How can I download the statistics (or time series) of Facebook messages exchanged between myself and my significant other? - messenger

I have tried searching for a way to download some basic stats, or even a time series plot, that tallies the amount of facebook messenger activity between myself and my significant other. This is a much needed step to expedite some paperwork we need for a government application. Scrolling through a multi-year history and counting which days we used Messenger seems tortuous. Even if there was a way to download a vector of timestamps of messages between us, that would help a lot. I could code my own plot for the paperwork. Some blogs have mentioned using the "download a copy of your facebook data" from the support inbox, but I do not see that link on the appropriate page anymore. Does anyone know where it moved to?
Thank you.

I haven't tried this myself, but hopefully it works:
Go to your settings (the little downward pointing arrow, then choose settings),and right below all the options within the main box there should be a message saying "Download a copy of your Facebook data.", click the link, start the archive and apparently it should work. But whether or not it has timestamps and such, is a mystery for me (but likely).
edit: If this does not work, depending on your computer/volume of messages, what you could also do is open the mobile browser messenger (to reduce processing power needed), and start scrolling up within your conversation right up until to the top, then ctrl+a and copy everything to a word document. But obviously this would not work for conversations in the multiple thousand message territory

Related

update calendar from email link

Obviously I'm not using the right keyword/phrases to find the information that I need. Any help in pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
I've generated an ICS file. I put a link to this file in an email. What I would like to happen is that the recipient clicks the link and it updates their calendar (regardless of OS, platform). Currently the link simply downloads the ICS file but does not update any calendar.
Background: I belong to a non-profit organisation that runs several courses that members can subscribe to. This means that each members course list will be different therefore I can not simply send out a single list or have people subscribe to lots of different 'events' to have their calendars updated.
Is this doable or am I simply dreaming :-)
Jeff, what happens when some one clicks on an ics link depends on their device and the program that they are reading the email in, and how they have setup their defaults - eg what calednar app. EG: I have mine setuo to download ics files for testing purposes, and if i click on a downloaded one it opens in notepad++.
Of course most people will not have that. However, not that easy to make it happen automatically, have to tell users.
To have updates (ie syncing) happen, recipients need to subscribe to the link, not import the data. If they are not familiar with using multiple calendars, they can get confused.
instructions on google: https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37100 on apple calendars https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/calendar/subscribe-to-calendars-icl1022/mac. Rather annoyingly, iphones will offer a user who clicks on a normal http..ics url an option to import all events. To make the iphone offer the subscribe option one has to use the unofficial apple icalendar prefix webcal. So one ends up either showing both link options on a webpage, or doing device detection and showing webcal for macs.
hope that clarifies.

Testing Facebook Messenger Scan Code

Facebook recently announced the introduction of messenger codes which can be used to add new contacts and, more importantly, communicate directly with businesses and business pages (which is why I'm interested in it).
It took me ages to find it but on the bottom left of the messages tab on my Facebook page I have the option to download my code in three different sizes - clicking the disc will open a modal window where you can click the Download button and choose from 300, 600 or 1000px PNG file downloads.
NOTE: While they are PNG files the background is not transparent which seems like a bit of an oversight to me but hey ho that's what Photoshop is for I guess.
The problem is that while I can download my code I can't find any way to test it on printed materials (or even electronically at the moment!). The scanning feature doesn't seem to have been rolled out for me yet (I tried re-installing the Messenger app to see if I got a newer version but that didn't work) and nor for anyone I know (I'm in the UK). The codes are bespoke to Messenger so can't be scanned or tested using any other app.
I'm probably too far ahead of the game but is there any way I can test to see if my code scans correctly, or anywhere I can go to find out? I would like to use it on some promotional material which is likely to be long term materials that I don't want to have to update in the near future (several years, by which time it's likely these codes will be more commonplace).
I also need to know what the redundancy is like. For example the high redundancy QR codes I generate can have up to 30% of the code covered while still being usable, which is great for design purposes. I can't find any official documentation as yet for these codes at all, let alone what is required, what the spec. is etc.
I know the most likely option is 'sit and wait' but I really would rather not if possible. I've never been very patient...
Thanks
UPDATE: My Messenger app has now been updated so I can test, but I'm leaving this here in case anyone knows of another way to test perhaps? If someone doesn't have Messenger on their phone for example.

