# Frequently asked questions

# General

# What Your Membership Includes?

All of our memberships for Joomla! extensions include major and minor versions of the extensions (New features, Bug fixes, and Enhancements) and support services. For more details, click here (opens new window).

# What happens to the extension after my membership ends? Will the component on my website stop working after my membership ends?

  • Usage license will never expire. You can use the software FOREVER.
  • On unlimited sites or domains.
  • During the subscription period, you can download new versions with major features and minor fixes/enhancements or request assistance in our ticketing system (opens new window). Once the subscription is over, you can renew it.
  • You can use the software on ALL YOUR sites under the terms of GPLv3.
  • No part of our source code is encoded.

# What is the main difference between Perfect Publisher Basic and PRO?

Perfect Publisher Basic is mainly oriented for unassisted auto-posting. You just keep using Joomla! as usual, creating articles or other content items.

On the other hand, Perfect Publisher PRO has all Basic's features plus advanced features for social management. For instance, Perfect Publisher PRO has a "publishing agenda" to repeat Posts or "working hours" to define when your audience is online. You can create a new content item and determine the social impact, associating the media attributes.

# From Free to Pro

Upgrading from Perfect Publisher, either Free or Basic, to Perfect Publisher Basic or PRO is by no means different than installing the component. You do not have to uninstall the previous version; in fact, you MUST NOT do that. Simply follow the installation instructions to install Perfect Publisher over the existing Perfect Publisher installation. That's all! All your settings are preserved.

# From AutoTweetNG or Joocial to Perfect Publisher

Perfect Publisher v9 is the next major version of AutoTweetNG v8 and Joocial v8.

For more details about the upgrading procedure, please, check it here: From AutoTweetNG or Joocial to Perfect Publisher (opens new window)

# Why are published URLs not SEF enabled? Or, they are redirecting to the Home.

Perfect Publisher automatically supports SEF URLs based on Joomla! SEF or other SEF extensions (e.g.,, sh404sef or JoomSEF). Thus, firstly, please check if you have enabled Joomla! SEF support, review:

  • the original URL,
  • the shortened URL, and
  • the resulting URL.

INFO

Perfect Publisher works sending a SEF query to the front-end site to solve the non-SEF URL and generate the SEF URL. If your web server has any security restriction (e.g.,, mod_security), blocking the front-end query from the back-end site, Perfect Publisher publishes the non-SEF URL. Please, check your security configuration.

If these general tips do not solve the issue, please try to enable the logging mode (opens new window) to inspect the internal processing.

In any case, if you cannot solve the issue, please, send us the logged file to our support service (opens new window) to review it.

# How can a label or a message be translated or modified?

To change a label or a message, even if you have a single language on your site, you can access Joomla! Language Manager (Extensions / Language Manager), search for a text and redefine it, creating a new Override.

Reference:

# How can a view be modified?

One of the greatest Joomla! feature is the ability to override any view in the front-end or back-end site to allow customization. In this way, you can change a component or module output. You can add/edit the view template and create a new view override.

Reference: Understanding_Output_Overrides (opens new window)

# Plugins

# When is a Joomla! content article published on the Facebook wall?

By default, new articles are enqueued to be delivered immediately or at the defined publishing time (Agenda).

In addition, content modifications can be (optionally) also published to social channels. For example, if articles are initially created as unpublished and, in a second instance, modified to be published, then they are not processed. To enabled article modifications processing, in the System - Perfect Publisher for Joomla! Content (Articles) plugin, Posting filter/Process modifications=Yes. This setting is a general method to publish all content modifications.

When "Process modifications" is enabled, every time you save, a new 'modified' event is fired, and a new request is added in a 60-seconds window. You can increase this window to add a delay, deliver fewer requests, and sum all changes in a single request (Options/Advanced/Content Polling/Minimum requests polling delay).

Finally, Perfect Publisher has integrated edition tools to select to publish or not a particular content item.

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Perfect Publisher PRO has an interactive tool, the Post Manager, to select when an article has to be pushed (Post This=Yes) into the publishing queue (or not, Post This=No). Perfec Publisher - Post This

Finally, Message Management has an available option to define if it must be forced for every case to either Yes or No (otherwise, requests are generated based on the general plugin definitions).

