Geekalicio.us

24 April 2009

Logging into Facebook with PHP and CURL

logging-into-facebook-with-php-and-curl

Here’s a simple little PHP function using CURL that I use to login to facebook to automate some of my ‘daily chores’.  It logs the account in, and stores the session in the cookie, so you can do other functions.

Short and simple source code…

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/*
* Login to facebook
* $login_email : Account to login with
* $login_pass : Account password
*
* Returns true if logged in successfully, false otherwise
* Echoes any login error code
*
* Matt Smith - geekalicio.us
* Apr 23, 2009
*/
function fb_login($login_email, $login_pass){
 
 $ch = curl_init();
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://login.facebook.com/login.php?login_attempt=1');
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,'charset_test=%E2%82%AC%2C%C2%B4%2C%E2%82%AC%2C%C2%B4%2C%E6%B0%B4%2C%D0%94%2C%D0%84&locale=en_US&email='.urlencode($login_email).'&pass='.urlencode($login_pass).'&pass_placeholder=&charset_test=%E2%82%AC%2C%C2%B4%2C%E2%82%AC%2C%C2%B4%2C%E6%B0%B4%2C%D0%94%2C%D0%84');
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, str_replace('\\','/',dirname(__FILE__)).'/fb_cookies.txt');
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, str_replace('\\','/',dirname(__FILE__)).'/fb_cookies.txt');
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009011913 Firefox/3.0.6 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)");
 curl_exec($ch);
 
 $err = 0;
 $err = curl_errno($ch);
 curl_close($ch);
 
 if ($err != 0){
 echo 'error='.$err."\n";
 return(false);
 } else {
 return(true);
 }
 
}
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Tags: curl, facebook, php
logging-into-facebook-with-php-and-curl
  • Hasn't Robert Scoble been suspended for these kind of hacks? IIRC, he had a programm who would export his contact-data. But I think FB did not like to be scripted.
  • Based on his post here....

    http://scobleizer.com/2008/01/03/ive-been-kicke...

    ...They weren't thrilled with it :-). The key line in the reply from FB is...

    "Our systems indicate that you’ve been highly active on Facebook lately and viewing pages at a quick enough rate that we suspect you may be running an automated script."

    ...So - Just don't be piggish (no offense to to Robert ;-) ), and you'll be fine. Put some longer random sleeps or the such in those loops - to be more human.
  • This code doesn't work man. There is something wrong with the cookie.

    So after you got logged in. If you click on any link, you'll get logged out right away.
  • Are you logged into facebook elsewhere? I noticed that it kicks me out of the gui while my scripts are running.

    I use it to run some 'automated processes'. During the loops, I'll keep checking the login state, and if its logged out, it just re-logs in again.

    matt
  • moonam
    Hi Matt. Thank you for sharing the interesting code.
    Somehow, I can't login the facebook using your code. If I visit the facebook.com after I run your code on my web page. I think I should be logined in the facebook, but it isn't. Can you provide more details? Thank you for your help.
  • Hey moonam,

    Sorry that's not how it works. Its simply code to allow you to automate things via curl/php. It does not interact with your web browser, or place any authentication cookie that your browser will use. It's just if you wanted to script a little facebook automation :-).
  • moonam
    The facebook said,
    "Cookies Required
    Cookies are not enabled on your browser. Please adjust this in your security preferences before continuing."
  • Thanks!
    The trick was in defining the cookie file properly.
  • zied
    awesome, but is it possible to do the same operation without using php, only dealing with the pure curl and not curl libraries of php ?
  • david_214
    with this code, i can post message to my wall. I wonder there is a way to post message to the business page?

    Thanks
  • Can i buy this domain from you?
  • You can buy any domain from me - It's all a question of price :) - Feel free to contact me offline - quaffapint -at- gmail.com .
  • vishal1980
    Hello,

    I have tried this but not understand the behaviour. On my first request it allow me to login but next request it shows

    Cookies Required
    Cookies are not enabled on your browser. Please adjust this in your security preferences before continuing.

    I want to publish data on my wall. I have tried to login and then I have requested my page using same curl object but sometimes it shows this cookie error.
  • irfankhokhar
    This is Login script in curl
    function signRequest($args)
    {
    ksort($args);
    $sig = '';
    foreach($args as $k => $v)
    {
    $sig[] .= $k . '=' . $v;
    }

    $sig = implode ('&', $sig);

    return $sig;
    }

    //$login_email = 'email'
    //$login_pass = 'pass'

    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://login.facebook.com/login.php');
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,'email='.urlencode($login_email).'&pass='.urlencode($login_pass));
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, str_replace('\\','/',dirname(__FILE__)).'/fb_cookies.txt');
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, str_replace('\\','/',dirname(__FILE__)).'/fb_cookies.txt');
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009011913 Firefox/3.0.6 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)");
    curl_exec($ch);

    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://login.facebook.com/code_gen.php?api_key=0e984031112826b0b6e4130662c74588&v=1.0');
    $data = curl_exec($ch);

    preg_match_all('/<input.*?value\\s*=\\s*"?([^\\s>"]*)".*?name\\s*=\\s*"?([^\\s>"]*)"/i', $data, $hiddens,PREG_PATTERN_ORDER) ;

    $args = array ('email' => $login_email,
    'pass' => $login_pass,
    'fb_dtsg' => 'QCsWr',
    'generate' => '1',
    'v' => "1.0",
    'api_key' => '$api kye',
    'post_form_id' => $hiddens[1][0],
    'submit' => 'go'
    );


    $arg = signRequest($args);

    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://login.facebook.com/code_gen.php');
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$arg);
    curl_exec($ch);

    $data = curl_exec($ch);


    curl_close($ch);

    print_R($data);
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