MiniFB - the simple miniature facebook library

MiniFB is a small, lightweight Ruby library for interacting with the Facebook API.

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Support

Join our Discussion Group at: http://groups.google.com/group/mini_fb

Demo Rails Application

There is a demo Rails app that uses mini_fb graph api at: http://github.com/appoxy/mini_fb_demo

Installation

gem install mini_fb

Facebook Graph API

For an overview of what this is all about, see http://developers.facebook.com/docs/api.

Authentication

Facebook now uses Oauth 2 for authentication, but don't worry, this part is easy.

# Get your oauth url
@oauth_url = MiniFB.oauth_url(FB_APP_ID, # your Facebook App ID (NOT API_KEY)
                              "http://www.yoursite.com/sessions/create", # redirect url
                              :scope=>MiniFB.scopes.join(",")) # This asks for all permissions
# Have your users click on a link to @oauth_url
.....
# Then in your /sessions/create
access_token_hash = MiniFB.oauth_access_token(FB_APP_ID, "http://www.yoursite.com/sessions/create", FB_SECRET, params[:code])
@access_token = access_token_hash["access_token"]
# TODO: This is where you'd want to store the token in your database
# but for now, we'll just keep it in the cookie so we don't need a database
cookies[:access_token] = @access_token

That's it. You now need to hold onto this access_token. We've put it in a cookie for now, but you probably want to store it in your database or something.

Getting Data from Facebook

It's very simple:

@id = {some ID of something in facebook} || "me"
@type = {some facebook type like feed, friends, or photos} # (optional) nil will just return the object data directly
@response_hash = MiniFB.get(@access_token, @id, :type=>@type)
# @response_hash is a hash, but also allows object like syntax for instance, the following is true:
@response_hash["user"] == @response_hash.user

See http://developers.facebook.com/docs/api for the available types.

Posting Data to Facebook

Also pretty simple:

@id = {some ID of something in facebook}
@type = {some type of post like comments, likes, feed} # required here
@response_hash = MiniFB.post(@access_token, @id, :type=>@type)

FQL

my_query = "select uid,a,b,c from users where ...."
@res = MiniFB.fql(@access_token, my_query)

Logging

To enabled logging:

MiniFB.enable_logging

Original Facebook API

This API will probably go away at some point, so you should use the Graph API above in most cases.

General Usage

The most general case is to use MiniFB.call method:

user_hash = MiniFB.call(FB_API_KEY, FB_SECRET, "Users.getInfo", "session_key"=>@session_key, "uids"=>@uid, "fields"=>User.all_fields)

Which simply returns the parsed json response from Facebook.

Oauth 2.0 Authentication and Original Rest Api

You can use the Graph api Oauth 2.0 token with original api methods. BEWARE: This has only been tested against stream.publish at present.

MiniFB.rest(@access_token, "rest.api.method", options)

eg:

response = MiniFB.rest(@access_token, "stream.publish", :params => {
  :uid => @user_id, :target_id => @target_user_id,
  :message => "Hello other user!"
})

all responses will be json. In the instance of 'bad json' methods, the response will formatted '#{bad_response_string'}

Some Higher Level Objects for Common Uses

Get a MiniFB::Session:

@fb = MiniFB::Session.new(FB_API_KEY, FB_SECRET, @fb_session, @fb_uid)

Then it makes it a bit easier to use call for a particular user/session.

response = @fb.call("stream.get")

With the session, you can then get the user information for the session/uid.

user = @fb.user

Then get info from the user:

first_name = user["first_name"]

Or profile photos:

photos = user.profile_photos

Or if you want other photos, try:

photos = @fb.photos("pids"=>[12343243,920382343,9208348])

Higher Level Objects with OAuth2

Get a MiniFB::OAuthSession with a Spanish locale:

@fb = MiniFB::OAuthSession.new(access_token, 'es_ES')

Using the session object to make requests:

@fb.get('117199051648010')
@fb.post('me', :type => :feed, :params => {
  :message => "This is me from MiniFB"
})
@fb.fql('SELECT id FROM object_url WHERE url="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1250777/"')
@fb.rest('notes.create', :params => {
  :title => "ToDo", :content => "Try MiniFB"
})

Getting graph objects through the session:

@fb.me
@fb.me.name
@fb.me.connections
@fb.me.feed

@ssp = @fb.graph_object('117199051648010')
@ssp.mission
@ssp.photos

Facebook Connect

This is actually very easy, first follow these instructions: http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Connect/Setting_Up_Your_Site

Then add the following script to the page where you put the login button so it looks like this:

<script>
    function facebook_onlogin(){
        document.location.href = "<%= url_for :action=>"fb_connect" %>";
    }
</script>
<fb:login-button onlogin="facebook_onlogin();"></fb:login-button>

Define an fb_connect method in your login/sessions controller like so:

 def fb_connect
    @fb_info = MiniFB.parse_cookie_information(FB_APP_ID, cookies) # some users may have to use their API rather than the app. ID.
    puts "uid=#{@fb_info['uid']}"
    puts "session=#{@fb_info['session_key']}"

    if MiniFB.verify_cookie_signature(FB_APP_ID, FB_SECRET, cookies)
      # And here you would create the user if it doesn't already exist, then redirect them to wherever you want.
    else
      # The cookies may have been modified as the signature does not match
    end

end

Photo Uploads

This is as simple as calling:

@fb.call("photos.upload", "filename"=>"<full path to file>")

The file_name parameter will be used as the file data.

Video Uploads

Similar to photos, but the correct mime-type is required:

@fb.call("video.upload", "filename"=>"<full path to file>", "mime_type" => "video/mp4")