Facebook App Review

Facebook has recently enforced a requirement which requires all Facebook apps to be submitted for review before certain app permissions can be used. For EasyBlog, this has affected the backend autoposting sign in and EasyBlog's ability to autopost to Facebook.

Once you have set up your Facebook app as outlined in the Facebook Autoposting documentation, it is time to submit the added permissions on your app for review.

In this documentation, we introduce a general guideline on how to submit your app to Facebook for review. The guide will be separated into two sections, pages and groups.

To do list

As you prepare the app for review, remember to set the app on development mode. This is required so that you and the Facebook reviewer can perform tests with Facebook sign in and autoposting.

Here are the list of things that site admins have to prepare before filling in the details of submission items:

• Site's backend and frontend access for Facebook's reviewer
• Facebook test user account for Facebook's reviewer
• Sample page and group for the Facebook test user account
• Video recordings of how the respective permissions are used
• Instructions on how to reproduce the steps in the video

Set up Facebook test user

Navigate to Roles > Test Users at the left sidebar of the Facebook application. Click on the Add button and a popup dialog should appear.

Enable the Authorize Test Users for This App? setting, use the latest API and enter the permissions (manage_pages, publish_pages, publish_to_groups) into the Login Permissions field.

Change the test user's password by clicking on the edit button and selecting the first option. You need to record down the test user account's email and password as it will be needed by the reviewer.

Set up a page for Facebook's test user

Test users cannot create Facebook pages like normal Facebook users. Therefore, you would need to use Facebook's graph API to do this. Use this link to load up Facebook's graph API along with some basic page parameters.

An access token is required before you create the page for the test user. Get this access token by heading back to the app's test users section, Edit the test user and select Get an access token for this test user. At the popup, press submit and copy the access token that appears.

Head back to the graph API page and paste the test user's access token into the access token field. Make sure the correct application is selected in the top right before hitting the submit button. Once you hit the submit button, you should see a similar response as the screenshot below.

Review submission details for pages

The permissions that are required to autopost to pages are manage_pages and publish_pages.

How is your app using manage_pages?

Select the option - Lets people publish content or respond to posts and comments as a Page

What platforms does your app use manage_pages on?

Select the option - Web

Sample Web Instructions

1. Access the page https://eb52.com/administrator and log in using the following credentials.
username: xxxx
password: xxxx
2. Head to Components>EasyBlog>Autoposting at the top left navigation. Facebook's autoposting page should now load.
3. Click on the 'Sign in with Facebook' button and sign in with the provided Facebook test account.
4. In the Facebook popup, after logging in with the test user's account, click on 'Continue' and 'OK'.
Facebook test user login:
email: xxxx
password: xxxx
5. After logging in, you should see the list of pages that the user administer in the 'Select Pages' section.

Sample Video Screencast

How is your app using publish_pages?

Select the option - Lets people publish content or respond to posts and comments as a Page

What platforms does your app use publish_pages on?

Select the option - Web

Sample Web Instructions

1. Access the page https://eb52.com/administrator and log in using the following credentials.
username: xxxx
password: xxxx
2. Head to Components>EasyBlog>Autoposting at the top left navigation. Facebook's autoposting page should now load.
3. Click on the 'Sign in with Facebook' button and sign in with the provided Facebook test account(Click on revoke first if it's previously signed in).
4. In the Facebook popup, after logging in with the test user's account, click on 'Continue' and 'OK'.
Facebook test user login:
email: xxxx
password: xxxx
5. After logging in, select the test page 'My Blog Page 2' and save the settings.
6. Load the url https://eb52.com/blog and click on the padlock icon on the right side of the toolbar.
7. A login form should show, login with the same username and password provided from step 1(xxxx xxxx).
8. Click on the pencil icon on the right side of the toolbar to start creating a blog post.
9. In the composer, select a template to start composing. Enter a title and some content.
10. Click on the blue 'Publish Post' button to publish the post.
11. Once the post is published, check the test page https://www.facebook.com/My-Blog-Thing-pageid/ to find the post autoposted.

Sample Video Screencast

Set up a group for Facebook's test user

Facebook test user can create groups just like a normal Facebook user without requiring the use of Facebook's graph API.

Review submission details for groups

The permission that is required to autopost to groups is publish_to_groups and the required feature is Groups API.

Please explain how you are using Groups API to enhance the experience of your app.

Required to submit along the publish_to_groups permission.
You can then provide a brief description on why you want to autopost to groups and how these posts benefit your Facebook group.

What platforms does your app use Groups API on?

Select the option - Web

Sample Web Instructions

1. Access the page https://eb52.com/administrator and log in using the following credentials.
username: xxxx
password: xxxx
2. Head to Components>EasyBlog>Autoposting at the top left navigation. Facebook's autoposting page should now load.
3. Click on the 'Sign in with Facebook' button and sign in with the provided Facebook test account.
4. In the Facebook popup, after logging in with the test user's account, click on 'Continue' and 'OK'.
Facebook test user login:
email: xxxx
password: xxxx
5. After logging in, you should see the list of groups that the user administer in the 'Select Groups' section.

Sample Video Screencast

Please use a real Facebook user while recording the screencast for autoposting to groups. For instructions, you may allow the reviewer to use the test user account, but you have to mention to them that Facebook app test users currently does not have permission to post into a group like normal Facebook users, which means they will not be able to reproduce the result like in the screencast video.

How is your app using publish_to_groups?

Let people publish content from the app to groups belonging to the Facebook user

What platforms does your app use publish_to_groups on?

Select the option - Web

Sample Web Instructions

1. Access the page https://eb52.com/administrator and log in using the following credentials.
username: xxxx
password: xxxx
2. Head to Components>EasyBlog>Autoposting at the top left navigation. Facebook's autoposting page should now load.
3. Click on the 'Sign in with Facebook' button and sign in with the provided Facebook test account(Click on revoke first if it's previously signed in).
4. In the Facebook popup, after logging in with the test user's account, click on 'Continue' and 'OK'.
Facebook test user login:
email: xxxx
password: xxxx
5. After logging in, select the test group 'Autopost test' and save the settings.
6. Load the url https://eb52.com/blog and click on the padlock icon on the right side of the toolbar.
7. A login form should show, login with the same username and password provided from step 1(xxxx xxxx).
8. Click on the pencil icon on the right side of the toolbar to start creating a blog post.
9. In the composer, select a template to start composing. Enter a title and some content.
10. Click on the blue 'Publish Post' button to publish the post.
11. Once the post is published, check the test group https://www.facebook.com/groups/Autopost-test-groupid/ to find the post published in the timeline.
Note: Step 11 cannot be reproduced for Facebook app's test user's group, but works properly in a real Facebook user's group(used in screencast).

Sample Video Screencast