# X extension is shown in the list of integrated extensions, but when I add a content item, it is not published to social networks; why?

Over 40+ extensions are integrated (please, check the list of integrated extensions here (opens new window), or review the System Check menu in the extension). After you install the main component, only the core plugins are installed for content integration. For instance, Joomla! Content plugin for articles.

Optional Plugins must be manually installed and enabled. You can find them in the downloaded package, inside the plugins/ directory. You only have to install the optional plugin associated with your required extension and enable it.

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If you have manually installed an Optional Plugin, please remember to update it manually when a new version is available. If you plan to uninstall an integrated extension, first uninstall the integrated optional plugin.

# On my website, I have X extension installed, which is an amazing extension. Can you support a new integration plugin for X?

As part of our support service, we provide a New Plugin Best-Effort Support: We love to integrate new extensions as a way to improve our social hub beyond its limits. If we do not have a plugin, we add it to the product roadmap to check and release it ASAP (in practice 1-2 weeks). In particular, about X, we have to check if it has content integration events. Perfect Publisher needs them to receive notifications about new content being added or modified.

Joomla! supports content events for integration. Extensions ready for integration have these calls:

Reference: https://docs.joomla.org/Plugin/Events (opens new window)

# What are Facebook's "OpenGraph Tags"?

REF: What is the "Perfect Publisher OpenGraph Tags plugin" for?

The Open Graph (opens new window) protocol enables any web page to become a rich object in a social graph. To turn your web pages into graph objects, you need to add basic metadata to your page (opens new window).

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On July 18, 2017, Facebook enforced OpenGraph Tags as THE official way to retrieve information from a link. Open Graph protocol is used by Facebook to retrieve information about your site and your pages. For instance, when a Post is manually shared by a user. With OpenGraph Tags, the page metadata that is shared can be defined and managed. FAQ: Facebook shows the wrong image, why?

Perfect Publisher for Facebook OpenGraph Tags plugin provides a convenient way to assign the necessary basic metadata to your pages. For more information about the Perfect Publisher for Facebook OpenGraph Tags plugin, click here (opens new window).

# What is Content Polling?

Most plugins work based on component integration events (triggers). If an Event is fired (e.g., a photo upload or a new article event), the content item notification is received by the plugin, and a new social message is processed to the social networks. This is a Push mechanism.

On the other hand, there are cases where no Events are fired (an RSS Importer, adding new articles), or you can have previous content already created (before Perfect Publisher installation) to publish.

If you have content not integrated via Joomla! events, Content Polling checks the database tables to detect new content items. This is a Pull mechanism.

Right now, Joomla! Content plugin, K2 plugin, and Ohanah plugin support content polling.

# I would like to publish also when I make changes to an article, not only when I make a new one, how is that possible?

By default, only new content items are processed and published. If you need to publish all modifications, you can enable them in the content integration plugin. Please, visit Plugin Manager: Plugins, browse to find the plugin, Perfect Publisher for Joomla! Content (Articles), and enable Process modifications in the Posting filter tab.

On the other hand, Perfect Publisher PRO (opens new window) includes the Post Manager toolbar and editor button to define social publishing attributes at edition time. In this way, you can specify if a new article has NOT to be published or if a modification HAS to be published (otherwise, requests are generated based on the general plugin definitions).

# How can content be republished?

# Republish Requests or Posts

The oldest trick is to manually schedule and change the state of a Request or Post to be reprocessed as a new one.

  • A Request can be moved back to Processed = No.
  • A Post can be moved to Waiting or Pending, and manually "Publish" it.

This is the simplest way to play with the processing queues. However, there are more options for better content management. Please, review the following options.

# Content items published on modification

If you have old articles to publish, you can enable the Process modifications setting, in the System - Perfect Publisher for Joomla! Content (Articles) plugin, and save the article to update the modification date. In this way, the article is forced to be published.

# Force manual republication of a specific content item

Additionally, Perfect Publisher PRO provides a simple way, based on the Post Management tool, to select Post This=Yes and publish a new message.

