Automatic Syncing no longer available

Check out our installation tutorial video on how to set up syncing using Automatic Installation: https://youtu.be/a4JBJXyuaFk?t=2m37s

I have changed the status of this back to “unresolved”.

I already have Disqus installed and have been using it for some time now. The comments were automatically sync’ed until very recently. (I’m guessing the sync’ing stopped on 24 May when the new EU privacy law came into effect.)

My difficulty is in filling out the application for API https://disqus.com/api/applications/register/ – specifically, what to put for “My Application Name”, “Description”, and “Organization” (I understand what to put for “Website”, or at least I think I do; I’m assuming that that is my URL) I do not want to fill out the form incorrectly and be turned down. My blog is a small personal blog that runs zero ads and generates zero income.

To add to my frustration, when going to the Disqus help page https://help.disqus.com/api/how-to-create-an-api-application, I see the following rather unhelpful advice:

Unlimited API access is currently available as an add-on for users with a Pro level subscription

(I have asked how to fill in the application in the Disqus blog but cannot tell if my question there was approved.)

I do not see anywhere on the Disqus site a definition of “Limited API access”….

To clarify, Automatic Installation sets up the required API application that’s necessary for setting up automatic syncing. We recommend this path vs. manually setting up/configuring the API application yourself since it’s easier and less prone to error.

I do not see anywhere on the Disqus site a definition of “Limited API access”….

We cap API access to 1,000 requests/hr for everyone. If you exceed that # of comments, unlimited api access would solve that and is available in our Pro subscription. More info here https://help.disqus.com/terms-and-policies/disqus-pricing-and-plans

Excuse me for my obtuseness.

Happily, there is pretty much zero chance that I will ever approach 1000 requests/hr (I don’t think there are even 1000 requests per month)

But this still doesn’t answer the question on how to fill out the application for API https://disqus.com/api/applications/register/

I am quite unclear on how to fill out the fields for “My Application Name”, “Description”, and “Organization” (am I right that my wp URL is what goes into the “Website” field?)

Please give examples of the proper answers for those fields. Because I am not running a business, I don’t have an organization.

I suspect that I am not the only person having difficulty with this….

To clarify further, while I had automatic sync’ing set up before, this sync’ing is no longer set up. This is what I see under “Sync” in the wp admin area for the Disqus plugin

Sync
[…]
You must have a Site Shortname, API Secret Key, and API Access Token configured to enable this feature.
Import
[…]
You must have an API Secret Key and API Access Token configured to enable this feature.

Sigh. (When was the editing button removed)?

When I tried hitting the “reinstall” button, I was informed that I already have this set up with Disqus….

E Morris

When I tried hitting the “reinstall” button, I was informed that I already have this set up with Disqus….

Where are you seeing this message? You should be able to go through the Reinstall flow to set up the API application. The button should say “Reinstall [sitename]” This sends you back to the Disqus admin page for your site. Click the blue “Install [sitename] on your site” and that should be it. I’d recommend checking out our installation video for a visual walkthrough of this: https://youtu.be/a4JBJXyuaFk?t=2m37s

Sigh. (When was the editing button removed)?

Click the lock icon to make changes to the fields on the Site Configuration tab.

I’d recommend checking out our installation video for a visual walkthrough of this: https://youtu.be/a4JBJXyuaFk?t=2m37s

this walkthrough does not show what I see. Instead of “Install” and “Automatic Installation”, I see “Reinstall”

So just now, I tried reinstalling again, trying not to be stymied by “Copy the Installation Token and paste it into the form below to complete the installation” (thinking WHAT installation token??) and simply leaving what was already in the field there, pressed “install [myshortname] on your site”, and got the following message at https://MYSHORTNAME.disqus.com/admin/install/platforms/wordpress/:

An error occurred trying to configure your site. Make sure the Disqus plugin is installed and activated, and that your site is publicly accessible.

The Plugin IS installed and activated and my site is publicly accessible.

The time I did this before was when I got the message that it was already installed.

I pressed the “back” button to see the various platforms and saw the message
“Looks like Disqus is already installed on your site” at https://MYSHORTNAME.disqus.com/admin/install/

this walkthrough does not show what I see. Instead of “Install” and “Automatic Installation”, I see “Reinstall”

When you reach the 2:58 mark in the video https://youtu.be/a4JBJXyuaFk?t=2m58s, the set up is the same. Follow the steps starting from there, and you should be good.

You can also try restarting the entire process by deleting the plugin and installing it again on your WordPress site.

Also, can you share the link to your website as well as the Disqus shortname?

Once again, excuse me for appearing to reply to myself.

Okay. I’m happy to report that progress is being made and it appears I’m getting closer. Baby steps. Baby steps.

After logging into Disqus, I went to https://disqus.com/api/applications/ to see what my Site Shortname, API Secret Key, and API Public Key are. The API Access Token was a little trickier to find. It turned out to be on the link to https://disqus.com/api/applications/MYAPPLICATIONNUMBER/ at the top of the applications page (it starts with disqus_ and is followed by the number of the application).

I then went to “Reinstall” and finally managed to get a message that all went well. Then I went back to wp-admin section below “syncing” tab and clicked on “Enable AutoSyncing”.

But.Now, instead of “AutoSyncing: Needs Update”, I see

Auto syncing: Not Configured
Error enabling syncing: Verification request failed: 2018-05-30 7:17 pm

I do not know what I am doing wrong. As far as I can see, all the fields are filled in now under the configuration tab.

(Please note that the YouTube video does not show the same things that I see on my wp-admin page.)

The shortname is etherwork and the link to my site is etherwork dot net slash blog slash (purposely left spelled out so as to keep spammers and brute force attackers at bay)

You can also try restarting the entire process by deleting the plugin and installing it again on your WordPress site.

If I do that, does that mean I would have to re-import the comments to Disqus?

After logging into Disqus, I went to https://disqus.com/api/applications/ to see what my Site Shortname, API Secret Key, and API Public Key are. The API Access Token was a little trickier to find. It turned out to be on the link to https://disqus.com/api/applications/MYAPPLICATIONNUMBER/ at the top of the applications page (it starts with disqus_ and is followed by the number of the application).

I highly recommend following the Automatic Installation flow built into the plugin, vs. manually going into the Disqus API to set up/configure the application yourself.

If I do that, does that mean I would have to re-import the comments to Disqus?

Nope, all the comments are already backed up on Disqus so you won’t have to re-import anything.

I highly recommend following the Automatic Installation flow built into the plugin

This is exactly what I’m trying to do.

I have just deleted Disqus plugin, reinstalled/activated it, gone to the wordpress installation page on Disqus, pasted the sync token, clicked “install” and got the following message:

An error occurred trying to configure your site. Make sure the Disqus plugin is installed and activated, and that your site is publicly accessible.

This is very frustrating! (The only reason I am using Disqus instead of WP commenting system is because a while back, I suffered a brute force attack and my webhost told me I had to use a 3rd party commenting system.)

The odd thing is that it appears that Disqus is installed on the site. I just looked at a post with comments and they are there.

However, the old version of automatic sync’ing does not seem to be available. According to the message under the Sync tab in WP-admin,

You must have a site short name, API Secret Key, and API Access Token configured to enable this feature.

I have entered all of those (again) and tried “reinstalling” (again) and still get the same error message.