Automatically post to Facebook from PHP script
jhnidk - December 15th, 2010 in: Facebook
Facebook is currently on of the most important publishing and traffic generating sources for many websites. Manually Cross publishing content on your own site and Facebook seems like a lot of extra work.
This post guides you through the creation of a Facebook application that can automatically post messages and other types of content on your Facebook wall.
Getting started
Building a php script that automatically posts status updates on your wall requires the following steps:
- Download Facebook API
- Register a Facebook app
- Give the app rights to post on your wall
- Build the post to Facebook script
Get the Facebook API
First step is to download a general Facebook communication class from Glithub.
Download the files and upload the files to your site – e.g. to a folder called fb.
The file containing the Facebook class is “facebook.php”
Register a facebook app
Facebook only allows registrated apps to interact with Facebook accounts and pages. The next step is therefore to register your app.
You can register a new app on this page
To register a Facebook App you need to provide: Site name, Site url (with ending “/”) and the locality of your application.
If everything is OK, you get to a registration conformation screen, where you get the two important informations: App ID and App Secret that you need in the next steps.
Give the application the rights to access your wall
Next step is to build a small script that only has one purpose, identify itself with the new App ID and App Secret to your Facebook account, so you can allow it to directly communicate with your Facebook page.
If you skip this step, you need to manually allow the script to access your Facebook account each time it’s trying to post something, which isn’t that smart…
Simply insert your App ID and App Secret in this script below and save the script as “fb_access.php” or something similar.
<?
require_once 'facebook.php';
$app_id = "<insert App ID";
$app_secret = "<insert App Secret>";
$facebook = new Facebook(array(
'appId' => $app_id,
'secret' => $app_secret,
'cookie' => true
));
if(is_null($facebook->getUser()))
{
header("Location:{$facebook->getLoginUrl(array('req_perms' => 'user_status,publish_stream,user_photos'))}");
exit;
}
?>
Next step is to upload the script to the same directory on your server where you uploaded the “facebook.php” class. In this example we’ll call the script “fb_access.php”
Finally you need to upload the script to your server, and access the script from your web browser: http://<yoursite>/fb/fb_access.php.
Click the allow button, and you’re ready to build a script that posts to Facebook.
Depending on your Facebook configuration you might get an error message when accessing fb_access.php in your browser.
This typically means that you need to provide a url to the website connected in the application. Simply click the link “application settings editor” and provide: Site URL in the “Web site” tab, and try to load the fb_access.php file again in your browser.
Build the Post to Facebook script
Now that your application has access to your Facebook account, and we have the general facebook.php class, it’s very easy to build a small script that can post messages to your Facebook wall.
<?
require_once 'fb_access.php';
// add a status message
$status = $facebook->api('/me/feed', 'POST', array('message' => 'this is a test...'));
var_dump($status);
?>
And that’s it. Try to access the script from your browser and check if a post is added to your Facebook wall.
Please notice that if you controls multiple Facebook pages, this script will post to the wall of your personal profile. If you want to post to a specific page, you need to replace “/me/” with the ID of the specific page.
Another important information is, that you will get an error message if you try to post the same message twice. So remember to change the message, when you’re testing the script.
Next steps
This post guides you through the initial Facebook application registration, and basic script for automatically posting content to a Facebook wall.
Next step could be to integrate this script in your CMS system, so a new post is automatically added to Facebook every time you’re updating the content on your site.
This script is very basic and only adds a status message in plain text. However you can naturally also post images, links, and other informations. You can see more about the additional informations you can include here.
Recommended further reading:
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Perfect, I just did this tutorial, and all was perfect, Thanksss !!!
Rey (December 20th, 2010)
Hello, I got a problem now, from my PC this script works fine, but when I try to post from other PC it redirects me to facebook login page, why is that ??, I just set the app id and secreet correctly, but this script the “fb_access.php” it should automatically log me in right ?? but it is not happen
thankss
Rey (December 29th, 2010)
is there a way to log in to FB using the API but whit out write the email and pass in a form ??
Rey (December 30th, 2010)
Thanks for sharing, I’ve followed the instruction and finaly made a script that can post on facebook (non blog).
