Sundry Works Help · Threads

Posting your paintings to Threads

A second Meta connection, separate from Instagram and Facebook.

What it's for

Posting your branded picture and its caption straight to Threads, the same way the Instagram and Facebook connection does. Pick Threads in the Format row on the Post tab and the publish card appears underneath. It can go now or on a timer - see Posting on a timer.

This is a separate connection from Instagram and Facebook, even though the same company is behind all three. Connecting one does nothing for the other. Threads is its own app in the Meta dashboard with its own App ID and Secret.

Before you start

Two things have to be true, and neither is obvious:

Threads refuses to send a sign-in back to a plain address on your own computer, which is what Facebook does. It insists on a secure web address. That is the whole reason for the page on sundry.works - it holds nothing and shows nothing, it just hands the sign-in back down to the app.

Setting it up

  1. Go to developers.facebook.com and open the app you made for Instagram and Facebook.
  2. Add the "Threads API" use case.
  3. Under that use case, switch on threads_basic and threads_content_publish.
  4. Set the Redirect Callback URL to https://sundry.works/threads.html - exactly that. It has to match what Sundry Works sends character for character, including the .html, or the sign-in is refused with "URL Blocked" before it starts.
  5. Add https://sundry.works/api/connect.php on the next line as well. That is the one the phone uses; the .html one above is the one the computer uses. Both can be listed and both are wanted, so that signing in works in either window.
  6. Fill in the Uninstall Callback URL and the Delete Callback URL as well, with the same address. The form will not save while they are empty, and the error it gives does not mention them.
  7. Save, then reload the page and look at the Redirect Callback URLs box again. Meta's form will sometimes report success without having stored anything, and the only way to know it took is to come back and see it there.
  8. On that same use case page, copy the Threads App ID and the Threads App Secret. These are NOT the same as the app's own App ID and Secret you used for Instagram - taking the wrong pair is the most common mistake here.
  9. Still on that page, find "Add or Remove Threads Testers" near the bottom and add your own Threads account. The app stays in development mode, which means only accounts listed there can use it - and your own is not on the list until you put it there.
  10. Then accept the invitation, which happens in Threads and not in the dashboard. In the Threads app: Settings, then More Settings, then Website Permissions, then Invites. Sundry Works is listed there. Press Accept.
  11. In Sundry Works, go to the Configuration tab, find "Post to Threads", and paste in the App ID and Secret.
  12. Press Save app, then Connect to Threads. A browser opens; authorize it, and you will be sent back.

The invitation step is the one everybody misses, because nothing tells you it exists. Skip it and the sign-in fails with "The user has not accepted the invite to test the app" - which sounds like somebody else's problem rather than a screen you have not visited yet. Note that Invites is its own item inside Website Permissions, not the first thing you see there. If nothing is listed, update the Threads app and open it again.

Posting

Open a painting, go to the Post tab, and pick Threads in the Format row. The picture goes to 1080 × 1350 and the publish card appears at the bottom with the Threads caption already in it.

Threads stops at 500 characters and quietly cuts anything past that, so the box counts as you type and tells you how far over you are. You can still press the button - the post goes out, just shorter than you wrote it.

If it goes wrong

The rest of the Help

Start here

Your catalogue

Making things from a painting

Running the business

Connections and setup

Try it on one of your own paintings

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