Posting to User's walls as application using Facebook PHP API - php

I've been building a web app that uses facebook integration for easier registration/login and notifications for the users. However, for the notifications I want to be able to post to a users facebook wall when something happens on our site.
Really I see two possible problems with doing this. First being that the user will most likely not be logged in to our website when the notification needs to happen. Second I have not found a way to post to the feed using any identity other than the current logged in user.
So to reiterate exactly what I'm trying to do. When some action takes place on my site involving Bob, I want the websites application to post on Bobs wall notifying him of the action as if the application is one of Bobs friends. From some of the things I've seen while researching this, it seems as if facebook might not treat applications like users and I might have to go through a page to accomplish what I want. But really I'm ok with that.

What you need to do is to ask for the offline_access permission. Then you can store their graph id property after they login/authorize to your site's database. Then you just post to that graph id instead of instead of /me. In your case you would then POST a request to the "$user_graph_id/feed" endpoint with whatever parameters you usually have.

Related

How to get the "publish_post" equivalent

Scenario
I'm building an application that needs the ability to post to users wall (personal profile) on behalf of a user on facebook. I remember before the way that I would do it is request a permission "publish_actions" but reading through their documentation i came to this page:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/changelog/breaking-changes/#login-4-24
which states that that is being deprecated.
They recommended an alternative which is using their sharing product found here but this seems like it would break one of the functionalies of my current application (I dont want to share content i want users to post it to whenever they choose to on whichever account they choose to).
Question
Is there a way to get posting to a users wall and NOT an event, page or group. If i'm correct I can still post data to events, pages and groups via API as normal but to a users wall its different? I need to post on their wall via api but i can't seem to find the permission.
My facebook api graph version for my app is 3.0 and im using their PHP SDK to make the requests.

Add users post to their facebook newsfeed automtically with php

I have a website I'm working on. It enables users to register and post stuffs within the site. Can I get a link to some sort of api that allows people to add their facebook account (once) and then automatically post what they posted on my site on their facebook newsfeed (the sort of thing that happens when you connect your facebook account to your twitter account) .I've searched and can't seem to get exactly what I want
What you want is pretty common and if you searched you clearly didn't do a good job on the search.
Using the Facebook PHP SDK is pretty straight forward. There is a PHP Library available with a demo of the functionality you want. In your case you need to do some stuff more, so I'll explain globally what you should do:
Get the Facebook PHP SDK and load it into your website, determine what scope you need to perform the actions what you are going to do, in your case you need to have access to their timeline which is called the publish_stream scope. In order to get the Facebook PHP SDK working you need to create an app at http://developers.facebook.com
If a user grants access you need to save the authentication token that the user provides and save it in your database for later use. I'm not 100% sure how long they are valid, I think it's maximum of 30 days at the moment, but you have the ability to refresh the toking in the requests you make (correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a while..)
Everytime an action is done using the Facebook API you inject the usertoken in the request, thus performing the "post" action onto their timeline.
What you are looking for is pretty straight forward and easy to find..

Mass Wall Post to multiple users?

I have a contest App. And many users have installed the app. I have stored the offline_access tokens of these users. I want to send a message to all users of app at the end of contest. What is the best way to do it. Because when I do it in a while loop the page never loads and browser just shows loading animation gif on tab.
You don't even need the user access tokens to accomplish something similar to what you're trying to do.
First off, mass-wall posting is both a violation of the Facebook Platform Policies (specifically IV.2, IV.3), but it's also really spammy and users will react negatively, probably blocking your app and ultimately it may get banned from Facebook. So don't do that.
Instead, you should utilise the intended social channel for notifying users of new content, App to user Requests.
This is pretty simple to do, as per the Graph API docs for apprequests you just make the following API call:
https://graph.facebook.com/USERID/apprequests?app_access_token=APPTOKEN
Where USERID is each user's Facebook ID and APPTOKEN is always your applications unique access token (see the documentation here if you do not know how to obtain one of those). You will also need to include parameters such as message, which you can read more about in the docs.

Post on user's wall with the Application

Is there any way to post on user's wall as the Application and not as user?
It's hard to provide a definitive answer without some more context as to what sort of post you want to do, but the answer is probably no.
We dont provide a a mechanism for pages or applications to write on a users wall directly.
As a Page, you can post on your wall, and the messages you write will be shown to a subset of the users who have liked your page in the news feed.
As an application you can use stream.publish to post on the users wall/timeline with an application attribution. But it's not as the application per se.
With Timeline Apps you can use the Open Graph to publish actions the user has taken with your app, like Spotify does. So you're posting what the user has done with your app, rather than posting as the user.
HTH

Post on a users wall on behalf of my app (not the user)

For several years i have managed to sort things out without posting my own question, but by readings others instead. However, after reading over 200 useless posts, i've decided it's time i get some help.
I'm building a facebook app, and what i wan't to do is extremelly simple to explain. I wan't to notify a certain user about some event in real-time. For example, "the tv show you want to watch starts in an hour". Unfortunately, facebook doesn't allow apps to send private messages to users (which was my first choice). The standard way of publishing on a users wall on HIS BEHALF is not good either, because no notification is triggered. Therefore, my idea is to post on his wall on behalf of the app (or any similar action that will trigger a notification).
I know about app requests, but they are not what i'm looking for either, as you can see, they do not match what i want to do.
Also please note that the event may be particular for each user, so making a post or something for EVERYBODY to see is not an option ("Peter, you have dinner with stacy in an hour").
Firstly, i want to know if posting on the apps behalf (or facebook page, or any other idea) is possible.
If it isn't, i would like to see any other ideas to sort this out. Remember, it's extremelly important to trigger the notification.
Thanks for your time reading this, but i have one last request.
Although what i want to do is pretty simple, there are plenty of similar issues being disscused, which may lead to confusion, so please be SURE that you fully understood what i am asking before answering.
Thanks again
What about opening an event and auto inviting the specific user to the event?
Events invites trigger a notification and the only thing you need is the user's email address which you can easily get.
I am not 100% sure if an app posting on your wall initiates a notification*. Although posting to a users wall on behalf of an app is certainly possible.
You can follow the instructions on this link, under the "App Login" title, and with that retrieve the correct access token you need to make calls as your app.
In order to have the functionality you specified, you'll have to request the offline_access permission from your users - this will allow you to post to your users wall even when he/she is not currently in or using your app. (or even logged into facebook)
*
Usually these posts on behalf of an app are user initiated - ie the user pressed "post to my wall."

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