I am using Facebook as advertising platform to promote my application on Apple and Google stores. I would like to make windows service which will download daily report(s) about advertising status of my marketing campaign running one Facebook, preferably using 60 day token, or some permanent solution so that token is retrieved when required. I think that i understand everything to do this except how to generate access token to use it with Facebook Graph API. Which token for which Facebook account do I need and how to obtain it?
You'll need a Facebook app and to grant that app the ads_read permission in order to retrieve reports about your advertising efforts via the API (source).
You'll want a long-lived token so that you don't have to re-authenticate very often. The access token documentation details the steps to exchange a short-lived token for a long-lived one.
You may also want to consider managing the app, ad account, and access tokens (via a business system user) with the FB Business Manager.
Create a facebook app.
Go to the Graph API Explorer in Facebook's Tools & Support section.
Pick your app from the drop down.
Hit Get Token > Get User Access Token.
In Select Permissions choose required permissions or select them from extended permissions.
Use the user access token that will be presented to you in the access token form input field.
Related
Facebook removed access to user groups after v2.3. Now it only allows access to user-managed groups. I, however, need to access all user groups for my app to work. Do you know of any way around this and why Facebook would remove that? I can still generate an access token for v2.3 through the Graph API Explorer, but it only lasts a few minutes and it needs to be associated with an app for it to be extended (per instructions here: Generate "never-expire" access token for Facebook Page), but I can't create an app on Facebook with an older version of the API.
I am trying to programatically grab a few insights metrics from facebook for various pages (about 50 clients). Therefore I want to automate this.
I created a facebook app and have my app_id and app_secret. I also created a app_access_token which doesn't expire?
My question is this: How do I get the page access token for each of the pages I want to get insights from? Currently I...
STEP 1) ...went to the Query Explorer and seleted my app and grabbed a user_access token with the manage_pages and read_insights permissions.
STEP 2) I then used that user_access_token to go to https://graph.facebook.com/v2.5/{pagename}?fields=access_token&access_token={user_access_token} to get what I presume is the page_access_token.
STEP 3) I then use this token to do my queries for things like https://graph.facebook.com/v2.5/{pagename}/insights/page_impressions?access_token={page_access_token}.
Now since the app is already OKAYed, shouldn't be there a way to grab that user_access_token in step 1 programatically? They all expire except the app_access_token I described above. Can I use that token somehow in step 1?
I am not using and SDKs just pure https calls.
Actually it is possible. I managed to get an extended page access token by doing this:
https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?grant_type=fb_exchange_token&client_id=[app-id]&client_secret=[app-secret]&fb_exchange_token=[short-lived-token]
from here. Basically you get a short lived user token and then use that to get a page access token and then use that with your app id/secret to get an extended page token that never expires (perfect for embedding in an automated reporting app).
It is convoluted but it works. And as a bonus if you register the APP on Facebook business manager, that page token will work on all sites you have access to under that business manager account.
Question: Is it possible for application which associated with business manager to obtain ads_management permissions and make server-to-server calls using appId|appSecret as access token.
If yes then what are the correct steps to obtain those permissions for an app?
If no then is there a way to get access token for the user with such permissions which never expires?
Details: As stated in FB documentation, in order to make server-to-server requests without need to obtain and refresh access tokens we may use pair of app Id and app secret in form of appId|appSecret.
Our application now has the following permissions:
- email
- public_profile
- user_friends
In order to make calls to Ads API our application has to have ads_management permissions. Currently we make calls to Ads API through user-level access token and this is not preferable for us as this token requires refreshes which must be done manually using browser interaction (we can't obtain access token programmatically)
You may be confusing App Access Tokens (which allow you to make calls on behalf of the app itself) with permissions (which an individual user grants you to act on their behalf) - you'll always need a user token to update things belonging to a user.
A user, who's an admin of the ad account you want to manage, needs to grant your app ads_management permission - once they've done that, the OAuth flow gives you an access token to make API calls on their behalf, and that token doesn't expire for up to 60 days (after which point they need to come back to your site/app while logged into Facebook for you to get an updated token)
In the context of Business Manager, that user must be someone that has access via Business Manager to the assets (ad acccounts and pages) you want to update via the API
If your app has Standard access to the Ads API, you can also use 'System Users' to make sessionless API calls to update the assets of the business: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/businessmanager/systemuser/v2.2
More info about login here:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/guides/chapter-1-Setup-and-Authentication
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/access-tokens
I have never stored Facebook access token of users, but now I need them so I can start publishing on thier behalf.
Is there a way through Facebook's app management interface, to retrieve all the access tokens of users ?
Thanks
No, there is not.
You can only generate user access tokens by having users visit your app/website again – if you embed the JS SDK, it will give you an access token automatically; otherwise (server-side) you will have to send them through the login flow again to generate one.
I have started on developing a server side application that requires integration with facebook. My needs is an access token that will not expire, but unfortunately facebook has removed the offline_access feature and replaced with a long-live user access token that will last only 60 days.
I realise that there is an Application Access Token that will not expire. When I use it instead of the User Access Token to fetch the feed, I get must less information.
I have read from other sources that as long as relevant permissions are delegated, such as read_stream is given, using the application access token should allow the server-side application to access the users information that accepted the facebook application.
Am I mistaken ? Can anyone help to clarify ? Thanks
Thanks
Excerpt from: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph/using-app-tokens/
While an App Access Token is largely for the purposes of publishing information back to Facebook on behalf of the user, there is a limited set of information that can be retrieved from Facebook using an App Access Token.
Basic Profile Info of a User (ID, Name, Username, Gender)
A User’s Friends and their IDs
Permissions granted by the User to your App
So there is a limited set of info you can get using an app access token. So you probably don't want to use it to get the user's feed.