Fb::Core

Fb::Core provides methods to interact with Facebook users and pages through the Facebook Graph API.

The source code is available on GitHub and the documentation on RubyDoc.

Installing and Configuring

Add fb-core to your Gemfile and run bundle install.

Most methods of this library require to have an access token of a Facebook user. If you need to obtain one programmatically, use the fb-auth library.

Usage

Fb::User#email

Given an user access token with the email scope, you can get the user's email by calling:

user = Fb::User.new access_token: '--valid-access-token--'
user.email # => 'john.smith@example.com'

Fb::User#pages

Given an user access token with the pages_show_list scope, you can get the list of Facebook pages managed by the user by calling:

user = Fb::User.new access_token: '--valid-access-token--'
user.pages
# => [#<Fb::Page: id="1234", name="sample1">, #<Fb::Page: id="5678", name="sample2">]

Fb::Page#posts

Given a page with posts, you can get the posts on the page since creation by calling:

page = Fb::Page.new access_token: '--valid-access-token--', id: '--valid-id--'
page.posts
# => [#<Fb::Post: id="1234", type="video">, #<Fb::Post: id="5678", type="video">]

Pass since (Time) and until (Time) options to get posts in between the two times.

options = { since: Time.new(2015, 05, 15), until: Time.now }
page.posts options
# => [#<Fb::Post: id="5678", type="video">,..]

Pass with_metrics: true to include post insights for the following metrics... All post types: post_engaged_users Video posts only: post_video_views_organic, post_video_views_paid, post_video_views, and post_video_view_time

page.posts with_metrics: true
# => [#<Fb::Post: id="5678", type="video">,..]

You can also combine all three options...

options = { since: Time.new(2015, 05, 15), until: Time.now, with_metrics: true }
page.posts options

Fb::Page#like_count

Given a page, you can get the the number of likes for the page.

page = Fb::Page.new access_token: '--valid-access-token--', id: '--valid-id--'
page.like_count
# => 15000

Pass an until (Date) option to get the count at a certain date.

page.like_count until: Date.today - 7
# => 10000

Fb::Page#view_count

You can also get the the number of views for the page.

page = Fb::Page.new access_token: '--valid-access-token--', id: '--valid-id--'
page.view_count
# => 12345

Pass an until (Date) option to get the count at a certain date.

page.view_count until: Date.today - 7
# => 10000

Fb::Page#weekly_insights

weekly_insights allows you to get metrics that are available weekly such as page_views_total, page_impressions, page_fan_adds, etc. Refer to metrics for a list of available weekly metrics.

This method takes an array metrics and returns a hash of the metrics mapped to their values. Each metric value is the sum of the last 7 days. If today is July 20th, then the values will be for July 14 - July 20.

metrics = %i(page_impressions page_fan_adds)
page = Fb::Page.new access_token: '--valid-access-token--', id: '--valid-id--'
page.weekly_insights metrics # sum for July 14 - 20
# => {:page_impressions => 1234, :page_fan_adds => 5678}

Pass an until (Date) option such as Date.today - 7 to fetch 7 days prior to July 14th.

page.weekly_insights metrics, until: Date.today - 7  # sum for July 8 - 14
# => {:page_impressions => 1234, :page_fan_adds => 5678}

Fb::Page#metric_insights

You can get an individual metric through using metric_insights which takes a metric, period, and options (since & until). Refer to metrics for a list of available metrics and periods.

Ensure that the period that you are using is supported by the metric. For example, page_views_total (page views) is available for day, week, and days_28 whereas page_fans (page likes) is only available as lifetime.

metric_insights returns a hash of Dates mapped to values. Passing since only return dates ahead to this date (lower bound) and passing until will return dates previous to this day (upper bound & defaults to 2 days ago). Combining both options will return the dates in between.

page = Fb::Page.new access_token: '--valid-access-token--', id: '--valid-id--'
metric_insights = page.metric_insights 'page_views_total', :day # let today be August 7th
# => {#<Date: 2017-08-04> => 598, <Date: 2017-08-05> => 548}

With until (Date) and since (Date).

options = {since: Date.today - 9, until: Date.today}
metric_insights = page.metric_insights metric, :day, options
# => {#<Date: 2017-08-01> => 639,..,#<Date: 2017-08-05 => 548}

Development

To run tests, obtain a long-term access token for a Facebook user who manages at least one page and includes email and manage_pages scopes. Set the token as:

export FB_TEST_ACCESS_TOKEN="YourToken"

Then, run rake spec to run the tests.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Thanks 🎉