How to attach data to Facebook app request on the iPhone? - iphone

Question

I'm working on 'deep linking' a Facebook request into my iOS app. A Facebook app is setup and seems to work as I can send a request to a friend, the request badge appears in the friend's Facebook, and clicking on the request launches my app (all on the iPhone).
However, so far I could not pass any data with the request, which I want to use when my app launched from the Facebook app with the request.
I use the following call:
-(void) fbRequestActionWithMessage: (NSString *) message andLink: (NSString *) link
{
NSDictionary *requestData = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
#"data1", #"key1",
#"data2", #"key2",
nil];
NSString *requestDataString = [requestData JSONRepresentation];
NSMutableDictionary* params = [NSMutableDictionary
dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
message, #"message",
#"Check this out", #"notification_text",
link, #"link",
requestDataString, #"data",
nil];
[facebook dialog:#"apprequests" andParams:params andDelegate:self];
}
Neither the "data" nor the "link" values in the params dictionary seem to have any effect. Ideally, when my app is launched from this request, I would get back the "data" or the "link" values. Can this be done?
I could not find any Facebook docs about the structure of params dictionary - is there a list of supported keys and their effect?

Answer 1

The "link" parameter and "notification_text" is not supported in iOS but you should be able to pass in data and get it back.
Example, passing in data:
FBSBJSON *jsonWriter = [FBSBJSON new];
NSDictionary *requestData = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
#"data1", #"key1",
#"data2", #"key2",
nil];
NSString *requestDataString = [jsonWriter stringWithObject:requestData];
NSMutableDictionary* params =
[NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
message, #"message",
requestDataString, #"data",
nil];
[facebook dialog:#"apprequests"
andParams:params
andDelegate:self];
Example, reading it back:
....
#property (nonatomic, retain) NSURL *openedURL;
....
#synthesize openedURL = _openedURL;
....
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application openURL:(NSURL *)url
sourceApplication:(NSString *)sourceApplication annotation:(id)annotation {
self.openedURL = url;
return [FBSession.activeSession handleOpenURL:url];
}
- (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application {
[FBSession.activeSession handleDidBecomeActive];
if (FBSession.activeSession.isOpen) {
[self checkIncomingNotification];
}
}
- (void) notificationGet:(NSString *)requestid {
[FBRequestConnection startWithGraphPath:requestid
completionHandler:^(FBRequestConnection *connection,
id result,
NSError *error) {
if (!error) {
NSString *title;
NSString *message;
if ([result objectForKey:#"data"]) {
// Process data in request
FBSBJSON *jsonParser = [FBSBJSON new];
NSDictionary *requestData =
[jsonParser
objectWithString:[result objectForKey:#"data"]];
[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Badge: %#, Karma: %#",
NSString *data1 = [requestData objectForKey:#"key1"];
NSString *data2 = [requestData objectForKey:#"key2"];
}
}
}];
}
- (void) checkIncomingNotification {
if (self.openedURL) {
NSString *query = [self.openedURL fragment];
if (!query) {
query = [self.openedURL query];
}
NSDictionary *params = [self parseURLParams:query];
// Check target URL exists
NSString *targetURLString = [params valueForKey:#"target_url"];
if (targetURLString) {
NSURL *targetURL = [NSURL URLWithString:targetURLString];
NSDictionary *targetParams = [self parseURLParams:[targetURL query]];
NSString *ref = [targetParams valueForKey:#"ref"];
// Check for the ref parameter to check if this is one of
// our incoming news feed link, otherwise it can be an
// an attribution link
if ([ref isEqualToString:#"notif"]) {
// Get the request id
NSString *requestIDParam = [targetParams
objectForKey:#"request_ids"];
NSArray *requestIDs = [requestIDParam
componentsSeparatedByString:#","];
// Get the request data from a Graph API call to the
// request id endpoint
[self notificationGet:[requestIDs objectAtIndex:0]];
}
}
// Clean out to avoid duplicate calls
self.openedURL = nil;
}
}
You can find more details on this, using the latest SDK v3.1:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/howtos/send-requests-using-ios-sdk/