Perfec Publisher - Post This

# Definition of an evergreen strategy to republish content in a periodic way

Perfect Publisher PRO introduces the concept of Evergreen content items to allow the publication, repetitively, to support a longer content life cycle.

Ref: Should bloggers and businesses share old content? (opens new window)

Ref: Procedure to generate 5,000 evergreen content items (opens new window)

# I want to customize Plugin sources; how can it be done?

You can redefine plugin names (sources) in language files. For instance, our Editor plugin 'autotweetpost' is renamed in this way:

# Requests

# How can I publish posts from old articles?

In Perfect Publisher Free and Basic, you can locate the Request and move it back to the unprocessed state if the article was already processed. You can access Requests in the Requests list, click in the Processed=No filter. Then, you can move back the Request to the unprocessed state.

On the other hand, if you want to publish specific articles, you can enable Posting filter / _ ** Process modifications=YES**, at "System - Perfect Publisher for Joomla! Content (Articles) plugin level, and simply save the article.

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Perfect Publisher PRO has an interactive tool, the Post Manager, to select when an article has to be pushed (Post This=Yes) into the publishing queue (or not, Post This=No). Perfec Publisher - Post This

Finally, Message Management has a general option to define if it must be forced for every case to either Yes or No (otherwise, requests are generated based on the general plugin definitions).

Yes, you can schedule any number of messages from Joomla! Article Manager or from the Editor. In addition, with Perfect Publisher PRO, you have options to define a schedule of repeats or evergreen messages.

There are two alternatives:

  • Perfect Publisher Basic is mainly oriented for unassisted auto-posting; you just keep using Joomla! as usual, creating articles or other content items.
  • On the other hand, Perfect Publisher PRO has all Basic's features plus advanced features for social management. For instance, Perfect Publisher PRO has a "publishing agenda" to repeat Posts or "working hours" to define when your audience is online. You can create a new content item and define the social impact, associating the media attributes.

If you are looking for more than simply auto-publish into social channels, we recommend Perfect Publisher PRO (opens new window) for social content management.

# Scheduling

# Is it possible to use scheduling with content items?

Perfect Publisher PRO has two main tools for scheduling:

# Can I schedule posts to be published the next day at a certain time?

Yes,

  • Perfect Publisher PRO has virtual manager working hours, where you can define for example, Monday-Friday 11-14hs.
  • Additionally, you can define a Cron job task frequency to deliver posts every X minutes

# Evergreens

# I have 900 articles; I want to run a routine to auto post all of them; how?

Perfect Publisher PRO is the right tool for you. It has several advanced scheduling features.

Particularly, evergreen messages allow to republish posts, following a strategy.

You can define evergreens one by one or follow this recipe in a big batch process:

How to generate evergreens from articles (opens new window)

# How can I define evergreen posts?

These are the steps to create evergreen content items:

  1. Define an evergreen message in the Post Manager (opens new window) or the Editor (opens new window)

  2. Check the new evergreen message in the Evergreens tab (opens new window)

  3. Define the delivery frequency "Evergreen Strategy" in the Virtual Manager (opens new window)

  4. Test a case, and wait until the Post is published according to the defined social strategy.

# If I choose Random in the evergreen strategy, do I have to set frequency?

Frequency defines when Perfect Publisher PRO is going to check and publish a new post. Yes, a frequency must be defined. Also, "Working hours" can be adjusted to reduce the publishing window.

To configure the publishing window, you can define "0,20 8 * * *" and it will publish only two random posts at 8:00 and 8:20.

Otherwise, Perfect Publisher PRO will publish at maximum frequency.

# Do I have to adjust "Advanced options/Interval in seconds"?

No, this is an internal parameter to adjust the general polling window. We do not recommend modifying it. Always customize the Frequency parameter.

# Does evergreen frequency override Automator plugin or Cron job task?

No, they are unrelated. Evergreen frequency defines when posts are generated. Automator plugin or Cron job task are execution methods working on a lower level.

# Rules

# Rule to add static text.

Q: How to publish articles from certain categories to display in the format [static text][title][link]?

