is admin on facebook pages - facebook

I looked around and could not find anything to do this (well it was not obvious or semi-obvious)
So say i have a facebook application that offers a service that people will pay for during use. The average user can come on and "Subscribe" to it, while the admin of those pages can perform an activity that will cost them money (make me money).
I do not want hacking attempts or anything to hurt our product. So, how can i verify that someone is an admin using the PHP SDK.
What we are currently doing is storing the $_POST["signed_request"] in $_SESSION's data and working with that. Either the $_POST or $_SESSION is not safe 100% (firesheep).
Is there any way to verify this? graph api?

Okay, first things first. To retrieve the signed_request and check if the user is an admin you would use something like:
$signed_request = $facebook->getSignedRequest();
if ($signed_request['page']) { // Loaded in a page tab
if ($signed_request['page']['admin']) {
// Current user is admin
} else {
// Normal user
}
} else { // Canvas view
}
Now I'm not sure what do you mean by:
What we are currently doing is storing the $_POST["signed_request"] in
$_SESSION's data and working with that.
Because if you are using the PHP-SDK then you don't need to worry about storing the signed_request in the session since the SDK will handle it for you.
Now for the last part:
Either the $_POST or $_SESSION is not safe 100% (firesheep).
That's not true, the signed_request is useless without your app secret key to decode it. So even if someone was able to obtain it, it won't compromise your application. Read more about signed_requests here.

Related

Facebook UserId returned from Azure Mobile Services keeps changing within the same Windows Phone app

I'm a newbie to app development. I am building a Windows Phone 8.1 app and have followed the tutorial here: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/app-service-mobile-dotnet-backend-windows-store-dotnet-get-started-users-preview/ to add authentication using Facebook. Everything seems to work fine, except that every now and again it appears to stop bringing back any data from my Azure database. Further investigation revealed that the UserId that is being shown from the code below, changes periodically (although I can't quite work out how often it changes).
// Define a member variable for storing the signed-in user.
private MobileServiceUser user;
...
var provider = "Facebook";
...
// Login with the identity provider.
user = await App.MobileService.LoginAsync(provider);
// Create and store the user credentials.
credential = new PasswordCredential(provider,
user.UserId, user.MobileServiceAuthenticationToken);
vault.Add(credential);
...
message = string.Format("You are now logged in - {0}", user.UserId);
var dialog = new MessageDialog(message);
dialog.Commands.Add(new UICommand("OK"));
await dialog.ShowAsync();
This code is identical to the code in the tutorial. The Facebook app settings (on the Facebook developers site) confirm that I am using v2.3 of their API so I should be getting app-scoped UserIds back. I have only ever logged in with one Facebook account, so I would expect the UserId to be the same each time, but they're not. The UserId is prefaced with 'sid:', which someone on the Facebook developers group on Facebook itself says stands for Session ID, which they would expect to change, but if that's the case, I can't work out where to get the actual UserId from that I can then store in my database and do useful things with. I'm sure I must be doing something basic wrong, but I have spent hours Googling this and cannot (unusually) find an answer.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
So dug deeper. This is how Mobile Apps work (I was thinking from a Mobile Services perspective). The issue here is that the Gateway doesn't provide static SIDs, which is what User.userId provides. The work around to this is listed in the migration doc.
You can only get the Facebook AppId on the server.
ServiceUser user = (ServiceUser) this.User;
FacebookCredentials creds = (await user.GetIdentitiesAsync()).OfType< FacebookCredentials >().FirstOrDefault();
string mobileServicesUserId = creds.Provider + ":" + creds.UserId;
You should note, that this Id is directly connected with your Facebook App registration. If you ever want to migrate your App to a new Facebook App, you'd have to migrate them. You can also use the Facebook AppId to look up the user's global facebook Id via the Facebook Graph API, which you could use between applications. If you don't see yourself using multiple apps, etc., you can use the Facebook AppId just fine.
Hard to tell what's going on to cause you to use a SID instead of the Faceboook token (which like Facebook:10153...).
It may be faster to rip out the code and reimplement the Auth GetStarted. Maybe you missed a step or misconfigured something along the way. If you have the code hosted on github, I can try to take a look.
Another thing you can do is to not trust the user to give you their User id when you save it to a table. On your insert function, you can add it there.
function insert(item, user, request) {
item.id = user.userId;
request.execute();
}
That should, theoretically, be a valid Facebook token. Let me know if that doesn't work; can dig deeper.

