[Facebook] Post Message
Q100095: [Facebook] Post Message
Post a message, with optional link, or photo, to a group or wall of the specified Facebook account.
| Parameter | In/Out | Description | Other Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Connection | In | Facebook connection information for a specific account. | Connection type: Facebook |
| Facebook Group Id | In | If not specified, will post to the wall for the account. When specified, will post the message in the group, which the account must already be a member of. | |
| Message | In | The text of the message to post on the account wall or in the specified group. | |
| PhotoAttachment | In | Fully qualified pathname of a photo attachment to include with message. Example: d:\documents\photo-of-the-day.jpg | |
| Link | In | A message can optionally include an external URL link. This cannot be combined with the photo attachment option. | |
| Result | Out | The result returned by the server. |
(Italics = required parameter)
Notes
The [Facebook] Post Message module is built to allow your job to post a message to your Facebook wall, or optionally to a specified Group on Facebook. To use the module, you will need to setup an account with Facebook if you do not already have one. The first thing you need in using the module is setting up a Facebook Connection. Once you have defined a connection, then you can specify the rest of the options using the remaining parameters.
The first is the Facebook Group Id. If you leave this parameter blank, then the module will post the message to the wall for the account. This is the most common way to use it. But the post can also be made to a specific Facebook Group, by specifying the Facebook Group Id. There are more details on this option in the section below. Using the Message parameter, you can send any text as the body or message for the post you want to create. You can also optionally specify an image attachment that will be included with the message, when using the appropriately named PhotoAttachment parameter. And there is the Link parameter, which provides the option to include a specific URL based link in the message post. The limitation is that the Link and the PhotoAttachment options cannot be used in the same message post. Only one or the other, or neither, can be included in an individual message post.
Facebook Group Id
As described above, the group id option in the [Facebook] Post Message module provides a method for a Facebook account to post a message to a specified group, instead of the wall for the account defined in the connection. In order to do this, the account must already be a member of the group and setup with the proper permissions. In order to make sure that the permissions are correct, the permission named publish_to_group must be granted. Note that this is mentioned in the setup of the connection in the article on Facebook Connections. However, the permission publish_to_group must be reviewed and approved before it can be utilized. Once that is completed, then you can easily determine the Facebook Group Id by navigating to the group. When you are in the group, the URL in the browser address field should look like the following example.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1152654175311834
The value at the end of the URL is the Facebook Group Id. So in this example you could copy and paste the value from the URL (1152654175311834) into the parameter. When you run a job with this module, then the message should be posted to the group after your request for adding the publish_to_group permission is approved by Facebook for your account.