iContact API Integration on PHP

This post will teach you how to integrate your app with iContact. The API requires JSON for doing requests and responses. On this implementation, I used CURL which I commonly use when doing API call.

First thing we need to do is to register on iContact then get an API credential. Register your app and get your application id, folder id, username and password - https://app.icontact.com/icp/core/registerapp

Once we have all the credentials, we are now ready to start building our codes.

First, we need to create a function that we will commonly use such as the headers, please see function I created for setting the headers.

function set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass) {
        $headers = array(
                'Accept: application/json',
                'Content-Type: application/json',
                'Api-Version: 2.0',
                'Api-AppId: ' . $app_id,
                'Api-Username: ' . $user,
                'Api-Password: ' . $pass
        );

        return $headers;
} 

Next is to get information from our iContact account. Since we need the account id for all our API call, we will first request for our account information.

This function will return JSON response which we need to parse to get the information we need.

$app_id = '<put your app id>';
$user = '<put your username/email address>';
$pass = '<put your password>';
$folder_id = '<put your folder id>';

$data = get_account_info($app_id, $user, $pass);
var_dump($data);

function get_account_info($app_id, $user, $pass) {
        $headers = set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass);

        $ch = curl_init("https://app.icontact.com/icp/a");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

        $json = curl_exec($ch);

        if (curl_errno($ch)) echo curl_error($ch);
        curl_close($ch);

        return $json;
}

Sample output will be like this, which is a JSON response.

string(582) "{"accounts":[{"billingStreet":"","billingCity":"","billingState":"","billingPostalCode":"","billingCountry":"","city":"Caloocan","accountId":"#######","companyName":"Hotshots Point of View","country":"Philippines","email":"paulgonzaga80@gmail.com","enabled":"1","fax":"","firstName":"Paul","lastName":"Gonzaga","multiClientFolder":"0","multiUser":"0","phone":"639213189673","postalCode":"1421","state":"NCR","street":"#409 B1 L5, Bagumbong Itaas, Progressive Village, Novaliches Caloocan City1","title":"","accountType":"1","subscriberLimit":"500"}],"total":1,"limit":20,"offset":0}"

This will return our account information which we will use for other API call. Once we have the Account ID, we can call now our client folders, though we get it already upon registration but just for the benefit of this post, we will try to get it via API call. The parameters we passed on this function is came from above call and credentials.

$data = json_decode($data);
$account_id = $data->accounts[0]->accountId;

$data = get_client_folders($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id);
var_dump($data);

function get_client_folders($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id) {
        $headers = set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass);

        $ch = curl_init("https://app.icontact.com/icp/a/$account_id/c/");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

        $json = curl_exec($ch);

        if (curl_errno($ch)) echo curl_error($ch);
        curl_close($ch);

        return $json;
}

Sample output will be like this which is the same folder id when we do our registration.

string(69) "{"clientfolders":[{"clientFolderId":"####","logoId":null}],"total":1}"

After this, we can now proceed adding contact, getting contact information, list all our contacts, subscriptions, etc..

The sample script I made below will help you be able to move forward with other functions. Happy coding!!

<?php

$app_id = '<put your app id>';
$user = '<put your username/email address>';
$pass = '<put your password>';
$folder_id = '<put your folder id>';

$data = get_account_info($app_id, $user, $pass);
var_dump($data);

$data = json_decode($data);
$account_id = $data->accounts[0]->accountId;

$data = get_client_folders($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id);
var_dump($data);


function set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass) {
        $headers = array(
                'Accept: application/json',
                'Content-Type: application/json',
                'Api-Version: 2.0',
                'Api-AppId: ' . $app_id,
                'Api-Username: ' . $user,
                'Api-Password: ' . $pass
        );

        return $headers;
}

function get_account_info($app_id, $user, $pass) {
        $headers = set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass);

        $ch = curl_init("https://app.icontact.com/icp/a");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

        $json = curl_exec($ch);

        if (curl_errno($ch)) echo curl_error($ch);
        curl_close($ch);

        return $json;
}

function get_client_folders($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id) {
        $headers = set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass);

        $ch = curl_init("https://app.icontact.com/icp/a/$account_id/c/");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

        $json = curl_exec($ch);

        if (curl_errno($ch)) echo curl_error($ch);
        curl_close($ch);

        return $json;
}

function add_contact($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id, $folder_id, $email, $fname, $lname, $status='normal') {
        $headers = set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass);

        $data = array(
                'contact' => array(
                        'email'         => $email,
                        'firstName'     => $fname,
                        'lastName'      => $lname,
                        'status'        => $status
                )
        );

        $data = json_encode($data);

        $ch = curl_init("https://app.icontact.com/icp/a/$account_id/c/$folder_id/contacts/");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

        $json = curl_exec($ch);

        if (curl_errno($ch)) echo curl_error($ch);
        curl_close($ch);

        return $json;
}

function get_contact_info($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id, $folder_id, $email) {
        $headers = set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass);

        $ch = curl_init("https://app.icontact.com/icp/a/$account_id/c/$folder_id/contacts/?email=".urlencode($email));
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

        $json = curl_exec($ch);

        if (curl_errno($ch)) echo curl_error($ch);
        curl_close($ch);

        return $json;
}

function get_contact_info_by_id($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id, $folder_id, $contact_id) {
        $headers = set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass);

        $ch = curl_init("https://app.icontact.com/icp/a/$account_id/c/$folder_id/contacts/?contactId=".urlencode($contact_id));
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

        $json = curl_exec($ch);

        if (curl_errno($ch)) echo curl_error($ch);
        curl_close($ch);

        return $json;
}

function list_contacts($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id, $folder_id) {
        $headers = set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass);

        $ch = curl_init("https://app.icontact.com/icp/a/$account_id/c/$folder_id/contacts/");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

        $json = curl_exec($ch);

        if (curl_errno($ch)) echo curl_error($ch);

        if (curl_errno($ch)) echo curl_error($ch);
        curl_close($ch);

        return $json;
}

function subscribe($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id, $folder_id, $email, $list_id) {
        $json = get_contact_info($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id, $folder_id, $email);
        $obj = json_decode($json);
        $contact_id = $obj->contacts[0]->contactId;

        $headers = set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass);

        $data = array(
                'subscription' => array(
                        'contactId'     => $contact_id,
                        'listId'        => $list_id,
                        'status'        => 'normal'
                )
        );

        $data = json_encode($data);

