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Xojo Plugin

Facebook Download all Photos to Local Files

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Demonstrates how to download all of one's Facebook photos to a local filesystem directory. This sample code keeps a local cache to avoid re-downloading the same photos twice. The program can be run again after a time, and it will download only photos that haven't yet been downloaded.

Chilkat Xojo Plugin Downloads

Xojo Plugin
Dim success As Boolean
success = False

// This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
// See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

// This example will use a local disk cache to avoid re-fetching the same
// photo id after it's been fetched once.
Dim fbCache As New Chilkat.Cache
// The cache will use 1 level of 256 sub-directories.
fbCache.Level = 1
// Use a directory path that makes sense on your operating system..
fbCache.AddRoot "C:/fbCache"

// This example assumes a previously obtained an access token
Dim oauth2 As New Chilkat.OAuth2
oauth2.AccessToken = "FACEBOOK-ACCESS-TOKEN"

Dim rest As New Chilkat.Rest

// Connect to Facebook.
success = rest.Connect("graph.facebook.com",443,True,True)
If (success <> True) Then
    System.DebugLog(rest.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If

// Provide the authentication credentials (i.e. the access key)
success = rest.SetAuthOAuth2(oauth2)

// There are two choices:  
// We can choose to download the photos the person is tagged in or has uploaded
// by setting type to "tagged" or "uploaded".
success = rest.AddQueryParam("type","uploaded")

// To download all photos, we begin with an outer loop that iterates over
// the list of photo nodes in pages.  Each page returned contains a list of 
// photo node ids.  Each photo node id must be retrieved to get the download URL(s)
// of the actual image.

// I don't know the max limit for the number of records that can be downloaded at once.
success = rest.AddQueryParam("limit","100")

// Get the 1st page of photos ids.
// See https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/reference/user/photos/ for more information.
Dim responseJson As String
responseJson = rest.FullRequestNoBody("GET","/v2.7/me/photos")
If (rest.LastMethodSuccess <> True) Then
    System.DebugLog(rest.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If

Dim photoJson As New Chilkat.JsonObject
Dim saPhotoUrls As New Chilkat.StringArray
Dim sbPhotoIdPath As New Chilkat.StringBuilder

Dim json As New Chilkat.JsonObject
json.EmitCompact = False
success = json.Load(responseJson)

Dim i As Int32
Dim photoId As String
Dim imageUrl As String

// Get the "after" cursor.
Dim afterCursor As String
afterCursor = json.StringOf("paging.cursors.after")
While json.LastMethodSuccess = True

    System.DebugLog("-------------------")
    System.DebugLog("afterCursor = " + afterCursor)

    // For each photo id in this page...
    i = 0
    Dim numItems As Int32
    numItems = json.SizeOfArray("data")
    While i < numItems
        json.I = i
        photoId = json.StringOf("data[i].id")
        System.DebugLog("photoId = " + photoId)

        // We need to fetch the JSON for this photo.  Check to see if it's in the local disk cache,
        // and if not, then get it from Facebook.
        Dim photoJsonStr As String
        photoJsonStr = fbCache.FetchText(photoId)
        If (fbCache.LastMethodSuccess = False) Then
            // It's not locally available, so get it from Facebook..
            sbPhotoIdPath.Clear 
            success = sbPhotoIdPath.Append("/v2.7/")
            success = sbPhotoIdPath.Append(photoId)

            success = rest.ClearAllQueryParams()
            success = rest.AddQueryParam("fields","id,album,images")

            System.DebugLog("Fetching photo node from Facebook...")

