We use Facebook personal numeric ID for facebook graph API operations, fb:admins, social plugins, and more. What does it mean ?
Uses of Facebook personal numeric ID or FBID
Graph API operations :
The Graph API is the primary way to get data in and out of Facebook’s social graph. It’s a low-level HTTP-based API that is used to query data, post new stories, upload photos and a variety of other tasks that an app might need to do.
The Graph API is named after the idea of a ‘social graph’ – a representation of the information on Facebook composed of:
- nodes – basically “things” such as a User, a Photo, a Page, a Comment
- edges – the connections between those “things”, such as a Page’s Photos, or a Photo’s Comments
- fields – info about those “things”, such as a person’s birthday, or the name of a Page
Each node has a unique ID which is used to access it via the Graph API. User represents a person on Facebook. The /{user-id} node returns a single user. Following are the things can be determined by using graph API
1.Are two people Facebook friends?
You can determine whether two people are friends on Facebook, without having to parse their entire list of friends.
Use These APIs
/{user-a-id}/friends/{user-b-id} – this API Read modifier will let you check via API.
2. Publishing new Status Updates
Apps can create new status updates on behalf of people or Facebook Pages.
Use These APIs
/{user-id}/feed for people on Facebook.
/{page-id}/feed for Facebook Pages.
3.Uploading Photos, Videos and Creating Photo Albums
Apps are able to publish and create new photo albums, and publish photos or videos via the Graph API on behalf of people or Facebook Pages.
Use These APIs
/{user-id}/albums to create empty photo albums for people.
/{page-id}/albums to create empty photo albums for Facebook Pages.
/{album-id}/photos to add photos to an existing album for people or for Pages.
/{event-id}/videos to update an event’s videos.
4. Sharing Links
Apps can share links to content on other websites on behalf of people or Facebook Pages.
Use These APIs
/{user-id}/feed for people on Facebook, using the link field.
/{page-id}/feed for Facebook Pages, using the link field.
5. Scheduling Posts for Pages
Facebook Page posts can be scheduled to go live at a particular time.
Use These APIs
/{page-id}/feed to publish Page posts, using the scheduled_publish_time field and the published field with a value of false.
6. Backdating Content
It is also possible to back-date Page posts using the Graph API. This can involve updating an existing post with a new date, or creating it at publish time. Open Graph Actions published on behalf of people can also be back-dated
Use These APIs
/{page-id}/feed to publish Page posts, using the backdated_time field.
7. Creating Content without Publishing
It is possible to add some content to the Graph without publishing a news feed or profile story indicating that it has been created. This is useful in a few situations, such as Page posts which are scheduled to go live at a particular time, or when a photo is to be used in a photo comment.
Use These APIs
/{page-id}/feed using the published field as a parameter to create unpublished posts, links, or status updates for a Page.
8. Responding to Events
Apps can respond to events on behalf of people.
Use These APIs
/{event-id}/attending to say the person is attending.
/{event-id}/declined to say the person has declined to attend.
9. Testing your App
Apps can create test users and use them to make API calls.
Use These APIs
/{app-id}/accounts/test-users to create and associate test users.
/{test-user-id} to update a test user’s password or name.
Social Plugins
These are the social plugin facebook have.
- Save Button
- Like, Share, Send, & Quote
- Embedded Posts & Video Player
- Page Plugin
- Comments
- Follow ButtonFB social plugin can be used on your website by using the code generated by FB Code Generator
Any of the social plugins, fb will look at the fb:admins tag to determine access to admin features directly from your site.
For example, if you use the comment box, and you have
<meta property="fb:admins" content="USER_ID"/> with your fbid
Why does Facebook’s Open Graph protocol require fb:admins or fb:app_id ?
A comma-separated list of either Facebook user IDs or a Facebook Platform application ID that administers this page. It is valid to include both fb:admins and fb:app_id on your page.
Any of the social plugins, fb will look at the fb:admins tag to determine access to admin features directly from your site. For example, if you use the comment box, and you have
<meta property="fb:admins" content="USER_ID"/>
with your fbid, while logged in, it’ll give you access to moderate the comment box. And you can add more than one administrator’s Facebook UID into the meta tag by adding them comma-separated .Your page will appear in the “Likes and Interests” section of the user’s profile, and you have the ability to publish updates to the user
Q What is the importance of this property?
Without this property you’ll loose admin right on the Open Graph Facebook Page
Q Administers what page?
When users likes your website’s page, it’ll generate an Open Graph Facebook Page When users will try to go on it (by cliking on publications, or searching), it will redirect to your website’s page.
Q Why do we need to administer some page?
To publish status updates to users news feed, create events, or add pictures related to this page.
Including the fb:app_id tag in your HTML HEAD will allow the Facebook scraper to associate the Open Graph entity for that URL with an application. This will allow any admins of that app to view Insights about that URL and any social plugins connected with it.
The fb:admins tag is similar, but allows you to just specify each user ID that you would like to give the permission to do the above.
You can include either of these tags or both, depending on how many people you want to admin the Insights, etc. A single as fb:admins is pretty much a minimum requirement. The rest of the Open Graph tags will still be picked up when people share and like your URL, however it may cause problems in the future, so please include one of the above.
fb:admins is specified like this:
<meta property="fb:admins" content="USER_ID"/>OR<meta property="fb:admins" content="USER_ID,USER_ID2,USER_ID3"/>
and fb:app_id like this:
<meta property="fb:app_id" content="APPID"/>
Reference
– http://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph/
–https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/using-graph-api