MVC5 Facebook get users photos

I am building a website app in MVC5 that allows a user to login using Facebook/Twitter. Once they are logged in we will look through their photos for ones marked with a certain hashtag.
I have the login working for both FB and Twitter - and using Linq2Twitter I can get the and post photos.
However with Facebook I am having some problems. My understanding with Facebook is that after the login I have to make a second call to https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token in order to get a short lived access token.
However this call requires a "code" and a returnUri. I am unsure what this code is or how to get it, and what return URI to use.
My startup.Auth.cs looks like this
var facebookOptions = new FacebookAuthenticationOptions();
facebookOptions.Scope.Add("user_photos");
facebookOptions.AppId = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["facebookAppId"];
facebookOptions.AppSecret = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["facebookAppSecret"];
app.UseFacebookAuthentication(facebookOptions);
And everything logs in fine and I end back at ExternalLoginCallback
So where do I go from here. How do I find this code and what returnUri do I use in order to get the access code.
Once I have this access code I plan to call (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/reference/v2.1/user/photos)
Hopefully I am going about this the correct way and my question makes sense
Many thanks.
Okay - This solves my problem
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2013/10/16/get-more-information-from-social-providers-used-in-the-vs-2013-project-templates.aspx

Facebook PHP SDK usage stand alone - how do the Facebook sessions/cookies work?

I'm utilizing the Facebook PHP SDK on its own. I do not want to use the JS SDK at all.
Because getUser(); from the SDK can return a user id even if the user is not logged in, I have opted for using a try/catch statement to check if the user is logged in.
try
{
$me = $CI->facebook->api('/me');
$CI->our_fb['is_fb']='YES';
echo "hello";
}
catch(FacebookApiException $e)
{
echo "catch";
}
This statement is included in the global include file of all of my files (for simplicity).
So, depending on the situation, I generate a Facebook login URL. The expected functionality is that the user logins to Facebook, authorises the app, is returned to the redirect URI set in the login URL at which point the try statement will execute, and $CI->our_fb['is_fb'] will be set.
This is however not happening.
If the user is already logged into Facebook and the app is authorised, it works perfectly. SUCCESS
If the user is not logged into Facebook, once redirected the variable is not set. FAILURE
If the user is logged in but the app is NOT authorised after redirect the variable is not set. FAILURE.
In the latter two cases if you simply refresh the page, the variable is set - SUCCESS. Refreshing the page is however unnecessary/pointless extra effort.
My problem is that if you need to login to FB/or authorise the app e.g the first time you login with FB, you have an additional unneeded refresh, and I don't know why.
I suspect it is something to do with the cookie/session? Which saves the access token that I assume is returned/passed to the SDK automatically not being set at the same time?
Anyone got any ideas?
If you're having an app on facebook (tab or canvas). PHP SDK only get the User ID on initial loading of a page because a signed_request is sent with the request to your app.
But, when the app refreshes, the signed_request is lost (as it's facebook who send it).
So, in this case, you can append the signed_request to every URLs your use in your app - but that's really not optimal as the signed_request won't be regenarated - neither refreshed.
Your only real option is to rely on the JS SDK to set cookie correctly and allow getUser to work as expected. This is required because you're considered as a third-party app in Facebook (being in an iframe) and most browser will block you from setting cookies - so you need a work around handled by the JS SDK for you. You can search for cross-domain cookies or third-party cookie for explanation about the workarounds, but these workaround only work via JS scripting and iframe management.
Also, be sure to setup the JS SDK correctly: channel file, cookie allowed, and send P3P headers (for IE).
You can also check this related question: A proper approach to FB auth
About website, the same mostly stays (but you have no signed_request). At this point, seriously consider using the JS SDK as it's way easier. Or else, you can make sure your app flow follow these guidelines: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/concepts/login/login-architecture/
The way I am seeing this is, you are trying to avoid that refresh if the user is not logged in and precedes to log in after the page has initially loaded.
So what you can do is make an ajax request to another page on your site, say for example id.php, which just loads the php sdk and echo $userid; and then you can grab the user id after login without the refresh.
Basically the cookie is used to save the signed request and session is used to save 'state', 'code', 'access_token', 'user_id'. If the above are present PHP SDK uses them, no matter if they are valid or not.
I think your problem lies in the CODE sent by facebook. Specifically these lines in base_facebook.php:
if ($code && $code != $this->getPersistentData('code')) {
$access_token = $this->getAccessTokenFromCode($code);
...
protected function getAccessTokenFromCode($code, $redirect_uri = null) {
if (empty($code)) {
return false;
}
if ($redirect_uri === null) {
$redirect_uri = $this->getCurrentUrl();
}
...
Because CODE is issued for specific url sometimes there is such situation: Visitor arrives on www.example.com. He givies permissions and is redirected to example.com/login. But the code is not valid there, so the getUserAccessToken returns false. When you refresh the page you get same urls and everything's fine.
You're on the right track of not using getUser() because as I wrote above it's taken from the session if available.

