Facebook publish_actions deprecated

    • 15 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:15 AM EDT

    This was pulled from Facebook Developer News

    The publish_actions permission will be deprecated. This permission granted apps access to publish posts to Facebook as the logged in user. Apps created from today onwards will not have access to this permission. Apps created before today that have been previously approved to request publish_actions can continue to do so until August 1, 2018. No further apps will be approved to use publish_actions via app review. Developers currently utilizing publish_actions are encouraged to switch to Facebook's Share dialogs for web, iOS and Android.

    https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2018/04/24/new-facebook-platform-product-changes-policy-updates/

    I didn't see anything regarding this in the forums so I thought I would post it here.

    Is SE working to fix this?

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    June 28, 2018 4:46 AM EDT

    If it isn't working for you now, https://community.socialengine.com/forums/topic/4/submitting-issue-bug-reports , please follow the guide for posting bugs in the section for bug reports. We can then look into the issue. I will note though that I did post an internal enhancement to update facebook stuff for next major release. 

    • 629 posts
    June 28, 2018 7:25 AM EDT

    Does this mean apps can't ask you to authorize access to them so they can publish stuff for you when you post activity to Social Engine? also Twitter is discontinuing their API entirely in August as well.

    • 15 posts
    June 28, 2018 11:41 AM EDT

    Log in still works but after Aug 1 the publish_action will stop working, I was creating a new app and it will not even give me the option to publish to Facebook.

    • 629 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:07 PM EDT

    That will be a real heavy blow to services like Janrain which relies on this to stay alive.

    • 15 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:08 PM EDT

    They do have other options its just gonna require them to re-write the code to use the new share functions

    • 629 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:12 PM EDT

    What was wrong with the old code? Let me guess. GDPR stepped in and now everyone's all up in arms panicking?

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:13 PM EDT

    So does this mean that the Share Products by SES and SEAO can no longer post to FB after 2018.08.01? (hopefully these experts will weigh in here)

    • 15 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:15 PM EDT
    Elshara Silverheart said:

    What was wrong with the old code? Let me guess. GDPR stepped in and now everyone's all up in arms panicking?

    It didn't specify why, so its a guessing game...... but at min it is still available as an option.

    • 15 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:16 PM EDT
    gs said:

    So does this mean that the Share Products by SES and SEAO can no longer post to FB after 2018.08.01? (hopefully these experts will weigh in here)

    Per the post above that is the case, like i said I couldn't even set it up as an option was only given the login option in the developer app.

    • 629 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:17 PM EDT

    considering Twitter is shutting down API access for good in August 2018, I'd say that yes. That's what's going to happen to Facebook as well.

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:23 PM EDT

    Great.  Another forced round of upgrades.  I guess I'll have to include several grand every year for upgrading, and plan hundreds of hours to do so (overall process took almost a year to complete due to Plugins and Customizations).  The 4.09.* upgrades killed me last year, which is why I haven't moved to 4.10.* yet.

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:36 PM EDT

    I use Buffer for my sites and have the app for free in the certified mp. It's been my favorite posting tool for years and my authors have come to love it as well. At least it does offer various social media to post to but it doesn't auto post from feeds. It's just mainly for content posting/sharing from your site to social media. Not sure if that will work for what you need but it's good to have options.

    • 629 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:47 PM EDT

    the only time I ever heard of Buffer, is through IFTTT.

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:56 PM EDT
    @Donna
    Thanks for the helpful suggestion (as usual

    But although I like both by those 2 Experts, I had to go with SEAO's because of how it also allows posting to content on the SE site (specifically 3 of there Plugins), so this way 1 share sidebar may be used for both internal and external sharing/posting.
  • gs
    • 857 posts
    June 28, 2018 12:59 PM EDT
    BTW - is this FB deprecation for any sharing or auto-sharing only? i.e.would this affect apps like Addthis/Sharethis too? I ask because I knew about the auto-sharing thing a while back (which made some of my FB Plugins useless), but since then the manual sharing Plugin still worked.
    • 629 posts
    June 28, 2018 1:01 PM EDT

    FB seems to be vague on what they allow and what they don't. One thing appears clear as crystal however, preauthorized posting permissions are history.

    • 15 posts
    June 28, 2018 1:11 PM EDT
    Elshara Silverheart said:

    FB seems to be vague on what they allow and what they don't. One thing appears clear as crystal however, preauthorized posting permissions are history.

    Agreed

    • 275 posts
    June 28, 2018 2:48 PM EDT

    Good to know...

    FB: I can post on fb from the site... 

    Probably the app got "grandfathered" in. Aug 01 will know for sure.

    Twitter : stopped working couple days back.

     

    Great tips guys, Thanks

     

    Donna +1 on Buffer

    Gonna check it out.


    This post was edited by playmusician at June 28, 2018 2:50 PM EDT
    • 629 posts
    June 28, 2018 3:07 PM EDT

    The only way I could see this improving is if you were able to have a Facebook session ID specifically used for one service and the ID token refreshed itself every so often to ensure the connection to the authorized server remained active. But it isn't as if Facebook is worried about hijacking, they're worried about something more redundant then that because they don't realize users have to give consent anyways to use an app to begin with.

    All the more reason to buy and invest in Social Engine.

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    September 3, 2018 4:54 PM EDT

    @Donna

    Regarding integrations like this, would SE consider creating a method that would require an update to a 'separate' file(s) rather than requiring a full-blown upgrade all the time?  This process is getting prohibitively expensive (planning, time, money) and I'm just in Dev mode (I can't imagine the hassle to those in live/production).  What I'm geting at is a 'call' to a program that handles FB (or Twitter, or whatever) integration so that if things change it's a small, fairly quick fix across the board, rather than 'part of the next major release'.  If this is the way that all scripts work, goodness - not good.  If I had to offer to clients (non-SE) a full-blown upgrade to their entire accounting/MRP/HR/Payroll/etc. system every time an 'external' site/software changed something, they'd fire me. 

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    September 4, 2018 4:59 AM EDT

    I'm not sure what you mean. We already post changelogs when we have upgrades. That's how clients implement changes without upgrading when database updates aren't required.

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    September 4, 2018 9:26 AM EDT

    But these manual changes are to Core, correct?  I thought it was recommended and best practice to not modify Core.  Maybe I don't know what's included in changelogs, i.e. do they include 'if you're on this version use this file' type of stuff?

     

    What I'm referring to is something that is often done in other non-script platforms.  A call is made to a file or subroutine (or whatever) that contains (for example, FB 'stuff') everything required, including different code when needed to support different versions of both to/from apps.  This often helps with backward compatibility because 'old' code isn't always replaced with 'current' code but rather logic is included to allow a file(s) to support multiple versions of apps.

     

     

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    September 4, 2018 1:35 PM EDT

    We recommend not making core changes that are from external places. If the script developers say, it's ok to do this to fix that, then you can do that. Changelogs are an example. You can, and many do, take those changes and implement them yourself if you know what you are doing and are careful with backing up each file before tampering with it. We recommend the upgrade process because it's easier for those without knowledge of coding. We require the upgrade process if database changes need to be done. 

    As for using hooks as you describe, that can be done for some things but for others it can't.