I'm developing a 2nd version of our app for Facebook Messenger to meet their new platform integration requirements described here:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger
I'm attempting to allow both apps to share the same Facebook App ID. This page from the iOS troubleshooting docs has a section on Sharing an app ID across Apps
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/ios/troubleshooting#testsharedialog
It shows you how to add URL Scheme Suffixes to your apps so that they can both live on the same phone yet share the same Facebook App ID.
I've done this and it works successfully so that both apps can use Facebook login without stepping on each others toes. However, it seems that doing so broke my integration with FB messenger, which was previously working.
After following the instructions on the troubleshooting link above and adding the fields for the URL Scheme suffix, the videos I send to FB messenger no longer have a Reply button on them. Media inside Messenger that was sent from my app no longer contains any tappable element that takes you back to my app.
Does anyone know if there's a way to get the URL Scheme Suffix working in a way that it still works with the new Messenger Platform?
Thanks!
Heard back from Facebook directly on this. Their response:
No it doesn't. Because we will try to open the scheme without suffix. How would we know which suffix you want to open from messenger? ... So no suffixes are not supported. Just use a different app id.
Related
I am building a simple Facebook app to connect the backend of a project to Facebook Messenger.
I am trying to send my app for review but it requires me to send a platform for the reviewer to test my app on.
the only place to interact with the app is the test Facebook page i created but i cannot add Facebook urls to the platform. What am I doing wrong here or what am I supposed to do?
I am building a simple Facebook app to connect the backend of a project to Facebook Messenger.
If you don’t have any end-user facing frontend, this would be considered a “server-to-server” app.
The documentation has specific instructions on how to submit those: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/apps/server-to-server-apps
Platform
Platform refers to the platform that your app users use to interact with your app. Since your app does not have an interface and your users don't interact with it directly, set this to Website and provide the URL to your company's website.
(Make sure to properly describe the purpose of your app and how it works, so that the reviewer does not try to go to that URL and look for a login button there.)
I have a Facebook app (canvas app), let's say https://apps.facebook.com/test, that redirects and works as expected on the desktop (on all browsers that I have tested).
On mobile phones (both from the FB app and the browser) the path gets redirected to https://m.facebook.com/apps/test/?ref=web_canvas, which gives a "This page cannot be found" error. Why?
This has been reported as a bug to Facebook and Facebook has confirmed it as a bug. They have not provided a date on when the fix will be ready.
You can follow the status of the bug here:
https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/1051463851558493/
Update: Facebook have (since the information struck-out below) completely removed support for this. The thread about this is here:
https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/1051463851558493/
The top-level information is:
We have now deprecated Mobile Canvas URL. This means that you will no
longer be able to direct to a website/app directly within the Facebook
mobile web based upon the external destination URL you have specified
in the 'Mobile Site URL' field for the app on developers.facebook.com.
Furthermore, we have removed the 'Mobile Site URL' field from the app
setup going forward. This deprecation also applies to apps that were
previously whitelisted.
So it's time to move away from this functionality, and either integrate the newer FB Instant Games functionality or just link to an external website as having your canvas app hosted inside the FB mobile app simply isn't possible as it was in years gone by.
Facebook has disabled mobile URLs working by default:
We recently identified a handful of apps misusing our mobile App Center to redirect people to unauthorized sites. As a precaution, we have temporarily turned off the ability for developers to direct to a destination URL for any app in the "Mobile Site URL" field on the dev site.
Now if you wish for this functionality to work, you need to be logged into Facebook and then go to the following URL:
https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/588209321338256
This URL will effectively put your request in a queue, for someone at Facebook to manually verify your app configuration isn't malicious, and then enable the redirection. I do not like posting this answer, as I know it will eventually become invalid, but as of today it is the only answer. As stated by Scott, you can follow progress on this issue here:
https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/1051463851558493/
Please ignore the fact it claims the issue has been 'Fixed' as Facebook count the above workaround as a fix. If you read through the comments on the bug you can note the waiting time to get the URL fixed (on a per app basis) is typically several weeks.
On May 28th, 2017, Facebook confirmed that the Mobile Canvas URL has now been deprecated. Any apps already using (and white listed) will stop working, and no new apps will be accepted.
Hi everyone,
First, please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in getting
back to you with an update on the status of Mobile Canvas URL. I
understand your frustrations, particularly if you submitted your
details via the form and were waiting on a response.
We have now deprecated Mobile Canvas URL. This means that you will no
longer be able to direct to a website/app directly within the Facebook
mobile web based upon the external destination URL you have specified
in the 'Mobile Site URL' field for the app on developers.facebook.com.
Furthermore, we have removed the 'Mobile Site URL' field from the app
setup going forward. This deprecation also applies to apps that were
previously whitelisted.
The Mobile Canvas URL feature is a vestige of a long ago deprecated
product called Mobile Canvas. Facebook maintains a high commitment to
quality, so we don't want to leave unsupported products active —
especially when they continue to cause bugs for our developers. Going
forward, we're recommending you take advantage of the well-supported
Facebook Games on Web product to drive traffic to your app.
We've also introduced Instant Games which lets people play mobile
games within Messenger and Facebook News Feed. We invite you to sign
up for our closed beta program. We believe letting people play games
together on Facebook is a powerful experience for both players and
developers.
