Facebook Rails starter kit

This gem uses the 'hashie' gem for easy hash access (as returned by the Facebook graph API via Koala).

In an initializer or similar "boot location" for your app facebook integration:

Facebook.app = MyCool::FacebookAppConfig.instance

You can then define an app class that implements the following API.

Note: You may wan to load these values from a yaml file, and have the yaml filename as part of your .gitignore. You might want to look at 'facebooker2' gem for inspiration here (fx to support multiple environments). You have to have (or create) a Facebook App that is linked to your Rails application.

class MyCool
    class FacebookAppConfig
        include Singleton

        # please change!
        def identifier
            '219868431409649' 
        end

        # please change!
        def secret
            '7e5699f155df01d8e52b35c01dccd627' 
        end

        # please change for staging/production
        def site_url
            'http://localhost:3000'
        end

        # please customize (see Facebook permissions)
        # https://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/permissions/
        def default_permissions
        ["publish_stream", "read_stream", "email"]
      end
    end
end

The facebook.yml file in config/apis:

identifier: 219868431409649
secret: 7e5699f155df01d8e52b35c01dccd627
site_url: http://localhost:3000
default_permissions: ["publish_stream", "read_stream", "email"]
callback_path: '/home/callback'

Note that the site_url is the url of your site hosting the external Facebook app integration, fx: www.mycoolapp.com.

See the config_loader or 'config-file-loader' gem for a nice way to load these yaml config values into a global App object of some kind.

Configuring this would allow you to do something like:

Facebook.app.secret # => value loaded from 'secret' entry in facebook.yml

Facebook access controllers

The module Facebook::Access::Helper can be included in controllers that require Facebook access (via signin).

class CampaignController < ApplicationController
    include Facebook::Access::Helper

  def 
    fb_login!
  end
end

Some of the key methods made available are:

  • fb_retrieve_access_token
  • fb_login(permissions)
  • fb_app
  • fb_graph
  • signed_request
  • registration

You can access the Facebook graph API for the current (session) user.

For this to work, it requires a previous Facebook login which can be done fx via the Facebook login button (see fx 'facebook-social_plugins' gem). Alternatively use OAuth directly, fx by using the fb_login! method.

Note: You can use the after_authenticate_new_user(user) hook method to fx add the authenticated user to the session for the current_user or similar method.

Debugging and logging

You can set the Facebook::Starterkit.logging_on! in order to get some logging/debugging output while using the Starterkit. By default, logging is turned off. You can also turn it off using `Facebook::Starterkit.logging_off!

Facebook Graph API

The fb_graph method returns a class with some nice convenience methods. The graph api used is Koala::Facebook::API from the koala gem.

  • me

The me method call get_object('me') on the GraphAPI and converts the returned Hash into a Hashie for easy method access (using method_missing).

The following methods are all prefixed with 'my_'

  • name
  • first_name
  • last_name
  • username
  • email
  • picture
  • friends
  • messages

Examples: my_name and my_first_name and so on.

fb_graph.my_username

Currently only the following post API is provided

  • post_on_wall(message)

Facebook (and alternative OmniAuth) Authentication via Devise

This module is designed to help you quickly get started with Facebook - Devise integration and possibly other OAuth providers. Please see Railscasts omniauth-part-1 and omniauth-part-2

In your ApplicationController or some other class/module included in your AuthenticationsController you can override the new_user method if you need to. 

    # override as needed
    def new_user
        User.new
    end

Then simply include the Facebook::Auth::Devise module in your controller.

class AuthenticationsController < InheritedResources::Base
    include Facebook::Auth::Devise

    def new_user
        Profile.new
    end
end

This module adds controller REST methods for:

  • index
  • create
  • destroy

The following translation keys must be defined in a locale file (or similar i18n translation):

  • facebook.auth.signed_in
  • facebook.auth.success
  • facebook.auth.destroyed

You can easily customize this module to suit your app by overriding any of the following methods:

  • user_authentication_destroyed
  • current_user_authentication
  • authenticated
  • authenticate_user
  • authenticate_new_user
  • authenticated_user_saved
  • authenticated_user_not_saved
  • authentication

Mode configuration

# in your User class
class Profile
  has_many :authentications

In your console:

rails g model authentication uid:string provider:string user_id:integer

Model:

class Authentication < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :create, :destroy, :index, :provider, :uid, :user_id

    belongs_to :user  
end

Migration:

class CreateAuthentications < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :authentications do |t|
      t.integer :user_id
      t.string  :provider
      t.string  :uid # the unique userid of the User supplied by the provider
      t.string  :index
      t.string  :create
      t.string  :destroy

      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

rake db:migrate

Facebook Route setup

In your `routes.rb file

match 'auth/:provider/registration' => 'registrations#create', :as => :registration

# See http://railscasts.com/episodes/235-omniauth-part-1
match 'auth/:provider/callback' => 'authentications#create'

The :provider param can be accessed in the controller via params[:provider]. Note that the method auth_provider is already defined to return this value or default to 'facebook'.

You can then use the route like this:

= link_to "Register with Facebook", registration_path('facebook')

Or perhaps like this:

= button_to "", registration_path('facebook'), :class => "facebook_button"
``
## Contributing to facebook-rails-starterkit

* Check out the latest master to make sure the feature hasn't been implemented or the bug hasn't been fixed yet.
* Check out the issue tracker to make sure someone already hasn't requested it and/or contributed it.
* Fork the project.
* Start a feature/bugfix branch.
* Commit and push until you are happy with your contribution.
* Make sure to add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
* Please try not to mess with the Rakefile, version, or history. If you want to have your own version, or is otherwise necessary, that is fine, but please isolate to its own commit so I can cherry-pick around it.

## Copyright

Copyright (c) 2012 Kristian Mandrup. See LICENSE.txt for
further details.