I have a Node.js server running a social network site and I also have a facebook page for that site. For certain actions performed by users on my site, I want to post details on the facebook page of my app.
I referred to Thuzi facebook node sdk here on how to post to facebook wall. However, it requires app id, app secret and a temporary access token. App id and app secret are constant so I can put them somewhere in my config file and use from there. But how do I get the access token without any interaction from front-end ? All posts will be published by our app only and that too on our own page. I just want this to be triggered by the end user's actions. Any help ?
I am using Sails.js framework btw.
You would need to use an Extended Page Token for that, you only need to create it once and it will stay valid forever. And you will post "as Page" with a Page Token. How to get an Extended Page Token:
Create an App
Use the Graph API Explorer to generate a User Access Token (by authorizing the App with the manage_pages and publish_actions permission)
Extend the User Access Token (valid for 60 days)
Request an Extended Page Token by calling /me/accounts
Store that Extended Page Token on your server and use it for posting on the Page wall.
Here are some additional resources, explaining everything in detail:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/access-tokens/
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/reference/v2.1/page/feed
http://www.devils-heaven.com/facebook-access-tokens/
http://www.devils-heaven.com/extended-page-access-tokens-curl/
I am also digging more in to this nowdays As I am working on a node module for this.
Till now I got to know that we can create a temporary access_token and we can than extend that token upto max 60 days.
For this after getting temporary token you need to make a call to this url to get a access token with 60 days validity.
https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?client_id=&client_secret=&grant_type=fb_exchange_token&fb_exchange_token=
Related
I am pulling my hair out trying to understand what Facebook wants me to do to post to a FaceBook Page as a System User that has Admin and Page Privileges to and Owned by our business (We have Facebook Business Manager).
In a nut shell all I want to do is make this call:
https://graph.facebook.com/v2.5/${MyPageID}/feed
What I don't get is the access_token part.
I can generate access tokes for Apps, for Pages but all result in 403 returned from FaceBook. I have gone as far and checking every box available on the generate access token popup on the graph api and still I get 403 "Forbidden" so I am detailing the little I understand of the insanity that is FaceBook Auth in the hope that someone can explain where I am going wrong.
1) To Post as a System User to a Page I have to Create a FB App (I Would prefer just to post direct to the pages and skip the App part, My System User has Admin Access on All pages)
2) To Access the App I need an App Token.
3) To Create an App token I need a User Token.
4) To Create a user token I need to log in to Facebook and have all sorts of permissions on the App. (I can't log in as the System User! FB asks me to login as myself. I am not sure if this breaks the Auth Token generated?)
5) Then there are all sorts of swapping tokens to get a Permanent App token, Another point of potential failure!
6) IF the stars and moon align and you stand on your head the permanent App key can be passed to the above call as the access_token
I don't understand how to link the Pages I want to post to with the App created. Do I have to have 1 App for Each Page?
I have got one page to work, We initially used that App to Auth against the Instant Article Graph API:
https://graph.facebook.com/v2.5/${MyPageID}/instant_articles
I could not use the above token for the /feed url, I had to generate a new token with extra publish permissions and the page published with no problems, however when I change the ${MyPageID} to another page using the same access_token I get the 403.
I tried Creating a new App, I have no clue how they link to a specific page So the App to me seems sort of redundant.
Any help with what I am doing wrong or how I can go about simply posting to various FB Pages with a System User using the /feed api ?
The calls are made form a Spring Boot Java APP using HTTP Posts.
How to get a System User Auth and Page Auth:
1) Generate a User Token for an App (Button above the System User):
https://business.facebook.com/settings/system-users/${System User ID}?business_id=${your_business_manager_id}
System user has Page Admin on each page you need to post to.
App is just an FB app, not sure what it does other that it is a grouping I generate a token against.
I chose: (manage_pages, publish_pages, publish_actions, pages_manage_instant_articles, pages_show_list)
2) Check your access token:
https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/accesstoken/?access_token=${The access token you got from the step above}&version=v2.12
This will provide you with the App ID the Token is for and how long it lasts (we need a Permanent token)
3) Using Graph API Explorer gets the Accounts this token has access to:
https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/${Your FB APP ID}/?method=GET&path=me%2Faccounts&version=v2.12
4) Using the output above find Page Auth for each page you wan to publish to
5) Post to each page in turn:
https://graph.facebook.com/v2.5/${MyPageID}/feed
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.
I've been reading documentation and Stack Overflow link all morning, but I'm just not understanding the correct process to authorize a web server to post to a Facebook page wall.
What I'm not clear on is why I have to post to Facebook as a Facebook User, using an access_token, meaning that this user has to log into Facebook manually to authorize my app.
I'm not trying to authorize a User, nor any of my visitors to do anything with their accounts, so I don't need any permissions from them. Instead, I'm trying to authorize my Web Server to post updates to its wall as a specific Page.
