Facebook API: friends' hometown_location and current_location always empty using FQL

4
votes

I've been looking at this at every possible angle and I can't make my mind around it, maybe you guys can help. I run this query to get my friend's hometown and location:

SELECT uid, name, timezone, hometown_location, current_location 
FROM user WHERE uid IN ( SELECT uid2 FROM friend WHERE uid1 = me() )

And hometown_location and current_location are always NULL, even when they shouldn't be. Using something like /me/friends?fields=hometown,location,... has the same result.

Also, querying for my own hometown_location and current_location DOES WORK. Which makes me think I don't have the permissions to access my friends' hometown & location.. but shouldn't then an error be raised, if this was the case?

Still, my app has the same permissions: user_about_me, friends_about_me, user_hometown, friends_hometown, user_location & friends_location, so I don't think this is the issue.

If I go to http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/ and click on the https://graph.facebook.com/me/friends?access_token=... link, and I append &fields=name,hometown, it works, so I know it can be done.

Any idea what could I be doing wrong?

Thanks a lot!

Manuel

2
facebookfacebook-graph-apifacebook-fql
Ok, forget about this.. I switched a while ago from JS SDK login to server-side login, and I was passing now a req_perms parameter instead of "scope", so it was just taking the permissions ones I accepted a while ago. </facepalm> - manuelflara
I'm getting the same issue on my FQL in iOS with the facebook SDK. Any idea what the issue is? - Scott

2 Answers

6
votes

For friends_hometown you need friends_hometown permission.

For current_location you need friends_location permission.

Once you ensure you have those permissions you should be able to get the data by running that query or through the Graph API - https://graph.facebook.com/FRIEND_ID?fields=hometown,location with an access_token having those permissions.

0
votes

Are you using Simon Cross' interface? https://www.simoncross.com/fb/graph/ It can help you understand what is the problem. Try to regenerate your access_token you might still use an old token which didn't have extended permissions for friend_hometown. The API doesn't throw any kind of error in case you (or the token used) don't have permission to access the data