NextScripts API for Facebook is joining NextScripts Premium API family.
Official native Facebook API was going downhill for quite some time. It used to work fine and it had all necessary features, but during the last year it lost a lot of functionality.
Here is the list of some major changes made by Facebook recently:
– Setup become extremely over-complicated. Facebook setup instruction has 16 steps. Facebook “Common Problems” FAQ section has 22 items.
– Ability to set Image, Title and Description for shared links has been removed, forcing only usage of OG meatatgs.
– Ability to post to Closed and Secret groups for non-admins has been removed.
– oAuth login callback URL field become mandatory, complicating setup.
– oAuth “Strict Mode” become mandatory, complicating setup even further.
– Ability to post to open groups has been removed for non-admins.
– “Enforce HTTPS for Web OAuth Login” setting become mandatory, forcing all sites to switch to HTTPS.
– Ability to post to pages as “Page Name” has been broken. All post are made from user’s name and go to the community section.
– Ability to post to Groups has been disabled complitely.
Basically official native Facebook API become very restricted, very hard to setup and very limited. It’s time to have an alternative. NextScripts API for Facebook could be used to replace official native Facebook API. It has none of the restrictions listed above.
Available today as Beta (supports only Autoposting to Groups) to all active Premium API subscribers and prepaid users. Please update SNAP plugin to version 4.2.2, API to version 4.3.3 and SNAP Upgrade helper to version 1.5.5.
If you still don’t have NextScripts SNAP Premium API for WordPress you can get it here: SNAP Premium API
[Update] Update with support for profiles. pages and groups has been releases: https://www.nextscripts.com/news/2018/04/update-to-nextscripts-premium-api-for-facebook/
There is something I do not understand. Was not the new APP for groups free of charge that we have our current snap?
I have the Snap + NextScripts lifetime license: SNAP Pro Upgrade Helper
Now I must also pay the Snap API? Please, resolve this doubt. I need to continue with my work. Thank you
There was free API for autoposting to groups until Facebook disabled it couple weeks ago.
After that, we made our own API for Facebook that could autopost to groups. Our Premium API is not free.
“SNAP Pro WordPress plugin” and “NextScripts Premium API” are two completely different products. You can buy and use them together or separately.
“SNAP Pro WordPress plugin” is one time purchase for a lifetime license. You can add multiple accounts for each network and enjoy advanced plugin features for as long as you like. All future updates are included.
“NextScripts Premium API” is a yearly subscription service. It adds an ability to auto-post to networks without native built-in API. You need to pay for it every year.
Please see here for more info: https://www.nextscripts.com/snap-plugin-vs-snap-api-difference/
How well does this new API work?
I am seeing many negative reviews.
It works great.
Please see here about those “negative” reviews: http://www.nextscripts.com/forums/topic/someone-is-paying-for-bad-reviews/
Fantastic! Do we need to delete the group configuration and then re add it?
Yes you need add a new account. There is no way to convert Facebook API settings to NextScripts API settings. They are completely different.
So with the new NextScripts Premium Facebook API, am I able to auto-post to Facebook pages with the Facebook page’s name (and not the “visitors” section with my Facebook Profile)? This is SERIOUSLY important, and the #1 reason why I got NextScripts in the first place… I switch to a different plugin for Facebook auto-posting, but comment import is not available with this other plugin…
Also, why is the NextScript Premium API a yearly subscription? Why is it not a 1-time fee?… I get it. It’s a lot of work, but you’ll have less people interested at a yearly fee.
I have a yearly subscription which started on February. Why can I not download the new premium API update?
Am I missing something? My API Version is 4.3.3 [ID:17155] Pro Edition but I cannot see the drop-down choice you mention above.
4 days later and I still do not have an answer, neither here nor in my support ticket. Is this the usual way to treat your paying customers? I am extremely disappointed and regret the day I started using your product. It has been an absolute nightmare to communicate with you.
Please tell that to Microsoft and Adobe. And also please tell that to Spotify and Netflix.
I am actually very glad that Premium API is a subscription. I got the ability to post to Facebook Groups in a week after FB disabled it. I got it for free as part of my subscription.
With the new api we still cannot post as a page, only as a person. Can you please fix this?
We can’t “fix” it. It’s not our bug. This is a bug in Facebook API. Facebook already confirmed the issue and they are fixing it. Please see here for our answers and progress of this issue: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/forced-to-post-as-visitor/#post-10113428
We are working on our own API. Once we add an ability to post to pages to our own API, you will be able to post as page.
I am using the SNAP API which works well. However, it is not convenient having to rely on staying logged in to Facebook so the browser session does not expire.
For instance, I had to run a software update today and as soon as I started the machine again, I had to get a new session ID and add it to all my accounts – a pain in the neck.
Is there no better way to deal with this? I don’t have the problem with the Google, Flickr or any other API.
It’s better to create a session for SNAP only and not to use it for anything else. You can do that in the incognito window.
Yes, I have done so. A few hours later I receive an email from Facebook that someone tried to login to my account and the have locked my account, and I have to start a new session again.
No one tries to login to my account. This happens the next time SNAP tries to share content from the account.
Surely there has to be a better way to deal with this?
I don’t use Safari but I used it just for SNAP. Logged in from a private window, adjusted the session ID and all was fine.
I did not close Safari so I could stay logged in. One hour later Facebook locked my account and I had to change password and login again, which of course threw the old session ID out of the window.
You really need to change this, it’s not a viable solution.
Use session ID is a very bad idea and not a permanent solution. Please come up with something else.
From FAQ:
https://www.nextscripts.com/faq/
Question:
I got email from Google (LinkedIn, Facebook) saying “Your account was accessed from some remote location”, was that you?
Answer:
All our scripts are installed on your server and your server makes posts to your networks directly. When you make a post your server logins to your account on your behalf and makes a post. The location in the email that your account was accessed from is a location of your server.
Please confirm that it was you. It might take several times and then Facebook will stop asking.
Several times? I has been happening 2-3 times a day for the last 3 days.
Did you find a solution to this? It’s been happening to me 4-5 times a day since I purchased the Premium API subscription. This is not a solution, it’s not better than actually opening Facebook and posting myself. Currently I have to change password and setup SNAP again 5 times a day.
Please try to use session instead of username/password or vise versa.
I have created 4 reposters on 1 of my websites. The one of them which shares pages, got stuck and started sharing the same page every 3 minutes. The worst part was that it happened overnight. The result was that I lost over 1000 followers on Instagram.
This has happened 3-4 more times on various websites of mine but ALWAYS when it shares pages, not posts.
It looks like there is a bug somewhere in the plugin and it is worth investigating.
I have a site which uses the WordPress package hosted at my ISP (1 and 1). I used to be able to post from website to my Facebook profile (timeline – not any page or anything) without any issue. And comments posted on FB used to come to my website too.
I understand FB has made changes on their side.
My question: If I get the annual subscription of Nextscripts Premium API,
(*) can I post my website posts automatically to FB timeline (profile) as I used to be able to?
(*) can I pull comments from FB back into my website as I used to be able to?
Thank you
Yes, NextScripts Premium API for Facebook allows to post to profiles and get back comments.