Up to date instructions for September 2011 onwards for beginners

Sorry for this basic question but all attempts at Googling and using facebook help only provide out of date information.
I am attempting to make my first fb app. Just an html page saying hello. From what I understand the app (or webpage) is stored on my server and I set up a facebook app that basically points to the URL of the app (or webpage) on my server.
Is this basically correct.
Where do I enter this URL information in my edit app screen. I have followed the latest fb instructions and all I see when I view the app is the admin page in fb for the app.
Does it take a long time for the page to appear.
Is there a current idiots guide. The app design is not a problem for me loading it in to facebook is the problem.
Unfortunately this wasn't very helpful, not because of what you posted but due to the fact that it appears that Facebook has updated the way in which pages are linked to again.
The pages you suggested I look at were well laid out with lots of information on them but they are already out of date and do not seem to correspond with the layout of the Facebook 'dev app' and even the fields in the form seem to have been either dropped added to renamed.
Thanks for trying to help me and I hope that FB may produce some up to date information soon and not keep changing the interface.
I can completely understand your confusion - the Facebook docs give very little information for the complete beginner. The 'Getting Started' section makes some massive assumptions and completely ignores huge key areas you need to know to get your first application up and running.
So to address your points:
Yes, this is basically correct. Apps on Facebook are served up to the user in one of two ways. Either as a 'Canvas App' or a 'Tab App'. A Tab App is an application you can install as a tab on a profile page. A Canvas App can operate on it's own page and has more room as there's no left menu as you would have on a profile page. You can configure a single app to work in both ways.
To edit your application settings, go to your own Facebook home page. Use the search bar to search for the 'Developer App'. Typing in 'developer' should do it - it should be the first result in the App section with around 830,000 monthly users. This Developer app is the window into your own app settings. You need to install it if you haven't already. It's a hub where all the apps you create will be available for you to edit. Whenever you want to edit one of your app settings in future, you click the Developer bookmark that will now be in the left menu on your own Facebook home page.
No. Apps are basically an iframe onto your code. There should be very little if any wait at all. Start with something very simple like spitting out some straight html so you can easily tell if things are set up correctly.
Yes. I found thinkdiff.net to be massively useful in the early days to get my head round the basics and then more advanced concepts. There's tons of examples ranging from very simple to quite advanced. I've just had a quick look around and found this page which should give you a decent head start in getting things moving. Note: I have no affiliation with thinkdiff.net at all - I just found them helpful in the past.
Finally, a request from me; this whole stack overflow thing is new for Facebook developers and very few people are voting up answers they consider helpful. This means new users to SO but experienced FB developers can't vote up good answers and vote down bad ones as we need enough Reputation Points to do so. If this has helped you, please ensure you vote up the answer. Of course if it was rubbish and you're just as lost, dont :D
Hope I've helped in some small way; I know I was completely lost for the first few weeks with FB development and even now there are things that make me tear my hair out! In the end it's very rewarding, but you have to put in the time. Good luck :)

I want to be able to search an html page that is refreshing every 10 seconds for the word "stat"

