facebook

KNIME Analytics Platform
1

Hi everybody,

Is there anyone who has ever used Knime and Html (GET) function to retrieve information from facebook, by any methods possible?

I read lots of thinks about access token necessity, various php scripts to retrieve info, but none of them actually seems to working with the current procedures of facebook. There seems to be one way which is Facebook's own Graph API, but I couldn't find a way to implement it into Knime.

Bora

2

Anybody any idea????

 

3

You can access the Graph API e.g. using the HttpRetriever from Palladian or the REST nodes. You need to append the access token as query parameter to your Graph API request URL, e.g. 

https://graph.facebook.com/search?q=example&access_token=your_access_token

When using the HttpRetriever, you can feed the HttpResultCells into the JSON nodes to parse the data to your needs.

Best,
Philipp

4

Hi Philipp,
How can I use the new functions of the Retriever node to login to my Facebook account?
I suppose I need to use the POST method but I don’t know how to present credentials.
A little help will be great :slight_smile:
Bora

5

Hi Bora,

no need to login via workflow, you can simply copy your token from the Graph API Explorer (in case you're asked for permissions, simply allow everything, as it's only used by you). Then simply add the access token to your URL which you access via GET in the HttpRetriever, like:

https://graph.facebook.com/v2.3/me?access_token=access_token_from_graph_api_explorer

Unfortunately, Facebook removed some old functionality (such as posts search) recently. That's also why the Palladian Facebook searcher is not working any longer and will be removed in a future update.

If you need to scrape data, which is not available via Graph API, we're currently working on a new set of nodes called the Selenium Nodes, which allow you to simulate an entire web browser and thus also make it possible to scrape JavaScript-based websites. Stay tuned :)

Best,
Philipp

6

Thanks Philipp.

And Selenium nodes will be a great addition.

Maybe this is not a proper acknowledgment, but I would like to thank you for your great contributions to Knime community.

The most important part is, you do everything for free. Thanks man, you are great.

Regards,

Bora

7

Philipp,

I forgot to tell you in the previous message; I visited seleniumnodes.com and if you wish I might volunteer for beta-testing of new nodes.

I use win XP 32-bit.

Bora

8

Bora, that's great. I'll get back to you during the next days!

Best,
Philipp