I have created an App on facebook and I am using this app to authorize an user via dotnetopenauth.
Here I would pass APPID and APPSECRET and get the token which would be used to call Facebook Graph to get facebook user details.
If I'm doing this for the first time, user would be asked to enter username/passowrd on the Facebook website and then the session is created in the browser and it will redirect to my website as a Facebook user. This means that if I open a new tab in the current window and open facebook, user will see his/her page directly without asking for username/password. - this is obvious and understandable.
// code
request = WebRequest.Create("https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=" + Uri.EscapeDataString(strAccessToken));
response = request.GetResponse();
My query is:
After the scenario above, if user logs out from Facebook website OR I close the browser window, the facebook session is lost. However, I still have the access token (string in the above code) that I got while authenticating.
So, As of this moment I am not storing any user information from Facebook (not even cookies or anything else). I am just requesting user to authorize my application as a Facebook user. When user does that, I get the access token which I can use it to make calls to Graph and REST APIs. This access token usually remains same, so I really dont need to pass the applicaition id and secret to get the token next time onwards. Actually I can request the graph APIs and REST APIs with the stored token and request user details. I have tested this and works fine.
What I am looking for is, if user opens www.facebook.com, user should see his/her personal facebook page which obviosuly is possible only if I have a session in the current browser. Hence, my question was: how do I use my access token OR what call should I make with my access token so that I can set the browser session for the facebook user? Is it possible technically?
Regards,
AG
No. Your access token is used by your web server to call facebook. It's impossible (and undesirable) for this to impact the user's browser in a way that would set a facebook.com cookie so that the user would be implicitly logged into Facebook by your use of the access 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
In using facebook sessions to interface from a website with a user's facebook data, when should one preserve a facebook session and when should one preserve a facebook token?
After a facebook session is established on a particular page and the browser is redirected to a new page should the session be saved and reused or should the facebook token be saved and a new facebook session created from that facebook token?
This?
$session = new FacebookSession($_SESSION['token']);
Or this?
$token = $_SESSION['session']->getToken();
You didn't specify your app's environment (canvas, website, etc), so I'm doing a lot of assuming but...
I only use canvas apps and for the most part the PHP SDK will handle all that for you when set up correctly (for instance if the user opens a new tab from within your app). If you need to make a request to another page without any login flow (like what you're asking), I just save the access token and create a session from there. Every time a user logs into my app I save their access token to my database. While they are using my app, I can use that access token on to make calls to pages user's don't interact with but still get their FB info that I need. After a while that token expires, but while a user is interacting with my app I don't need to worry about them expiring as I will acquire a new token once they log in again at some future point in time.
So just save the token and match it with a user ID. Then use that token to create a session where you need it. If you need to interact with information far beyond when a user has logged out of your app, you might need the extended life access tokens.
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/access-tokens/#extending
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 use the Twitter Anywhere API and OAuth to authenticate users on my website. The cookie with the accessToken expires after two hours, which is why the user needs to login and connect to Twitter regularly. The workaround would probably be to store the auth_token in a cookie and provide it the next time the user loads the page after the cookie set by twitter expired.
Now something that is not clear to me: I'm also providing Facebook as an authentification method and somehow it doesn't forget the login. The Facebook JS API doesn't store any cookies on my page, so how does it know that the user is authenticated with Facebook and my application?
are you talking about this? see the channel file portion.
EDIT: Above link has been changed. And, facebook api has changed too.
The Facebook JS API doesn't store any cookies on my page, so how does it know that the user is authenticated with Facebook and my application?
It makes a cross-domain request to facebook.com, to see if there are cookies under that domain that indicate there is a user currently logged into Facebook in some other browser window/tab.
Once it has figured out that a) there is a logged in user and b) this user has used your app before – it logs him in to your app on the fly and gives you a fresh (short-lived) user access token to work with.
I am bit stuck with facebook authentication in my wp7 app.
What I have right now:
login page with WebBrowser control
I can get access_token from facebook
Save it to phone IsolatedStorage
What I want to do is to skip login page if the user is already authenticated, but I don't really understand the flow, what condition should I check.
On server side I have REST api, when user is authenticated I get his personal information from facebook and call my api to store this information in the database + access_token. Then I used it with all requests to secure my api. Is it good approach?
You don't really check a condition. You try to do whatever it is you want to do with the access token (post status, upload picture, or whatever) and then, if you get an oauth exception, you go and bring up the browser again to get a new access token (browser will just flash - it won't require any user input unless they actually changed their password or something)