        $ch = curl_init("https://app.icontact.com/icp/a/$account_id/c/$folder_id/subscriptions/");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

        $json = curl_exec($ch);

        if (curl_errno($ch)) echo curl_error($ch);
        curl_close($ch);

        return $json;
}

function unsubscribe($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id, $folder_id, $email, $list_id) {
        $json = get_contact_info($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id, $folder_id, $email);
        $obj = json_decode($json);
        $contact_id = $obj->contacts[0]->contactId;

        $headers = set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass);

        $data = array(
                'subscription' => array(
                        'contactId'     => $contact_id,
                        'listId'        => $list_id,
                        'status'        => 'unsubscribed'
                )
        );

        $data = json_encode($data);

        $ch = curl_init("https://app.icontact.com/icp/a/$account_id/c/$folder_id/subscriptions/");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

        $json = curl_exec($ch);

        if (curl_errno($ch)) echo curl_error($ch);
        curl_close($ch);

        return $json;
}

function list_subscribers($app_id, $user, $pass, $account_id, $folder_id) {
        $headers = set_headers($app_id, $user, $pass);

        $ch = curl_init("https://app.icontact.com/icp/a/$account_id/c/$folder_id/subscriptions/");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

        $json = curl_exec($ch);

        if (curl_errno($ch)) echo curl_error($ch);
        curl_close($ch);

        return $json;
}


?>

Freshbooks API Integration on PHP

This post will teach you how to integrate your website with Freshbooks API. There is actually two ways of integrating with Freshbooks, one is via OAuth and the other one is Token-Based method.

For the Token-Based method, this is very simple. You only need to compose an XML request, use your API url and Token from Freshbooks - http://developers.freshbooks.com, then use curl to execute the request. You can check out below on how I do it by calling create client and list clients request.

<?php

$apiurl = 'https://sample.freshbooks.com/api/2.1/xml-in';
$token = '<your token here>';

create_client($apiurl, $token);
list_clients($apiurl, $token);

function create_client($apiurl='', $token='') {
        $xmldata = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>
                <request method=\"client.create\">
                <client>
                        <first_name>Jane</first_name>
                        <last_name>Doe</last_name>
                        <organization>ABC Corp5</organization>
                        <email>janedoe@freshbooks.com</email>
                </client>
                </request>";

        $output = xml_request($apiurl, $token, $xmldata);
        var_dump($output);
}

function list_clients($apiurl='', $token='') {
        $xmldata = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>
                <request method=\"client.list\">
                        <folder>active</folder>
                </request>";

        $output = xml_request($apiurl, $token, $xmldata);
        var_dump($output);
}

function xml_request($apiurl='', $token='', $xmldata='') {
        $output = '';

        system("curl -u $token:X $apiurl -d '$xmldata'", $output);
        return $output;
}

?>

For the OAuth method, this is pretty much complex than the Token-Based method. Please see below on the implementation I did. I also use plaintext signature method, the same method I used on my previous post - Dropbox OAuth API Integration on PHP

The first and important thing we need to have is the App key and App secret which we will use for authentication. I believed you will need an approval from Freshbooks to be able to get this information.

Once we have these credentials, we are now ready to start the coding part.

To start with, since we will be posting request to API url, I created a function in doing post request. We will be using this for request token and access token process.

function post_request($url='', $param='') {
        $ch = curl_init();

        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);

        // disable ssl verification
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE);

        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

        // submit post request parameters
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $param);

        // getting response from server
        $output = curl_exec($ch);

        return $output;
}


Now we can start requesting for a token. On this request, we need the callback url for freshbooks to redirect after the authorization was made. Once we get the token, we will submit it to authorization url for users to authorize our application.

$key = '<your oauth key here>';
$secret = '<your oauth secret here>';

// call request token here and pass the App key and App secret
request_token($key, $secret);

function request_token($key='', $secret='') {
        $timestamp = time();
        $nonce = md5(time());
                $key = $this->data['key'];
                $secret = $this->data['secret'];
        $sig = $secret."%26";
        $method = "PLAINTEXT";

        $callback = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; // put your callback url
        $url = "https://$key.freshbooks.com/oauth/oauth_request.php";
        $param = "oauth_consumer_key=$key".
                 "&oauth_signature_method=$method".
                 "&oauth_signature=$sig".
                 "&oauth_timestamp=$timestamp".
                 "&oauth_nonce=$nonce".
                 "&oauth_version=1.0".
                 "&oauth_callback=$callback";

        $output = $this->post_request($url, $param);

        // parse the output
        parse_str($output, $token);

        // save to session
        $_SESSION['oauth_token'] = $token['oauth_token'];
        $_SESSION['token_secret'] = $token['oauth_token_secret'];



        // redirect to authorize url
        authorize($key);
}

After getting a token from request token url, we can redirect the users to authorize url with the oauth token we get from request token.

function authorize($key='') {
        $oauth_token = $_SESSION['oauth_token'];

        $url = "https://$key.freshbooks.com/oauth/oauth_authorize.php";
        $param = "oauth_token=$oauth_token";

        header("Location: $url?$param");
}

Once the user allow the application to access the users information, Freshbooks will redirect the users to the callback url we put in our request token function. The callback url should be our access token function to get the access token that we can use moving forward.

$key = '<your oauth key here>';
$secret = '<your oauth secret here>';

// call access token request passing the App key and App secret parameters
access_token($key, $secret);

function access_token($key='', $secret='') {
        $oauth_token = ($_GET['oauth_token']) ? $_GET['oauth_token'] : $_SESSION['oauth_token'];
        $oauth_verifier = $_GET['oauth_verifier'];
        $token_secret = $_SESSION['token_secret'];

        $timestamp = time();
        $nonce = md5(time());
        $sig = $secret."%26".$token_secret;
        $method = "PLAINTEXT";

        $url = "https://$key.freshbooks.com/oauth/oauth_access.php";
        $param = "oauth_consumer_key=$key".
                 "&oauth_token=$oauth_token".
                 "&oauth_signature_method=$method".
                 "&oauth_signature=$sig".
                 "&oauth_timestamp=$timestamp".
                 "&oauth_nonce=$nonce".
                 "&oauth_version=1.0".
                 "&oauth_verifier=$oauth_verifier";

        $output = post_request($url, $param);

        // parse the output
        parse_str($output, $token);

        // save to session
        $_SESSION['oauth_token'] = $token['oauth_token'];
        $_SESSION['token_secret'] = $token['oauth_token_secret'];
}

We need to save the oauth token and oauth token secret for api call. Please watch out for my next post, I'll be posting on how to do the API call using OAuth method. Check out below script for the full implementation of the freshbooks authentication.

