Janrain: Can't share via Facebook - "An error occurred"

Adam Kaye

Hello Blackbaud Community.

We set up social login and social sharing on our sandbox Blackbaud instance, and everything came together very smoothly. Everything worked great right away. Then we used the exact same process with one of our client's instances, and everything works great except for social sharing via Facebook.

The only error that we receive is "An error occurred," which of course doesn't offer much assistance as to where to focus our efforts to resolve the issue. In my experience working with similar tools in the past, more often than not, the issue was with a setting for the related Facebook app, but we've confirmed that all of the settings for the FB app that we set up for our client are identical to those for the FB app that we set up for our sandbox except for the related domains.

Has anybody out there run into anything like this before? Is it possible that something recently changed with Facebook's apps or app settings that is not yet reflected in Janrain's documentation for setting up those apps? (Our sandbox FB app was created a couple of months ago, and the new FB app was created this week.)

I'm happy to post screen shots of settings or additional details that might be helpful, but at this point, I guess I'm most curious whether anybody out there has come upon the "An error occurred" error when sharing via Facebook and found a solution to resolve it.

Thank you very much for any assistance you can offer.

Adam

 

Jes Rodriguez

Hi Adam,



The only time I've seen that error come up is when the organization's Facebook app hasn't been approved or when there are items in review that are pending or still needing to be completed by the organization and then submitted to Facebook.  Follow the steps below to see if this is the case and let me know what you discover.  A screenshot of the  Status & Review page mentioned below would be helpful if you can grab one for me.  



1. Log into your Facebook Developer Support page: https://developers.facebook.com/apps/

2. Click on the appropriate app you have set up (if more than one)

3. Click Status & Review from the left navigation bar

4. At the top of the page, change the status indicator from "No" to "Yes" next to "Do you want to make this app and all its live features available to the general public?".  

5. If you do not have the ability to change the status to Yes, then this means your Facebook app has not been approved or that you have items in review that are pending or that need to be completed

6. Click Items in Review and complete the listed items

7. Once you are done, click Submit for Review  



Let me know if you have any questions!  

Adam Kaye

Thank you very much for your response, Jes.



Some of my research had pointed me to the old "sandbox" setting, which I believe has been replaced by the status setting that you suggested. I'm attaching 2 screenshots that show that the app's status is correct and that there are no items in review.



Thanks again for chiming in. I definitely appreciate it.



If anybody else is following the conversation, I'm curious whether anybody has recently made the switch from Gigya to Janrain and possibly run into the same issue.



Adam

 

Jes Rodriguez

Hi Adam,



Thanks for the screenshots.  It appears you are missing a fundamental login permission entitled, publish_actions, which should appear in the approved items list found on the Status & Review page.  In order to obtain add this permission, you will need to click on Start a Submission.  This is the step that requires Facebook Login Integration and testing and approval from Facebook before you are able to go live with this. Please go through the steps listed on Start a Submission and let me know if you get stuck.  I hope this helps!



Thanks!

Adam Kaye

Thanks very much, Jes.



Will give that a shot this afternoon and report back here.



Interestingly enough, that permission is not included in the app that we created for our sandbox instance, but I believe that was created before Facebook's most recent API update, which might explain the difference.



More soon. And thanks again.



Adam

 

Adam Kaye

Jes,



I wanted to post an update that I initiated the process of submitting our app for review yesterday afternoon, and as you know, it's a pretty involved process.



I've completed all but one step - the requirement that we test the permission with a Facebook account that has been associated with the app. Gonna have another look at that this afternoon and then hopefully finish the submission process soon thereafter.



One question for you in the meantime - the publish_actions permission wasn't necessary when we went through this process to set up Janrain on our sandbox BBLO instance at the very end of September or the very beginning of October. (If I review the permissions for the associated FB app, that permission still doesn't appear.) Is it possible that something changed on Facebook's end since the beginning of October?



Does the documentation for the process of transitioning from Gigya to Janrain reflect this requirement? And how about Janrain's documentation on the subject? (I'm fairly certain neither did a couple of months ago.)



Thanks,

Adam

 

Adam Kaye

Just checking in before the end of the week, Jes.



I was unable to get past the "You need to test this permission in your app with any account listed in Roles before you can submit for review." step of the Facebook app submission process. I successfully shared to my FB profiles as both an "Administrator" and a "Developer" for the app, but I'm still receiving the message when I attempt to submit the app for review, which leads me to believe that maybe the app doesn't actually use that permission. (See screen shot.)



If you visit the documentation for the publish_actions permission (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/permissions#reference-publish_actions), it includes the following line:



"Your app does not need to request the publish_actions permission in order to use the Feed Dialog, the Requests Dialog or the Send Dialog." Might that mean this functionality is actually built to use the Feed Dialog, the Requests Dialog or the Send Dialog?"



