Extend auth token without refreshing the page - facebook

Question

Users want to use my facebook app for many hours without refreshing the browser.
But token expires in 2 hours. Now I ask users to refresh the page but that's annoying.
I don't want to ask offline access permissions because it will scare some users.
The best solution will be somehow "relogin" and get new token without refreshing the page.
Is it possible?

Answer 1

I would subscribe to the expiry trigger (I think this is authResponseChange), then automate another login check. It won't be a perfect solution as it could trigger a pop up (if they have logged out for example) automatically, which a lot of browsers may block. You could instead, when the token expires, check if they will need to complete a pop up, and display a notification on your page somewhere saying 'Facebook needs your attention to continue', then only launch the pop up from their response, which would stop the pop up being blocked.
FB.Event.subscribe('auth.authResponseChange', function(response) {
// do something with response
FB.login(){
// refresh their session - or use JS to display a notification they can
// click to prevent pop up issues
}
});

Answer 2

An algorithm to workout on this
Ask for permission from the user
Save the token
Periodically check for an access token is near to expire or not
If its in verse of expiry, embed some dummy iframe, which redirects to the facebook homepage. - Extend auth token without refreshing the page
This should refresh the token. You might need to generate another token or continue with the same. Whatever be required, can be done without refreshing the page.

Answer 3

Have you thought of using ajax? After two hours you will check, if user is still active. If so, you send axax request to URL, where his session details will be updated. example:
$(document).ready(function(){
setInterval('update_session()', 5500000);
})
update_session(){
$.post({
URL: ..., // script to update session on server
data:{ /* username, password */ },
})
}
and the server-side just takes username and password from post or and runs relogin.

Answer 4

Try acquiring tokens with the offline_access permission.

Answer 5

I presume, guess this is not possible,FB architecture would not allow it. And why is offline_access such a problem!!!!!!...anyway offline_access is the best optimal solution I guess....

Answer 6

Unfortunately I believe this is impossible by design (if you mean for it to happen without user intervention). If the user is still logged in to Facebook you can redirect the top-level page to Facebook and it will bounce you right back with a new code (as it sounds like you are doing already), but that is only possible because of the Facebook cookie that it can check. If you try to do anything from your server, it will be rejected because that cookie will not accompany the request. Same goes for trying to make a call to facebook from javascript -- since your code is running in a different domain, the cookie will not accompany the call and Facebook will reject it. The only way that Facebook can even know who the user is, and that they are still logged in, is to see that cookie. And the only way that can happen is if the browser itself is redirected to the facebook.com domain.
It's worth mentioning also that Facebook has blocked the only logical workaround, i.e. loading the oauth url in an iframe. If you try it you will see that they detect the page is being loaded in an iframe and output a page with a link on it which does a top-level redirect to break out of the frame. So not only does this approach not work, it's clear that Facebook has specifically made it impossible as part of their architecture.
Edit: If what you mean to do is not avoid the refresh altogether but just have it happen automatically when a new token is needed, you can do something like this:
$status=0;
$data=#file_get_contents("https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=$token");
foreach ($http_response_header as $rh) if (substr($rh, 0, 4)=='HTTP') list(,$status,)=explode(' ', $rh, 3);
if ($status==200)
{
//token is good, proceed
}
else
{
//token is expired, get new one
$fburl="http://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?client_id=APP_ID&redirect_uri=".urlencode('http://apps.facebook.com/yourapp/thispage.php');
echo "<html>\n<body>\n<script>top.location='$fburl';</script>\n</body>\n</html>\n";
exit;
}
This is assuming you have something before this code that will process a signed_request parameter if it is present and assign a value to $token (either explicit code of your own or the appropriate SDK entries). The shown code can then be used anywhere you need to check if $token is still valid before proceeding.

Answer 7

If you get the access_token without specifying any expiry to them they will not expire ..
atleast not till the time user either changes his Fb credentials or de registers your application ..

Answer 8

I presume you are using the iframe signed_request parameter to get your access token. One method of achieving what you require is to use the oAuth 2.0 method of aquiring an access token. This is more prolonged in the first instance; your server and Facebook's have to exchange credentials which can be slow, but it means that you will be given a code that can be exchanged for an access token regularly, meaning your server can maintain the session periodically (probably from an ajax call from the client). You would then pass this new access_token to the client, and use it in your dialog call for your requests (gifts).
Hope that helps.
Spabby

Answer 9

Have a look at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/offline-access-deprecation/#extend_token
basically you extend the token with
https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?
client_id=APP_ID&
client_secret=APP_SECRET&
grant_type=fb_exchange_token&
fb_exchange_token=EXISTING_ACCESS_TOKEN
that will give you new token with new expiry time (it should be 60d but I'm noticing similar bug like described here https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/347831145255847/?browse=search_4f5b6e51b18170786854060 )