Facebook Access Tokens - Server-Side Authentication

10,126

Solution 1

I recommend you to use PHP SDK library for communicating with Facebook API. And simply use getAccessToken() or getAccessTokenFromCode() methods.

UPDATE

To retrieve user access token you have to send oauth request before getting access token. Details in answer update:

    $facebook->api('oauth/access_token', array(
        'client_id'     => APP_ID,
        'client_secret' => APP_SECRET,
        'type'          => 'client_cred',
        'code'          => $code,
    ));
    $token = $facebook->getAccessToken();

Solution 2

Two most likely causes of failure at this step are:

  • redirect_uri is missing the trailing '/'
  • redirect_uri in your call to /oauth/access_token doesn't EXACTLY match the redirect_uri you provided to the oauth dialog

In either case, the code verification will fail and you won't get a token,

The 'failed to open stream: Connection timed out' error probably isn't related to that though, it usually points to a DNS or network error when trying to reach graph.facebook.com from your server

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Eli Stone
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Eli Stone

Web developer and mobile programer. Twitter: @3liStone

Updated on June 15, 2022

Comments

  • Eli Stone
    Eli Stone almost 2 years

    Hello i'm trying to use facebook server-side authenticaion to get the access token but keep getting errors thrown at me.

    I am using the bellow:

    $app_id = "YOUR_APP_ID";
       $app_secret = "YOUR_APP_SECRET";
       $my_url = "YOUR_URL";
    
       session_start();
       $code = $_REQUEST["code"];
    
       if(empty($code)) {
         $_SESSION['state'] = md5(uniqid(rand(), TRUE)); //CSRF protection
         $dialog_url = "https://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?client_id=" 
           . $app_id . "&redirect_uri=" . urlencode($my_url) . "&state="
           . $_SESSION['state'];
    
         echo("<script> top.location.href='" . $dialog_url . "'</script>");
       }
    
       if($_REQUEST['state'] == $_SESSION['state']) {
         $token_url = "https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?"
           . "client_id=" . $app_id . "&redirect_uri=" . urlencode($my_url)
           . "&client_secret=" . $app_secret . "&code=" . $code;
    
         $response = file_get_contents($token_url);
         $params = null;
         parse_str($response, $params);
    
         $graph_url = "https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=" 
           . $params['access_token'];
    
         $user = json_decode(file_get_contents($graph_url));
         echo("Hello " . $user->name);
       }
       else {
         echo("The state does not match. You may be a victim of CSRF.");
       }
    

    App ID and APP Secret have been removed so dont worry about that part. I get errors about the get_file_contents time out.

    [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: Connection timed out

    Is there another or better way of getting the access tokens?

    Bellow is the version i have tried including the cURL idea:

    function get_data_cURL($url)
    {
      $ch = curl_init();
      $timeout = 5;
      curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
      curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
      curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT,$timeout);
      $data = curl_exec($ch);
      curl_close($ch);
      return $data;
    }
    
    function getAccessToken(){
        $app_id = FB_APP_ID;
        $app_secret = FB_SECRET_ID;
        $canvas_URL = FB_CANVAS_URL;
    
        session_start();
        $code = $_REQUEST["code"];
    
        if(empty($code)) {
          $_SESSION['state'] = md5(uniqid(rand(), TRUE)); //CSRF protection
          $dialog_url = "https://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?client_id=" 
            . $app_id . "&redirect_uri=" . urlencode($canvas_URL) . "&state="
            . $_SESSION['state'];
    
          echo("<script> top.location.href='" . $dialog_url . "'</script>");
        }
    
        if($_REQUEST['state'] == $_SESSION['state']) {
          $token_url = "https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?"
            . "client_id=" . $app_id . "&redirect_uri=" . urlencode($canvas_URL)
            . "&client_secret=" . $app_secret . "&code=" . $code;
    
         $returned_content = get_data_cURL($token_url);
        echo'Well Done! - '.$returned_content;
    
        }
        else {
          echo("The state does not match. You may be a victim of CSRF.");
        }
    }
    

    Details:

    App Settings - Canvas URL: http://www.apps.elistone.co.uk/DrawMyFriend/

    FB_APP_ID = The Facebook App ID
    FB_SECRET_ID = The Facebook Secret ID
    FB_CANVAS_URL = http://www.apps.elistone.co.uk/DrawMyFriend/
    

    Even with this update i still get this error:

    Old ERROR

    Well Done! - {"error":{"message":"Error validating verification code.","type":"OAuthException","code":100}}

    New ERROR

    This seems to be caused by the redirect removing the state code.

    The state does not match. You may be a victim of CSRF. - 193c791ddd71c3fd84d411db5554c315 (state code)

    I have also tried bypassing the CSRF protection by changing:

    if($_REQUEST['state'] == $_SESSION['state'])
    

    TO:

     if(!empty($code))
    

    But this still gives the old error problem, I have heard it is caused by something in the redirect link but im not sure how to fix it.

    PROBLEM SOLVED

    After trying along time i have resulted to using the PHP SDK using the below to get the user access token:

    $app_id = FB_APP_ID;
    $app_secret = FB_SECRET_ID;
    $canvas_URL = FB_PAGE_URL;
    $code = $_REQUEST["code"];
    
    if(empty($code)) {
      $_SESSION['state'] = md5(uniqid(rand(), TRUE)); //CSRF protection
      $dialog_url = "https://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?client_id=" 
        . $app_id . "&redirect_uri=" . $canvas_URL . "&state="
        . $_SESSION['state'];
    
      echo("<script> top.location.href='" . $dialog_url . "'</script>");
    }
    if($_REQUEST['state'] == $_SESSION['state']) {
    $facebook->api('oauth/access_token', array(
        'client_id'     => FB_APP_ID,
        'client_secret' => FB_SECRET_ID,
        'type'          => 'client_cred',
        'code'          => $code,
    ));
    $token = $facebook->getAccessToken();
    echo$token;
    }
    

    I am now going to turn this into some sorta function. Thank you very much for everyones time and help.

    Hope this helps people in need in the future (unless Facebook changes everything suddenly)