I'm fetching a large amount of comments from a public page using Facebook's Graph API.
By default facebook returns 25 comments per response, and uses paging. This causes the need for multiple requests, which is uneccesery as I know ahead there will be a lot of comments.
I read about the "limit" parameter that you can pass to ask for a certain amount of items per response.
I was wondering, what is the limit of that parameter? I'm assuming I can't pass &limit=10000.
There's a different way for fetching comments:
https://graph.facebook.com/<PAGE_ID>_<POST_ID>/comments?limit=500
The maximum value for the limit parameter is 500.
yes, with limit parameter you can pass what number of certain resource you want in one call. default limit is 25.
for ex. if you want 100 comment in one call for a post having id POST_ID, you can query like this:
https://graph.facebook.com/POST_ID?fields=comments.limit(100)
I think they have changed this. For /feed? I only get 200-225 posts back but for comments I get as many as 2000 back
Old question, but this is in the current Facebook documentation in case anyone finds this question via search (emphasis mine):
Some edges may also have a maximum on the limit value for performance reasons. In all cases, the API returns the correct pagination links.
In other words, even if you specify a limit above what's allowed by the endpoint, the "pagination.previous" and "pagination.next" elements will always provide the correct URL to resume where it left off.
I would recommend you to use FQL instead.
FQL provide a more flexible approach where you can combine data types (posts, users, pages, etc..) as you please. You can also query for comments belonging to a list of stories instead of just one limiting your number of requests even more.
There are a couple of drawbacks though:
1. There is a limit on 5000 comments. Here you would use a query looking something like: "SELECT id, ...... FROM comments, ... WHERE parent_id in (1,2,3....) ORDER BY time LIMIT 0, 5000". Even though you split this up in several queries with "LIMIT 0, 1000", "LIMIT 1000, 1000", LIMIT 2000, 1000, etc.., you would never get anything over 5000 comments("LIMIT 5000, 1000" would return empty).
2. All real requests made on Facebooks server counts as one request. You can send of something that is actually a combination of requests, this will be counted as multiple requests.
3. Facebook does not like to heavy requests. You can end up with getting blocked for a shorter time periods(minutes -> hours, not days). If this happens, act on it.
Related
I want to do a query like this:
search?q=KEY_NAME&type=page&fields=id,name,location&limit=500&offset=0
when I do this the first time the result is about 470 results, now I put offset to 471 and repeat the query
search?q=KEY_NAME&type=page&fields=id,name,location&limit=500&offset=471
and the result is empty.
Why? The key_name is a famous word like "fan" and I don't think that there are only 471 results on fb pages!
What is the problem?
Never use a limit that high, afaik a limit of 100 should be the maximum. Everything else may be buggy. If you use this API call, you get more than 500 with paging:
/search?pretty=0&fields=idmname,location&q=fan&type=page&limit=100
Don´t use "offset", always use the "next" link in the JSON document to get the next batch of results: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/using-graph-api/v2.4#paging
The next 100 entries would be available with the following endpoint for me:
/search?pretty=0&fields=idmname,location&q=fan&type=page&limit=100&after=OTkZD
Please refer to this following blog post in which it says
https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/478/
gist of it.
As such, when querying the following tables and connections, use time-based paging instead of “offset” to ensure you are getting back as many results as possible with each call. For these Graph API connections, use the “since” and “until” parameters
I have a logic problem I can't seem to solve (might be possible).
Example:
I am inside 100 facebook groups
I need the 10 lastest posts of EACH group I am in.
That's pretty much it but I can't seem to find a way to do this without making a foreach loop calling the api over and over again, if I had a couple hundred more groups it would be impossible.
PS: I'm using FQL atm but am able to use graph, I've coded this in like 3 different ways but no success.
This is the farthest I could get:
SELECT actor_id,source_id FROM stream WHERE source_id IN (select gid from group_member where uid = me())
It only returns from one page, maybe there's no way to return all of this without a foreach asking for each groups 10 lastest messages.
