CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javafacebookfacebook-graph-api
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Reputation: 6988

Post status on Facebook fan page using API (Java?)

I am just getting started on automation of posting messages on FB fan page on behalf of Admin(For e.g. I run a code in eclipse and It should post message on page). I read couple of similar questions on stack overflow, went through docs on FB API's but seems I am lost in this vast sea. I have few doubts.

  1. Do I need to create an APP on Facebook that would interact with it's APIs. Can I not directly interact with them in my code(Java)?
  2. What's flow of request to post status? My code -> My FB App -> My page or My Code -> My FB page
  3. I see two different types of authentication, Server side and Client side. Are they both required or I can choose one of them.
  4. Any link to some sample code for this would be extremely helpful.

I need to present this in a competition and have got only 1-2 days and figuring out stuff is taking too much time. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1729

Answers (1)

Simeon Visser
Simeon Visser

Reputation: 122326

1 You need a Facebook application through which you're communicating with Facebook. An app can request various permissions and when granted by the user, you can access the user's data or pages. Of particular interest will be the manage_pages permission (see an overview of permissions).

2 The basic steps are: The app requests permissions to do something, the user grants them and after that you obtain an access token which you can use to interact with the API. So initially, the flow is: your code > the app (and the user) > Facebook API. After that, it's your code > Facebook API (with the access token passed as GET parameter in the URL).

The above is if you're doing user related things. For pages, it works somewhat the same but you still need a user access token. If you have manage_pages permission, you can visit /me/accounts (with the user access token) and you'll get a response that contains a page access token. That token can then be used to perform actions on the page on behalf of that user. This only works if the user is an admin of the page.

3 I have only used client side authentication so far but it's also possible to do server side only. Some access tokens live longer than others. For example, a user access token is valid as long as the user is signed into Facebook. But other access token (such as for pages) live longer. You can then store the access token and use it repeatedly.

4 At the time of writing, I'm not familiar with Java libraries for the Facebook API so I can't help you here.

Upvotes: 2

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