I also went ahead and revisited the related Janrain documentation, which makes no specific mention of the need for the publish_actions permission, though it does include a line about "If you are requesting permissions beyond that of the basic user profile:" (http://developers.janrain.com/how-to/provider-setup/facebook/)



And I don't see any mention of the permission in Blackbaud's related documentation at https://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/helpfiles/luminate-online/help/Subsystems/Constituent360/Content/Concepts/Admin_Social_SocialSharing_Configuring.html



And in an interesting wrinkle, the sharing via Facebook functionality now seems to be functioning properly even though we never finished submitting the app for review. Is it possible that's a temporary situation that might stop working at some point in the future?



Again, I appreciate your help with this. Our hope is that we'll have everything nailed down for this particular client soon and that the rest of the implementations will proceed smoothly.



Have a nice weekend.



Adam

 

Adam Kaye

Another quick thought before I shut down:



When I'm logged into FB with my FB account that has been set as a Developer for the related FB app and I attempt to share via the S203 component, I get the following error (See screen shot):



Invalid Scopes: publish_stream. This message is only shown to developers. Users of your app will ignore these permissions if present. Please read the documentation for valid permissions at: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/permissions



Is it possible that the BBLO/Janrain integration is built to rely on the long-deprecated publish_stream permission and that FB finally stopped supporting it when they upgraded their API on 10/7/15? https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2015/10/07/graph-api-v2.5/

 

Jes Rodriguez

Hi Adam,



Thanks for all the info!  I'll be reviewing your notes as well as the setup process and let you know what I discover.



Stay tuned and have a good weekend,



Jes 

Jes Rodriguez

Hi Adam,



I had a chance to review your notes and do a little more research on this.  Here is more info for you:



Regarding publish_actions, I mispoke on my second reply.  This permission isn't required for login, but it is required for sharing because it lets you publish to Facebook on behalf of a user.  This functionality actually falls along the line of publishing Posts, which this permission provides access to.  This is not the same as the Feed Dialog, Request Dialog or Send Dialog, which I've broken down below:

• Feed Dialog - allows users to publish individual stories to their timeline directly from the source (i.e. share a news article).  This is different than Posts because you're not actually sharing the Participant Center page the user is on.
• Requests Dialog - give users/players a mechanism for inviting their friends to play a game (i.e Candy Crush, etc) 
• Send Dialog - allows users to privately send content to specific friends or groups (i.e share a recipe)

In regards to not being able to get past the "You need to test this permission in your app with any account listed in Roles..."message, this means that you were testing social sharing to Facebook before enabling the publish_actions in Janrain.  In order to proceed, you'll want to remove the association of that Facebook application with the Facebook account with which you are testing with. 



To remove the association of the app from the Facebook account you are testing with, follow the instructions below:



1. Log in to the Facebook account you were testing with

2. Click the down arrow in the top right corner

3. Choose Settings

4. Click Apps in the left navigation

5. Find the organization's Facebook application 

6. Roll over it with the mouse and click the X to remove its association with this Facebook account

7. Retry your test of sharing to Facebook 



As far as documentation, I will be working with the Luminate Online documentation team in making edits to the Janrain setup process.  



You mentioned that you were able to sucessfully share via the Facebook app.  Was this using your Facebook testing account? You should be able to share via your Facebook testing account or any other test users that you add without any approval from Facebook.  This is because you need to make sure that the sharing functionality works before you have Facebook test and approve the app using the instructions you provide them.  



Finally, publish_actions is what actually replaced publish_stream so I am not sure why you are getting that error.  Have you tried adding the sharing component in the Plain Text editor using the Social Sharing Component?



https://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/helpfiles/luminate-online/help/luminateonline.html#../Subsystems/Constituent360/Content/Tasks/Admin_Social_SocialSharing_add_component_to_page.html



Please let me know what you discover.  If you have any other questions, please let me know. 



Jes 

Adam Kaye

Thank you very much for another nice and detailed response, Jes.



I removed the assocation of the app from the Facebook account that I am testing with and I also removed my test FB account as a Developer for the FB app, and then I was able to share successfully from a test page that includes the social sharing component via the S203 tag as well as from within our Participant Center.



Then I re-added my test FB account as a Developer on the Roles screen of our FB app, and I am still able to share successfully from a test page that includes the social sharing component via the S203 tag as well as from within our Participant Center. However, the app still doesn't seem to be registering that I have done so because it is still not acknowledging that I have done so from the Status & Review > Items in Review screen. (I'd attach a screen shot, but it's the same as the shot that I included last week.)



So the current state seems to be that I can share just fine, but I cannot submit the app to FB for review in order to get approval for the publish_actions permission because I can't test that permission as a Developer of the app. Is it possible I don't actually need to proceed with the app review process or might I be at risk of the functionality breaking at some point in the future if I do not?



You mentioned the need to enable the publish_actions permission within Janrain and it does seem to make sense that perhaps because that permission hasn't been enabled within our Janrain account, the sharing that I'm doing is not being acknowledged by the FB app review tool. Going to try that now.