Why do I have to use a user access_token to do this? I'm not attempting to impersonate the user, I'm trying to post to the page as the page...
Is it possible to authorize a user and get their access token without having to create a login page on the Web Server? I don't want to have to require the user to login to make this work, I thought that was the point of having an app ID and Secret?
I guess my question is this: Is it not possible to allow a web server to post to a Facebook page wall as that page, without having to present a login dialog to a specific user? If it is possible, what is the correct workflow to set this up?
In order to post to a Page as a Page, you have to use a Page Access Token. You get that with a User Access Token, and you can extend it so it will stay valid forever.
Steps:
Request a User Access Token with the manage_pages permission (valid for up to 2 hours)
Extend the User Access Token (valid for up to 60 days)
Get the Extended Page Access Token for your Page with the User Session
Store and User The Page Access Token in the publish call
It may sound a bit complicated, but there are many tutorials for this and you don´t actually need to program it, you can just use the Graph API Explorer.
Here are some Links about the Access Tokens:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/access-tokens/
http://www.devils-heaven.com/facebook-access-tokens/ (see "Extended Page Access Token" for a step by step tutorial)
I created an APP on Facebook and using graph API explorer, I selected my app from app drop down box, requested access token with manage_pages, offline_access and publish_stream permissions.
Using this access token, I was successfully able to post message on page using restfb APIs but when I log out, it starts throwing The session is invalid error.
I read on few posts that offline_access is deprecated. Could someone tell me how to obtain permanent access token?
Thanks
Looking at the docs at: https://developers.facebook.com/roadmap/offline-access-removal/ this is no longer possible.
Desktop applications will not be able to extend the life of an
existing access_token and the user must login to facebook once the
token has expired.
Otherwise, it is possible to request an access token with a longer expiration. Here are the directions: https://developers.facebook.com/roadmap/offline-access-removal/#extend_token
What kind of Access Token do you need? There are three kinds, User AT, App AT and Page AT.
If you want User AT, it seems you are out of luck. I don't think it's possible anymore. You can only get to 60 days. However, if you need Page AT, you can get a permanent one. The difference is, Page Access Token only has access to a single facebook page.
Basically you need to get User Access Token first, with manage_pages permission. When you have one, you have to look at /{pageId}?fields=access_token for your page's id in Graph API.
For more info look at: facebook: permanent Page Access Token?
you will not get any permanent access token as Facebook developer blog explains. you will be given 60 days long lived access token. Before the expiration Facebook will notify you about the expiry and then you can renew it or you can build your own custom control to get the notification on token expiration which you can fetch from Facebook API.
I need to make an web application to manage posts, when a post is made sometimes I should post a brief promotional message one of the company fanpages on facebook (depending on criteria on the post).
This is possible right now using the offline_access permission: create application A, request the manage_pages, offline_access, publish_stream permissions and with that access token you can connect when you want to the graph api and post to the page.
Since offline_access is being deprecated and is going to be removed in May 2012 I was wondering how it would be possible to post to different pages of the company.
I can't implement any of the OAuth authentication mechanisms since the final user that uses the web application will not have access to the fb account that is page administrator and the posting to facebook should happen in a backend process not interacting with the user.
A workaround I found is to post to the page by posting on the admin user stream and tagging the page (that would only require publish_stream), but the Graph API is bugged and doesn't allow you to tag in posts. In code (Ruby + Koala) it would be something like this:
oauth = Koala::Facebook::OAuth.new("app-key", "app-secret", nil)
api = Koala::Facebook::API.new(oauth.get_app_access_token)
api.put_wall_post("message #[page-id:1:page-name]", {}, "admin-user")
The only problem is a bug in the facebook API prevents you from tagging stuff in posts to your stream.
Is this kind of model not going to be supported anymore? Anyone knows of any workaround?
You can increase 2 table columns in your app namely short_access_token & long_access_token.
Once user authenticates your app, an access token is generated, store it in short_access_token. Then pass this access token to:
https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?
client_id=APP_ID& client_secret=APP_SECRET& grant_type=fb_exchange_token& fb_exchange_token=EXISTING_ACCESS_TOKEN
Once you run this, an access token with 60 days validity will be generated. Store it in long_access_token. Now, use this long_access_token for 60 days.
You can add another condition where if the long_access_token was generated more than 30 days ago, just take the short_access_token and generate a new lon_access_token.
You can generate long lived access token only once a day i.e. the first time. Use this long lived access token to manage paes (if you've already got the permission).
Ref: https://developers.facebook.com/roadmap/offline-access-removal/
The only workaround you have is to give the app user page administrator access to the various pages, so when you do post to the page's wall, it can be posted as the page rather than a post as the user. However, you will only be able to extend a "valid" user access token to 60 days per Facebook's new rules. But with that 60 day user token, you can then get a 60 page access token, so you can post as the page to the page.
If you don't have the requirement of posting to the page as the page, then it's pretty simple to do it without attaching that user as a page admin. Just let them be a normal user.