CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpfacebookfacebook-graph-api
thrash
thrash

Reputation: 187

Facebook API - return friends list (PHP arrays)

Im trying to return the friend list of a user using a Facebook app without using the PHP SDK. I have managed to return the users name, gender, etc. without using an auth code. Im now trying to return a list of names who are the users friends, all ive managed to do so far is print the array, I cant seem to only print the name as its laid out differently to the users name, gender, etc. which I managed to echo by doing:

$user->name

But when I try that for the friends list it doesnt work and doesnt echo anything at all, I was just wondering if anyone knew how I go about doing this?

Using print_r I get the following:

Array(
[0] => Array ( [name] => Friend's name [id] => x )
[1] => Array ( [name] => Friend's name [id] => x )
[2] =>....)

Until all of the friends have been listed.

 { "name": "Name", 
    "hometown": {
      "id": "Hometown_id", 
      "name": "Hometown"
    }, 
    "id": "Friend_id" }

Above is the structure of the array of each, I think a potential issue is that not everybody has a hometown set which may be why I'm receiving a forEach error?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1655

Answers (2)

Daedalus
Daedalus

Reputation: 7722

Given that array structure, it's pretty simple(in php) to get what you want. I recommend reading from php's manual on arrays.

Just try something like this:

foreach ($array as $inner_array) {
    echo $inner_array['name'] . "<br />";
}

Aside from that, it would be...

echo $your_array[0]['name'];
echo $your_array[1]['name'];

And so on and so fourth..

Update:

What you are now looking is not an array, but a javascript object. It is referred to as JSON: Javascript Object Notation.

You need a special parser to interpret it as an array: json_decode(), which comes shipped with php greater than or equal to 5.2.0. To make the array associative, you must pass a second parameter, a boolean, true. It defaults to false otherwise. An example of usage:

$json = '{ "name": "Name", 
    "hometown": {
      "id": "Hometown_id", 
      "name": "Hometown"
    }, 
    "id": "Friend_id" }';

$json_arr = json_decode($json,true);

foreach ($json_arr as $key => $var) {
    if (!is_array($var)) {
        if ($key == 'name') {
            echo $var . "<br />";
        }
    }
}

Update 2:

foreach ($json_arr as $key => $var) {
    if (!is_array($var)) {
        if ($key == 'name') {
            echo "Name: " . $var . "<br />";
        }
    }
    else {
        if ($key == 'hometown') {
            echo "Hometown: " . $var['name'] . "<br />";
        }
    }
}

The above should do what you need.

Upvotes: 1

asifrc
asifrc

Reputation: 5841

Best way to work with querying specific data from Facebook is FQL. Check out https://developers.facebook.com/docs/technical-guides/fql/ and let me know if that's what you're looking for.

The sample on the link I provided will grab all of the active user's friends. If you use the sample as a starter (having filled in all the proper info for your app along with a valid access token), then go to the area where it says // run fql query and change uid2 to name in the following line:

fql?q=SELECT+uid2+FROM+friend+WHERE+uid1=me()

Adding the following to the end of the script would then populate all of the friends' names into the array called $names

$r = $fql_multiquery_obj['data'][0]['fql_result_set'];
foreach ($r as $u)
{
    $name[count($name)] = $u['name'];
}

Does that help you do what you're trying to do? Let me know :)

Upvotes: 0

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