The Awebrer extension is a pretty popular third-party extension for Joomla 3. It adds a social media share button for articles in your Joomla articles. You can use it to easily add social sharing buttons to your site.
If you update Joomla to version 3.4.5 or later, the Awebrer extension will stop working. We’ve determined how to fix this issue by updating the procedure in the below steps.
Fix the Awebrer Extension with Gluing Codes Instead of Removing Them
In Joomla 3.4.5, updating the Awebrer extension to version 3.5.1 or later will break the extension. You’ll find a ton of fixes to this issue in the Joomla forums, but the simplest and the most effective method is to update the extension using Gluing codes.
Gluing codes are a set of instructions that Joomla uses to protect certain extensions. When you update an extension using gluing codes, Joomla automatically protects it from breaking by preventing the extension from being updated further. Because of this added protection, gluing code-protected extensions cannot be updated with the newer version of the extension and will always function as long as you keep the same gluing code. You’ll find an overview of gluing codes in the Joomla docs, but here’s an easy example.
Let’s say you own the ‘Awebrer’ extension. In Joomla 3.4.5, you can update the extension but keep the same gluing code (3.4.5). When you do this, Joomla automatically protects the update, meaning you cannot update the extension further. If you try, you’ll get an error message.
Let’s say you don’t want to keep the same gluing code but want to update the extension to the latest version (3.5.1). In this case, you have two options. You can either change the gluing code or remove the extension and download a fresh copy.
The first option is simple. All you need to do to change the gluing code is navigate to the extension’s folder in Joomla’s extension manager and open up the.php file. You’ll find a line of code that starts with $protected. Simply change it from “$protected” to “$safe” and save the file. Now, whenever you try and update the extension, you’ll get a warning asking if you’re sure you want to do this.
The second option is to remove the Awebrer extension and download a fresh copy. In this case, you need to delete the extension from Joomla’s extension manager and re-install it. This is important because when you re-install the extension, Joomla will look at the latest version available in the Joomla repository. In the case of the Awebrer extension, this is version 3.5.1.
Fix the Awebrer Extension in Joomla 3.4.5 With These Steps
Let’s discuss how to add a social media share button to an article in Joomla 3.4.5 using the Awebrer extension.
Install and Configure the Awebrer Extension in Joomla 3.4.5
To begin, you need to install the Awebrer extension in Joomla.
To do this, go to Joomla’s administration panel and navigate to Extensions ▶ Manage Extensions. In the search bar, enter ‘averer’, and then click on the green + button to select the ‘Awebrer’ extension. Once you’ve installed the extension, you can access its settings by clicking on the gear icon in the upper-right corner of any article.
Configure the Awebrer Settings
The settings for the Awebrer extension give you control over what kind of button to use and where to put it in your articles. To begin, enter the settings page, and then click on the gear icon in the upper-right corner. You’ll see a settings tab that leads you to additional configuration options.
Here you can choose between two different buttons. You can choose either the twitter logo or the vkontakte (formerly known as VK) logo to represent your social media shares. Additionally, you can set the button’s location in the article by dragging and dropping it into the desired spot below.
You can also choose to show a different count for clicks to different positions in an article. So, if you have an article that’s two or more pages, you can decide which pages get the social media share button and which ones do not.
Add the Social Media Share Button to Your Articles
The simplest way to add a social media share button to your articles in Joomla 3.4.5 is to go to the Article menu, and then to the Share Button item. You’ll see a list of the most popular social networks and a button for each one. Just click on the button to add it to the article.
If you want, you can enter a name for the share button (i.e Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc), add an icon to go along with it, and then click on the button to add it to your article.
Twitter and LinkedIn, for example, are very popular buttons that you can add to your articles. To make viewing content easier for visitors, you can add a description of the button’s purpose. This could be a short blurb about the social network or a short introduction about the importance of social media in today’s world. For more information about social media and how to use it to engage with your audience, check out these marketing blogs: