Situation with signed_request, sessions and PHP SDK 3.0 - facebook

I am making an application and on the "front" page of the Tab I get the signed_request. But when I navigate to different pages on the app it stops providing the data.
So far this work:
$signed_request = $facebook->getSignedRequest();<br />
$user_profile = $facebook->api('/me');<br />
echo $user_profile['id'];<br />
echo $user_profile['name'];
echo $_SESSION['signed_request']; // Returns the data
But when I navigate to other pages, it doesn't give anything.
It looses everything. How can I keep the data from the signed_request? Do I need to use sessions in some way?

I've found that the signed request isn't always passed to each page, so I used the following to hold that myself in the session object. I set this on the login page before I redirect to other pages in my app:
if (!isset($_SESSION["SR"]))
$_SESSION["SR"] = $_REQUEST["signed_request"];
$signed_request = $_SESSION["SR"];
Hope that helps.

Related

Why I cannot get facebook like my page?

What I want to do is user must like my page first then only can go to my facebook apps, but I have no idea why I cannot detect it and I had var_dump my page liked, result is NULL
here is my code
$request = $_REQUEST["signed_request"];
list($encoded_sig, $load) = explode('.', $request, 2);
$fbData = json_decode(base64_decode(strtr($load, '-_', '+/')), true);
var_dump($fbData["page"]["liked"]);// output is NULL
if (!empty($fbData["page"]["liked"]))
{
echo "This content is for Fans only!";
} else {
echo "Please click on the Like button to view this tab!";
}
Any idea how to do it?
Have you made sure there is as signed_request parameter?
It only gets transmitted to your app once the page is initially loaded into the Facebook iframe – it won’t be there anymore once you start navigating inside your app.
Best thing to do IMHO is to parse the signed_request if not empty, and safe the results into your own session.
Btw., parsing it yourself is rather time-consuming – I’d suggest using the PHP SDK and use Facebook::getSignedRequest() – that method gives you all the data in decoded form, if there was a signd_request parameter.
So here’s what I usually do:
if($signed_request_data = $Facebook->getSignedRequest()) {
$_SESSION['signed_request_data'] = $signed_request_data;
}
You can call that code on every page – only if the method actually returns data, your session gets updated.
You need the permission user_likes to check if they liked your Facebook App but $fbData["page"]["liked"] is referring to your Facebook App Page which is seperate.
To edit your App Page go to App Settings > Advanced > Near the bottom you will see App Page
To use the permission user_likes to check see this SO Answer On Detecting if a User Likes a Facebook App

Not receiving signed_request in Facebook iframe-app

I have created a Page Tab Facebook App where I want to display different content depending on the user being a fan or not. (Also called fan gate, landing page or reveal page)
For this I'm using the PHP SDK, in specific the following code:
<?php
require 'src/facebook.php';
$facebook = new Facebook(array(
'appId' => 'APP_ID',
'secret' => 'APP_SECRET',
'cookie' => true,
));
?>
And in the content:
<?php
$signed_request = $_REQUEST["signed_request"];
list($encoded_sig, $payload) = explode('.', $signed_request, 2);
$data = json_decode(base64_decode(strtr($payload, '-_', '+/')), true);
if (empty($data["page"]["liked"])) {?>
Thank you for liking our Page!
<?php } else { ?>
You haven't liked our page yet..
<?php };
// Debugging Code
echo "REQUEST:<br>";
print_r($_REQUEST);
echo "<br>GET:<br>";
print_r($_GET);
echo "<br>POST:<br>";
print_r($_POST);
?>
This works when I'm logged in with my Facebook User and when I use it on my own Page.
Meaning the signed_request is present in both $_POST and $_REQUEST.
However, when I test it with another user, there is no signed_request value in those variables..
Notes:
- I already took a look at my URL Settings in the App Configuration (300 Redirect and stuff) but this looks fine, and like I said with my User it's working..
- the signed_request is not just empty, it doesn't even exist.
Does anybody have similar issues?
I would not mind using the Javascript SDK instead of PHP if it works then, but I'm not very experienced in Javascript.
EDIT:
As i found out you always have to have a non-secure (http) and a secure (https) URL.
Even if you enter a secure URL as the standard URL, facebook will contact it using http and will then get redirected (depends on server configuration) to the https, which makes you lose your signed_request.
I just had a similar problem. In my case the problem was that in the app config i had not put a slash at the end of the tab URL which was referencing a directory (with an index.php in it). So i got a redirect to the same URL with a slash at the end and lost the $_POST this way.
signed_request is never passed via GET but POST. $_REQUEST contain data according to configuration in php.ini (request_order or variables_order)
Since you are using PHP-SDK it's better to use it for signed_request retrieval:
$signed_request = $facebook->getSignedRequest();
$liked = $signed_request['page']['liked'];
For applications running in Page Tab signed_request is always passed, so if you not get it ensure there is no redirections that omit POST data being passed.

