You can use the Facebook graph API :

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/

look for the searching section,

QUOTE from fb:

**Searching**

You can search over all public objects in the social graph with https://graph.facebook.com/search. The format is:

https://graph.facebook.com/search?q=QUERY&amp;type=OBJECT_TYPE
We support search for the following types of objects:

All public posts: https://graph.facebook.com/search?q=watermelon&amp;type=post

 - People:
   https://graph.facebook.com/search?q=mark&amp;type=user
 - Pages:
   https://graph.facebook.com/search?q=platform&amp;type=page
 - Events:
   https://graph.facebook.com/search?q=conference&amp;type=event
 - Groups:
   https://graph.facebook.com/search?q=programming&amp;type=group
 - Places:
   https://graph.facebook.com/search?q=coffee&amp;type=place&amp;center=37.76,122.427&amp;distance=1000
 - Checkins:
   https://graph.facebook.com/search?type=checkin
  
You can also search an individual
   user&#39;s News Feed, restricted to that
   user&#39;s friends, by adding a q
   argument to the home connection URL:

 - News Feed:
   https://graph.facebook.com/me/home?q=facebook

Facebook Public Post search is no longer available in Graph API v2.0:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/apps/changelog

Better way is using [Facebook PHP SDK][1]

-&gt; Search any term using facebook php sdk.

&lt;!-- language: lang-php --&gt;

    $mySrch = $facebook-&gt;api(&#39;/search?q=YOUR WORD&amp;type=TYPES&#39;);

THERE ARE VARIOUS TYPES, you can search:

 1. post
 2. user
 3. event
 4. group
 5. place
 6. checkin


  [1]: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/php/

The search according to &quot;type=user&quot; type=&quot;event&quot; type=&quot;group&quot; type=&quot;page is deprecated now. See https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/changelog/breaking-changes#search-4-4

&gt; **Possible Duplicate:**  
&gt; [error: Unable to find vcvarsall.bat](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2817869/error-unable-to-find-vcvarsall-bat)  

&lt;!-- End of automatically inserted text --&gt;

I&#39;m trying to install MySql interface for python, but I got an error (mentioned below). And I know the solution: install Microsoft Visual C++. Is there any alternative solution apart from installing Microsoft Visual C++? I mean this has really hurt me; why should I install Microsoft Visual C++ just because to build this single package it&#39;s a useless and time-wasting approach from the developer&#39;s perspective. Is there any alternative solution for this issue?

    MySQL-python-1.2.3c1&gt;setup.py install
    running install
    running bdist_egg
    running egg_info
    writing MySQL_python.egg-info\PKG-INFO
    writing top-level names to MySQL_python.egg-info\top_level.txt
    writing dependency_links to MySQL_python.egg-info\dependency_links.txt
    reading manifest file &#39;MySQL_python.egg-info\SOURCES.txt&#39;
    reading manifest template &#39;MANIFEST.in&#39;
    writing manifest file &#39;MySQL_python.egg-info\SOURCES.txt&#39;
    installing library code to build\bdist.win32\egg
    running install_lib
    running build_py
    copying MySQLdb\release.py -&gt; build\lib.win32-2.6\MySQLdb
    running build_ext
    building &#39;_mysql&#39; extension
    error: Unable to find vcvarsall.bat

I&#39;m using Python 2.6 on Windows XP.


Python issue:Unable to find vcvarsall.bat

Can anyone give me a brief example of testing IO actions using Monadic QuickCheck?

Testing IO actions with Monadic QuickCheck

I can&#39;t seem to find the definitive word out there of the facebook search api: the api that allows you to search public status updates and comments/posts (there is a web interface for all logged in users for this at the moment). 

Does facebook have a public search API yet?

<p>I can't seem to find the definitive word out there of the facebook search api: the api that allows you to search public status updates and comments/posts (there is a web interface for all logged in users for this at the moment).</p>


&lt;!-- language-all: lang-cs --&gt;

I am using http://www.codeproject.com/KB/IP/Facebook_API.aspx

I am trying to call the [XAML][1] which is created using [WPF][2]. But it gives me an error:

&gt; The calling thread must be STA, because many UI components require this.

I don&#39;t know what to do. I am trying to do this:

    FacebookApplication.FacebookFriendsList ffl = new FacebookFriendsList();

But it is giving me that error.

I added a background worker:

    static BackgroundWorker bw = new BackgroundWorker();

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        bw.DoWork += bw_DoWork;
        bw.RunWorkerAsync(&quot;Message to worker&quot;);
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    static void bw_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
    {
        // This is called on the worker thread
        FacebookApplication.FacebookFriendsList ffl = new FacebookFriendsList();

        Console.WriteLine(e.Argument);        // Writes &quot;Message to worker&quot;

        // Perform time-consuming task...
    }

  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Application_Markup_Language
  [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Presentation_Foundation



The calling thread must be STA, because many UI components require this

&gt; **Possible Duplicate:**  
&gt; [How does Facebook Sharer select Images?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1138460/how-does-facebook-sharer-select-images)  

&lt;!-- End of automatically inserted text --&gt;

I am making a flash app that demonstrates potensial traffic injuries when driving at different speeds. I want the user to be able to share this information on facebook. However this demands that i can customize the text that will appear on facebook in some manner.

