Get user's name from Facebook Graph API

Question

I would like to know how is it possible to retrieve a string from an external page.

For example: In a PHP website, the user sends a facebook id, ex: 1157251270

And the website returns the name from http://graph.facebook.com/1157251270.

I hope I made it clear.

Thank you

*(related)* [Stuck on Graph API (facebook API), how do i get name, email and sex using this code?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4093548/stuck-on-graph-api-facebook-api-how-do-i-get-name-email-and-sex-using-this-co) — Gordon, Apr 26 '11 at 10:31
(related) [What is JSON and why would I use it?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/383692/what-is-json-and-why-would-i-use-it) — Gordon, Apr 26 '11 at 10:32
I would read the Facebook TOS for this, just to be clear if your activity is legal. — ifaour, Apr 26 '11 at 10:48

score 26 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 26 '11 at 10:24

The Graph API returns JSON strings, so you can use:

echo json_decode(file_get_contents('http://graph.facebook.com/1157251270'))->name;

or more verbose:

$pageContent = file_get_contents('http://graph.facebook.com/1157251270');
$parsedJson  = json_decode($pageContent);
echo $parsedJson->name; // Romanos Fessas

See json_decode — Decodes a JSON string

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 02 '11 at 16:49

6

If you are using Facebook's PHP SDK, you can also do this to query their graph API:

$fb = new Facebook();
$object = $fb->api('/1157251270');

answered Dec 02 '11 at 16:49

jesal

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@arslaanejaz Glad to be of help! – jesal May 20 '14 at 21:20

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 26 '11 at 10:26

5

you get it by:

$link = json_decode(file_get_contents('http://graph.facebook.com/1157251270'));
echo $link->name;

Nice tut: http://webhole.net/2009/08/31/how-to-read-json-data-with-php/

answered Apr 26 '11 at 10:26

Adnan

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 26 '11 at 10:32

Either you use :

$res_json = file_gets_contents("http://graph.facebook.com/1157251270")
$res = json_decode($res_json)

Or, if you prefer curl (here with https and access token) :

$ch4 = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch4, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
curl_setopt($ch4, CURLOPT_URL, "https://graph.facebook.com/1157251270?access_token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN");
curl_setopt($ch4, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

if(!$result = curl_exec($ch4))
{
    echo curl_error($ch4);
} else {
    $res = json_decode($res_json)
}

curl_close($ch4);

If you require non-public information you will have to ask the user for permission, then use an access_token to view its informations — dwarfy, Apr 26 '11 at 10:34

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 26 '11 at 10:37

0

For facebook data you can use json_decode.

For another sites try with webscraping, for example: here

edited Apr 26 '11 at 10:37

Gordon

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answered Apr 26 '11 at 10:25

Mateo

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Get user's name from Facebook Graph API

5 Answers5

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