Extend auth token without refreshing the page

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?
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
}
});
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.
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.
Try acquiring tokens with the offline_access permission.
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....
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.
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 ..
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
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 )

Clear all Facebook profile fields and manually fill out the registration form?

You know how users can clear the pre-populated form and revert to normal registration?
I'm developing an iframe registration app and when the user clears the form fields, it looks like the signed_request is still valid (if upon load the user was logged into facebook).
Anyone know how we are supposed to know if the user is really using FB info or registration info? I previously thought the session would tell us but my session is still valid after the
user hits "clear form".
// Check to make sure we have a signed_request object, if not, redirect to home
var sreq = Request.Form["signed_request"];
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(sreq))
{
Response.Redirect(WebConstants.SiteConstants.Home);
}
var app = new FacebookApp();
WHy is app.UserId still populated if the user clears the FORM!
How do I detect that we really want to integrate with FB or not ?
thanks!
I agree about the authentication vs registration but I think the Facebook API is not clearing the authentication cookie correctly because it is still valid if you clear the form or logout (i'm using iFrame registration), so I guess I'm looking for a best practice since when I get the signed-request, the id is the authenticated user so the only work-around I have right now is to check for String.IsEmptyOrNull( on the password field) - which tells me that this user did not use facebook registration). I think this is a hack but if anyone knows the "proper" way to take a signed request and convert it to an object please comment on my approach. It is kinda amazing that we still have to write a ton of code for what should be a straight forward approach to getting what we need. I've seen tons of complaints about FB development and they are mostly true - the Google API is not this frustrating and FB makes it almost impossible to test different environments as well (not to mention the famous cookie problems with localhost).
Problem : App.UserId is still the authenticated user after clearing the iframe form or logging out of FB - go figure.
Solution : check the presense of password field - this tells us that we have a non-fb registration going on....
C#.NET for all the minority out there.
// Check to make sure we have a signed_request object, if not, redirect to home var sreq = Request.Form["signed_request"]; if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(sreq)) { Response.Redirect(WebConstants.SiteConstants.Home); }
JObject meObject = null;
var app = new FacebookApp();
if (app.SignedRequest != null)
{
meObject = JObject.Parse(app.SignedRequest.Dictionary["registration"].ToString());
// Access meObject
JavaScriptSerializer ser = new JavaScriptSerializer();
fbReg = ser.Deserialize<FBRegistration>(meObject.ToString());
if (fbReg != null)
{
// 02 Feb 2011 - MCS - bug in facebook API, does not delete cookie if logout of FB
// We check to see if we have password - then - we know we can check the UserId
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(fbReg.password))
{
// FB Registration
FacebookUserId = app.UserId;
}
else
{
FacebookUserId = 0;
// Non FB Registration
Registration and authentication are two completely different things. Just because the user "clears" a form does not log them out of facebook. The C# SDK is just detecting if a signed_request exists and is valid.