In this tutorial, we will read data from Facebook using Graph API. This is an HTTP-based API using which we can post and get data to and from the Facebook social graph.
In this example, we will get primary data like id, name, and profile picture by sending the Facebook profile URL. We have a form input field to get Facebook profile URL. Using this URL, we can read Facebook data using PHP file_get_contents or cURL script.
Getting Facebook Profile URL
This HTML code is used to show the form input to get Facebook profile URL from the user.
<form id="fromFacebookURL" action="" method="POST">
<p>Enter Facebook Profile URL</p>
<input type="text" name="profile_url" class="demoInputBox" /> <input
type="submit" name="submit" id="btnRead" value="Read Data" />
</form>
PHP Code to Read Facebook Data
This code uses PHP file_get_contents() function to read Facebook data from the server. This function will return a JSON array, which will be decoded to display to the user.
<?php
if (isset($_POST["submit"])) {
$url = $_POST["profile_url"];
$facebook_data = file_get_contents($url . "?fields=id,name,picture");
$data = json_decode($facebook_data);
}
?>