Adam



p.s. I'd be happy to get into more detail with you privately, including sharing a test login to our PC and/or a link to the PageBuilder page that includes the social sharing component if that would be helpful. Please let me know if you'd like to do so. Thanks.

 

Adam Kaye

Note that I edited my previous post to remove a reference to being unable to find our property within our Janrain account. That appears to have been a temporary blip of some sort, but it's corrected itself.

 

Adam Kaye

Jes,



I enabled the publish_actions permission within our Janrain account and then I re-shared from our test page and from within our PC, but the FB app review tool is still not recognizing that I have tested this permission as a Developer for the FB app.



Not sure how to proceed from here unless the recommendation is to just leave it as is since the basic functionality is currently working - it just makes me uneasy to leave the app in this not-yet-approved-by-FB state.



Looking forward to wrapping this up with you soon. Thanks again for all of your help. You've been great.



Adam

 

Unknown

Hello,



We are having issues getting Facebook configured with Janrain as well.  We submitted our app through Facebook for review and it was not approved. Their reasoning is:



"One or more of your App Center Listed Platforms doesn't use Facebook Login. Please integrate Facebook Login, and clarify how to login with Facebook in your Review Instructions. Otherwise, remove the platform(s) from your 'App Details' tab."



We are not sure how to fix this as we followed the setup steps and it doesn't cover this.  



Could it have to do with the "Client OAuth Login" set to "yes"?  It says we need a "Valid OAuth redirect URI" when this is set to yes, but how do I know what this URL is?



Thanks,



Meghan

Jes Rodriguez

Adam Kaye:

Thank you very much for another nice and detailed response, Jes.



I removed the assocation of the app from the Facebook account that I am testing with and I also removed my test FB account as a Developer for the FB app, and then I was able to share successfully from a test page that includes the social sharing component via the S203 tag as well as from within our Participant Center.



Then I re-added my test FB account as a Developer on the Roles screen of our FB app, and I am still able to share successfully from a test page that includes the social sharing component via the S203 tag as well as from within our Participant Center. However, the app still doesn't seem to be registering that I have done so because it is still not acknowledging that I have done so from the Status & Review > Items in Review screen. (I'd attach a screen shot, but it's the same as the shot that I included last week.)



So the current state seems to be that I can share just fine, but I cannot submit the app to FB for review in order to get approval for the publish_actions permission because I can't test that permission as a Developer of the app. Is it possible I don't actually need to proceed with the app review process or might I be at risk of the functionality breaking at some point in the future if I do not?



You mentioned the need to enable the publish_actions permission within Janrain and it does seem to make sense that perhaps because that permission hasn't been enabled within our Janrain account, the sharing that I'm doing is not being acknowledged by the FB app review tool. Going to try that now.



Adam



p.s. I'd be happy to get into more detail with you privately, including sharing a test login to our PC and/or a link to the PageBuilder page that includes the social sharing component if that would be helpful. Please let me know if you'd like to do so. Thanks.

 

Hi Adam,



After you enabled publish_actions in Janrain, did you go back to Facebook and unassociate your account with the app again?  If not, you'll want to do this first and then share again.  Yes, if you'd like me to take a look, please inbox me with test login credentials.



Thanks,

Jes

Jes Rodriguez

Meghan Christiansen:

Hello,



We are having issues getting Facebook configured with Janrain as well.  We submitted our app through Facebook for review and it was not approved. Their reasoning is:



"One or more of your App Center Listed Platforms doesn't use Facebook Login. Please integrate Facebook Login, and clarify how to login with Facebook in your Review Instructions. Otherwise, remove the platform(s) from your 'App Details' tab."



We are not sure how to fix this as we followed the setup steps and it doesn't cover this.  



Could it have to do with the "Client OAuth Login" set to "yes"?  It says we need a "Valid OAuth redirect URI" when this is set to yes, but how do I know what this URL is?



Thanks,



Meghan

Hi Meghan,



In your Facebook submission, did you request the publish_actions permission type? If you aren't sure you can follow the instructions below:



1. Log into your Facebook Developer page: https://developers.facebook.com/apps/

2. Click on the appropriate app you have set up

3. Click Status & Review from the left navigation bar

4. Click on Items in Review

5. If publish_actions is not listed, you'll want to click on Add Items to this Submission and add it there.  

6. Once you have added this, you'll be asked to provide Facebook login instructions



Please let me know if that answers your question.



Thanks,

Jes

Adam Kaye

Hi Jes.



I do believe I disassociated my Facebook account with the app again after enabling publish_actions from within our Janrain account, but I'll confirm and get back with you.



Thanks,

Adam

 

Adam Kaye

Just confirming that I did disassociate my Facebook account with the app after enabling the publish_actions permission within our Janrain account, but I'm still running into the same issues.



Adam