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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-30T04:58:30+00:00

Please tell me if I’m understanding correctly. (because I might not be.) User posts

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Please tell me if I’m understanding correctly. (because I might not be.)

  1. User posts something on my site. (He checked “also post to Facebook”.)
  2. Client sends an AJAX POST request to my server, and my server inserts the record in my database.
  3. The server realizes the the facebook user access token is expired, so it sends the response back to the client, while storing the post in a session.
  4. The client does a window.location.replace(facebook_oauth_dialog_url)
  5. Then the user will see a sudden “flash”, going to Facebook, then coming back to the website. My server picks up the new access token.
  6. My server checks the session to see what should be posted to Facebook. And then, it uses the new access token to post that to Facebook.

Is it really this tedious? Why can’t I renew the app server-side without the user going through the dialog?

My entire site is Backbone.js. That means, it’s one big page. I can’t jump the user back and forth between Facebook and my website like this.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The idea is to make use of the Facebook JS-SDK methods:

    1. User check the Post To Facebook option
    2. you check if the current user is connected to your app (using FB.getLoginStatus())
    3. if the user is connected, you have two options:
      • post directly using the FB.api method or
      • Send the access_token to your server to complete the post process there
    4. if the user is not connected (or not logged in to Facebook), use the FB.login() method

    Here’s a quick example (with a Live Demo!) for you to get started: 

    <!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml">
<body>
<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>
var fbLoaded = false;
window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
    FB.init({
      appId      : 'YOUR_APP_ID', // App ID
      //channelUrl : '//WWW.YOUR_DOMAIN.COM/channel.html', // Channel File
      status     : true, // check login status
      cookie     : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the session
      xfbml      : true  // parse XFBML
    });
    fbLoaded = true;
    // Additional initialization code here

};

function postForm() {
    var msg = document.myForm.msg.value;
    // do form validation here, e.g:
    if(!msg.length) {
        alert("You should enter a message!");
        return false;
    }

    // do we need to post to Facebook?
    if(document.myForm.toFB.checked) {
        // is the library loaded?
        if(!fbLoaded) {
            alert("Facebook JS-SDK is not yet loaded. Please try again later or uncheck Post To Facebook option");
            return false;
        }

        FB.getLoginStatus(function(response) {
            if (response.status === 'connected') {
                var uid = response.authResponse.userID;
                var accessToken = response.authResponse.accessToken;
                /* 
                *  message can be posted to Facebook directly
                *  using the FB.api method or accessToken
                *  can be sent to the server and do the call
                *  from there
                */
                myAjaxCall(msg, accessToken);
            } else {
                // status is either not_authorized or unknown
                FB.login(function(response) {
                    if (response.authResponse) {
                        var accessToken = response.authResponse.accessToken;
                        myAjaxCall(msg, accessToken);
                    } else {
                        alert('User cancelled login or did not fully authorize.');
                    }
                }, {scope: 'publish_stream'});
            }
        });
    } else {
        myAjaxCall(msg);
    }
    return false;
}

function myAjaxCall(m,a) {
    alert("Here you make the ajax call\nMessage: " + m + "\nAccess Token: " + a);
}

  // Load the SDK Asynchronously
  (function(d){
     var js, id = 'facebook-jssdk', ref = d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
     if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}
     js = d.createElement('script'); js.id = id; js.async = true;
     js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js";
     ref.parentNode.insertBefore(js, ref);
   }(document));
</script>

<form id="myForm" name="myForm" action="post" onSubmit="return postForm()">
<p><label>Your Message:</label><br/><textarea name="msg"></textarea></p>
<p><label>Post to Facebook?</label><input type="checkbox" value="1" name="toFB" /></p>
<p><input type="submit" value="Submit"></p>
</form>
</body>
</html>
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