I am making an url that is opened in a blank window (from the flash app itself). I specify the u and t parameters, putting the generated message as the t parameter. But this seems to always be overridden by the pages title. If i omit the title tag from the html code, the file name is used (also overriding the specified title).
&lt;pre&gt;
http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://espentokerud.com/face/addiste.html&amp;t=test;
&lt;/pre&gt;
I also tried url-encoding the url, but to no avail.
&lt;pre&gt;
http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3a%2f%2fespentokerud.com%2fface%2faddiste.html&amp;t=test;
&lt;/pre&gt;
I also tried using the addthis API, but experience the same shortcomings. The funny thing is that if i post a swf, the title and description can be customized, and it is also possible to specify a screenshot. But if i dont post a swf, this seems to be ignored.

I am aware that I can use meta tags on the html page to specify the thumbnail image, title and description, but some of this content has to be based on calculations inside the flash app. 




Want custom title / image / description in facebook share link from a flash app

I use ASP .NET and Facebook Connect APIs. but when I run the app and press Connect button it&#39;s return to the Website not to the test local server which is (http://localhost:xxxx/test.aspx)
So how I can test Facebook locally (i.e How I can change the callback url) ?

How to Test Facebook Connect Locally

I need to get via Facebook connect user&#39;s info and send a private message to all of his friends. Is it possible?

Send private messages to friends

I am playing around with the Oauth 2.0 authorization in Facebook and was wondering if the access tokens Facebook passes out ever expire. If so, is there a way to request a long-life access token?

Do Facebook Oauth 2.0 Access Tokens Expire?

When looking into REST one of the first things probably anybody will notice is there isn&#39;t any transaction semantics defined, some say this is implicitly against what REST is, whilst others say any attempt to do so would result in &#39;tainting&#39; the REST systems.

But lets say for arguments sake that REST did become a popular &#39;api&#39; choice, and every site in the universe started to expose restful entry points.

How exactly are these usable without transaction behavior (and I&#39;m talking non compensating)? because it seems to me one of the benefits of REST is that it breaks down the components of data, this you would think opens them up to having smart clients compose data (and add and adjust such composed data) from multiple services. But if I cannot do my changes to this composition of data atomically and in isolation then using REST becomes useless.

As time goes on and the need for serious data exposition arrives, we&#39;re gonna want something that is: Simple (REST wins there), and supports transactional behavior so we can manipulate this data reliably.

Now, I&#39;ve read a specific argument a couple of times in my research, and its related to how we&#39;re supposed to think about transactions in REST, and the example given is the shopping cart, where you implicitly have isolation because the cart is YOURS.

However I disagree with this argument, firstly, the isolation a shopping cart has is merely convenient, this isn&#39;t a transaction isolation.. what happens if I&#39;m simultaneously doing an operation against my cart whilst some part of my application is reading data from it? I wouldn&#39;t expect the reading part of my application to see data that is &#39;still in transaction&#39;.

Not to mention the fact that not all data changes have an implicit transaction model, transactions over multiple services definitely don&#39;t. 

It seems to me that transactions need to happen, and need to happen in a way that enables the actual REST calls to be ignorant of the fact (adding to the rest payload being a big no no, but adding headers being OK).

I&#39;ve read a few suggestions about how a transaction model can be created over REST, and some of the specifications being written seem to be very recent.

Are there any real thoughts about this? shouldn&#39;t there be something &#39;more&#39; than REST so that REST&#39;s simplistic nature can be harnessed against solid data manipulation (&#39;acid&#39; transactions).

If not are we expected to really UP the ante, and tell service developers that if they want to interact in a pure data world they need to support something arguably monolithic like soap? or even worse try and build their own custom transaction support into something like REST, making each service non-standard and breaking the entire power of REST?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

---

Edit, added brief scenario:

Imagine a client form that handle creation of an Album, for convenience on that Album, rather than asking the user to give the uri for the artist resource, they can pick from a list of artists (most likely GET&#39;d from the artists catalog).

For sake of usability the client can write the artist name in manually so they can create an artist &#39;inline&#39;.. in the posting scenario, the client code understands this, and before sending the request to create the album, it firstly attempts to determine if the artist already exists, if so, gets the uri for that artist, otherwise creates the artist and gets the artists uri.

The client code then continues on to create the album, this is the smarter than usual client, it isn&#39;t sat right on top of REST and &#39;dumbly&#39; posting, but instead has some interaction that handles the purer REST logic.

However in this scenario it would be nice to guarantee that the artist isn&#39;t created unless the album is, given the artist is created first.

This isn&#39;t as &#39;critical&#39; as a transaction would imply, but it defines a set of work the client code would prefer to be happening as one operation (after all, it IS making this look like a single operation to the user).

