Apache Cordova Facebook Plugin

This is the official plugin for Facebook in Apache Cordova/PhoneGap!

The Facebook plugin for Apache Cordova allows you to use the same JavaScript code in your Cordova application as you use in your web application. However, unlike in the browser, the Cordova application will use the native Facebook app to perform Single Sign On for the user. If this is not possible then the sign on will degrade gracefully using the standard dialog based authentication.

• Supported on PhoneGap (Cordova) v3.3.0 and above.
• This plugin is build for
  • iOS FacebookSDK 3.11.1
  • Android FacebookSDK 3.6.0

Facebook Requirements and Set-Up

The Facebook SDK (both native and JavaScript) is changing independent of this plugin. The manual install instructions include how to get the latest SDK for use in your project.

To use this plugin you will need to make sure you've registered your Facebook app with Facebook and have an APP_ID (https://developers.facebook.com/apps).

If you plan on rolling this out on iOS, please note that you will need to ensure that you have properly set up your Native iOS App settings on the Facebook App Dashboard. Please see the Getting Started with the Facebook SDK: Create a Facebook App section, for more details on this.

If you plan on rolling this out on Android, please note that you will need to generate a hash of your Android key(s) and submit those to the Developers page on Facebook to get it working. Furthermore, if you are generating this hash on Windows (specifically 64 bit versions), please use version 0.9.8e or 0.9.8d of OpenSSL for Windows and not 0.9.8k. Big ups to fernandomatos for pointing this out!

Project Structure

  |_example
  |  |_Simple
  |  | |_index.html
  |  |_HackBook
  |    |_index.html
  |    |_README
  |    |_hackbook.manifest
  |    |_img
  |    |_css
  |    |_js
  |_test
  | |_pg-plugin-fb-connect-tests.js
  |_src
  | |_android
  | | |_ConnectPlugin.java
  | | |_facebook
  | |_ios
  |   |_FacebookConnectPlugin.m
  |   |_FacebookConnectPlugin.h
  |   |_facebook
  |_www
  |  |_cdv-plugin-fb-connect.js
  |  |_facebook-js-sdk.js

www/facebook-js-sdk.js is the modified facebook-js-sdk. It already includes the hooks to work with this plugin.

www/cdv-plugin-fb-connect.js is the JavaScript code for the plugin, this defines the JS API.

src/android and src/ios contain the native code for the plugin for both Android and iOS platforms. They also include versions of the Android and iOS Facebook SDKs. These are used during automatic installation. During manual installation, you are encouraged to download the most recent versions of the Facebook SDKs for you projects.

Adobe PhoneGap Build

If using this plugin on Adobe PhoneGap Build you can ignore the instructions below and go straight to the PhoneGap Build documentation available [here] (https://build.phonegap.com/plugins/257).

Manual Android Installation

1. Create a basic Cordova Android application.

• NOTE: Min Target has to be set to 8. The plugin has an issue if you set your minimum target higher than that. You can edit this in your Android Manifest file. Set the Project Build Target to at least 11 if you see Android Manifest errors related to newer attributes that have been added in 2.2.0.

2. In the Cordova Android application you will need to put the following in your res/xml/config.xml file as a child to the widget tag:

<feature name="org.apache.cordova.facebook.Connect">
    <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.facebook.ConnectPlugin" />
</feature>

3. Configure the URL whitelist in the res/xml/config.xml file, by modifying or adding new access entries. You can either add each subdomain separately:

• m.facebook.com
• graph.facebook.com
• api.facebook.com
• *.fbcdn.net
• *.akamaihd.net

Or you can allow all domains with (set to this by default):

<access origin="*" />

4. You'll need to set up the Facebook SDK for Android:

• Install the Facebook SDK for Android and the Facebook APK

• Import the Facebook SDK into Eclipse

• Link the Facebook SDK library to your project. View the properties for the project, and navigate to the 'Android' tab. In the lower part of the dialog, click 'Add' and choose the 'FacebookSDK' project from the workspace.

