Facebook-Twitter-posts-with-rails-example

This example is concentrating more on twitter and facebook integrations with rails.

Rails has many more gems to post, manage the social pages. I would like to discuss about facebook & twitter integrations.

Posting to facebook pages

For managing the pages and apps in facebook, we have to create an account in the facebook. Signup a facebook account with http://www.facebook.com

After creating the facebook account, create a page by using this link

   https://www.facebook.com/pages/create

we must login to facebook developers page to get access token

   https://developers.facebook.com

Facebook having graph explorer in facebook developers home page, from there you can get 2 hours acess token for facebook pages.

• Select Application from the drop down in graph explorer tools, and select the get access token button, it prompt for permissions, select basic permissions and generate short access token.

     https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer

  

  

• Facebook provides debug token explorer, it displays info about Access Token, Open Graph Id. more about Debugger Tool

  

If you need an 60 days facebook page access token

• We need to create an facebook app, for creating the app, go through -> Apps -> Create a New App in the facebook developers home page

  

• In the process of managing pages through the app, we need App ID & App Secret.

  

• By using the AppID, make a request to following address

  note: The loggedin user must be manage his own pages through dialog box.

   https://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=746040337858519&display=popup&next=http://www.facebook.com

• It displays popup, select which page you want to manage it

  

• Then you make a request to get an 60 days token

     GET /oauth/access_token?
          grant_type=fb_exchange_token&
          client_id={app-id}&
          client_secret={app-secret}&
          fb_exchange_token={short-lived-token}

  • Example link:

     https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?client_id=749040378850589&client_secret=650d69481ea9deded7bddfc02816c2fb&grant_type=fb_exchange_token&fb_exchange_token=CAAKlnDxRGdcBAPFw25K59XoAF6ZBm3FpNAZABqI6mQYAudH8XCnt4ZCB0gN7vR3pahx25gu1jp9jARwfIqReUdBYfnPL8QNhso1neCfyQeRR0t4AElurhVhRo6o1bI1AFOGedb4JVDDZCCRDfBafZC6jEsqWZCdhrKTrzhpZCrBwqNkkRTNJ1RXStCnmIVfB0UZD

  Response should like this

    access_token=CAAKlnDxRGdcBAI4gH2wJaFwjeeqEn3m0v1vGRlT8sP6cUKKwGp5oTokKrR8NerUw4PRSbxQltvZB6bFZBCbeEu1l0VYeraYxMZB81y24AiEapoaw7URZBe4Pz6WGL1ZCfdA1ZC8ThTK112TRvbQv7EyuJdItXH1bKtcIy2lrIV8t4Lt7lZCEgiZA&expires=5162446

Using Koala gem to post facebook wall posts

• Require koala gem into Gemfile

   gem 'koala'

• By using the access token, we pick facebook graph object from koala

     #Picking the graph api object from kaola gem
     @graph = Koala::Facebook::API.new(@access_token)

• In koala gem ,we have methods to manage posts in facebook. so below snippet is for wall post

     #put_wall_post is method to post an article to the pages
      post_info = @graph.put_wall_post(post_title, {
      name: link_name, description: post_description, picture: image_url, link: page_link
    })

Twetting to twitter pages with twitter client

• At first, we have an twitter account to manage the tweets. for signup an account https://twitter.com/signup

• Ruby twitter gem to manage twitter accounts, require in Gemfile

   gem 'twitter'

• Managing the twitter accounts using OAuth based protocol, we need a privilliges to access twitter account, so for that we have to create an twitter app using twitter developers site

  Creating Twitter App

    https://apps.twitter.com/app/new
  

• Displaying the apps

  https://apps.twitter.com/
  

• Select an API Keys tab in home page of app, generate a new access token

• Configure twitter client

    @client = Twitter::REST::Client.new do |config|
      config.consumer_key        = "YOUR_CONSUMER_KEY"
      config.consumer_secret     = "YOUR_CONSUMER_SECRET"
      config.access_token        = "YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
      config.access_token_secret = "YOUR_ACCESS_SECRET"
    end

• Using client object, post a tweet like this

    @client.update('First tweet')

  note: Twitter accept the tweet less than 140 characters, twitter need write permissioned access token for posting the tweet. for more about Twitter methods

Example App to Start Testing Facebook Post with Koala gem

• We spend a lot of time on posting to facebook, We think to design an sample app to make it easier facebook integrations with rails.

Just Clone this example app

   git clone https://github.com/rdurgarao/facebook-twitter-posts-in-rails-example.git

Start the app using rails server

It started on rails 3000 port

rails server

Make a request to http://localhost:3000

• Facebook wall Post

  • It displays a form with facebook fields as shown

  • Place an access token in the input field, else configure it in facebook controller initializer block -> app -> controllers -> facebook_controller -> initialize block

     def initialize
          #specify access_token here
          @access_token = 'X'
     end

  • Post your article by clicking on post button

  • After succesfull posting an article, you get success response, else exception thrown by facebook or koala gem , More about exceptions

  • Finally, the posted article in the facebook.

  

• Twitter tweet

  • Configure Twitter client in app -> controllers -> twitter_controller.rb -> initiliaze method config params

      @client = Twitter::REST::Client.new do |config|
            config.consumer_key = "ZKMBsV5ETf1erkMYdywTg"
            config.consumer_secret = "TsA0p3PWLcxc7CVmNBHJbhsOaeKs13BygsONgDQeM"
            config.access_token = "1835423847-psdbfLDsvjvBsApR3t0WvRI28C7QgStgeFabaHi"
            config.access_token_secret = "66aqNIqsFTlgDKRTdh0ZHrSKrplQKdjKMBodcsXzkGASU"
      end

  • Restart the server, if its already running

  • Make a request to localhost:3000

  • Placed a tweet in text area and click on tweet button

    

  • It displays success response or else exception message

  • Tweeted message is like this

    

• Facebook App verification

  • If you need to verify facebook application, follow these steps to get verified

  • Confirm your application is verified or not, with green circle in App Dashboard page, looks like

    

  • Enable the verification of Facebook App using follow steps

    • Check App status

    

    • Add your contact email to get verified

    

    • Now, Enable the app

    

    • Finally App is verified