Facebook Graph API Linebreak

Question

I know there are a slew of questions about this already--but I'd like to add linebreaks to Facebook wall posts that are being posted via the Graph API. I've seen a variety of answers suggesting using <center></center> , but that doesn't work for me--it just prints ' <center></center> ' in the post.

To be specific, I'm using Ruby and the Koala gem. I am attempting to post to a user's page . If I post as a link and try the center hack in the description of the post, it works as expected--but not in the message, where I actually need it.

UPDATE: I've submitted a patch to the Koala gem that allows a :no_encoding option to be set. If/when this patch is accepted, it will allow for linebreaks if that options is set to true. For now, folks with this issue can grab my fork of the gem: https://github.com/ideaoforder/koala

For those who are curious, the issue was with Faraday. The request method was set to :url_encode which sends the params as url-encoded form data. The params have to be sent as regular data, not form data (like using the -d flag instead of the -f flag in cURL). We accomplish this by sending data as part of the query string instead of encoded params.

Answer 1

What facebook actually accepts in posts seems to change from time to time, and isn't documented very well. Given that, I was able to create a wall post with line breaks in the message by making the following request:

POST https://graph.facebook.com/me/feed?access_token=<token>&message=line+1%0D%0Aline+2

creating the following post on my wall:

line 1
line 2

The important part is to know what's getting url-encoded where. The message parameter in my API request contains %0D%0A , which is the equivalent of an escape sequence of \\r\\n ( see here ). If the Koala gem you're using is url-encoding the input you give it, then passing a string with the \\r\\n escape codes should be all you need.

Update: It may be useful to try making the post manually using a command-line program. See if you can get it working with this curl command:

curl 'https://graph.facebook.com/<wall id>?access_token=<access_token>' -d 'message=this+is+line+1%0D%0Athis+is+line+2'

As usual substitute the wall id and access token parameters with your own (have your Ruby program print out the access_token it gets from Facebook). You should see a string of JSON as output:

{"id":"wallid_postid"}

Where wallid and postid are numbers. If instead you get an error, it's possible there is a permission problem with Facebook or your application.

Permissions : Your app must have the manage_pages permission from an administrator of a page if you're posting as that page , and the user must be currently logged in to your app and facebook when the request is made, unless your app has also requested the offline_access permission. If the user is not logged in you will get this response:

{"error": {
    "type":"GraphMethodException",
    "message":"Unsupported post request."
}}

Answer 2

I also struggled a while with the line-break on statuses. I found that rather than struggling with inserting line-breaks in a status, using notes would give a lot flexibility if one's desire could be also met with this approach. A Facebook Page can also possess own notes. Simply add ?sk=notes to your account's or Page's URL, then you will be seeing Facebook's Notes application.