<?php

session_start();

$key = '<your oauth key here>';
$secret = '<your oauth secret here>';

// from callback
$oauth_token = $_GET['oauth_token'];
if ($oauth_token) {
        access_token($key, $secret);
} else {
        request_token($key, $secret);
}

function request_token($key='', $secret='') {
        $timestamp = time();
        $nonce = md5(time());
                $key = $this->data['key'];
                $secret = $this->data['secret'];
        $sig = $secret."%26";
        $method = "PLAINTEXT";

        $callback = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; // put your callback url
        $url = "https://$key.freshbooks.com/oauth/oauth_request.php";
        $param = "oauth_consumer_key=$key".
                 "&oauth_signature_method=$method".
                 "&oauth_signature=$sig".
                 "&oauth_timestamp=$timestamp".
                 "&oauth_nonce=$nonce".
                 "&oauth_version=1.0".
                 "&oauth_callback=$callback";

        $output = $this->post_request($url, $param);

        // parse the output
        parse_str($output, $token);

        // save to session
        $_SESSION['oauth_token'] = $token['oauth_token'];
        $_SESSION['token_secret'] = $token['oauth_token_secret'];

        authorize($key);
}

function authorize($key='') {
        $oauth_token = $_SESSION['oauth_token'];

        $url = "https://$key.freshbooks.com/oauth/oauth_authorize.php";
        $param = "oauth_token=$oauth_token";

        header("Location: $url?$param");
}

function access_token($key='', $secret='') {
        $oauth_token = ($_GET['oauth_token']) ? $_GET['oauth_token'] : $_SESSION['oauth_token'];
        $oauth_verifier = $_GET['oauth_verifier'];
        $token_secret = $_SESSION['token_secret'];

        $timestamp = time();
        $nonce = md5(time());
        $sig = $secret."%26".$token_secret;
        $method = "PLAINTEXT";

        $url = "https://$key.freshbooks.com/oauth/oauth_access.php";
        $param = "oauth_consumer_key=$key".
                 "&oauth_token=$oauth_token".
                 "&oauth_signature_method=$method".
                 "&oauth_signature=$sig".
                 "&oauth_timestamp=$timestamp".
                 "&oauth_nonce=$nonce".
                 "&oauth_version=1.0".
                 "&oauth_verifier=$oauth_verifier";

        $output = post_request($url, $param);

        // parse the output
        parse_str($output, $token);

        // save to session
        $_SESSION['oauth_token'] = $token['oauth_token'];
        $_SESSION['token_secret'] = $token['oauth_token_secret'];

        var_dump($_SESSION);
}

?>

Dropbox OAuth API Integration on PHP

This post will teach you how to integrate with Dropbox OAuth using PHP platform. Please take note that I'm not using any library to perform this integration nor special coding or whatsoever.

This is basically built from scratch which I want to share with you all, who wish to integrate with Dropbox.

To start with, you need an API credentials which you can get by logging in to your Dropbox account and create an app on this url - https://www.dropbox.com/developers/apps

We need the credentials below to proceed:

• App key
• App secret

We also need to understand the 3 url's that we need to access to complete the authentication process as listed below.

• Request Token - https://api.dropbox.com/1/oauth/request_token
• Authorization - https://www.dropbox.com/1/oauth/authorize
• Access Token - https://api.dropbox.com/1/oauth/access_token

The request token url will be use to get a token which will be use to authorize your app to access users information in their behalf.

The authorization url will be the page for users to allow our application to access the users credential.

The access token url will be use to get an access token which will be use to access users credentials in their behalf.

Another thing that we need to understand is how to create signature. We need this in performing oauth request.

For the sake of this post, we will use the PLAINTEXT signature method, which is the simplest signature method.

Once we have the credentials and the api url's, we are now ready to start by just following the simple steps below.

1. Lets request for a token from the request token url - https://api.dropbox.com/1/oauth/request_token. Since we are using plaintext signature method, the signature will be your app secret plus "%26". Please see below.

$key = '<your app key>';
$secret = '<your app secret>';
$timestamp = time();$nonce = md5(time());
$sig = $secret."%26";
$method = "PLAINTEXT";

2. Once we have all the parameters, lets compose the post request.

$url = "https://api.dropbox.com/1/oauth/request_token";
$param = "oauth_consumer_key=$key".
                "&oauth_signature_method=$method".
                "&oauth_signature=$sig".
                "&oauth_timestamp=$timestamp".
                "&oauth_nonce=$nonce".
                "&oauth_version=1.0";

3. Execute post request using curl, which is the basic command in performing post request.

$ch = curl_init();
           
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);

// disable ssl verification
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE);

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

// submit post request parameters
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $param);

// getting response from server
$output = curl_exec($ch);

4. Parse the output and you will get the "oauth_token" and "oauth_token_secret" below which will be use to perform authorization. You can save these information in your session so that you will retrieve it later when performing access token.

// parse the output
parse_str($output, $token);

// save to session
$_SESSION['oauth_token'] = $token['oauth_token'];
$_SESSION['token_secret'] = $token['oauth_token_secret'];

5. From the step #4, we only need the "oauth_token" to request for authorization. For this process, we need to define our callback url in which Dropbox will redirect the users after allowing the access.

$oauth_token = $_SESSION['oauth_token'];
$callback = '<your callback url>';

$url = "https://www.dropbox.com/1/oauth/authorize";
$param = "oauth_token=$oauth_token".
                "&oauth_callback=$callback";

header("Location: $url?$param");

6. After the user allows our application, Dropbox will redirect the user to our callback url we specify on step #5. We need to submit post request to access token url with the parameter "oauth_token" from step #4. This will also require signature, the same way we did on request token process, but this time with extra parameter "oauth_token_secret" from step #4.

$oauth_token = $_SESSION['oauth_token'];
$token_secret = $_SESSION['token_secret'];

$key = '<your app key>';
$secret = '<your app secret>';
$timestamp = time();$nonce = md5(time());
$sig = $secret."%26".$token_secret;
$method = "PLAINTEXT";

7. Lets compose the url and parameter with "oauth_token" as part of the request.

$url = "https://api.dropbox.com/1/oauth/access_token";
$param = "oauth_consumer_key=$key".
                "&oauth_token=$oauth_token".
                "&oauth_signature_method=$method".
                "&oauth_signature=$sig".
                "&oauth_timestamp=$timestamp".
                "&oauth_nonce=$nonce".
                "&oauth_version=1.0";

8. Execute the post request using curl.

$ch = curl_init();
           
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);

// disable ssl verification
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE);

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

// submit post request parameters
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $param);

// getting response from server
$output = curl_exec($ch);

9. Parse the output and we will get an access token which we will use to do the api request. You can save these information in your database so that you won't need to request for authorization when doing api request.

// parse the output
parse_str($output, $token);

// save to session
$_SESSION['oauth_token'] = $token['oauth_token'];
$_SESSION['token_secret'] = $token['oauth_token_secret'];

You can try the full script below I made with a live API account and a basic API request. I optimized the script as well for better coding.

<?php

session_start();

$key = 'vh096l7q9m5m8tv'; // put here your app key
$secret = 'omri1uakcak8zqz'; // put here your app secret

// from callback
$oauth_token = $_GET['oauth_token'];
if ($oauth_token) {
        access_token($key, $secret);
} else {
        request_token($key, $secret);
}

function request_token($key='', $secret='') {
        $timestamp = time();
        $nonce = md5(time());
        $sig = $secret."%26";
        $method = "PLAINTEXT";

        $url = "https://api.dropbox.com/1/oauth/request_token";
        $param = "oauth_consumer_key=$key".
                 "&oauth_signature_method=$method".
                 "&oauth_signature=$sig".
                 "&oauth_timestamp=$timestamp".
                 "&oauth_nonce=$nonce".
                 "&oauth_version=1.0";

        $output = post_request($url, $param);

        // parse the output
        parse_str($output, $token);

        // save to session
        $_SESSION['oauth_token'] = $token['oauth_token'];
        $_SESSION['token_secret'] = $token['oauth_token_secret'];

        authorize();
}

function authorize() {
        $oauth_token = $_SESSION['oauth_token'];
        $callback = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; // put your callback url

        $url = "https://www.dropbox.com/1/oauth/authorize";
        $param = "oauth_token=$oauth_token".
                 "&oauth_callback=$callback";

        header("Location: $url?$param");
}

function access_token($key='', $secret='') {
        $oauth_token = $_SESSION['oauth_token'];
        $token_secret = $_SESSION['token_secret'];

        $timestamp = time();
        $nonce = md5(time());
        $sig = $secret."%26".$token_secret;
        $method = "PLAINTEXT";

        $url = "https://api.dropbox.com/1/oauth/access_token";
        $param = "oauth_consumer_key=$key".
                 "&oauth_token=$oauth_token".
                 "&oauth_signature_method=$method".
                 "&oauth_signature=$sig".
                 "&oauth_timestamp=$timestamp".
                 "&oauth_nonce=$nonce".
                 "&oauth_version=1.0";

        $output = post_request($url, $param);

        // parse the output
        parse_str($output, $token);

        // save to session
        $_SESSION['oauth_token'] = $token['oauth_token'];
        $_SESSION['token_secret'] = $token['oauth_token_secret'];

        folders($key, $secret);
}

function folders($key='', $secret='') {
        $oauth_token = $_SESSION['oauth_token'];
        $token_secret = $_SESSION['token_secret'];

        $timestamp = time();
        $nonce = md5(time());
        $sig = $secret."%26".$token_secret;
        $method = "PLAINTEXT";

        $url = "https://api.dropbox.com/1/metadata/dropbox";
        $param = "oauth_consumer_key=$key".
                 "&oauth_token=$oauth_token".
                 "&oauth_signature_method=$method".
                 "&oauth_signature=$sig".
                 "&oauth_timestamp=$timestamp".
                 "&oauth_nonce=$nonce".
                 "&oauth_version=1.0";

        $output = file_get_contents($url."?".$param);
        $jsondata = json_decode($output);

        foreach ($jsondata->contents as $contents) {
                echo $contents->path."<br/>";
        }
}

function post_request($url='', $param='') {
        $ch = curl_init();

        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);

        // disable ssl verification
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE);

        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

        // submit post request parameters
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $param);

        // getting response from server
        $output = curl_exec($ch);

        return $output;
}

?>

Integration with Paypal on PHP

This post will teach you how to to integrate your website with paypal and hope I was able to guide you well.

To start with, you need to apply for a Paypal account. If you just want a test account, you can register for a sandbox account - http://www.sandbox.paypal.com

We need the following account details below:

• Username
• Password
• API Signature

Once you have all the details, we can now do the coding part. Aside from account details, you also need to know the endpoint url and the paypal callback url. Please see details below.

Live:

• Endpoint - https://api-3t.paypal.com/nvp
• Callback - https://www.paypal.com/webscr&cmd=_express-checkout&token=

Sandbox:

• Endpoint - https://api-3t.sandbox.paypal.com/nvp
• Callback - https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/webscr&cmd=_express-checkout&token=

Just to get us going, please see below code snippet for checking the environment and initiate the details.

// set up your environment - live or sandbox
$live = "true";

if ($live == "true") {
        // live account details
        $username = 'paypal live username';
        $password = 'paypal live password';
        $signature = 'paypal live api signature';
        $endpoint = "https://api-3t.paypal.com/nvp";
        $url = "https://www.paypal.com/webscr&cmd=_express-checkout&token=";
} else {
        // sandbox account details
        $username = 'paypal sandbox username';
        $password = 'paypal sandbox password';
        $signature = 'paypal sandbox api signature';
        $endpoint = "https://api-3t.sandbox.paypal.com/nvp";
        $url = "https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/webscr&cmd=_express-checkout&token=";
}

Next, we need the details of transaction to be submitted to paypal api. For the benefit of this post, please see details below.

$itemamt = '40.00'; // item amount
$paymentamt = '50.00'; // total amount
$taxamt = '10.00'; // tax amount
$currencyid = 'CAD'; // 'GBP', 'EUR', 'JPY', 'USD', 'AUD'

Please make sure that $paymentamt = $itemamt + $taxamt

Also, we need the details below to perform payment transaction.

$startdate = urlencode('2012-07-01T18:10:40+08:00'); // payment start date
$billingfreq = '1' // number of months interval;
$paymenttype = 'Authorization'; // or 'Sale' or 'Order'
$description = urlencode('sample description'); // description of transaction

You also need to define your callback url. Please see below.

$returnurl = 'http://www.domain.com/callback/return.html'; // callback url for successful transaction
$cancelurl = 'http://www.domain.com/callback/cancel.html'; // callback url for failed transaction

After defining the parameters, compose the query string. Please see below.

