I have multiple share buttons inside my application. When i click them it shares the link of the iframe for example:
www.mypage.com/?whatever=whatelse
But i need to share this link with the facebook page "around" so the link is in he facebook iframe inside my apllication:
www.facebook.com/mypage/app_123456789/?????????????????
Is it possible to set some parameters to deeplink inside my application for sharing ?
Right now i just share the index page of my application without any parameters or a specific url inside.
You'd have to use the signed_request variable to store the the page you wanted to share. From what I remember there is an app_data field in this that allows you to store custom values - https://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/signed_request/
You'd then have to extract the custom variable from the signed_request->app_data when the page is requested to determine which content to load. You could then obviously share the link to the fb page with the signed_request tacked on. It is still requesting just one page, but kinda simulates deep-linking.
Related
I'm working on a photo contest fb app to run in a fan page tab. the user should be able to share the photo in order for others to vote for them.
supposing image link in iframe is http://example.com/image.php?id=1 for particular photo, pressing share will share this link through iframe. which leads up to the host app itself.
what I need is sharing the whole fb app tab page url with http://example.com/image.php?id=1 open in its Iframe.
is that possible in any way?
thanks for help.
So to give the “alternative” to #Lix’ answer, which focuses on canvas apps, here the analog way for page tab apps:
For some reason Facebook decided to do things differently for page tab apps – different than with canvas apps, you can not pass just any GET parameters to your app by appending them to the facebook.com address of your app, but you have to use the app_data parameter for that.
You call/link to your app in the form https://www.facebook.com/YourPage?v=app_1234567890&app_data=foo – and whatever you put as value for the parameter app_data, you will find in the signed_request parameter that Facebook POSTs to your app on initial(!) load into the iframe.
So you parse the signed_request (or let f.e. the PHP SDK do that for you), and then you find the app_data value in there. If you want to pass more than one single value, you can f.e. also put JSON-encoded data there – then you have to decode that again after you read the app_data value from the signed request.
The docs just shortly mention the app_data parameter, but the principle itself is quite simple.
Now, when it comes to sharing those links, I found that when you use an address in the above form, Facebook tends to cut the parameters from the URL, and treat the whole link as just a link to your Facebook page – it shows the page’s picture and description, and does not even pass your page tab app along, let alone the app_data parameter.
I found the most reliable way around this is not to link to your page tab on Facebook directly, but instead to a URL of your own app. When the scraper visits it, you deliver the relevant OG information. And when it’s a real user visiting, you redirect them to your page tab app, passing the data you need via the app_data parameter as described above. Redirecting can either be done server-side (info on how to detect the scraper server-side via its User-Agent header), or client-side via JavaScript (which the scraper does not “speak”).
Sure it is. All you have to do is be able to extract the information from your application canvas URL. If your canvas URL is something like this:
https://apps.facebook.com/ImadBakir
Then you could place some more info in there, like this:
https://apps.facebook.com/ImadBakir?photo_id=123
Users will share that link and now in your application, you can parse that photo_id parameter and make the needed HTML changes to display the correct image inside your iframe as the page and application loads.
With regard to parsing the the URL parameters, assuming you'll be doing it with JavaScript, you can read more about it in this post:
How can I get query string values in JavaScript?
i have a tab in a page, with an iframe to a site built up to be like a simple facebook app, where users can create simple profile pages with an image and some text.
Now, once the profile is created (which is a simple html page with its own URL), i need to be able to share it, using some sharing services (like addthis) or even the standard send button. The problem is that the original site has to be always hidden (users have to not be able to see the URL of the "site"), but the sharing system need an absolute URL to know... what to actually share.
Obiouvsly, working in an iframe, the url is always that of the facebook page (it doesn't change navigating the site's pages), so how can I do this?
Thanks.
The problem is that the original site has to be always hidden (users have to not be able to see the URL of the "site")
Why not?
Please don’t say “security concerns” right now, because you should know there is no such thing as “security by obscurity” …
If you just want to have Open Graph URLs, that can be liked and shared, but want the user clicking on one of those URLs end up being in your iframe tab on Facebook again – then do a redirect to your page tab for actual users.
Either do it via JavaScript (which the Facebook scraper does not care about); or with a server-side redirect for any client that is not the Facebook scraper (it’s identifiable by it’s user agent or originating IP address of the request).
I have an iframe tab which holds php page with various links inside (like "News", "Photos" etc.). Is it possible to generate a facebook link which leads directly to certain link inside the iframe? By facebook link I mean link that will keep you on facebook, open your iframe tab and view certain page on that iframe. The thing is that all I can do now is to link only to my iframe tab which has address like http://www.facebook.com/mypage/app_someid. Then I will land on my default page tab url. But I want to land on different one. Any tips on this one?
Passing an app_data parameter to the tab URL is passed back to your application as part of the signed_request parameter in FB's post call to include your content. Use that parameter after de-signing it to then decide what to show and what not to.
Your URLs will become like:
http://www.facebook.com/mypage/app_someid?app_data=showViewX
http://www.facebook.com/mypage/app_someid?app_data=showViewY
and then in your code:
// Get Signed Request
$app_data = $signed_request['app_data'];
if($app_data === "showViewX") {
// Show one view
} else {
// show others..
}
Currently, the app_data param is not sent if the user just liked the page when he lands on it with an app_data param. The bug on FB has been filed at https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/172963266154996 and we are all hoping for an early resolution.
For example, I have the application starting at index.php. The user navigates to about.php within the iframe, likes that specific page and shares it. What would the structure of the url look like to take people clicking from their own timeline into that page of my iframe?
Thanks!
This depends, if you are on a FanPage it does not work (directly)
on a App Page its easy. You simpley dont link relative in your iframe, but outside to the facebook page itself, for this to work your Canvas url needs to be a directory.
Then you can link to ie. http://apps.facebook.com/yourcanvas/about.php (dont forget the target _top)
On a FanPage the only way i know is to use beside the tab setting, a canvas app page.
in your share code you set the app page as target (with parameter) and on the app page you set a session variable for the desired target and then redirect back to the fanpage.
on the fanpage you look if you have an target value in your session, if so redirect the user.
I am building a tab for a Facebook page, and this tab contains the deprecated share button, outlined here - http://developers.facebook.com/docs/share/
By my understanding, the default functionality of this button is to share the URL of the page it currently lives on. But I don't want to share the url of the iFrame contents, but rather, the Facebook page, with whatever the user is currently viewing within that iFrame.
Currently, I have it hard coded to share the URL of the FB page itself but have been told by my boss that this is not what they want. The active page within the tab must also be shared along with it.
Hopefully I've made this clear enough. Thanks in advance for any help or consideration with this issue.
Cheers!
Since the various states of your app/tab are not affected by the parent document's URL, this isn't possible.