CODEWITHSUNDEEP
facebookfacebook-graph-api
pigoz
pigoz

Reputation: 302

Post to Fan Page without offline_access using Graph API?

I need to make an web application to manage posts, when a post is made sometimes I should post a brief promotional message one of the company fanpages on facebook (depending on criteria on the post).

This is possible right now using the offline_access permission: create application A, request the manage_pages, offline_access, publish_stream permissions and with that access token you can connect when you want to the graph api and post to the page.

Since offline_access is being deprecated and is going to be removed in May 2012 I was wondering how it would be possible to post to different pages of the company.

I can't implement any of the OAuth authentication mechanisms since the final user that uses the web application will not have access to the fb account that is page administrator and the posting to facebook should happen in a backend process not interacting with the user.

A workaround I found is to post to the page by posting on the admin user stream and tagging the page (that would only require publish_stream), but the Graph API is bugged and doesn't allow you to tag in posts. In code (Ruby + Koala) it would be something like this:

oauth = Koala::Facebook::OAuth.new("app-key", "app-secret", nil)
api = Koala::Facebook::API.new(oauth.get_app_access_token)
api.put_wall_post("message @[page-id:1:page-name]", {}, "admin-user")

The only problem is a bug in the facebook API prevents you from tagging stuff in posts to your stream.

Is this kind of model not going to be supported anymore? Anyone knows of any workaround?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 935

Answers (2)

dang
dang

Reputation: 2412

You can increase 2 table columns in your app namely short_access_token & long_access_token.

Once user authenticates your app, an access token is generated, store it in short_access_token. Then pass this access token to:

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

Once you run this, an access token with 60 days validity will be generated. Store it in long_access_token. Now, use this long_access_token for 60 days.

You can add another condition where if the long_access_token was generated more than 30 days ago, just take the short_access_token and generate a new lon_access_token.

You can generate long lived access token only once a day i.e. the first time. Use this long lived access token to manage paes (if you've already got the permission).

Ref: https://developers.facebook.com/roadmap/offline-access-removal/

Upvotes: 2

DMCS
DMCS

Reputation: 31870

The only workaround you have is to give the app user page administrator access to the various pages, so when you do post to the page's wall, it can be posted as the page rather than a post as the user. However, you will only be able to extend a "valid" user access token to 60 days per Facebook's new rules. But with that 60 day user token, you can then get a 60 page access token, so you can post as the page to the page.

If you don't have the requirement of posting to the page as the page, then it's pretty simple to do it without attaching that user as a page admin. Just let them be a normal user.

Upvotes: 0

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