$reqStr = "METHOD=SetExpressCheckout&VERSION=65.2&PWD=$password&USER=$username&SIGNATURE=$signature&RETURNURL=$returnurl&CANCELURL=$cancelurl&REQCONFIRMSHIPPING=0&NOSHIPPING=1&PAYMENTREQUEST_0_CURRENCYCODE=$currencyid&PAYMENTREQUEST_0_AMT=$paymentamt&PAYMENTREQUEST_0_ITEMAMT=$itemamt&PAYMENTREQUEST_0_TAXAMT=$taxamt&PAYMENTREQUEST_0_DESC=$description&PAYMENTREQUEST_0_PAYMENTACTION=$paymenttype&L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_ITEMCATEGORY0=Digital&L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_NAME0=$description&L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_QTY0=1&L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_AMT0=$itemamt&L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_DESC0=$description&L_BILLINGAGREEMENTDESCRIPTION0=$description&L_BILLINGTYPE0=RecurringPayments&MAXFAILEDPAYMENTS='true'";

Setup the curl as below.

// set the curl parameters.
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $endpoint);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);

// disable ssl verification
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE);

// set the method
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

// set the post parameters
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $reqstr);
               
// execute curl
$response = curl_exec($ch);
if (!$response) exit("SetExpressCheckout failed: ".curl_error($ch).'('.curl_errno($ch).')');

Get and parse the http response.

// get and parse the response
$arr_response = explode("&", $response);

$http_response = array();
foreach ($arr_response as $key => $val) {
        $param = explode("=", $val);
        if (sizeof($param) > 1) $http_response[$param[0]] = $param[1];
}

if ((sizeof($http_response) == 0) || !array_key_exists('ACK', $http_response)) {
        exit("SetExpressCheckout failed: " . print_r($arr_response, true));
}

Get the token and pass it to paypal for processing.

// get the token and pass to paypal for processing
if (strtoupper($http_response["ACK"]) == "SUCCESS" || strtoupper($httpParsedResponseAr["ACK"]) == "SUCCESSWITHWARNING") {
        // redirect to paypal to confirm and process transaction
        $token = urldecode($http_response["TOKEN"]);
        $paypalurl .= $token;

        if (isset($paypalurl)) redirect($paypalurl);
        exit;
} else  {
        exit('SetExpressCheckout failed: ' . print_r($http_response, true));
}

This is all for now. Next post will be processing after Paypal. You can also check out the full script below. Happy coding!!

<?php

// set up your environment - live or sandbox
$live = "true";

if ($live == "true") {
        // live account details
        $username = 'paypal live username';
        $password = 'paypal live password';
        $signature = 'paypal live api signature';
        $endpoint = "https://api-3t.paypal.com/nvp";
        $url = "https://www.paypal.com/webscr&cmd=_express-checkout&token=";
} else {
        // sandbox account details
        $username = 'paypal sandbox username';
        $password = 'paypal sandbox password';
        $signature = 'paypal sandbox api signature';
        $endpoint = "https://api-3t.sandbox.paypal.com/nvp";
        $url = "https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/webscr&cmd=_express-checkout&token=";
}

$itemamt = '40.00'; // item amount
$paymentamt = '50.00'; // total amount
$taxamt = '10.00'; // tax amount
$currencyid = 'CAD'; // or 'GBP', 'EUR', 'JPY', 'USD', 'AUD'

$startdate = urlencode('2012-07-01T18:10:40+08:00'); // payment start date - 2012-07-01T18:10:40+08:00
$billingfreq = '1' // number of months interval;
$paymenttype = 'Authorization'; // or 'Sale' or 'Order'
$description = urlencode('sample description'); // description of transaction

$returnurl = 'http://www.domain.com/callback/return.html'; // callback url for successful transaction
$cancelurl = 'http://www.domain.com/callback/cancel.html'; // callback url for failed transaction

$reqstr = "METHOD=SetExpressCheckout&VERSION=65.2&PWD=$password&USER=$username&SIGNATURE=$signature&RETURNURL=$returnurl&CANCELURL=$cancelurl&REQCONFIRMSHIPPING=0&NOSHIPPING=1&PAYMENTREQUEST_0_CURRENCYCODE=$currencyid&PAYMENTREQUEST_0_AMT=$paymentamt&PAYMENTREQUEST_0_ITEMAMT=$itemamt&PAYMENTREQUEST_0_TAXAMT=$taxamt&PAYMENTREQUEST_0_DESC=$description&PAYMENTREQUEST_0_PAYMENTACTION=$paymenttype&L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_ITEMCATEGORY0=Digital&L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_NAME0=$description&L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_QTY0=1&L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_AMT0=$itemamt&L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_DESC0=$description&L_BILLINGAGREEMENTDESCRIPTION0=$description&L_BILLINGTYPE0=RecurringPayments&MAXFAILEDPAYMENTS='true'";

// set the curl parameters.
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $endpoint);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);

// disable ssl verification
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE);

// set the method
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

// set the post parameters
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $reqstr);

// execute curl
$response = curl_exec($ch);

if (!$response) exit("SetExpressCheckout failed: ".curl_error($ch).'('.curl_errno($ch).')');

// get and parse the response
$arr_response = explode("&", $response);

$http_response = array();
foreach ($arr_response as $key => $val) {
        $param = explode("=", $val);
        if (sizeof($param) > 1) $http_response[$param[0]] = $param[1];
}

if ((sizeof($http_response) == 0) || !array_key_exists('ACK', $http_response)) {
        exit("SetExpressCheckout failed: " . print_r($arr_response, true));
}

// get the token and pass to paypal for processing
if (strtoupper($http_response["ACK"]) == "SUCCESS" || strtoupper($httpParsedResponseAr["ACK"]) == "SUCCESSWITHWARNING") {
        // redirect to paypal to confirm and process transaction
        $token = urldecode($http_response["TOKEN"]);
        $paypalurl .= $token;

        if (isset($paypalurl)) redirect($paypalurl);
        exit;
} else  {
        exit('SetExpressCheckout failed: ' . print_r($http_response, true));
}

?>

How to make a form post request in PHP using CURL

You can do form post by using CURL in PHP.

As stated below function do_post_request(), you only have 2 parameters to pass on which is $post_url and $post_data. The $post_url is the form action URL where to post the data and the $post_data are the input parameters or data to be posted in a form.

For the $post_data, parameters are delimited by ampersand "&" like query string. Ex. username=...&password=...

This is very simple but very powerful which can really help you doing a back-end processing.

