Why is this FQL call failing? - facebook

Question

When I do a FQL query like the following (where <userId> is the Facebook ID of my FB friend):
SELECT type, post_id, created_time, updated_time, source_id, message, description, attachment FROM stream WHERE filter_key in (SELECT filter_key FROM stream_filter WHERE uid = <userId> AND type = 'newsfeed') AND is_hidden = 0 LIMIT 250
I'm getting the following error:
"error": {
"message": "(#606) uid in the where clause must be the session user",
"type": "OAuthException",
"code": 606
}
This seems wrong to me, because the examples in the stream_filter docs clearly use this example.
If the only way to get a stream_filter is by calling WHERE uid=me() then what is the point of the WHERE clause at all?
Is this a permissions issue with my access token?

Answer 1

If you are doing an FQL query based on the uid of your friend, you need to be authorized. Once authorized, you can add the access token granted by the user (in this case, your friend) to your query and have permission to get the results you're querying for.
This is because you're trying to fetch data, which in this case being their news feed comprised of posts created by their friends and pages they follow, that belongs to the user, which essentially belongs to them. You need to authorized to be able to access their data or act on their behalf to post photos and such.
However, if you're trying to get their own stream of posts that they themselves generate, you can totally get those, assuming that they are public and accessible by their set permissions. You can use a Graph API call:
https://graph.facebook.com/<userId>/feed?access_token=<your access token>
I'll also throw this in: You can read your own news feed as well with a Graph API call:
https://graph.facebook.com/me/home?access_token=<your access token>
You just need to make sure you have the 'read_stream' permission. If you try to get the news feed of another user by replacing 'me' with the user id, you'll get an error from Facebook:
{
"error": {
"message": "You can only access the \"home\" connection for the current user.",
"type": "GraphMethodException",
"code": 100
}
}
This further confirms that you can't access another user's news feed unless you have their permission, ie. being granted an access token that belongs to them.