Facebook canvas authentication: No signed_request parameter after redirect

In my canvas page, I try to authenticate the user the way it is described in http://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/canvas/, by using essentially this code (example code from developers.facebook.com):
<?php
$app_id = "YOUR_APP_ID";
$canvas_page = "YOUR_CANVAS_PAGE_URL";
$auth_url = "http://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?client_id="
. $app_id . "&redirect_uri=" . urlencode($canvas_page);
$signed_request = $_REQUEST["signed_request"];
list($encoded_sig, $payload) = explode('.', $signed_request, 2);
$data = json_decode(base64_decode(strtr($payload, '-_', '+/')), true);
if (empty($data["user_id"])) {
echo("<script> top.location.href='" . $auth_url . "'</script>");
} else {
echo ("Welcome User: " . $data["user_id"]);
}
?>
The problem is, the first time the user authorizes my canvas application, Facebook doesn't pass a signed_request parameter when redirecting back (as described in the example code), but a code parameter. When accessing the application the second time (already having confirmed the rights), it passes a signed_request parameter as expected.
Why does it pass a code parameter the first time? The documentation doesn't explain when Facebook passes a code / signed_request parameter.
The problem was that for $canvas_page, I used the canvas URL (e.g. mysite.com/canvas) instead of the canvas page URL (e.g. apps.facebook.com/myapp).
I think you need to append "&response_type=token" to your authentication url:
https://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?client_id=YOUR_APP_ID&redirect_uri=YOUR_URL&response_type=token
Then you get back something that looks like:
http://apps.facebook.com/APP_NAME/#access_token=YOUR_APP_ID%YADA_YADA_YADA0&expires_in=3948
And you can extract it with some Javascript:
if (window.location.hash.length == 1)
{
var accessToken = window.location.hash.substring(1);
}
Facebook uses the code parameter to authenticate your application. In the documentation, it states:
*If the user presses Allow, your app is authorized. The OAuth Dialog will redirect (via HTTP 302) the user's browser to the URL you passed in the redirect_uri parameter with an authorization code*
To complete the authorization, you must now take the code parameter and your app secret and pass it to the Graph API token endpoint (paraphrasing the documentation). This will grant you access to the access token. From this point onward, your application will not require the code parameter for this user because they are already authenticated.
Facebook uses the signed_request to share information with your application. The documentation states three scenarios in which it will pass the signed request. These are:
A signed_request is passed to Apps on Facebook.com when they are loaded into the Facebook environment
A signed_request is passed to any app that has registered an Deauthorized Callback in the Developer App whenever a given user removes the app using the App Dashboard
A signed_request is passed to apps that use the Registration Plugin whenever a user successfully registers with their app
So to conclude, the code parameter is only sent to authenticate the application, while the signed_request is utilized to pass information once the application has been authorized.
Saj-and is very correct.
I too struggeled with this alot.
When setting the redirect_uri to my domain name, I got an infinate redirect loop.
When setting the redirect_uri to the facebook app url, I got an error saying the url is not on my domain and so cannot be accessed.
It took the "/" at the end to solve this
I had the same problem with my canvas app, I fixed it by simply redirecting to my application's canvas url in the case that there is a code GET request parameter. After that Facebook sends me POST request that contains the signed_request parameter as expected. Here is the Python Django snippet:
if 'code' in request.GET.keys():
return HttpResponseRedirect(FACEBOOK_CANVAS_URL)
# ...rest of your canvas handling code here
I struggled with this issue (not getting oauth ID in the signed_request and instead get the "code" after user approves the app) for over a week, and this post (and few others posts) helped me get very close to resolving the issue (I was using my apps canvas URL instead of the canvas page url in the redirect URI, and I didn't specify the namespace in the settings).
After making these corrections, I faced a different issue where the app approval page won't show up for a new user and instead facebook throws the message" application has an error etc.. and finally I figured I was missing a / at the end of the canvas page url in my redirect url.. I had it as https://apps.facebook.com/myappname instead of https://apps.facebook.com/myappname/ in the redirect uri. Adding the / at the end resolved the issue and when a new user access my app using https://apps.facebook.com/myappname (if the user is already logged in ) facebook shows the approval page (upon receiving the response from my server) and once the user approves the app, facebook sends the signed-request with the required auth code to my application. Hope this will be useful for anyone else who might encounter the same issue.
Just to clear the confusion about the code parameter.. Facebook will always send this parameter when user allows the application.. however the signed_request parameter is sent using post or some other method.. it is not sent in the url.. You can access it using $_REQUEST['signed_request']
I had a similar problem that was solved when I assigned a namespace to my app, so it would look like apps.facebook.com/myapp and not apps.facebook.com/1234.
I was experiencing the problem you describe with firefox and with third-party cookies disabled.
I enabled third-party cookies and then the signed_request was suddenly available.