Please see below for the sample POST request.

<?

$post_url = 'http://www.example.com/post-here.php';
$post_data = 'username=myusername&password=mypassword';

do_post_request($post_url, $post_data);

function do_post_request($post_url, $post_data)
{
        $ch = curl_init();
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "$post_url");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "$post_data");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3");
        $response = curl_exec($ch);

        return $response;
}

?>

How to post facebook status using OAuth with permanent TOKEN via backend in PERL and PHP

This post will teach you how to post facebook status using OAuth process via back-end. This is actually a revised version of the script I made on my previous post How to submit facebook status via back-end using PERL but instead of saving the users credentials, you just need to save the token which we get from the OAuth process.

You just need to have a web server coz facebook OAuth will require application to have a site URL as to be the callback URL in passing information. just for the sake of our testing we can use our local domain.

Just follow the simple steps below and we will be able to submit facebook status via back-end using OAuth process the "LEGAL WAY".

1. Same with my previous post, you should register your application on facebook - http://www.facebook.com/developers/createapp.php again, type in the application name and other details then once created, modify the site URL under web site tab.

2. Once you have the 3 details such as: app ID, app Secret, and site URL. we can now start coding the authorization script which will request permission for our app to do the status update.

app ID - 182635521758593
app Secret - 495625ad928ea277548d0f423f420ef0
site URL - http://localhost/facebook/

3. Since we're using PERL, you have to install the following libraries needed to run the script.

• LWP::UserAgent;
• HTTP::Cookies;

4. After installing the libraries, initialize UserAgent and Cookies to do HTTP request. please see below.

#!/usr/bin/perl

require LWP::UserAgent;

use strict;
use warnings;

use HTTP::Cookies;

my $lwpua = LWP::UserAgent->new;

my $user_agent = "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.6) Gecko/20060728 Firefox/1.5.0.6";
my @header = ( 'Referer' => 'http://m.facebook.com/','User-Agent' => $user_agent);

my $cookie_file = "cookies.dat";
my $cookie_jar = HTTP::Cookies->new(
                file => $cookie_file,
                autosave => 1,
                ignore_discard => 1);

$lwpua->cookie_jar($cookie_jar);

5. Login to the wap site via the URL - http://m.facebook.com/login.php then save the cookies.

my $strUser = '<your facebook username/email>';
my $strPass = '<your facebook password>';
my $strStatus = '<your facebook status>';

# login to facebook
my $response = $lwpua->post('http://m.facebook.com/login.php',
                      ['email' => $strUser,
                       'pass' => $strPass,
                       'login' => 'Login'], @header);
$cookie_jar->extract_cookies( $response );
$cookie_jar->save;

6. Request for permission to post facebook status with the app ID, and site URL of your application where app ID being the "app_id" parameter and site URL being the "next" parameter. just for this testing, we can use the application "Hotshots Point Of View". the application details are stated on step no. 2.

$response = $lwpua->get('http://m.facebook.com/connect/uiserver.php?app_id=182635521758593&method=permissions.request&display=wap&next=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%2Ffacebook%2F&response_type=code&fbconnect=1&perms=user_photos%2Cuser_videos%2Cpublish_stream', @header);

7. Get the $response->content and parse the "form action", "post_form_id", and "fb_dtsg" via REGEX implementation below. take note that this might change as the facebook wap changes. take note as well that the $response->content might not return as expected if the user already allow the application. hence, the $response->content will be the return output of your callback or site URL. if this is the first time that the user will allow the application, expect a return page with the details we need below.

my $form_data = $response->content;

$form_data =~ s/\n//g;
$form_data =~ /form id="uiserver_form" action="(.*?)"(.*?)name="post_form_id" value="(.*?)"(.*?)name="fb_dtsg" value="(.*?)"/ig;

my $form_action = $1;
my $form_id = $3;
my $form_fbdtsg = $5;

8. Once we have the "form action", "post_form_id", and "fb_dtsg", we can now trigger user to allow our application. please see below with other details we have from step no. 2, then clear the cookies by unlink() function.

$response = $lwpua->post('http://m.facebook.com/connect/uiserver.php',
                           ['fb_dtsg' => $form_fbdtsg,
                            'post_form_id' => $form_id,
                            'app_id' => '182635521758593',
                            'display' => 'wap',
                            'redirect_uri' => 'http://localhost/facebook/',
                            'response_type' => 'code',
                            'fbconnect' => '1',
                            'perms' => 'user_photos,user_videos,publish_stream',
                            'from_post' => '1',
                            '__uiserv_method' => 'permissions.request',
                            'grant_clicked' => 'Allow'], @header);

$form_data = $response->content;
unlink($cookie_file);

9. Okay, we are just halfway there.. now that we are able to allow the app to update facebook status, next step will be the script to post facebook status, but before that, here is the complete code of the PERL script as detailed on the steps above.

#!/usr/bin/perl

require LWP::UserAgent;

use strict;
use warnings;

use HTTP::Cookies;

my $lwpua = LWP::UserAgent->new;

my $user_agent = "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.6) Gecko/20060728 Firefox/1.5.0.6";
my @header = ( 'Referer' => 'http://m.facebook.com/','User-Agent' => $user_agent);

my $cookie_file = "cookies.dat";
my $cookie_jar = HTTP::Cookies->new(
                file => $cookie_file,
                autosave => 1,
                ignore_discard => 1);

$lwpua->cookie_jar($cookie_jar);

my $strUser = '<your facebook username/email>';
my $strPass = '<your facebook password>';

# login to facebook
my $response = $lwpua->post('http://m.facebook.com/login.php',
                      ['email' => $strUser,
                       'pass' => $strPass,
                       'login' => 'Login'], @header);
$cookie_jar->extract_cookies( $response );
$cookie_jar->save;

$response = $lwpua->get('http://m.facebook.com/connect/uiserver.php?app_id=182635521758593&method=permissions.request&display=wap&next=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%2Ffacebook%2F&response_type=code&fbconnect=1&perms=user_photos%2Cuser_videos%2Cpublish_stream', @header);

my $form_data = $response->content;

$form_data =~ s/\n//g;
$form_data =~ /form id="uiserver_form" action="(.*?)"(.*?)name="post_form_id" value="(.*?)"(.*?)name="fb_dtsg" value="(.*?)"/ig;

my $form_action = $1;
my $form_id = $3;
my $form_fbdtsg = $5;

