CODEWITHSUNDEEP
facebookauthenticationpopup
stackh34p
stackh34p

Reputation: 9009

Is it possible to implement facebook authentication without popup

We are integrating an application as a facebook app at work. I want to be able to detect whether the user has logged in to facebook, and if not, to prompt for authentication.

So far we have successfully used the facebook SDK and the login functionality it provided. However, this causes an authentication popup window to be created by our application, and it is being blocked by most of the browsers, so our priority task is to re-implement the authentication logic not to use popups.

According to the this tutorial from the facebook documentation it could be done either by using event subscription for user status change requests (which did not work when the user is logged out) or by obtaining access token. The problem is that the token is returned as request parameter to the top window (the url I specify as a return url after the user authenticates). Since some cross-domain and browser restrictions exist, I am unable to use client scripting to obtain the value, and I am stuck.

Related questions here have been asked and the common issue is that most apps are being ran on localhost. However, the case with our app is that we have deployed our app to local webserver, that is exposed by a public domain, but still has the cross-domain restriction issues. It is being referenced by its public domain name within the facebook app configuration. I am completely confident in that the domains are fully accessible from outside.

In general, our case is that we would like to host the app while it is being used by facebook users. Perhaps this approach might be incompatible with our requirement? Is it possible to configure cross-domain communication to avoid the issue? Are any other ways to do avoid facebook login popups?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 982

Answers (1)

C3roe
C3roe

Reputation: 96316

First of all, default settings for popup blockers in modern browsers are so that they only block popups that are called without user interaction. If you call FB.login automatically on page load, it is likely to get blocked. But if you offer a link/button to the user saying “log in here” and only call FB.login on click on that link/button, then the popup is rather likely to be shown and not blocked.

If you are not willing to do it that way – then your other option is to use the server-side auth flow. You can just redirect the user to the auth dialog, which will happen in the same window, and he will be directed back to your app afterwards.

Upvotes: 3

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