Facebook and caching plugin

Hi @monterson

Thanks for reaching out, to clarify are you having an issue with the Facebook for WooCommerce extension and a specific caching plugin that you would like us to assist with, or are you concerned about using caching plugins with Facebook for WooCommerce in general?

If the former, can you please let us know which caching plugin you’re working with or experiencing an issue with and we’ll be happy to help direct you.

If the latter, we offer some general information about configuring caching plugins here: https://woocommerce.com/document/configuring-caching-plugins/ but would be unable to provide more specific guidance in this area.

Please let us know!

Hello and Thank you for your reply.

I’m concerned about using caching plugins with Facebook for WooCommerce in general, as I tried many caching plugins and results are always the same.

Caching converts php into a html which stops pixel tracking.

I used Hummingbird before and now and WPOptimize.

Do you know what and how to exclude from caching so this will let pixel work correctly?

Thanks.

Hi @monterson,

For Pixels, it is recommended to check out the Pixel Helper extensions for browsers (for example the one for Chrome is here. it will tell you if the page is properly set for the Pixel to work, and if not it will give information on either what to fix or point to where the issue is pulling from.

The big pages to not cache are the My Account, Cart and Checkout so that the system can adequately track inventory/sales/etc.

If you are concerned regarding the individual plugins and how the cache is set up in them, get with the developers of the plugins and let them know you need to make sure it is not blocking the Pixel from working.

Also, caching plugins should not interfere directly with Facebook for products as the information is published to Facebook in the back end when a product is updated – each time there is a product that is set to Sync and Show on its Product Edit page, and the product changes, it pushes a request to Facebook to update it.

This change is usually near instant, or at most a few minutes. There are also hourly and daily checks Facebook does to any existing products (such as inventory).

That said, if you run into an issue where you are updating a product and Facebook is not updating accordingly (or showing old information) feel free to disable the cache plugins and then go to the Product and Delete Product(s) on Facebook as seen here. Make sure it is set to Sync and Show and Update the product, it should re-push information to Facebook.

Let us know how it goes!

Hi Mike a11n,

Thank you for your answer.

Reading all here one may come to a conclusion that none of woocommerce users sell on Facebook or they don’t use and caching plugin, which means they are not selling at all because site is too slow (also because pixel slows site down).

Caching plugin developers have asked me for contact Facebook and ask for what exactly cookies or script should not be blocked, because it is not their job to spend time for research about Facebook’s ideas and technology behind Pixel leftovers.

But here I received a tip to contact them. Hmm.

I am using Pixel Helper Extension, and that’s how I know about the issue.

Disabling caching plugin to delete products on Facebook doesn’t work if duplicated catalog is already there. This will only delete latest syncs. The only option in my opinion is deleting catalog and creating a new one.

Can you please tell me what cookies or scripts should I add to a caching plugin as a exception?

Thank you in advance.

Hi @monterson

I’d recommend, as stated in the article that my colleague shared above, the pages:

• My Account;
• Cart;
• Checkout;

Does your caching plugin offer a database cache? If so, you may consider excluding _wc_session_ from being cached.

There’re some cookies that you can also consider excluding, you can find them here with a quick description of their purposes.

https://woocommerce.com/document/configuring-caching-plugins/#excluding-pages-from-the-cache

In general, WooCommerce is dynamic, so it’s safe to exclude all dynamic pages that you believe are dynamically populated.

Also, it’s important to keep in mind, that despite your cache plugin, some hosts also use some caching system on their side too, so you may need to check with them to add some exception rules.

Let us know how it goes! My very best,

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by André.

Thank you Andre for your answer and sorry for a late reply.

Within next days I will be testing the solution and will let you know about the results.

In my plugin (WPOptimize) I have:
– URLs to exclude from caching
– Cookies which, if present, will prevent caching (one per line)
– Conditional tags to exclude from caching
– List of browser agent strings which, if detected, will prevent caching

Please tell me more about _wc_session_

Thanks

Hi @monterson,

WooCommerce automatically stores customer session data. Adding WP _wc_session_ to queries that shouldn’t be cached ensures the customers’ sessions aren’t cached by caching plugins.

I hope this clarifies it.

I highly recommend taking a look at our caching documentation: https://woocommerce.com/document/configuring-caching-plugins/