code i need to look for to see if a user is logged into facebook

kevinkhan

when i go to a users profile when they are online i click view source and search for "is available" or "online" but none of these show up in the source code..

Any ideas on how to use a php preg match function to check if a user is online on facebook??

I dont wanna use an api just a preg match function in php thanks

bradgrafelman

kevinkhan;10985504 wrote:
I dont wanna use an api just a preg match function in php thanks

Er.. why?? Screen scraping the HTML source of a page is the worst way to get information from a 3rd party. What happens when Facebook's layout changes? Your pattern-based tool will probably break.

What's more, I'd be willing to bet that Facebook's ToS, AUP, or similar legal statement/document prohibits you from not using their designated APIs in order to get information from their site.

So not only is what you're after the worst way to do it, it's possibly also illegal. If you "dont wanna use an api", then don't include this functionality in your site.

kevinkhan

bradgrafelman;10985507 wrote:
Er.. why?? Screen scraping the HTML source of a page is the worst way to get information from a 3rd party. What happens when Facebook's layout changes? Your pattern-based tool will probably break.

What's more, I'd be willing to bet that Facebook's ToS, AUP, or similar legal statement/document prohibits you from not using their designated APIs in order to get information from their site.

So not only is what you're after the worst way to do it, it's possibly also illegal. If you "dont wanna use an api", then don't include this functionality in your site.

see the thing is im relatively new to php and can just about use php to do what i want..

i wouldnt have a clue how to use APIs or anything like that. im not even sure what they are..

Ashley_Sheridan

The API would still use PHP, you'd just use PHP on the objects created by their API. Nothing about it is non-PHP.

As brad mentioned, screen-scraping is prone to problems when a sites layout changes, and Facebook changes its layout more than most (once every few months usually) whereas their API changes less frequently (~ once a year)

You won't be able to see the word 'available' in the source because it doesn't exist there. Facebook relies heavily on AJAX for its content, and the users list is one bit which is solely built like that. Try turning off Javascript and refresh the page; you'll see.