Facebook Integration

Worker Joined: Feb 09, 2011 Posts: 188 Location: US

Is there a module or block out there that I can allow users to look at their facebook post and their friends post through a block or module. The reason I ask is that most of the clan members of my site use facebook. We have a facebook group page, and I would like to be able to have the facebook post show up in a center block, or something like that if it is possible. It would help me keep clan members coming to the site instead of just going to facebook. Any ideas?

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 11:45 am

It's easier to syndicate a facebook page rather than facebook groups, but you could try this out
http://groupfeed.climatesceptics.org/

As far as facebook users being able to access their posts and friends posts through your site I don't know of any such addon. I'm pretty sure facebook wants users to visit their site for this, so they can deliver ads, etc... Many sites have experienced users migrating to facebook, I bet myspace also wished there was an easy answer for that; unfortunately I don't believe there is...

registered · Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:52 pm

Facebook clients have to have some means of connecting and managing the data. I would first check to see if they have any such ape's and if so there may be a way to develop such a thing.

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 11:48 pm

I know I read some things on their site that allowed you to manage profiles and such, but I am still learning how to read code and that is a ways away. I clicked on that groupfeed address, but it requires a number for the group, but my group is alpha numeric, so it didn't work. I was just hoping that there was something out there that made it be able to work together.

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 11:22 am

Did a little reading on this last night and it appears as though facebook has expanded it's api to include some of the features you mentioned.
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/web/#personalization

as far as implementing it, the facebook api is Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login!, due to "bugs, poor documentation, never-ending API changes, slow response times, and other headaches".

I plan on revisiting their api at some point in the future, but for now I have no available time..

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 11:24 am

That would be really great. I know that I, and others like me would be happy to buy something like that, if it would help our website users to stay in once place.

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 6:09 pm

Quote:

<?php

define('YOUR_APP_ID', 'your app id ');
define('YOUR_APP_SECRET', 'your app secret');

function get_facebook_cookie($app_id, $app_secret) {
$args = array();
parse_str(trim($_COOKIE['fbs_' . $app_id], '\\"'), $args);
ksort($args);
$payload = '';
foreach ($args as $key => $value) {
if ($key != 'sig') {
$payload .= $key . '=' . $value;
}
}
if (md5($payload . $app_secret) != $args['sig']) {
return null;
}
return $args;
}

$cookie = get_facebook_cookie(YOUR_APP_ID, YOUR_APP_SECRET);

$user = json_decode(file_get_contents(
'https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=' .
$cookie['access_token']));

?>
<html>
<body>
<?php if ($cookie) { ?>
Welcome <?= $user->name ?>
<?php } else { ?>
<fb:login-button></fb:login-button>
<?php } ?>
<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js"></script>
<script>
FB.init({appId: '<?= YOUR_APP_ID ?>', status: true,
cookie: true, xfbml: true});
FB.Event.subscribe('auth.login', function(response) {
window.location.reload();
});
</script>
</body>
</html>

This is on the facebook developer section at : http://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/web/.
I think it will do what I am looking for, but I am not for sure. I don't know how to set this up in a block or how exactly to make it work. I tried to put it in a box, and it put a login button that was above the block with a <PHP? below it, and the block read unable to display content. When I clicked on the login button, it gave a pop-up, but I don't have the app id and secret code It would be really cool to have it be linked to Facebook.

New Member Joined: Feb 10, 2006 Posts: 18

If i understand what you are looking for, it is similar to something i am running on one of my sites. Take a look at http://www.truspirit.net and you can see what i did there and if that what you are looking for.

To do this all you need to do is create a new block and paste the generated code from https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-box/ into it.

Keep in mind this is display only, you cant input text without going to Facebook. Its basically just a news feed. You are also restricted to the feed from a single source and it may also only work in conjunction with a Facebook Page, i havnt tried to run it using a regular user account.

If you want something a little more interactive maybe https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/live-stream/ would work better for you. I havnt tried this one out personally.

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 4:30 pm

Cool...thank you, I will take a look at it. Thank you for the info.
I looked at the one on your site, but I think what I am looking for is one that is interactive to where you can see the whole groups posting from all the members. I don't think I can do that, but it would be really nice to have the main post from everyone in the block since it relates to our clan. I wouldn't know how to utilize that code from the developer into ravenuke or a block. I would have to research it. Right now I am going to college for IT and I don't have allot of time to try, test, fix, etc...lol....maybe over Christmas break. Smile

I do appreciate you pointing me in a direction...I will keep messing with it.

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 10:22 am

I haven't really looked at their API yet but I think the biggest issue would be authentication - and the fact they keep changing their API.
It's pretty easy to use 'like' boxes etc but when it comes to displaying Facebook user data like 'wall' data etc the chances are that some users might have data that is private, which of course won't show up.