I want to be able to search an html page that is refreshing every 10 seconds for the word "stat". If the word is found I then want to alert the user through a pop up dialog and possibly a repeating sound until the user acknowledges it.
UPDATE:
Sorry the question was a bit ambiguous. I do not know a great deal about this stuff I just do it as a hobby.
OK so here is the deal. I work as Biomedical Electronics Technician for a hospital. We have a work order system that is web based. Nurses can enter a work order into this system. I have a browser window open at all times that refreshes periodically through an add-on for IE so I can always be up to date on the status of the work orders coming in. When a nurse the enters enters a work order they have the option of choosing Stat, High, Medium, or Low for the priority. When a stat work order is placed our response time should be within five minutes theoretically. I want some way to alert myself when a stat work order has been placed so I can respond accordingly. And I know a repeating sound would be annoying, but that might be the best way to get my attention.
Another caveat to this is the work order status can be changed by me, the tech. So when a work order is initially placed the status is Not assigned or something like that. Once I go start on a work order I change the status to In Progress. If I have to order a part I change the status to Hold for Parts, etc. So basically, what I am saying is I don't want to alerted if the status is anything but "Not assigned". If it will help I will get a copy of the source of the page when I get to work tomorrow.
Our IT department seems unwilling to help and the company that made the product is so busy chasing the daily bugs that show up to add new features such as this at this time. If I knew more a Google search might help, but alas I am a bit noobish in the programming realm, however I am 2 years from a C.S. degree so I am not a complete novice.
To answer another question, I do not have access to the page I am just viewing it so any sort of script would need to run on my client machine.
Thanks
I found this, try it https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3028/
Maybe it can search for STAT on the entire page?
Based off your description, it doesn't sound like you have access to the server to change the code of the page itself, correct?
If that's the case, spend some time learning how to use Greasemonkey (or rather Greasemonkey for IE). It allows you to add functionality to a web page from the client (browser) side, regardless of what's on the server.
You'll need to find the elements that hold the "stat" term your after, and have it check periodically those elements periodically. Look into the setTimeout method for that periodicity. The rest you'll have to work out specific to that page.
What you're looking for, since you have python available, is to build a simple, easy to use webscraper.
First link is how i would do it quick and dirty.
http://www.ehow.com/how_4436125_read-web-page-using-python.html
Second link is a bit more robust and nifty with BeautifulSoup
http://www.builderau.com.au/program/python/soa/Build-a-basic-Web-scraper-in-Python/0,2000064084,339281476,00.htm
Basically, read the page (even set the whole loop on a 10 second refresh timer).
Go line by line with a while readline loop.
See if one of your magic words exists with a regular expression
...
profit?
(... meaning do your alert song and dance)
(profit being rejoice!)

iPhone SDK: Ideas on how to implement a help facility for application

We we wondering what are some ways developers have added a help function to their apps. What are some techniques people have used?
One way we were thinking of is to us UIWebView to display a HTML file with help instructions.
Thoughts appreciated.
I'm using UIWebView right now which pretty much contains all the help in a single page, along with some JQuery things to display popups, etc. But I like the way iCab Mobile (et al.) are doing things which is a sectioned UITableView with each row a separate topic or section within their overall help information (complete with icons...) then in their bundle they have each section in its own html file, organized by localization.
Another thing in my queue for the next release is to provide a dynamic "News" view. The rough idea is as follows... I have on my server a file or CGI where I can place small bits of news I'd like to push out to users. On startup, my app checks for network availability and if present, start a thread to see if anything has changed on the server since last updating the News data. If changes present, post an alert letting user know, and asking if they'd like to read it now. At that point, the latest news is already downloaded and cached, so they can simply read it later if they want, and I won't post anymore alerts until the server file changes again. (And one could add a preference/setting to disable these alerts.)
I'm thinking this would be a good way to let people know that some nasty bug is known and fixed and an update is sitting in the queue, solicit beta testers, promote upcoming features or other apps, etc. I can see where constant alerts everytime I've got something new to promote would get annoying, so having a setting to disable them means the user never has to read them unless they want to. Although some kind of override to warn of recently discovered/fixed bugs seems sensible.
FWIW, the author of Mover+/Mover has just started doing a similar thing, though I think Emanuele is perhaps only showing one Notelet at a time, whereas I envision a bit more of a history (shown in UIWebView) until I decide to age stuff off the bottom of the stack.
I'm using a scroll/page view to show several images containing small notes. Each image then tells the user about the more advanced functions on a specific part of the app.
In my opinion the help should only contain information that isn't a 100% relevant for the use of the application. It should be things the advanced user should use to make more use of the app. It should contain gold for the power users. The "basics" should be so obvious that no help would ever be needed. If that's not the case, I think, you've failed as a developer on the iPhone platform.
(Here's a screen shot from my demo app)
I'm currently creating a fairly complicated app. I'm thinking of doing help as a semi-transparent overlay - help in text form is hard to swallow for users; it's much more helpful to just point at stuff and say "this does that".