$response = $lwpua->post('http://m.facebook.com/connect/uiserver.php',
                           ['fb_dtsg' => $form_fbdtsg,
                            'post_form_id' => $form_id,
                            'app_id' => '182635521758593',
                            'display' => 'wap',
                            'redirect_uri' => 'http://localhost/facebook/',
                            'response_type' => 'code',
                            'fbconnect' => '1',
                            'perms' => 'user_photos,user_videos,publish_stream',
                            'from_post' => '1',
                            '__uiserv_method' => 'permissions.request',
                            'grant_clicked' => 'Allow'], @header);

$form_data = $response->content;
unlink($cookie_file);



1;

10. Succeeding steps will then teach you how to submit facebook status in PHP which was triggered by facebook upon allowing our application. if you notice on our authorize URL on step no. 6, we set the "next" parameter to be the same as the value of our facebook app site URL. the "next" parameter will be used by facebook to return the CODE which we can exchange for a TOKEN that we will be using to post facebook status. please see below authorize URL from step no. 6.

http://m.facebook.com/connect/uiserver.php?app_id=182635521758593&method=permissions.request&display=wap&next=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%2Ffacebook%2F&response_type=code&fbconnect=1&perms=user_photos%2Cuser_videos%2Cpublish_stream

11. In back-end, the URL below was executed by our PERL script but if this link was clicked by the user, the user will be redirected to the page where in our facebook application is requesting for permission to post facebook status on users profile. if the user will allow it, facebook will then redirect it to the "next" parameter we specify on the URL above. please see facebook redirection URL format below.

http://localhost/facebook/?code=...

12. Your index page should be able to capture the CODE parameter returned by facebook and exchange it with TOKEN on the access token URL below then parse the return data to get the TOKEN. again, app ID will be the "client_id" parameter, site URL will the "redirect_uri" parameter, and the app Secret will be the "client_secret" parameter.

$code = $_GET['code'];
$oauthurl = "https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?client_id=182635521758593&redirect_uri=http://localhost/facebook/&client_secret=495625ad928ea277548d0f423f420ef0&code=$code";

$url_handler = fopen("$oauthurl", 'r');
$url_contents = stream_get_contents($url_handler);
fclose($url_handler);

$ret = explode("&", $url_contents);
$token = preg_replace('/^access_token=/', '', $ret[0]);

13. Once you have the TOKEN, you will now be able to post facebook status using CURL. please see below implementation.

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://graph.facebook.com/me/feed');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,'access_token='.urlencode($token).'&message='.urlencode($status));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_REFERER, "http://m.facebook.com");
$page = curl_exec($ch);

14. Please take note that the TOKEN you just pulled from facebook is NOT yet permanent. Hence, you need to call another access token with the parameter grant_type=client_credentials.

$oauthurl = "https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?client_id=182635521758593&client_secret=495625ad928ea277548d0f423f420ef0&grant_type=client_credentials";

$url_handler = fopen("$oauthurl", 'r');
$url_contents = stream_get_contents($url_handler);
fclose($url_handler);

$ret = explode("&", $url_contents);
$token = preg_replace('/^access_token=/', '', $ret[0]);

15. Please see below for the complete PHP script.

<?

$status = "damn!! i'm good!! i was able to crack facebook oauth process via backend using perl and php! - http://paulgonzaga.blogspot.com";

$code = $_GET['code'];

if ($code) {
        // get access token
        $oauthurl = "https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?client_id=182635521758593&redirect_uri=http://localhost/facebook/&client_secret=495625ad928ea277548d0f423f420ef0&code=$code";

        $url_handler = fopen("$oauthurl", 'r');
        $url_contents = stream_get_contents($url_handler);
        fclose($url_handler);

        $ret = explode("&", $url_contents);
        $token = preg_replace('/^access_token=/', '', $ret[0]);

        if ($token) {
                // get user info
                $infourl = "https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=$token";
                $url_handler = fopen("$infourl", 'r');
                $return = json_decode(stream_get_contents($url_handler));
                fclose($url_handler);

                $userid = $return->id;
                $name = $return->name;
                $fname = $return->first_name;
                $mname = $return->middle_name;
                $lname = $return->last_name;
               
                $oauthurl = "https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?client_id=182635521758593&client_secret=495625ad928ea277548d0f423f420ef0&grant_type=client_credentials";

                $url_handler = fopen("$oauthurl", 'r');
                $url_contents = stream_get_contents($url_handler);
                fclose($url_handler);

                $ret = explode("&", $url_contents);
                $token = preg_replace('/^access_token=/', '', $ret[0]);

                $ch = curl_init();
                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://graph.facebook.com/$userid/feed');
                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,'access_token='.urlencode($token).'&message='.urlencode($status));
                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3");
                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_REFERER, "http://m.facebook.com");
                $page = curl_exec($ch);
        }
}

?>

Save the USERID and TOKEN for succeeding facebook status. Hope you like it!! Enjoy!! yeah men!! - http://paulgonzaga.blogspot.com

How to submit facebook status via OAuth.

You should read my last 2 previous post before this to know how the OAuth process works.

• How to create a facebook application.
• How to use facebook application in your site.

This post will teach you how to submit facebook status using OAuth. just follow the simple steps below with the complete code at the end for your implementation.

1. Same with my previous post, you need to have an app ID, site URL, and app Secret to submit facebook status on users profile. just for this testing, you can use the details below from the facebook app "Hotshots Point Of View".

app ID - 182635521758593
site URL - http://localhost/facebook/
app Secret - 495625ad928ea277548d0f423f420ef0

2. After having the 3 details, you should have to request permission for your app to be able to access users profile, but this time an added permission to post status. to do that, an additional parameter SCOPE=user_photos,user_videos,publish_stream should be added on your authorize URL. again, app ID will be your client_id, and site URL will be your redirect_uri. please see below authorize URL with the permission to post status on users profile.

https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/authorize?client_id=182635521758593&redirect_uri=http://localhost/facebook/&scope=user_photos,user_videos,publish_stream

3. User should click the URL above and authorize your application to access profile and submit status. facebook will return to the redirect_uri http://localhost/facebook/ with the parameter CODE as part of query string. capture the CODE parameter and exchange it for an access TOKEN for the next step below.

