https://github.com/johanbrook/github-facebook-hook

Post a message on a Facebook group's wall when somebody does a push
https://github.com/johanbrook/github-facebook-hook

Last synced: about 1 month ago
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Post a message on a Facebook group's wall when somebody does a push

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/johanbrook/github-facebook-hook
• Owner: johanbrook
• Created: 2012-03-18T22:07:42.000Z (almost 13 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2014-07-02T12:20:53.000Z (over 10 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-04-15T12:13:31.189Z (9 months ago)
• Language: Ruby
• Homepage:
• Size: 160 KB
• Stars: 28
• Watchers: 7
• Forks: 2
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

        
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## Why

In a project we have this private Facebook group for random links and notifications. Instead of sending annoying e-mails to every group member whenever somebody makes a `git push` to our GitHub repo, I created a simple service that posts post receive hook information to that Facebook group's wall instead.

## How

The service is a simple Sinatra server which uses the [Koala gem](https://github.com/arsduo/koala) for Facebook's Graph API.

Download this web service and install dependencies (uses Bundler).

	git clone git://github.com/johanbrook/github-facebook-hook.git

	cd github-facebook-hook

	bundle install

You need a Facebook app and an "Access Token" in order to post with the Graph API. Read more in the [Authentication info](http://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/#applogin) at Facebook. I recommend scanning through some [Facebook API reference](http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/) as well.

A neat way of generating an Access Token is to visit Facebook's [Graph API Explorer](http://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer) and generate from there. Note that the access token seem to have very short expiration time – I currently have to regenerate it every 2 hours or so. I'll investigate.

When you have your token, add it to `keys-sample.rb` and rename that file to `keys.rb`.

	module Keys

		ACCESS_TOKEN = ""

	end

Be sure to change the require in `app.rb` to `require "./keys"` instead of `keys-sample`.

Check that everything works.

	ruby app.rb

	open http://localhost:4567

You should see a "Nothing here" text.

Now create a free Heroku app to host the web service (if you have another server, skip this step).

	heroku create  --stack cedar

	git remote add heroku [email protected]:.git

Add the access token as a Heroku environment variable.

	heroku config:add FB_ACCESS_TOKEN=

When that's done, grab the URL to your Heroku app (something like `http://.herokuapp.com`).

Next, go the the GitHub repo you want to **watch**, and choose "Admin" > "Webhooks & Services" > "Add webhooks". Add the URL to your Heroku app and append `/facebook`.

	http://.herokuapp.com/facebook

Press "Update Settings".

**Done!**

Whenever somebody **pushes** to the GitHub repo, your web service on Heroku will receive a POST request, and pass that along to a Facebook group's wall with the Graph API. Neat, eh?

## Stuff I should do

- Make the tool more general and ready almost out-of-the-box. Don't make it involve that many steps.

- Support not only group walls, but user and friends' walls as well, perhaps with different routes.

- Better handling of access token.