A: You can create a rule for a particular category, adding in the Add Static Text tab:

  1. beginning of message
  2. Static text: TEST:
  3. By default, the link is added at the end of the message

# Posts

# Facebook Layouts Guide, how to publish Big Pictures

IMPORTANT: Nowadays, OpenGraph Tags plugins (opens new window) are a critical part of the image integration.

From Perfect Publisher, Posts are submitted with information from the site. It is a content definition, not a layout definition, and a layout can't be forced into Facebook.

From Facebook side, Posts are shown following certain design layouts and guidelines.

# General Facebook Guidelines

Facebook accepts images at least 200px x 200px. However, to improve how posts are shown, there are several recommendations to comply with timeline layouts.

  • Use images at least 1200 x 630 pixels for the best display on high-resolution devices. At the minimum, you should use images that are 600 x 315 pixels to display link page posts with larger images.
  • The aspect ratio is precise: image widths need to be 1.91 times the height.

Ref: Images in Link Shares (opens new window)

If you are running K2, it automatically generates several image sizes from the original image. The Perfect Publisher for K2 plugin has a parameter to select the required image size. We recommend publishing the biggest available image; please test the plugin setting that fits your needs.

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Perfect Publisher PRO (opens new window) has introduced Post Manager (opens new window) toolbar and editor button to define social publishing attributes at edition time. Particularly, it has an Image selector to choose the perfect post image.

# Facebook Post, How to customize text fields

A Facebook Post has several text fields:

  • About message: it is created from the original content title in several steps. For example, if you create an article, the message is initialized with the article title by the Perfect Publisher Content plugin. The plugin can add hashtags, words, or categories to enrich the message. In a second step, after the Request is received, a rule can further change the message. For example, replacing words. Finally, the message is delivered as a new Channel Post.

In addition, some integration plugins (for record-oriented extensions, namely Cobalt CCK, Fabrik, etc.) have a message template to create the initial message on named fields.

To sum up, you can modify the message in plugin configuration or by adding new rules.

  • About title: it is published with no modification.

  • About Post description: Below the Post title, an optional field can introduce a text snippet. By default, it is initialized with the first paragraph of the article text.

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To create a perfect Post, Perfect Publisher PRO provides the Post Manager (opens new window) tool to customize Posts at edition time.

# On Facebook, the title of the article appears twice in the Post; why?

Facebook Posts have more mandatory/optional fields than the rest of social networks. Particularly, message and description are mandatory. Perfect Publisher fills both fields with the available information. Both fields are based on the title, but a message can have static texts, hashtags, keywords, etc., to enhance it and add context.

# In Facebook, an automated post has a lower reach than a manual post; why?

Facebook has been improving its algorithms, a.k.a. EdgeRank (opens new window), to show the right content to the right people at the right time (opens new window).

In general, manual posts are created with care. When you find something cool to your audience, you share it. For instance, you pick an amazing photo related to a product and publish it. Additionally, manual posts are usually published when your users are online. On the other hand, auto-posting could be just ... automated.

We recommend you study your audience and auto-publish with the same criteria as you create manual posts. Tips for high-quality content to increase engagement:

  • Only create Posts with recommended Photo sizes (opens new window) (and increase photo quality).
  • Restrict Virtual Manager working hours to match your audience.
  • Do not auto-publish everything. You know what is hot.
  • Work based on campaigns. For example, in summer, only publish about "Air conditioning".
  • Filter by the right keywords for your audience. Google Search, Analytics, or Ads can give you more ideas to build engagement.
  • Avoid spamming keywords "SALE", "Click here", etc. Facebook reads your posts. Do not ask for engagement.

According to people we surveyed, there are some consistent traits that make organic posts feel too promotional:

  1. Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app
  2. Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context
  3. Posts that reuse the same content from ads

Finally, boost a Post every once in a while. A boost on Posts can increase user reach. If you have boosted manual posts, it may be a clue about why they do not have the same reach. Total Reach = Organic reach + Paid reach https://moz.com/blog/facebook-algorithm-change

# Facebook articles about News Feed to increase engagement

# Is Facebook biased against posts originated outside the platform?

Many accounts (e.g., games and mobile apps) work only on Facebook API, with no alternative way to publish. We have no confirmation that Facebook algorithms are biased.

On the other hand, API posts probably have to build up their own relevance. They do not inherit the same priority as manual posts (and they do not lower manual posts priority).