4. To get an access token, you should pass the app ID, site URL, app Secret, and the CODE parameter value you get from the authorize URL. please see the access token URL below. you should replace the <CODE> with the CODE parameter you get from the authorize URL above.

https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?client_id=182635521758593&redirect_uri=http://localhost/facebook/&client_secret=495625ad928ea277548d0f423f420ef0&code=<CODE>

5. From the URL above, facebook will echo the access TOKEN which you will need to post facebook status. you will need to get the user id of the user you wish to post facebook status, and to do that, just replace the <TOKEN> with the access TOKEN on the URL below.

https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=<TOKEN>

6. Once you have the USER ID, and TOKEN, you can now finally post facebook status on users profile. execute the CURL script below with your facebook STATUS.

curl -F 'access_token=<TOKEN>' -F 'message=<STATUS>' https://graph.facebook.com/<USERID>/feed

For you to have a working script in submitting facebook status. please see below script that does all in 1 page: authorize app, access token, get user info, and post facebook status.

<?
$client_id = '182635521758593';
$redirect_uri = 'http://localhost/facebook/';
$client_secret = '495625ad928ea277548d0f423f420ef0';

$status = 'How to submit facebook status via OAuth - http://paulgonzaga.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-submit-facebook-status-via-oauth.html';
$code = $_GET['code'];

if ($code) {
        // get access token
        $oauthurl = "https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?client_id=$client_id&redirect_uri=$redirect_uri&client_secret=$client_secret&code=$code";
        $data = do_get_request($oauthurl);

        $ret = explode("&", $data);
        $token = preg_replace('/^access_token=/', '', $ret[0]);

        // get user info
        $infourl = "https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=$token";
        $data = do_get_request($infourl);

        $ret = json_decode($data);
        $userid = $ret->id;

        $result = shell_exec("curl -F 'access_token=$token' -F 'message=$status' https://graph.facebook.com/$userid/feed");

        echo "done!</br>";
}

function do_get_request($get_url)
{
        $url_handler = fopen("$get_url", 'r');
        $url_contents = stream_get_contents($url_handler);
        fclose($url_handler);

        return $url_contents;
}

?>

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<a href="https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/authorize?client_id=<?=$client_id?>&redirect_uri=<?=$redirect_uri?>&scope=user_photos,user_videos,publish_stream">authorize app</a>
</body>
</html>


Hope you like it!! happy coding.

How to post facebook status via backend in PHP

As promised, here's the script on how to submit facebook status using PHP. just follow the simple steps below and you can have a facebook status update on your own website.

1. Again, from my previous post, you should know the structure of the wapsite you wish to access via back-end and for this post, we will access facebook wapsite http://m.facebook.com. check out also my previous post - How to submit facebook status via back-end using PERL

2. Since we are using PHP, we will use CURL to access the site via back-end. make sure you have installed CURL in your server.

3. To start with, input your facebook username/email, password, and status.

$fuser = '<your facebook username/email>';
$fpass = '<your facebook password>';
$status = '<your facebook status>';


4. Initialize CURL as coded below. set the CURLOPT_URL to the login page of the wapsite http://m.facebook.com/login.php to login to the site. set the CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS email and password. then the CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR and CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE.

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://m.facebook.com/login.php');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,'email='.urlencode($fuser).'&pass='.urlencode($fpass).'&login=Login');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "/tmp/my_cookies.txt");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "/tmp/my_cookies.txt");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_REFERER, "http://m.facebook.com");
$page = curl_exec($ch); 


5. CURL_EXEC will output the redirected page which you will need to get PARAMETERS in sending STATUS. you can try printing the variable $page so you will know if the return page is successful or not. I pasted a code snippet of the return page below.

<form method="post" id="composer_form" action="/a/home.php?fbb=rbacd82de&amp;refid=7"><input type="hidden" name="fb_dtsg" value="DdtLy" autocomplete="off" /><input type="hidden" name="post_form_id" value="f224790ed71d0fe6565de44f1b4bbe98" /><input type="hidden" name="charset_test" value="€,´,€,´,水,Д,Є" /><div>What&#039;s on your mind?<br /><textarea class="composerInput" name="status" rows="2" onfocus="" onblur=""></textarea></div><input type="submit" value="Share" class="btn btnC" name="update" /></form>


6. You will need parameters such as FORM ACTION, FB_DTSG, and POST_FORM_ID just like in my previous post. to get these parameters, you should use PREG_MATCH.

//this gets the post_form_id value
preg_match("/input type=\"hidden\" name=\"post_form_id\" value=\"(.*?)\"/", $page, $form_id);
//we'll also need the exact name of the form processor page
preg_match("/form method=\"post\" id=\"composer_form\" action=\"(.*?)\"/", $page, $form_action);
//we'll also need the value of the fb_dtsg
preg_match("/name=\"fb_dtsg\" value=\"(.*?)\"/", $page, $form_fbdtsg);


7. All parameters will be stored as ARRAY in variables $form_id, $form_action, and $form_fbdtsg. you will use this on the code below to send facebook status.

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://m.facebook.com".$form_action[1]);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, 'post_form_id='.$form_id[1].'&status='.urlencode($status).'&fb_dtsg='.$form_fbdtsg[1].'&update=Share');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "/tmp/my_cookies.txt");
$page = curl_exec($ch);


8. Upon executing the CURL, you should expect that your STATUS will be posted in your facebook wall. to get the output and information on your CURL execution, you can print CURL_GETINFO. You can also check for errors by printing CURL_ERRNO and CURL_ERROR.

print_r(curl_getinfo($ch));
echo curl_errno($ch) . '-' . curl_error($ch);


9. To summarize everything, you should have a code like this below. happy coding everyone!!

<?

$fuser = '<your facebook username/email>';
$fpass = '<your facebook password>';
$status = '<your facebook status>';

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://m.facebook.com/login.php');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,'email='.urlencode($fuser).'&pass='.urlencode($fpass).'&login=Login');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "/tmp/my_cookies.txt");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "/tmp/my_cookies.txt");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_REFERER, "http://m.facebook.com");
$page = curl_exec($ch);

preg_match("/input type=\"hidden\" name=\"post_form_id\" value=\"(.*?)\"/", $page, $form_id);
preg_match("/form method=\"post\" id=\"composer_form\" action=\"(.*?)\"/", $page, $form_action);
preg_match("/name=\"fb_dtsg\" value=\"(.*?)\"/", $page, $form_fbdtsg);

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://m.facebook.com".$form_action[1]);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, 'post_form_id='.$form_id[1].'&status='.urlencode($status).'&fb_dtsg='.$form_fbdtsg[1].'&update=Share');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "/tmp/my_cookies.txt");
$page = curl_exec($ch);

print_r(curl_getinfo($ch));
echo curl_errno($ch) . '-' . curl_error($ch);

?>