NOTE: This post was written using Facebook’s PHP SDK version 2.1.2. Since this post was made, the PHP SDK has changed and some of the process that are explained below may have changed as well. At some point I’ll have to revisit this post and update it but at this time just keep in mind of the above.
As promised, here is a post (similar to my Twitter API post) on using the Facebook API. There are many reason why one would want to access the Facebook API – maybe to create a mobile app that lets you post photos to your Facebook albums, or maybe you just want to show your last few Facebook status updates on your blog; what ever the reason may be, Facebooks Graph API mixed in with their PHP SDK makes it really easy to accomplish this.
Objectives
- Setup our environment
- Register an app on Facebook
- Understand the authentication process and extended parameters
- Understand Graph API
- Retrieve our latest status updates
- Add a new status update
- Retrieve our photos from our albums
- Add a new photo
Setup our Environment
You have two options here, you can access my github and download this project with all required files and library or you can follow this tutorial step by step – it’s really up to you. If you want to download all the files ahead of time, you can get them at this github repo. If you are going step by step, first create a folder (I’m calling mine facebook) in your server where you want this site, next create a folder named library in the root of this site, and finally add the following two files facebook.php and fb_ca_chain_bundle.crt in the library folder that you can get from the Facebook PHP SDK repo at: https://github.com/facebook/php-sdk/tree/master/src/.
Register an App on Facebook
I’m making the assumption you already have a facebook account and if you don’t, first create one. To create an app on Facebook, you first need to confirm your account by giving Facebook a phone number where they can send you a code. This may be a new process since I don’t remember having to do this a few months ago. Go to http://developers.facebook.com/setup and if your account is not verified, you’ll be prompted to add the information mentioned above. After verifying your accout, you’ll be taken to the ‘Create an Application’ page.
Source
http://www.joeyrivera.com/2010/facebook-graph-api-app-easy-w-php-sdk/