The only guidance I&#39;ve seen for this scenario is to have the client do compensating action in the event the album creation fails, and specifically call to delete the artist. But this seems problematic, because the client is assuming the artist was isolated, as unlikely as it may be, what happens if another client already &#39;saw&#39; that artist, and assigns to it?

These are my concerns regarding doing data changes, and whilst there are certainly other gaps (who says the artist couldn&#39;t be just deleted at a later date anyway), those actions are NOT transparent (ie, the actions aren&#39;t something automated by the client, but something a user has specifically requested).

I hope that helps illuminate the topic some.

If transactions over REST are unachievable, how can REST ever be really useful?

Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is typically prevent with one of the following methods:

- Check referer - RESTful but unreliable
- insert token into form and store the token in the server session - not really RESTful
- cryptic one time URIs - not RESTful for the same reason as tokens
- send password manually for this request (not the cached password used with HTTP auth) - RESTful but not convenient


My idea is to use a user secret, a cryptic but static form id and JavaScript to generate tokens. 

    &lt;form method=&quot;POST&quot; action=&quot;/someresource&quot; id=&quot;7099879082361234103&quot;&gt;
    	&lt;input type=&quot;hidden&quot; name=&quot;token&quot; value=&quot;generateToken(...)&quot;&gt;
    	...
    &lt;/form&gt;

 1. `GET /usersecret/john_doe` fetched by the JavaScript from the authenticated user.
 2. Response: `OK 89070135420357234586534346` This secret is conceptionally static, but can be changed every day/hour ... to improve security. This is the only confidential thing.
 3. Read the cryptic (but static for all users!) form id with JavaScript, process it together with the user secret: `generateToken(7099879082361234103, 89070135420357234586534346)`
 4. Send the form along with the generated token to the server.
 5. Since the server knows the user secret and the form id, it is possible to run the same generateToken function as the client did before sending and compare both results. Only when both values are equal the action will be authorized.

Is something wrong with this approach, despite the fact that it doesn&#39;t work without JavaScript?

**Addendum:**

 - [Stateless CSRF Protection][1]


  [1]: http://appsandsecurity.blogspot.de/2012/01/stateless-csrf-protection.html

How to prevent CSRF in a RESTful application?

In [wiki article for REST][1]
it is indicated that if you use http://example.com/resources DELETE, that means you are deleting the entire collection.

If you use http://example.com/resources/7HOU57Y DELETE, that means you are deleting that element.

I am doing a WEBSITE, note NOT WEB SERVICE.

I have a list that has 1 checkbox for each item on the list. Once i select multiple items for deletion, i will allow users to press a button called DELETE SELECTION. If user presses the button, a js dialog box will popup asking user to confirm the deletion. if user confirms, all the items are deleted.

So how should i cater for deleting multiple items in a RESTFUL way?

NOTE, currently for DELETE in a webpage, what i do is i use FORM tag with POST as action but include a _method with the value DELETE since [this is what was indicated by others in SO on how to do RESTful delete for webpage][2].


  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer
  [2]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2391792/is-restful-meant-for-web-services-only-or-for-both-web-services-and-web-pages

Restful way for deleting a bunch of items

I am writing a RESTful service for a customer management system and I am trying to find the best practice for updating records partially. For example, I want the caller to be able to read the full record with a GET request. But for updating it only certain operations on the record are allowed, like change the status from ENABLED to DISABLED. (I have more complex scenarios than this) 

I don&#39;t want the caller to submit the entire record with just the updated field for security reasons (it also feels like overkill).

Is there a recommended way of constructing the URIs? When reading the REST books RPC style calls seem to be frowned upon.

If the following call returns the full customer record for the customer with the id 123

    GET /customer/123
    &lt;customer&gt;
        {lots of attributes}
        &lt;status&gt;ENABLED&lt;/status&gt;
        {even more attributes}
    &lt;/customer&gt;

how should I update the status?

    POST /customer/123/status
    &lt;status&gt;DISABLED&lt;/status&gt;

    POST /customer/123/changeStatus
    DISABLED

    ...

**Update**: To augment the question. How does one incorporate &#39;business logic calls&#39; into a REST api? Is there an agreed way of doing this? Not all of the methods are CRUD by nature. Some are more complex, like &#39;*sendEmailToCustomer(123)*&#39;, &#39;*mergeCustomers(123, 456)*&#39;, &#39;*countCustomers()*&#39;

    POST /customer/123?cmd=sendEmail

    POST /cmd/sendEmail?customerId=123

    GET /customer/count 


Best practice for partial updates in a RESTful service

What is the difference between [OData][1] and REST-ful web services?



  [1]: http://www.odata.org

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Michael Neale	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Facebook	Jarod DY Law	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Facebook	Wissam El-Kik	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Facebook	Jignesh Vishavadia	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Facebook	Omega Cube	View Answer on Stackoverflow

Does facebook have a public search API yet?

Facebook Problem Overview

Facebook Solutions

Solution 1 - Facebook

Solution 2 - Facebook

Solution 3 - Facebook

Solution 4 - Facebook

Testing IO actions with Monadic QuickCheck

Python issue:Unable to find vcvarsall.bat

Attributions