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Facebook#

Follow these steps to configure Facebook for Social Poster.

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Step 1. Admin Access to Facebook Page#

In order to post to a Facebook Page, you must be an Admin for the page you want to post to.

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Step 2: Register a Facebook App#

1. Go to the Meta for Developers page.
2. Click the Create App button.
3. Select I don’t want to connect a business portfolio yet. and click the Next button.
4. Select Other and click the Next button.
5. Select Business and click the Next button.
6. Fill in the App Name and App Contact Email. The Business Portfolio is optional.

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Step 3: Setup Facebook Login#

1. Once created, in the left-hand sidebar, click the Add Product button.
2. Under Facebook Login click the Set Up button.
3. Select Web as the type and your website address into Site URL, and click the Save button.
4. Navigate to the Facebook Login section in the left-hand sidebar, click Settings.
5. For the Valid OAuth Redirect URIs setting, enter the value from the Redirect URI field in Social Poster.
6. Click the Save Changes button.
7. Navigate to App Settings → Basic item in the left-hand sidebar.
8. Enter your domain name to the App Domains field.
9. Enter your Privacy Policy URL, Terms of Service URL and Site URL.
10. Click the Save Changes button.
11. Change the App Mode to Live.
12. Copy the App ID from Facebook and paste in the Client ID field in Social Poster.
13. Copy the App Secret from Facebook and paste in the Client Secret field in Social Poster.
14. Save the Social Poster account, ready to connect.

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Step 4: Connect to Facebook#

1. In the Social Poster account settings, click the Connect button and login to Facebook.
2. Ensure you pick either the Facebook Page you have admin access to.

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Step 5: Select your Facebook Page#

1. Select either a Facebook Page that you'd like connected to.
2. Click the Save button for the account.

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Troubleshooting#

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No Pages appear in the dropdown#

Some users are unable to choose any Pages from the dropdown for the settings of an account, once their app has been authorized. This is due to how your Facebook app has been setup in relation to the Pages it has access to. This may also be due to selecting the Facebook Login for Business and not Facebook Login.

If you're finding this is the case for you, ensure that you provide the business_management additional scope. You'll need to disconnect and reconnect your account. You can do this by adding the following to your configuration file.

<?php

return [
    '*' => [
        // ...
        'accounts' => [
            'facebook' => [
                // ...
                'scopes' => [
                    'business_management',
                ],
            ],
        ],
    ]
];

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Limitations#

Please note there are some limitations when it comes to posting to Facebook, due to Facebook API restrictions.

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Posting to Facebook Profile#

It is not possible to post to your Facebook Profile, due to Facebook removing the permission to do so. Even if you have a published app, you'll not be able to use this functionality anymore.

According to Facebook API docs (opens new window):

As of April 24,2018, the `publish_actions` permission has been removed. Please see the [Breaking Changes Changelog](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/changelog/breaking-changes#login-4-24) for more details. To provide a way for your app users to share content to Facebook, we encourage you to use our [Sharing products](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing) instead.

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Submit Facebook App for Review#

Facebook's API's have become much more restricted in recent years, and in some cases you'll be required to submit your Facebook App for review. Credit to @geoffreyvandamme (opens new window) for outlining these steps.

1. First, create a user in Craft with permissions to access Social Poster, and to edit/publish entries in the desired section(s). Take note of the username/password of this account, as you'll be providing this to Facebook in your submission.
2. Turn your Facebook App to "Development" mode. There's a lightswitch control at the top of the page to toggle this.
3. Go to "App Review" → "Permission and Features" menu.
4. Find the permissions required as per the second step (pages_manage_posts, pages_read_user_content, etc). Click the "Request" button for each.
5. Click the "Continue the Request" button, and continue following the steps.
6. Fill in the verification details, by providing login credentials to your site, and instructions on how the posting functionality should work. You will also need to provide a screencast. See examples below.
7. Once you have received approval for your app to use additional permissions, turn your Facebook App to "Live" mode.
8. Connect Social Poster to Facebook.

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Sample Description#

You're required to explain why you require these permissions to use Facebook's APIs. Be as descriptive as possible, and you can follow a similar structure as the below (but please change it to your scenario and client needs).

We have a Craft CMS website for a client we are working with. We want to share content created on their website on social media, specifically Facebook. When our client saves an entry, we want it to automatically be pushed to Facebook - with their approval of course. This allows our client to not have to post their content in multiple places at once, saving massive amounts of time and effort.

We have purchased a plugin for Craft CMS called "Social Poster" (see https://verbb.io/craft-plugins/social-poster) that facilitates this. 

Please refer to the attached screencast outlining the steps to connect and setup this plugin. The screencast shows posting to a Facebook Page successfully, but as the Facebook app is still in development mode, it will only appear to us.

Please login to our Craft CMS website, via:

https://craft-site.test/admin/
Username: *******
Password: *******

Proceed to https://craft-site.test/admin/entries/an-example-entry and on the right-hand side you'll see a widget to control these posts going to Facebook. Ensure that it is ticked as enabled, then hit the red "Save" button in the top-right of the page. The content of the entry you've edited should show on the Facebook Page successfully.

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Screencast Required Steps#

It's a requirement to provide a screencast, with a step-by-step outline of how you want to use Facebook's APIs. This must be a recording with voice included, it cannot be video-only. Ensure your screencast outlines the following:

1. Logging into Craft
2. Showing the Facebook account in Social Poster.
3. Showing the Facebook provider in Social Poster. Its advisable your Facebook app is in development mode still, so that you can show posting functionality.
4. Disconnect and re-connect with Facebook to show the authorisation process. It's important to show the Facebook account you're authorising Social Poster to use to do the actual posting.
5. Navigate to an entry which has Social Poster enabled, so that the right-hand sidebar is shown. Either create a new entry, or edit an existing one.
6. Save the entry, ensuring you have posting to Facebook enabled.
7. Show the post, posted to your chosen page in Facebook. As the app is in development mode, only you can see the post - which is the reason you need these permissions, so that everyone can see them.

You need to wait up to 5 days for Facebook to review your app. You can keep your Facebook App in "Development" mode, but no posts you make will be publicly visible, only visible to you.