There's no need to use FQL of batching. This can be done with a simple Graph API request IMHO:
GET /me/groups?fields=id,name,feed.fields(id,message).limit(10)
This will return 10 posts for each of your groups. In case there too much data to be returned, try setting the limit parameter for the base query as well:
GET /me/groups?fields=id,name,feed.fields(id,message).limit(10)&limit=20
Then, you'll get a next field in the result JSON. By calling the URL contained in this field, you'll get your next results. Do this until the result is empty, then you reached the end.
You can use batch calls, described here https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/making-multiple-requests/
Using batch requests, you can request upto 50 calls in one go. Note than batch request doesn't increase the rate limits, so if you make 50 requests in batch, it will be considered as 50 calls, and not one. However you will get the response in a shorter time.
If you think you're making too many calls, you should put some delay in between calls and avoid rate limiting.
I am performing a rest call to facebooks search API using type=event
e.x.
search?fields=id,name,picture,owner,description,start_time,end_time,location,venue,updated_time,ticket_uri&q=concert&type=event
I have looked through the documentation and still have a few questions about specific pagination behavior of the event search API.
If I used a broad search term like "ma" and keep querying the pagination ['next'] URL would I cycle through all facebook events starting with "ma"? Does the pagination array give any indication when there are no more results to return?.
Do these searches include past events? If so is it possible to eliminate past events using the "since" parameter?
What is the maximum for the limit parameter?
Update:
As far as I can tell the number of pages you can get from a facebook search is limited to 500. This includes pages that can be accessed via pagination. In other words a query with limit >=500 will not return a pagination url, likewise a query with limit 250 will only return one pages worth of pagination.
You will "next page" until the count of results comes less then the limit
I'm not sure if that is possible using a simple Graph Request. Maybe using FQL
I don't know exactly. But i used a 2000 limit one day. And it worked.
Other doubts you can get answers testing your resquests with this tool
https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/
I am also doing the same thing like you. I am collecting public post using graph search api.
When there are no results available or you reach max limit pagination section will not be there in response. So you can always check for paging is there in json response or not something like this.
NextResult = DeserJsonFBResponce.paging != null ? DeserJsonFBResponce.paging.next : string.Empty;
I am not so sure about this with events but for public post i am able to eliminate post using science and until parameters.
Maximum for the limit parameter is 2000 per get request.
With the following request, it is possible to retrieve multiple Users with the Facebook Graph API:
https://graph.facebook.com?ids=user1, user2, user3,...
Does anyone know if there is a limit for the number of users I can retrieve in a single query?
Depending on how and through which servers you are passing the URL, there could be a limit of 255, 1024 or 2083 characters to the maximum URL length. If one existed, this would be your limiting factor. If you're using javascript to make the query, you should probably assume a max length of 1024 characters or less.
Assume you're passing this via a server-side script with no limits on outbound URL length, I'd guess you'll find there is a Facebook limit. Facebook seems to like 5*10n-item limits their services. I'd suspect this one is probably the same, with n=1, 2, or 3.
I'm trying to make a simple "only status updates, nothing else" app (since FB doesn't seem too interested in this sort of thing). However, my queries seem to omit some results:
"select status_id,uid,time,message from status where uid in (select uid2 from friend where uid1= $my_id) ORDER BY time DESC LIMIT 25", for instance, when I last tested it, only returned 21 results (and yes, I've got enough friends who have made enough updates that there are definitely more than 25 historical statuses).
This is with the PHP API, by way of Heroku, but I've had similar issues for a while, going back to before FBML was deprecated, with basically the same query.
I haven't tested enough to determine absolutely that this is the case, but it seems only to return one status per user (if Bob posted six updates, it only returns his newest status and ignores the previous ones).
Is this a known issue/bug? Any workarounds?
facebook trades accuracy for performance it has been always the case , so it usually returns a limited number of results per query
It's probably because a user has not given access for a friends apps to access their posts. Apparently making an FQL request, facebook does the initial request, including your limit param. Then it filters the list removing anything that you don't have permissions to see. Hence receiving less than 25 results.