Working with the Graph API
Overview
The graph API is a collection of RESTful web services facebook provides. Using the graph api, you can publish, interact with or create almost anything in facebook. Developers make GET, POST and DELETE requests to different parts of https://graph.facebook.com. These requests can require an access token, which grants read/write privileges.
Facebook provides a tool at https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer that lets users generate access tokens for their account with any combination of permissions and make graph api calls. Try using this tool to interact with your facebook accounts. You can read facebook’s graph api documentation here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/
Body
GETing https://graph.facebook.com/1206427506 (my facebook user id) with no access token returns this JSON:
{
"id": "1206427506",
"name": "Paul Kinsky",
"first_name": "Paul",
"last_name": "Kinsky",
"link": "https://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Kinsky/1206427506",
"gender": "male",
"locale": "en_US",
"type": "user"
}
The same call with an access token granting the user_about_me privilege to my account returns this JSON:
{
"id": "1206427506",
"name": "Paul Kinsky",
"first_name": "Paul",
"last_name": "Kinsky",
"link": "https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1206427506",
"hometown": {
"id": "113001432047882",
"name": "Wareham, Massachusetts"
},
"location": {
"id": "105596609473837",
"name": "Worcester, Massachusetts"
},
"gender": "male",
"timezone": -5,
"locale": "en_US",
"languages": [
{
"id": "113301478683221",
"name": "American English"
}
],
"verified": true,
"updated_time": "2011-11-02T16:50:18+0000",
"type": "user"
}
The facebook php sdk handles graph api calls with the Facebook::api() method.
Graph API reference:
Components:
Here’s an example using this code from facebook’s documentation:
Example code
<?
// Remember to copy files from the SDK's src/ directory to a
// directory in your application on the server, such as php-sdk/
require_once('php-sdk/facebook.php');
//These parameters can be viewed when you create your test app here: //https://developers.facebook.com/apps
$config = array(
'appId' => 'YOUR_APP_ID',
'secret' => 'YOUR_APP_SECRET',
);
$facebook = new Facebook($config);
$user_id = $facebook->getUser();
?>
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<?
if($user_id) {
// We have a user ID, so probably a logged in user.
// If not, we'll get an exception, which we handle below.
try {
$ret_obj = $facebook->api('/me/feed', 'POST',
array(
'link' => 'www.example.com',
'message' => 'Posting with the PHP SDK!'
));
echo '<pre>Post ID: ' . $ret_obj['id'] . '</pre>';
} catch(FacebookApiException $e) {
// If the user is logged out, you can have a
// user ID even though the access token is invalid.
// In this case, we'll get an exception, so we'll
// just ask the user to login again here.
$login_url = $facebook->getLoginUrl( array(
'scope' => 'publish_stream'
));
echo 'Please <a href="' . $login_url . '">login.</a>';
error_log($e->getType());
error_log($e->getMessage());
}
// Give the user a logout link
echo '<br /><a href="' . $facebook->getLogoutUrl() . '">logout</a>';
} else {
// No user, so print a link for the user to login
// To post to a user's wall, we need publish_stream permission
// We'll use the current URL as the redirect_uri, so we don't
// need to specify it here.
$login_url = $facebook->getLoginUrl( array( 'scope' => 'publish_stream' ) );
echo 'Please <a href="' . $login_url . '">login.</a>';
}
?>
</body>
</html>
Overview
The graph API is a collection of RESTful web services facebook provides. Using the graph api, you can publish, interact with or create almost anything in facebook. Developers make GET, POST and DELETE requests to different parts of https://graph.facebook.com. These requests can require an access token, which grants read/write privileges.
Facebook provides a tool at https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer that lets users generate access tokens for their account with any combination of permissions and make graph api calls. Try using this tool to interact with your facebook accounts. You can read facebook’s graph api documentation here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/
Body
GETing https://graph.facebook.com/1206427506 (my facebook user id) with no access token returns this JSON:
{
"id": "1206427506",
"name": "Paul Kinsky",
"first_name": "Paul",
"last_name": "Kinsky",
"link": "https://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Kinsky/1206427506",
"gender": "male",
"locale": "en_US",
"type": "user"
}
The same call with an access token granting the user_about_me privilege to my account returns this JSON:
{
"id": "1206427506",
"name": "Paul Kinsky",
"first_name": "Paul",
"last_name": "Kinsky",
"link": "https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1206427506",
"hometown": {
"id": "113001432047882",
"name": "Wareham, Massachusetts"
},
"location": {
"id": "105596609473837",
"name": "Worcester, Massachusetts"
},
"gender": "male",
"timezone": -5,
"locale": "en_US",
"languages": [
{
"id": "113301478683221",
"name": "American English"
}
],
"verified": true,
"updated_time": "2011-11-02T16:50:18+0000",
"type": "user"
}
The facebook php sdk handles graph api calls with the Facebook::api() method.
$facebook->api('/me/feed', 'POST',
array(
'link' => 'www.example.com',
'message' => 'Posting with the PHP SDK!'
));
array(
'link' => 'www.example.com',
'message' => 'Posting with the PHP SDK!'
));
Graph API reference:
Components:
- a Facebook object initialized with your application’s APP_ID and APP_SECRET
- '/me/feed'
- the part of the facebook graph api to contact
- in this case, the feed of the current user
- ‘POST’
- the type of request
- in this case, we’re POSTing to the current user’s feed
- array(...)
- parameters specific to the graph api call
- in this case, we’re posting a link to 'www.example.com' and the message that we’re 'Posting with the PHP SDK!' to the currently logged in user’s feed, or news feed.
Here’s an example using this code from facebook’s documentation:
Example code
<?
// Remember to copy files from the SDK's src/ directory to a
// directory in your application on the server, such as php-sdk/
require_once('php-sdk/facebook.php');
//These parameters can be viewed when you create your test app here: //https://developers.facebook.com/apps
$config = array(
'appId' => 'YOUR_APP_ID',
'secret' => 'YOUR_APP_SECRET',
);
$facebook = new Facebook($config);
$user_id = $facebook->getUser();
?>
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<?
if($user_id) {
// We have a user ID, so probably a logged in user.
// If not, we'll get an exception, which we handle below.
try {
$ret_obj = $facebook->api('/me/feed', 'POST',
array(
'link' => 'www.example.com',
'message' => 'Posting with the PHP SDK!'
));
echo '<pre>Post ID: ' . $ret_obj['id'] . '</pre>';
} catch(FacebookApiException $e) {
// If the user is logged out, you can have a
// user ID even though the access token is invalid.
// In this case, we'll get an exception, so we'll
// just ask the user to login again here.
$login_url = $facebook->getLoginUrl( array(
'scope' => 'publish_stream'
));
echo 'Please <a href="' . $login_url . '">login.</a>';
error_log($e->getType());
error_log($e->getMessage());
}
// Give the user a logout link
echo '<br /><a href="' . $facebook->getLogoutUrl() . '">logout</a>';
} else {
// No user, so print a link for the user to login
// To post to a user's wall, we need publish_stream permission
// We'll use the current URL as the redirect_uri, so we don't
// need to specify it here.
$login_url = $facebook->getLoginUrl( array( 'scope' => 'publish_stream' ) );
echo 'Please <a href="' . $login_url . '">login.</a>';
}
?>
</body>
</html>