Facebook Application: How can I deny direct access on my server?

Is there a way to deny direct access to the application server for a facebook application?
Facebook loads the application via an iFrame src=http://app-domain/, but you can clearly view the page source and find out that domain and copy paste the URL into a browser and view the application directly.
There is this signed_request and oauth_token in the API, I was wondering how to use that or if I can use that to limit direct access to the application.
So if a user inputs in the browser your application's URL he gets redirected to Facebook.
Thank you.
EDIT:
I found a way that also works with form submission.
// Signed request
$signed_request = $facebook->getSignedRequest();
if(!$signed_request) header("Location: " . $settings['appBaseUrl']);
This redirects the browser while accessing the application directly and not through facebook.
It will not work if javascript is disabled.
<script type="text/javascript">
var isInIFrame = (window.location != window.parent.location) ? true : false;
if(!isInIFrame){
window.location = 'link-of-application-page';
}
</script>
You'll need some Javascript to detect whether you're in Facebook's frame and if you're not, redirect to it.
I found a way that also works with form submission. (Works for me, it might not work for you. Test it first.)
// Signed request
$signed_request = $facebook->getSignedRequest();
if(!$signed_request) header("Location: " . $settings['appBaseUrl']);
This redirects the browser while accessing the application directly and not through facebook.

Get Facebook username

I am trying to write a small application to learn about developing for Facebook and I was trying one basic command, to say (Welcome, user_name).
I used:
Welcome, <fb:name uid='<?php echo $user; ?>' useyou='false' possessive='true' />!
but it did not work, do you know what should i use?
Are you doing this through a canvas application or Facebook Connect?
In either case, it's probably one of two issues: Either (A) the Facebook object is being fired up with the wrong api key or secret, or (B) you haven't authorized the application, so there's no UUID coming through.
Calling this before that code of yours should fix both:
$facebook = new Facebook(YOUR_API_KEY,YOUR_SECRET_CODE);
$user = $facebook->require_login();