If your app is still set up to rely on Mobile Canvas URL
functionality, we recommend taking the following actions:
If you're using Mobile Canvas to link to a page on mobile web, you need to update your app to handle the redirection in the desktop
iframe. User interaction is required to redirect away from web canvas
as our Platform Policy does not allow automated redirects from canvas.
If your app was previously whitelisted, you will need to take action as this deprecation supersedes any workarounds you have in place.
Thank you for your understanding as we continually improve the
products and services we offer to both developers and players. Again,
please accept my apologies for the wait in getting back to you with
this information
Best regards,
Tim
See this thread https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/1051463851558493/
I have developed an app for organizing and grouping of hashtags. One functionality I want to add to this app is the following: The user can copy his/hers tags and then should be able to switch to the desired social media app (in fact app or web page). Starting a web page is not a problem but how can I switch to another app (twitter, tumblr, youtube, facebook, atc. etc.) from my own app? I couldn't find any solution for that. Please help!
The complete list of apps I want to start is: Facebook, GooglePlus, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, Vine, Vk, Youtube
You can just use Display.execute to launch Android/iOS apps implicitly e.g. this site lists the URL schemes for various apps including facebook.
On iOS you can also check if an app is already installed using the Display.canExecute(String) API.
For Android I couldn't find a conclusive list of URL's like that but generally googling "intent URI" with your desired network should provide you with the answer.
We have a post on a FB wall. It points to http://tinyurl.com/{something}.
When the link is clicked in a non-mobile web browser, it works fine: TinyURL redirects the user to our web site using the appropriate URI including a special querystring.
When the link is clicked in a mobile web browser on my Android, it fails with the error in the title of this question.
When the link is clicked in the FB native app for iPad and in Safari on the iPad, it works fine.
I have tried adding our URL to the Mobile Web setting in the Basic Settings tab of the FB App configuration. That results in all links pointing directly to the root of our web site with a funky set of parameters in a querystring -- in other words, it doesn't follow the TinyURL in that particular case. The funky parameters include "refid", "ref", and "ft".
So primarily my question is: Why, when I specify the URL in the Mobile Web setting as described in the previous paragraph, does it redirect to our main URL instead of the TinyURL link originally called for?
I think this is something Facebook broke very recently (perhaps even today?). When a user clicks on any links to our app from inside the Facebook native iOS app, they get this error "Either this application has not configured its Mobile Web URL or the URL could not be verified as owned by the application. Unable to redirect." We had never set a Mobile Web URL previously, and everything had been fine since we launched the app over a year ago. We sent all mobile clicks to the same URL's as desktop browsers and handled the mobile rendering server-side. We have not changed our application domain inside the App Settings or anything like that.
In the App Settings, can set a Mobile Web URL to our homepage and the link works (and the error message goes away) but that's not the desired behavior at all - it would mean that all links end up at the same Mobile Web URL regardless of what the link was!
Was this change made on purpose by Facebook and if so why? There's been no mention of this whatsoever on the Developer Blog.
Update 3/21 8:10am PST:
I've since found this to be a widespread problem, not just for a few apps. Just by clicking around I've seen this error on posts to weather.com, youtube, msn.com and a dozen others. It happens on both clicks from the Timeline as well as the News Feed (although strangely sometimes the same post works on one, but not the other!), and from the m.facebook.com mobile web app as well as the native iOS app.
I commented on http://developers.facebook.com/bugs/302635863137683 but no word from Facebook yet. I can't believe more people aren't talking about this right now, this is a major bug.
In your app, go to Settings -> Add platform -> Website
Add both, Website URL and Moblie Website (Yes, you need these both), then your app will be able to be opened from facebook native app.
You will also need the FB Canvas.
Same here, I recently noted that all links of items shared with our Adroid or iPhone app are broken. This only happens with the mobile version of Facebook the Desktop web version is still working. What is actually wrong on the mobile version is that the original shared url is replaced with a m.facebook url that ends with "?ref=unknown&refid=0&ft=fbid.332036910178718%3Ainterface.m_touch%3Ac.m" When user click on it Facebook is redirecting the user to the App's "Mobile Web URL" + "?ref=unknown&refid=0&ft=fbid.332036910178718%3Ainterface.m_touch%3Ac.m" instead of the original shared url.
My opinion is that this is an issue of Facebook that is redirecting the url to the wrong location, "Mobile Web URL" instead of the original post url.
Ok not working. What is going on, 1st directed to something about itunes url. I am on an Android not an Iphone. Sad state when an disabled person is unable to gain access the same as others. This is bad for all users.
Does anyone of you know if it is possible to open a App which uses sharekit from a Facebook request by clicking on the request either in the facebook app, or in the browser?
I could not find anything about this in the web.
To be more precise i want my app which uses sharekit to send a request to a facebook-friend. This facebook friend should then be able to open the same app by clicking on the request either in the facebook app on his mobile device or by clicking on the request on the facebook browser page which is opened on his mobile device.
I already know how to share things in facebook via sharekit, but to get it "the other way round" seems to be difficult. I could not find anything helpful in the web so far.
Greets and many thanks in advance,
Maverick1st
Yes. Your will will need to register itself as a protocol handler, and the link clicked on from Facebook app would need to use the url scheme you define.
Example:
my-social-app://invite/1234
Keep in mind if the recipient does not have the app installed, or they do this on their desktop machine, they will get a message that the phone is unable to open that URL.
See this tutorial: http://mobileorchard.com/apple-approved-iphone-inter-process-communication/