In this tutorial I will show you that how to search on Facebook using open graph API in PHP. Using Open Graph search you can access all public data very easily by typing your required word like “PHP” you will get all the information shared publicly on facebook contain word PHP. Its very simple and easy to integrate and you can access your required data on a single page.
To implement this search you need to create an facebook application we have already explained how to create a Facebook application in our previous tutorial so we are not repeating same procedure again.
We need a oauth token to run open graph query so you need to authenticate first so we can get your access token from facebook and after that you can see a form where you put your keyword and search type like Post, Group, Page, Event or Place ie: you search Delhi in places it will show all places in Delhi.
Index.php
Contains PHP code for facebook authentication and display lists.
<?php
session_start();
require 'fbSearcher.php';
require 'src/config.php';
require 'src/facebook.php';
// Create our Application instance (replace this with your appId and secret).
$facebook = new Facebook(array(
'appId' => $config['App_ID'],
'secret' => $config['App_Secret'],
'cookie' => true
));
$vars = $_POST;
if(isset($_GET['fbTrue']))
{
$token_url = "https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?"
. "client_id=".$config['App_ID']."&redirect_uri=" . urlencode($config['callback_url'])
. "&client_secret=".$config['App_Secret']."&code=" . $_GET['code'];
$response = file_get_contents_curl($token_url);
$params = null;
parse_str($response, $params);
$_SESSION['token'] = $params['access_token'];
$content = '<form action="index.php" method="post">
<input type="text" name="q" value="'.$vars['q'].'"></input>
<select name="type">
<option value="post">Post</option>
<option value="event">Event</option>
<option value="place">Place</option>
<option value="page">Page</option>
<option value="group">Group</option>
</select><input type="submit" value="search"></input></form>';
}
elseif(isset($_POST['q']))
{
if($_POST['q'] != "")
{
$searcher = new facebookSearcher();
$searcher->setQuery($vars['q'])
->setType($vars['type'])
->setAccessToken($_SESSION['token'])
->setLimit(30);
$graph_res = $searcher->fetchResults();
if(count($graph_res->data) == 0) exit("No Results");
if($vars['type'] == 'post')
{
//post
foreach($graph_res->data as $post)
{
$row[] = "<img src='{$post->icon}' />".$post->type;
$row[] = $post->from->name;
$row[] = $post->message;
$row[] = "<a href='{$post->link}' target='_blank'>{$post->link}</a>";
$row[] = $post->likes->count." Likes";
$table[] = $row;
unset($row);
}
}
elseif($vars['type'] == 'event')
{
foreach($graph_res->data as $post)
{
$row[] = $post->name;
$row[] = "At ".$post->location;
$row[] = "From ".$post->start_time." To ".$post->end_time;
$row[] = "<a href='https://www.facebook.com/events/{$post->id}' target='_blank'>View</a>";
$table[] = $row;
unset($row);
}
}
elseif($vars['type'] == 'place')
{
foreach($graph_res->data as $post)
{
$row[] = $post->name;
$row[] = $post->category;
$row[] = $post->location->street.", ".$post->location->city.", ".$post->location->country;
$row[] = "<a href='https://www.facebook.com/{$post->id}' target='_blank'>View</a>";
$table[] = $row;
unset($row);
}
}
elseif($vars['type'] == 'page')
{
foreach($graph_res->data as $post)
{
$row[] = $post->name;
$row[] = $post->category;
$row[] = "<a href='https://www.facebook.com/{$post->id}' target='_blank'>View</a>";
$table[] = $row;
unset($row);
}
}
elseif($vars['type'] == 'group')
{
foreach($graph_res->data as $post)
{
$row[] = $post->name;
$row[] = "<a href='https://www.facebook.com/{$post->id}' target='_blank'>View</a>";
$table[] = $row;
unset($row);
}
}
else
{
$content .= "<h2>Nothing Found.</h2>";
}
$content = '<form action="index.php" method="post">
<input type="text" name="q" value="'.$vars['q'].'"></input>
<select name="type">
<option value="post">Post</option>
<option value="event">Event</option>
<option value="place">Place</option>
<option value="page">Page</option>
<option value="group">Group</option>
</select><input type="submit" value="search"></input></form>';
$content .= "<table width='800' border='1'> ";
foreach ($table as $row){
$content .= "<tr>";
foreach ($row as $cell){
$content .= "<td>{$cell}</td>";
}
$content .= "</tr>";
}
$content .= "</table> ";
}
else
{
$content .= "<h2>Search {$vars['type']}s For : {$vars['q']}</h2>";
$content .= "<h2>Nothing Found.</h2>";
}
}
else
{
$content = '<a href="https://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?client_id='.$config['App_ID'].'&redirect_uri='.$config['callback_url'].'"><img src="./images/login-button.png" alt="Sign in with Facebook"/></a>';
}
echo $content;
?>
Above code used to get your access token and store it in session, after that show you a form to search anything on facebook public postings. Used a class fbSearcher.php contains some functions like call Graph query url and return data to the main page you can get this class and other required files in our download script freely available.
A live demo and complete code available for download for free download code and enjoy.
