friendica/doc/Installing-Connectors.md
2011-07-17 16:08:47 -07:00

6.3 KiB

Installing Connectors (Facebook/Twitter/StatusNet)

Friendika uses plugins to provide connectivity to some networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.

There is also a plugin to post through to an existing account on a Status.Net service. You do not require this to communicate with Status.Net members from Friendika - only if you wish to post to an existing account.

All three of these plugins require an account on the target network. In addition you (or typically the server administrator) will need to obtain an API key to provide authenticated access to your Friendika server.

Site Configuration

Plugins must be installed by the site administrator before they can be use. This is accomplished through the site configuration file ".htconfig.php".

The configuration directive looks like:

$a->config['system']['addon'] = ' ... list of plugins separated by commas ... ';

Example: To install all of the connector addons in addition to the default Javascript photo uploader this line would look like:

$a->config['system']['addon'] = 'js_upload,facebook,twitter,statusnet';

You may also add other plugins/addons as your needs require.

Each of the connectors also requires an "API key" from the service you wish to connect with. This is also installed in the configuration file. The method for obtaining these keys varies greatly - but almost always requires an existing account on the target service. Once installed, these API keys can usually be shared by all site members.

The details of configuring each service follows (much of this information comes directly from the plugin source files):

Twitter Plugin for Friendika

Configuration: To use this plugin you need a OAuth Consumer key pair (key & secret) you can get it from Twitter at https://twitter.com/apps

Register your Friendika site as "Client" application with "Read & Write" access. We do not need "Twitter as login". When you've registered the app you get the OAuth Consumer key and secret pair for your application/site.

Add this key pair to your global .htconfig.php

$a->config['twitter']['consumerkey'] = 'your consumer_key here';
$a->config['twitter']['consumersecret'] = 'your consumer_secret here';

After this, your user can configure their Twitter account settings from "Settings -> Plugin Settings".

Documentation: http://diekershoff.homeunix.net/redmine/wiki/friendikaplugin/Twitter_Plugin

StatusNet Plugin for Friendika

Configuration

When the addon is activated the user has to aquire the following in order to connect to the StatusNet account of choice.

  • The base URL for the StatusNet API, for identi.ca this is https://identi.ca/api/
  • OAuth Consumer key & secret

To get the OAuth Consumer key pair the user has to

(a) ask her Friendika admin if a pair already exists or (b) has to register the Friendika server as a client application on the StatusNet server.

This can be done from the account settings under "Settings -> Connections -> Register an OAuth client application -> Register new application".

During the registration of the OAuth client remember the following:

  • Application names must be unique on the StatusNet site, so we recommend a Name of 'friendika-nnnn', replace 'nnnn' with a random number or your website name.
  • there is no callback url
  • register a desktop client
  • with read & write access
  • the Source URL should be the URL of your Friendika server

After the required credentials for the application are stored in the configuration you have to actually connect your Friendika account with StatusNet. This is done from the Settings -> Plugin Settings page. Follow the Sign in with StatusNet button, allow access and then copy the security code into the box provided. Friendika will then try to acquire the final OAuth credentials from the API.

If successful the addon settings will allow you to select to post your public messages to your StatusNet account (have a look behind the little lock symbol beneath the status "editor" on your Home or Network pages).

Documentation: http://diekershoff.homeunix.net/redmine/wiki/friendikaplugin/StatusNet_Plugin

Installing the Friendika/Facebook connector

  • register an API key for your site from developer.facebook.com

This requires a Facebook account, and may require additional authentication in the form of credit card or mobile phone verification.

a. We'd be very happy if you include "Friendika" in the application name to increase name recognition. The Friendika icons are also present in the images directory and may be uploaded as a Facebook app icon. Use images/friendika-16.jpg for the Icon and images/friendika-128.jpg for the Logo.

b. The url should be your site URL with a trailing slash. You may use http://portal.friendika.com/privacy as the privacy policy URL unless your site has different requirements, and http://portal.friendika.com as the Terms of Service URL unless you have different requirements. (Friendika is a software application and does not require Terms of Service, though your installation of it might).

c. Set the following values in your .htconfig.php file

$a->config['facebook']['appid'] = 'xxxxxxxxxxx';
$a->config['facebook']['appsecret'] = 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx';

Replace with the settings Facebook gives you.

d. Navigate to Set Web->Site URL & Domain -> Website Settings. Set Site URL to yoursubdomain.yourdomain.com. Set Site Domain to your yourdomain.com.

Visit the Facebook Settings section of the "Settings->Plugin Settings" page. and click 'Install Facebook Connector'.

This will ask you to login to Facebook and grant permission to the plugin to do its stuff. Allow it to do so.

You're done. To turn it off visit the Plugin Settings page again and 'Remove Facebook posting'.

Videos and embeds will not be posted if there is no other content. Links and images will be converted to a format suitable for the Facebook API and long posts truncated - with a link to view the full post.

Facebook contacts will also not be able to view "private" photos, as they are not able to authenticate to your site to establish identity. We will address this in a future release.