Facebook is migrating to HTTPS and OAuth to increase the safety of their users. Unfortunately these changes aren’t backwards compatible and will require some effort to follow. To support the new Facebook system you need to upgrade to Django Facebook 3.0 before October 1st.
In addition to the required migrations, this version also includes several new features. The largest change is the underlying Facebook API client. You can read about the improvements here or skip down to the upgrade instructions.
Open Facebook – New Python Facebook client
Open Facebook is a python client to the Facebook graph API. Currently it’s included in Django Facebook, but in time it will be spun of as a separate project. The client is supported, tested and up to date with the current version of Facebook’s graph API.
It handles connection issues cleanly and raises separate error classes for various Facebook error scenarios.
The syntax is very straightforward to use:
open_facebook = OpenFacebook(token)
#info about me
open_facebook.me()
#retrieving a page
open_facebook.get('fashiolista')
#retrieving your albums
open_facebook.get('me/albums')
#posting a message on your wall
open_facebook.set('me/feed', message='Check out Fashiolista', picture=image_url)
#setting a like
open_facebook.set('fashiolista/likes')
#fql example
result = open_facebook.fql('SELECT name FROM user WHERE uid = me()')
#authorization is handled separately from the API class
token = FacebookAuthorization.get_app_access_token()
test_user = FacebookAuthorization.create_test_user(token)
Album upload Example
Uploading pictures to Facebook is as simple as this:
open_facebook = get_facebook_graph(request)
photo_urls = [
'http://d.fashiocdn.com/images/entities/0/6/t/p/d/0.365x365.jpg',
'http://e.fashiocdn.com/images/entities/0/5/E/b/Q/0.365x365.jpg',
]
for photo in photo_urls:
uploaded = open_facebook.set('me/photos', url=photo,
message='Fashiolista is awesome', name='FashiolistaTest'
)
So there are good reasons to upgrade even if Facebook didn’t force us to 🙂
How to upgrade to 3.0
First Step – Install Django Facebook 3.0
Follow the installation instructions.
Javascript changes
In your Facebook initialization code enable OAuth.
FB.init({appId: facebookAppId, status: false, cookie: true, xfbml: true, oauth: true});
Perms has been renamed to scope.
FB.login(function() {}, {'scope' : 'offline_access'});
Django Facebook changes
The get_facebook_graph function is no longer persistent by default, if you want the old behavior use get_persistent_graph.
Furthermore the FacebookUserConverter class and the core Facebook API client are now separated. get_facebook_graph returns the core facebook API client. To go from the API class to the user converter class use something like
graph = get_facebook_graph(request) facebook = FacebookUserConverter(graph)
That should be all.
If you are encountering problems feel free to let me know in the comments.
Last Step – Enable the new Facebook Migrations
Go to the Facebook Apps page and enable the OAuth migration.
Select your app -> About -> Advanced -> Migrations
Enable Force OAuth
Enable OAuth Migration
Background reading
Moving to OAuth 2.0 + HTTPS
Updated JavaScript SDK and OAuth 2.0 Roadmap
New Facebook Authentication Docs
PHP SDK v.3.1.1
PHP SDK v3.0.0
We’re hiring!
Do you also see the beauty in clean code? Are you experienced with high scalability web apps? Currently we’re looking for additional talent over at our Amsterdam office. Feel free to drop me a line at my personal email for more information: thierryschellenbach[at]gmail.com