• Add a new com.facebook.LoginActivity activity to your app to handle Facebook Login. Open up your AndroidManifest.xml file and add this additional activity:

      <activity android:name="com.facebook.LoginActivity"
            android:label="@string/app_name" />
  

5. From the Cordova Facebook Plugin folder copy ConnectPlugin.java from src/android/ folder into the root of your Cordova Android application into src/org/apache/cordova/facebook/. You may have to create that directory path in your project.

6. From the Cordova Facebook Plugin folder copy the www/cdv-plugin-fb-connect.js, www/facebook-js-sdk.js and example/HackBook/ files into your application's assets/www folder. Overwrite the existing index.html file.

7. Replace your appId in the new index.html file. Leave the quotes.

Now you are ready to create your application! Check out the example folder for what the HTML, JS etc looks like.

You can run the application from either the command line (ant clean && ant debug install) or from Eclipse.

Manual iOS Installation (Mac OS X)

NOTE 1: If you're upgrading from SDK 3.0 to 3.8 in the iOS6, you can't ask for both read and write permissions when the user is authenticating. If you do this you'll get a com.facebook.sdk error 2 error alert. This happens due to a flow change in the 3.8 SDK. More info about this can be found in the official docs. Also, make sure you have configured the app's Bundle ID in the Facebook app details, under the "Native iOS App" configuration, otherwise you'll get another com.facebook.sdk error 2 alert. At least, if some of your earlier authentications failed, the device may turn the app to off in Settings > Facebook > Allow These Apps to Use Your Account, so, make sure your app is allowed.

(To be updated) View the Video

Create a Basic Cordova App

Create a basic Cordova iOS application by following the iOS Platform Guide

Add the Facebook iOS and JavaScript SDK

1. Download the latest Facebook SDK for iOS from the iOS Dev Center.
2. Add the Facebook SDK for iOS Framework by dragging the FacebookSDK.framework folder from the SDK installation folder into the Frameworks section of your Project Navigator.
3. Choose 'Create groups for any added folders' and deselect 'Copy items into destination group's folder (if needed)' to keep the reference to the SDK installation folder, rather than creating a copy.

Add the Cordova Facebook Plugin

1. Locate the plugins section of your Project Navigator and create a group "ios". Make sure it is added as a "group" (yellow folder)
2. From the Cordova Facebook Plugin folder copy FacebookConnectPlugin.h and FacebookConnectPlugin.m from the src folder into the new group "ios".
3. Find the config.xml file in the project navigator and add a new entry as a child to the plugin tag:

<feature name="org.apache.cordova.facebook.Connect">
    <param name="ios-package" value="FacebookConnectPlugin" />
</feature>

4. From the Cordova Facebook Plugin folder copy the contents of the www folder into the www directory in Xcode.

Run the included samples

1. Under the group Resources, find your [PROJECTNAME]-Info.plist, add a new entry. For the key, add FacebookAppID, and its value is your Facebook APP_ID
2. Under the group Resources, find your [PROJECTNAME]-Info.plist, right-click on the file and select Open As -> Source Code, add the URL Scheme from the section below (you will need your Facebook APP_ID)
3. You can quickly test the examples by following the next instructions then mirror the same process for your app.
4. From the example folder, copy either the contents of HackBook folder or the Simple folder into your www directory in Xcode. Overwrite the original index.html file in your project. For HackBook, overwrite the original css and js folders as well.
5. Make sure the <script> tags are added and are correct in the index.html. This include a tag for phonegap.js, facebook-js-sdk.js and cdv-plugin-fb-connect.js.
6. Add your AppID to your index.html. Should be in the callback for the deviceready event. Leave the quotes.
7. Run the application in Xcode.

iOS URL Whitelist

The Facebook SDK will try to access various URLs, and their domains must be whitelisted in your config.xml as an access entry.