# What control does a Perfect Publisher user have over text on Facebook Page posts originated from Joomla! articles?

Facebook posts have a fixed layout. Facebook layout includes:

  • Title, the post main message (mandatory)
  • Link (optional)
  • Description (optional)
  • Image (optional)
  • Description (optional)

The post title is the main message that it is composed in Perfect Publisher to include several elements. It is based on the content item title + short URL. It can include additional hashtags, static texts, categories, etc. For instance, field-based extensions (like K2, Seblod, among others) have a message template to include specific fields.

The composed message is shared to all social channels and adjusted according to the allowed space.

Concerning Facebook's Description, it is defined to include all article text and adjusted according to the allowed space. In certain plugins, if there is no additional text, it includes the original title.

Following the last details, by default, a Facebook Post is created from title, introtext and fulltext.

These posts are created based on our experience applied to the most common usage scenario. If you need to customize how it works, you can create a new Perfect Publisher Content plugin for your site and change how fields are defined.

Restrictions are only oriented to create an optimized post. For instance, posts are based on short titles to have better engagement, and description is based on introtext + fulltext.

# How can Posts be published in sequence?

To publish Posts in sequence, we usually restrict the numbers of Posts to be processed to 1.

  • In Cron job mode: Perfect Publisher Control Panel/Options, Cron job mode, Max. no. of posts=1
  • In PageLoad mode: in "System - Perfect Publisher Automator" plugin, General settings, Max. no. of posts=1

Furthermore, we also frequently restrict the publishing activity to certain working hours. For instance, only running the Cron job task every 20 minutes, Monday-Friday, 9-18hs; or Perfect Publisher PRO with the Virtual Manager working hours definition.

# Is there a way of limiting or increase the number of daily messages?

At System - Perfect Publisher Automator, you can define Max. no. of posts and Interval in seconds (by default, 180 seconds). However, you can change it to any number, for instance, 1 post every hour (3600 seconds).

In addition, Perfect Publisher Basic allows more control by running the Cron job task according to a frequency expression.

Finally, Perfect Publisher PRO provides several options to define when Posts are published. For instance, the Virtual Manager feature allows defining the working hours.

# Large font size in Twitter tweet

Q: How can I control the font size of a post being sent out or just have a normal size font?

A: From Joomla! and Perfect Publisher side, a content definition is submitted to social networks. Twitter shows it according to its current style guidelines. In general, all social networks choose how to show messages according to internal practices to improve the user experience, and there is no way to impose a style.

# How to delay Posts while content is still being edited?

By default, Perfect Publisher waits 60 seconds, but you can increase it to add more time in Minimum requests polling delay. You can modify it here: Control Panel/Options/Advanced/ Minimum requests polling delay (seconds).

# How can a static text be added to all posts?

There are mainly two ways to implement this:

  • At plugin level: for instance, in "System - Perfect Publisher Content" plugin, in Message options/ Static Text Source = Custom Static Text and finally the text in Custom Static Text field. Additionally, the text position can be defined in Static Text Position.
  • For more flexibility, a rule can be created to achieve the same customization: Rule to add static text (opens new window)

# To clean up a bit, can I safely clean up the posts table with 'Purge'?

A purge removes all requests and posts. We recommend performing a purge when there are no waiting requests or posts.

For consistency, it does not remove Evergreen requests. They must be manually removed from the Evergreen list first.

# Channels

# Why does Perfect Publisher not publish to X Social Network?

We are constantly adding new features and channels to support new Social Networks.

However, some Social Networks do not provide a publishing API to create posts from an external website. For instance, SnapChat is currently focused on mobile devices.

INFO

There are scripting solutions based on "unofficial" libraries or "hacks". These "workarounds" can stop working without notice. Since there is no official API, workarounds impersonate a user to send a Post. These operations are explicitly forbidden by Social Networks Terms of Service. For instance, instead of implementing an API Token, a "hack" may ask the account password (weak security) to send information. We follow the safest path to provide a stable product. Our extensions work based on official Social network APIs.

If you want to propose new Social Network channels, please contact us (opens new window) to check the support status.

