FB Ads API (#17) User request limit reached - php

Question

I am working on Facebook ads api to get the account Campaign data.What I am doing here is I get list of all campaigns and doing forloop of each campaign get Campaign stat
$campaignSets = $account->getCampaigns(array(
CampaignFields::ID,
CampaignFields::NAME
));
foreach ($campaignSets as $campaign) {
$campaign = new Campaign($campaign->id);
$fields = array(
InsightsFields::CAMPAIGN_NAME,
InsightsFields::IMPRESSIONS,
InsightsFields::UNIQUE_CLICKS,
InsightsFields::REACH,
InsightsFields::SPEND,
InsightsFields::TOTAL_ACTIONS,
InsightsFields::TOTAL_ACTION_VALUE
);
$params = array(
'date_preset' => InsightsPresets::TODAY
);
$insights = $campaign->getInsights($fields, $params);
}
when executing above code I am getting error as (#17) User request limit reached.
Can anyone help me how to solve this kind of error?
Thanks,
Ronak Shah

Answer 1

You should consider generating a single report against the adaccount which returns insights for all of your campaigns, this should reduce the number of requests required significantly.
Cursor::setDefaultUseImplicitFetch(true);
$account = new AdAccount($account_id);
$fields = array(
InsightsFields::CAMPAIGN_NAME,
InsightsFields::CAMPAIGN_ID,
InsightsFields::IMPRESSIONS,
InsightsFields::UNIQUE_CLICKS,
InsightsFields::REACH,
InsightsFields::SPEND,
InsightsFields::TOTAL_ACTIONS,
InsightsFields::TOTAL_ACTION_VALUE,
);
$params = array(
'date_preset' => InsightsPresets::TODAY,
'level' => 'ad',
'limit' => 1000,
);
$insights = $account->getInsights($fields, $params);
foreach($insights as $i) {
echo $i->campaign_id.PHP_EOL;
}

Answer 2

If you run into API limits, your only option is to reduce calls. You can do this easily by delaying API calls. I assume you are already using a Cron Job, so implement a counter that stores the last campaign you have requested the data for. When the Cron Job runs again, request the data of the next 1-x campaign data (you have to test how many are possible per Cron Job call) and store the last one again.
Also, you should batch the API calls - it will not avoid limits, but it will be a lot faster. As fast as the slowest API call in the batch.

Answer 3

Add this to your code and you'll never have to worry about FB's Rate Limiting/User Limit Reached.
Your script will automatically sleep as soon as you approach the limit, and then pick up from where it left after the cool down. Enjoy :)
import logging
import requests as rq
#Function to find the string between two strings or characters
def find_between( s, first, last ):
try:
start = s.index( first ) + len( first )
end = s.index( last, start )
return s[start:end]
except ValueError:
return ""
#Function to check how close you are to the FB Rate Limit
def check_limit():
check=rq.get('https://graph.facebook.com/v3.3/act_'+account_number+'/insights?access_token='+my_access_token)
call=float(find_between(check.headers['x-business-use-case-usage'],'call_count":','}'))
cpu=float(find_between(check.headers['x-business-use-case-usage'],'total_cputime":','}'))
total=float(find_between(check.headers['x-business-use-case-usage'],'total_time":',','))
usage=max(call,cpu,total)
return usage
#Check if you reached 75% of the limit, if yes then back-off for 5 minutes (put this chunk in your loop, every 200-500 iterations)
if (check_limit()>75):
print('75% Rate Limit Reached. Cooling Time 5 Minutes.')
logging.debug('75% Rate Limit Reached. Cooling Time 5 Minutes.')
time.sleep(300)