How can I create a page post using Facebook Javascript SDK?

Question

I need to be able to post to a user's business page using the Facebook Javascript SDK.

I have successfully logged my user's into facebook but when I try to use a function to post to the user's page, nothing happens. I have even tried to manually enter my own page id into the function to make it work but still nothing happens.

I log my user in using the following javascript which I got from the Facebook documentation and it works.

<script>

  // This is called with the results from from FB.getLoginStatus().
  function statusChangeCallback(response) {
    console.log('statusChangeCallback');
    console.log(response);
    // The response object is returned with a status field that lets the
    // app know the current login status of the person.
    // Full docs on the response object can be found in the documentation
    // for FB.getLoginStatus().
    if (response.status === 'connected') {
      // Logged into your app and Facebook.
      testAPI();
    } else {
      // The person is not logged into your app or we are unable to tell.
      document.getElementById('status').innerHTML = 'Please log ' +
        'into this app.';
    }
  }

  // This function is called when someone finishes with the Login
  // Button.  See the onlogin handler attached to it in the sample
  // code below.
  function checkLoginState() {
    FB.getLoginStatus(function(response) {
      statusChangeCallback(response);
    });
  }

  window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
    FB.init({
      appId      : 'my app id',
      cookie     : true,  // enable cookies to allow the server to access 
                          // the session
      xfbml      : true,  // parse social plugins on this page
      version    : 'v3.3' // The Graph API version to use for the call
    });

    // Now that we've initialized the JavaScript SDK, we call 
    // FB.getLoginStatus().  This function gets the state of the
    // person visiting this page and can return one of three states to
    // the callback you provide.  They can be:
    //
    // 1. Logged into your app ('connected')
    // 2. Logged into Facebook, but not your app ('not_authorized')
    // 3. Not logged into Facebook and can't tell if they are logged into
    //    your app or not.
    //
    // These three cases are handled in the callback function.

    FB.getLoginStatus(function(response) {
      statusChangeCallback(response);
    });

  };

  // Load the SDK asynchronously
  (function(d, s, id) {
    var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
    if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
    js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
    js.src = "https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js";
    fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
  }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

  // Here we run a very simple test of the Graph API after login is
  // successful.  See statusChangeCallback() for when this call is made.
  function testAPI() {
    console.log('Welcome!  Fetching your information.... ');
    FB.api('/me', function(response) {
      console.log('Successful login for: ' + response.name);
      document.getElementById('status').innerHTML =
        'Thanks for logging in, ' + response.name + '!';
    });
        }

    </script>

I then altered the code to add a function called postapi() to test a post to the logged in user's page as shown below:

<script>
        function postapi() {
            FB.api(
                '/{your-page-id}/feed',
                'POST',
                { "message": "Awesome!" },
                function (response) {
                    // Insert your code here
                });
        }
  // This is called with the results from from FB.getLoginStatus().
  function statusChangeCallback(response) {
    console.log('statusChangeCallback');
    console.log(response);
    // The response object is returned with a status field that lets the
    // app know the current login status of the person.
    // Full docs on the response object can be found in the documentation
    // for FB.getLoginStatus().
    if (response.status === 'connected') {
      // Logged into your app and Facebook.
      testAPI();
    } else {
      // The person is not logged into your app or we are unable to tell.
      document.getElementById('status').innerHTML = 'Please log ' +
        'into this app.';
    }
  }

  // This function is called when someone finishes with the Login
  // Button.  See the onlogin handler attached to it in the sample
  // code below.
  function checkLoginState() {
    FB.getLoginStatus(function(response) {
      statusChangeCallback(response);
    });
  }

  window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
    FB.init({
      appId      : 'my app id',
      cookie     : true,  // enable cookies to allow the server to access 
                          // the session
      xfbml      : true,  // parse social plugins on this page
      version    : 'v3.3' // The Graph API version to use for the call
    });

    // Now that we've initialized the JavaScript SDK, we call 
    // FB.getLoginStatus().  This function gets the state of the
    // person visiting this page and can return one of three states to
    // the callback you provide.  They can be:
    //
    // 1. Logged into your app ('connected')
    // 2. Logged into Facebook, but not your app ('not_authorized')
    // 3. Not logged into Facebook and can't tell if they are logged into
    //    your app or not.
    //
    // These three cases are handled in the callback function.

    FB.getLoginStatus(function(response) {
      statusChangeCallback(response);
    });

  };

  // Load the SDK asynchronously
  (function(d, s, id) {
    var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
    if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
    js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
    js.src = "https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js";
    fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
  }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

  // Here we run a very simple test of the Graph API after login is
  // successful.  See statusChangeCallback() for when this call is made.
  function testAPI() {
    console.log('Welcome!  Fetching your information.... ');
    FB.api('/me', function(response) {
      console.log('Successful login for: ' + response.name);
      document.getElementById('status').innerHTML =
        'Thanks for logging in, ' + response.name + '!';
    });
        }

    </script>

I then use a button to open the login dialog and request the proper permissions as follows:

<fb:login-button scope="manage_pages,publish_pages,pages_show_list" onlogin="checkLoginState();">
</fb:login-button>

I successfully tested to see if this actually stored the user's access token by displaying the user access token in a textbox as follows:

function placetoken() {
            var user_access_token = FB.getAuthResponse()['accessToken'];
            document.getElementById("<%=TextBox1.ClientID%>").value=user_access_token;
        }

I now need to be able to use the user access token to get a list of the pages (including page id and page access token) that the user manages so they can choose one to post to.

I have tried:

var user_pages=FB.api('/me/accounts', 'GET');

But I cannot figure out how to capture what the api returns.

I would like to be able to use the Facebook Javascript SDK to log user's in and post to their business pages.

Answer 1

In order to publish to a Page (as a Page, which is the only option), you need to to the following:

• Authorize with the manage_pages and publish_pages permissions.
• Get a Page Token of the Page in question with /page-id?fields=access_token
• Use the Page Token to post with /me/feed

Example Request with Page Token:

FB.api(
    '/me/feed',
    'POST',
    {message: 'Awesome!', access_token: 'the-page-token'},
    function (response) {
        // Insert your code here
    }
);

Be aware that only users with a role in the App would see the new post, unless you put your App live and get the required permissions reviewed by Facebook.

Answer 2

Publishing on a page feed requires a page token valid for that specific page incl all required permissions granted by a page admin. Therefore you first need to retrieve a manage_pages permission with login, request a page token (via /me/accounts for example) for that specific page and then make the actual publish feed call.