Cristi (January 28th, 2011)
Hi, tx for this great tutorial, but i have the following problem: when my users register their posts on my sie are automtically posted on their facebook wall, but after a short period (1h) the posts aren’t being posted on their walls… it seems that the procedure as you describes in you tut only works for a limited amount of time… any ideas?
Alexander Schmitt (March 5th, 2011)
Appreciate the tutorial. Can this be used as part of a form post? Could I submit form values to the feed?
Thanks!
Quentin (March 25th, 2011)
hello
thank you
its a very good script
but its working only when the array is static
array(‘message’ => ‘this is a test…’)….
but when its like this
$a = $_POST['b'];
array(‘message’ => ‘$a’)….
its not working
any idea??????
knisty (April 4th, 2011)
Good morning Steve, sorry to my english.
I can post status in the wall, but when use cron not work… Already try everything and cannot to use cron for automatize. Can be anything permission? if not use cron work!
My code:
api_client->session_key = FB_SESSION;
$fetch = array(‘friends’ =>
array(‘pattern’ => ‘.*’,
‘query’ => “select uid2 from friend where uid1={xxx}”));
echo $facebook->api_client->admin_setAppProperties(array(‘preload_fql’ => json_encode($fetch)));
$sql = $base ->query(‘SELECT * FROM wall WHERE DATE_FORMAT( data_agendada, “%H:%i” ) = DATE_FORMAT(“‘ . date(‘Y-m-d H:i:s’) . ‘”, “%H:%i”) ‘);
while ($result = $base ->tupla($sql)) {
echo $result ['text_facebook'].”";
echo “sign in”;
if ($facebook->api_client->stream_publish($resultado['text_faceboon].” Testing cron”))
echo “Added on test FB Wall”;
}
} catch (Exception $e) {
echo $e . “”;
}
?>
Filipi (May 11th, 2011)
Iam not getting prop[er output
when i execute the script it is showing
api(‘/me/feed’, ‘POST’, array(‘message’ => ‘this is a test…’)); var_dump($status); ?>
my facebook url is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Blood2all/186945688016420
pls help
brunda (May 12th, 2011)
hello jhnidk, i have a problem i use the php sdk v3.0.1 and when i try to acces the fb_access.php file so i can grant access to my wall the page goes only blank. I’ve searched the web but i haven’t found any solutions. Any sugestions would be appreciated.
Stan Razvan (July 4th, 2011)
All i get is a blank page when i go to fb_access.php
and my status script
Nothing happens.
Ilkotech.co.uk (August 25th, 2011)
Hi thanks in advance, I got the following error why?
Fatal error: Uncaught OAuthException: Invalid OAuth access token signature. thrown in /home/thagatpa/public_html/stalin/fb/base_facebook.php on line 1042
Stalin (September 13th, 2011)
hi, i am having the same issue. when i run the fb_access.php file, i get a blank page..help!!!
ozo (September 16th, 2011)
Same Problem. Any idea why I see only a blank page when going to fb_access.php?
Felix (September 18th, 2011)
I am interested for automatic posting on facebook. thank the tutorial.
Jazirah (October 18th, 2011)
I’ve read tutorial at http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/php/facebook-api/, and this topic. When this script running it posted a message to User’s wall. I’ve replaced /me/ to specific page_id but it does not running.
$ret_obj = $facebook->api(‘/my_page_id_here/feed’, ‘POST’,
array(
‘link’ => ‘http://www.saokim.com.vn/',
‘message’ => ‘Some text here’
));
Please tell me why it does not running?
Nguyen Duc Manh (November 18th, 2011)
The script is not working,
Fatal error: Uncaught OAuthException: (#200) The user hasn’t authorized the application to perform this action thrown in /home/pavointl/public_html/theprogrammersguide.com/facebook/src/base_facebook.php on line 1039
Jagan (December 10th, 2011)
I just get a blank page when acess fb_access.php
CACA-COBRA (December 23rd, 2011)
I have followed your steps, up to the section where I am meant to run the page “fb_access.php” (load the page through my browser). But I keep getting an error message saying “Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘(‘, expecting ‘}’ in /fb/fb_access.php on line 14
“.
Thanks
Fred (February 2nd, 2012)