            // This REST request will continue using the existing connection.
            // If the connection was closed, it will automatically reconnect to send the request.
            photoJsonStr = rest.FullRequestNoBody("GET",sbPhotoIdPath.GetAsString())
            If (rest.LastMethodSuccess <> True) Then
                System.DebugLog(rest.LastErrorText)
                Return
            End If

            // Add the photo JSON to the local cache.
            success = fbCache.SaveTextNoExpire(photoId,"",photoJsonStr)
        End If

        // Parse the photo JSON and add the main photo download URL to saPhotoUrls
        // There may be multiple URLs in the images array, but the 1st one is the largest and main photo URL.
        // The others are smaller sizes of the same photo.
        success = photoJson.Load(photoJsonStr)
        imageUrl = photoJson.StringOf("images[0].source")
        If (photoJson.LastMethodSuccess = True) Then

            // Actually, we'll add a small JSON document that contains both the image ID and the URL.
            Dim imgUrlJson As New Chilkat.JsonObject
            success = imgUrlJson.AppendString("id",photoId)
            success = imgUrlJson.AppendString("url",imageUrl)
            success = saPhotoUrls.Append(imgUrlJson.Emit())
            System.DebugLog("imageUrl = " + imageUrl)
        End If

        i = i + 1
    Wend

    // Prepare for getting the next page of photos ids.
    // We can continue using the same REST object.
    // If already connected, we'll continue using the existing connection.
    // Otherwise, a new connection will automatically be made if needed.
    success = rest.ClearAllQueryParams()
    success = rest.AddQueryParam("type","uploaded")
    success = rest.AddQueryParam("limit","20")
    success = rest.AddQueryParam("after",afterCursor)

    // Get the next page of photo ids.
    responseJson = rest.FullRequestNoBody("GET","/v2.7/me/photos")
    If (rest.LastMethodSuccess <> True) Then
        System.DebugLog(rest.LastErrorText)
        Return
    End If

    success = json.Load(responseJson)
    afterCursor = json.StringOf("paging.cursors.after")
Wend

System.DebugLog("No more pages of photos.")

// Now iterate over the photo URLs and download each to a file.
// We can use Chilkat HTTP.  No Facebook authorization (access token) is required to download
// the photo once the URL is known.  
Dim http As New Chilkat.Http

// We'll cache the image data so that if run again, we don't re-download the same image again.
Dim numUrls As Int32
numUrls = saPhotoUrls.Count
i = 0
Dim urlJson As New Chilkat.JsonObject
Dim imageBytes As MemoryBlock
Dim fac As New Chilkat.FileAccess

While i < numUrls
    success = urlJson.Load(saPhotoUrls.GetString(i))
    photoId = urlJson.StringOf("id")
    imageUrl = urlJson.StringOf("url")

    // Check the local cache for the image data.
    // Only download and save if not already cached.
    imageBytes = fbCache.FetchFromCache(imageUrl)
    If (fbCache.LastMethodSuccess = False) Then
        //  This photo needs to be downloaded.

        Dim sbImageUrl As New Chilkat.StringBuilder
        success = sbImageUrl.Append(imageUrl)

        // Let's form a filename..
        Dim extension As String
        extension = ".jpg"
        If (sbImageUrl.Contains(".gif",False) = True) Then
            extension = ".gif"
        End If

        If (sbImageUrl.Contains(".png",False) = True) Then
            extension = ".png"
        End If

        If (sbImageUrl.Contains(".tiff",False) = True) Then
            extension = ".tiff"
        End If

        If (sbImageUrl.Contains(".bmp",False) = True) Then
            extension = ".bmp"
        End If

        Dim sbLocalFilePath As New Chilkat.StringBuilder
        success = sbLocalFilePath.Append("C:/Photos/facebook/uploaded/")
        success = sbLocalFilePath.Append(photoId)
        success = sbLocalFilePath.Append(extension)

        imageBytes = http.QuickGet(imageUrl)
        If (http.LastMethodSuccess <> True) Then
            System.DebugLog(http.LastErrorText)
            Return
        End If

        // We've downloaded the photo image bytes into memory.
        // Save it to the cache AND save it to the output file.
        success = fbCache.SaveToCacheNoExpire(imageUrl,"",imageBytes)
        success = fac.WriteEntireFile(sbLocalFilePath.GetAsString(),imageBytes)

        System.DebugLog("Downloaded to " + sbLocalFilePath.GetAsString())
    End If

    i = i + 1
Wend

System.DebugLog("Finished downloading all Facebook photos!")