# Do you support a Proxy server? Do you provide Proxy services?

No. Proxy servers or proxy services are frequently used to underwhelm the API restrictions of a social network. Since we provide solutions to work under the official terms of service, we don't support proxy servers or proxy services. Take into account that accessing an API via a Proxy is commonly a cause of account banning.

We don't offer shortcuts to underwhelm the quality of your site and the information published to a social network. If a third party provides a service "without the creation of an App" or asks "your username and password", be sure that you are going to be misrepresented and granting access to your account to external actors; at risk of being banned.

# Social posts are Ok, but I need to customize articles submitted via Email, Blogger and Tumblr

Advanced templating is possible with a regular layout override. Each content channel has its own layout. Please, check the following files:

  • administrator/components/com_autotweet/views/channel/tmpl/mailchannel-post.php
  • administrator/components/com_autotweet/views/channel/tmpl/bloggerchannel-post.php
  • administrator/components/com_autotweet/views/channel/tmpl/tumblrchannel-post.php

For example, these files have to be copied and modified to into these directories to create layout overrides:

  • templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/html/com_autotweet/channel
  • administrator/templates/isis/html/com_autotweet/channel

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If you are running in Cron job mode, there is no defined template context to create a layout override; then a different override method has to be implemented. You can create a new layout view override specifically for your Joomla! version. For instance, you can duplicate mailchannel-post.php and rename it as mailchannel-post.j3.php. This method also works in Page Load mode.

Ref: Understanding Output Overrides (opens new window)

# LinkedIn

# What steps are necessary to publish posts to Company Pages?

LinkedIn requires that an administrator of the Company Page validates the app for company page publishing. Also, it's mandatory to apply to the LinkedIn Marketing Developer Program to get access to the API.

For more information: LinkedIn Marketing Developer Program (opens new window).

# Concerning to LinkedIn group for Partners - LinkedIn API Terms change

On May 12, 2015, LinkedIn changed the API availability terms. Only Profile, Share and Companies APIs remain available for general use.

Any other API services (e.g., Connections, Groups, People Search, Invitation, Job Search, etc.) are restricted to "relevant Partners". To apply for a Partner program: https://developer.linkedin.com/partner-programs (opens new window)

Until now, we have confirmed that the change is just a way to close the access, and there are no new "relevant Partners". You can freely apply to the Partner Program. If you are accepted, we will be glad to review the channel compatibility for the updated API.

# Mail Channel, how to send posts to a mailing list?

The mail channel allows to send posts to an email recipient simply.

The extension does not implement mailing list management. We recommend integrating any popular package. For instance, many hosting providers have mail in CPanel. Alternatively, you can create a Google group or an internal mailing list in your mail service.

# Social Feeds

# How to show social media feeds on our web site?

Each social network has a different position about social feeds. For instance, Twitter allows the publishing of tweets on sites, and their API allows it. On the other hand, Facebook only allows embedding widgets, and according to Facebook's terms of service, posts can't be published outside of the platform. Thus, Perfect Publisher includes a module to render tweets, Perfect Publisher Twitter Feed. About Facebook Widgets, you can generate them and simply include them on your site. This is the official Facebook Tool to create widgets: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins (opens new window)

Our guideline is creating modules for the social platforms that allow post publishing on 3rd-party sites and recommend the official tools when it is not possible.

# RSS Feeds Import

# How can I make the trackback target frame open in iframe?

Articles imported from an RSS Feed are created on this view: administrator/components/com_autotweet/views/feedarticle/tmpl/default.php.

You can create a view override and customize how the link is inserted in the article.

Ref: How a view can be modified?

# Multilingual Site

There are several ways to configure multilingual auto-publishing. By default, content is published in the main language.

You can configure to publish different methods in "Options/ Advanced/ Language management".

  • Define language tag by content: for extensions where content is tagged in a specific language (e.g., Joomla! articles), links will have the associated language parameter dynamically. Not available for all extensions.
  • Remove language from URL URLs will not have any forced language parameter. Language parameter will be solved by Joomla!.
  • Define language tag with default: URL language parameter will be forced to the defined language. Select the language from the list.
Last Updated: 4/16/2024, 4:44:17 PM