You can either add each subdomain separately:

• m.facebook.com
• graph.facebook.com
• api.facebook.com
• *.fbcdn.net
• *.akamaihd.net

Or you can allow all domains with (set to this by default):

<access origin="*" />

iOS URL Scheme

Make sure you add the scheme to your [PROJECTNAME]-Info.plist (located as one of the files in your Xcode project), substitute [APP_ID] below to the appropriate values (replace those brackets!). This is to handle the re-direct from Mobile Safari or the Facebook app, after permission authorization.

• [APP_ID] is the Facebook app id given by Facebook

<key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
<array>
	<dict>
		<key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
		<array>
			<string>fb[**APP_ID**]</string>
		</array>
	</dict>
</array>

Automatic Installation

This plugin is based on plugman. To install it to your app, execute the following (and replace variables where necessary)...

iOS

cordova create myApp

cd myApp/

cordova platform add ios

cordova -d plugin add /Users/your/path/here/phonegap-facebook-plugin --variable APP_ID="123456789" --variable APP_NAME="myApplication"

Android

cordova create myApp

cd myApp/

cordova platform add android

cordova -d plugin add /Users/your/path/here/phonegap-facebook-plugin --variable APP_ID="123456789" --variable APP_NAME="myApplication"

Android requires an additional step which is to reference the FacebookSDK project as a library to your project.

Open your project in Eclipse (New > Project... Existing Android project from source), import everything (see Img. 1).

Img. 1

In Eclipse, right click your project folder in the left-had column. Select "Properties", select Android in the left column and in the right side of the window add FacebookSDK as a library (see Img. 2).

Img. 2

JS API

###facebookConnectPlugin.login(Function success, Function failure)

Success function returns an Object like;

{
	id: "634565435",
	lastName: "bob"
	...
}

Failure function returns an error String.

###facebookConnectPlugin.logout(Function success, Function failure)

###facebookConnectPlugin.getLoginStatus(Function success, Function failure)

Success function returns a status String.

###facebookConnectPlugin.showDialog(Object options, Function success, Function failure)

Example options:

{
	method: "feed" | "apprequests"
}

Success function returns an Object with postId as String. Failure function returns an error String.

###facebookConnectPlugin.api(String requestPath, Array permissions, Func success, Func failure)

####[currently iOS only!]

Allows access to the Facebook Graph API. This API allows for additional permission because, unlike login, the Graph API can accept multiple permissions.

Example permissions:

["basic_info", "user_birthday"]

Success function returns an Object.

Failure function returns an error String.

Note: "In order to make calls to the Graph API on behalf of a user, the user has to be logged into your app using Facebook login."

For more information see:

• Calling the Graph API - https://developers.facebook.com/docs/ios/graph
• Graph Explorer - https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer
• Graph API - https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/

Sample JavaScript Code

Login

In your onDeviceReady event add the following

var fbLoginSuccess = function (userData) {
	alert("UserInfo: " + JSON.stringify(userData));
}

facebookConnectPlugin.login(["basic_info"], 
    fbLoginSuccess, 
    function (error) { alert("" + error) }
);

Get Status & Post-to-wall

For a more instructive example change the above fbLoginSuccess to;

var fbLoginSuccess = function (userData) {
	alert("UserInfo: " + JSON.stringify(userData)); 
	facebookConnectPlugin.getLoginStatus( 
		function (status) { 
			alert("current status: " + JSON.stringify(status)); 
			
			var options = { method:"feed" }; 
			facebookConnectPlugin.showDialog(options, 
				function (result) {
    				alert("Posted. " + JSON.stringify(result));				}, 
    		function (e) {
				alert("Failed: " + e);
			});
		}
	);
};

Getting A User's Birthday

Using the graph api this is a very simple task: [currently iOS only!]

facebookConnectPlugin.api("<user-id>/?fields=id,email", ["user_birthday"], 
	function (result) {
		alert("Result: " + JSON.stringify(result));
		/* alerts:
			{
				"id": "000000123456789",
				"email": "[email protected]"
			}
		*/
	}, 
	function (error) { 
		alert("Failed: " + error); 
	});