Question

I have been reading the Facebook documentation and I must be missing something, as I just cant understand how to get the access token for a page without actually logging in first. I am trying to create a PHP function using the PHP facebook API so that when I add new stories or tutorials on my site, my site’s apps can then automatically post as the page a blurb about them on myy facebook page.

I have this function working but only when I get the access token from the Graph API Explorer, though the access tokens expire in about an hour. I can’t seem to figure out how to programatically obtain the access_token for the page and query for a new one each time from within my PHP scripts so they don’t expire and do not require user interaction.

    function post_to_facebook($title, $message, $link, $picture) {

            require '../facebook/src/facebook.php';

            $page_token = 'xxx';

            $page_id = 'xx';

            $facebook = new Facebook(array(
                    'appId'  => '<app_id>',
                    'secret' => '<app_secret>',
                    'cookie' => false,
            ));

            $facebook->setAccessToken($page_token);

            try {
                    $ret_obj = $facebook->api('/'.$page_id.'/feed', 'POST', array(
                                            'caption' => $title,
                                            'link' => $link,
                                            'message' => $message,
                                            'picture' => $picture
                                     ));

            } catch(FacebookApiException $e) {
                    error_log($e->getType());
                    error_log($e->getMessage());

                    return false;
            }

            return true;
    }

Can someone explain how I can go about retrieving the access token without manually having to look it up via graph api explorer or having a user login?

Answer 1

It’s not possible.

The only correct (and legal) way to achieve the access token is with user interaction (through login process).