mark]

If this problem is being worked on @datakick can the product page be upgraded to display combination data as well as product data when a combination is selected.

At present users cannot see additional specific information about a combination displayed.

They only see product information and the combination title and price and pics, but not information.

[Mark]

On 10/11/2022 at 10:04 PM, datakick said:

That functionality is not implemented in core at the moment. We actually have this on our todo list. It's not only facebook that has issues with this, this also prevents proper GMC links for combinations, reviews associated with specific combinations, etc...

Is there something in GitHub for this @datakickrr  do I need to create it?

[datakick]

7 minutes ago, Mark said:

Is there something in GitHub for this @datakickrr  do I need to create it?

I believe there is no issue for that. You can create it.