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Topic-icon Anyone get a Successful Facebook App Review?

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5 years 8 months ago - 5 years 8 months ago #64369 by eSilverStrike
I did not.

I have submitted my review for my Facebook App for a few sites on July 10th and the one I use JFBConnect with on July 25th.

Surprisingly I got a "Your app review has been completed" email from Facebook for one of the websites I submitted on July 10th.

My permission for user_link was not approved.

The App should still function even if you are not approved for a permission correct, but just return the basic information that has been approved?

The user_link permission I submitted appears on the user profile once the person creates an account. The screencast and my description showed and explained from the homepage how to visit the login page and how to create a user account and then how to view your user profile. Everything is working... very straight forward I thought. Here is the canned message I got from Facebook:

FACEBOOK wrote: Your screencast doesn't show how the use of this permission directly improves the user experience in your app. Unfortunately, we also weren't able to determine this from testing your app manually.

All permissions data must be visibly used within your app. We do not accept permission requests for data that you may decide to use later.

Please see our Examples page to learn more about making and submitting a successful screencast.

Learn more about testing permissions prior to approval.

See 'Notes From Your Reviewer' for more details.
Notes From Your Reviewer:
Please click on the link in 'Homepage' to show the function actually works.


I think this Facebook review process is going to be a real mess. Not a lot of information available and no way to contact the reviewer to get more details...
Last edit: 5 years 8 months ago by eSilverStrike.
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5 years 8 months ago #64372 by alzander
We're still in the waiting process ourselves. We had received approval for various permissions before they made everyone go through the process again though.

You're correct that, at a minimum, you should always be able to get the basic profile information (name, email, etc) even if your review request for other permissions is denied. JFBConnect works seamlessly with whatever permissions are available, so even if you have JFBConnect configured to import user_link or other profile data that requires permissions, if that permission isn't available for the user (it was never requested or the user denied it), JFBConnect will just skip trying to import that field.

We'll agree with you though that the process is a bit of a mess. Right now, it's taking weeks to get someone to review your application. The feedback is light if you're denied and you have to re-submit from scratch if so (waiting in line again). The deadline of August 1st has been very blurry as well where Facebook has used language like "You have 'x' days to submit your apps for App Review to retain access to Facebook Platform APIs before the August 1, 2018 deadline." which, in some places, they seem to indicate they won't cut off your ability until you've been denied (since reviews take a while) or if you'll lose access while waiting.

We are putting together information about our app review submission, but for some features of JFBConnect, the permissions don't fall directly in line with Facebook's requirements. Especially for "Channels"... JFBConnect follows the rules on what can be done with the permissions, but JFBConnect really is only meant to get those permissions from admins.. so review process hasn't (and really shouldn't) be required since it's not for all users. We'll see what they say though.

If you're interested in our submission videos for channels, feel free to check them out:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCKJ-56lz82_KGk7...g?view_as=subscriber

Keep us posted on the review of your JFBConnect application!
Alex
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5 years 8 months ago #64378 by eSilverStrike
Good to know.

Just was informed of another review being completed for a very similar site (same CMS and similar theme). User login works exactly the same way but this one was approved for user_link while the other one was not. I used the exact same written description for both sites and very similar screen casts. A lot probably depends on the reviewer you get.
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5 years 8 months ago #64379 by alzander

A lot probably depends on the reviewer you get.

I think that sums it up exactly. It's going to be hit or miss... the good news is that if it's critical, you can likely keep submitting and (eventually) get it approved as long as you're not too out of bounds on something.

Good luck
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5 years 8 months ago - 5 years 8 months ago #64380 by eSilverStrike
Ugghhh. So both publish_pages and manage_pages where not approved for the site that uses JFBConnect. Here is the canned message I get for published pages:

Facebook wrote: Not Approved
Your screencast doesn't show how the use of this permission directly improves the user experience in your app. Unfortunately, we also weren't able to determine this from testing your app manually.
All permissions data must be visibly used within your app. We do not accept permission requests for data that you may decide to use later.
Please see our Examples page to learn more about making and submitting a successful screencast.
Learn more about testing permissions prior to approval.


My question is that now that I am locked out of these permissions how can I show them being used in a updated screencast? I am not sure what I would even add to the screencast...

I also tried logging in using my Facebook account which is linked to my Admin account. I got redirected to Facebook with the following error shown in a dialogue:

Facebook wrote: Invalid Scopes: manage_pages, publish_pages. This message is only shown to developers. Users of your app will ignore these permissions if present. Please read the documentation for valid permissions at: developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/permissions


I figured it would only show me it once and after I click okay it would take me back to my site logged in as Admin (as it is my developer account). It didn't, the dialogue just repeated itself after I hit okay (I did it 3 times).

I am going to hold off resubmitting my permissions until a few people report successful ones. Plus now that things don't work I am not sure how to proceed with updated screen casts...
Last edit: 5 years 8 months ago by eSilverStrike.
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5 years 8 months ago #64381 by alzander

My question is that now that I am locked out of these permissions how can I show them being used in a updated screencast? I am not sure what I would even add to the screencast...

You have 2 options that I know of:
1) (Recommended) Put your app in Development mode while you create the screencast. In that mode, admins of the app will still get any permissions.
2) (Ugly) Create a copy of your site, create a new app, use that new 'clean' app to request permissions

The only reason we'd recommend #2 is if you have so much traffic and constant logins that 0-downtime for social logins is required on your live site.

I figured it would only show me it once and after I click okay it would take me back to my site logged in as Admin (as it is my developer account). It didn't, the dialogue just repeated itself after I hit okay (I did it 3 times).

This is likely a bug in JFBConnect. When you setup a channel, we check if you have the right permissions on login and redirect you to request them. Since you can't grant them, JFBConnect is probably causing a loop by not detecting -> re-requesting...
Again, going into dev mode (temporarily) should let you grant that permission and *I believe* allow you to still use that permission for your admins while in 'live' mode. That may be what is necessary now to let you work through the review process (if that's even possible) while still being able to use those permissions.

Let us know how that goes,
Alex
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5 years 8 months ago - 5 years 8 months ago #64382 by eSilverStrike
Yeah I thought of developer mode after writing the post. That is what I will have to do I guess. I don't get a whole lot of users logging in so that is not an issue. What I don't like is this comment:

Your screencast doesn't show how the use of this permission directly improves the user experience in your app. Unfortunately, we also weren't able to determine this from testing your app manually.


This sentence is very generic and can mean a whole bunch of different things. In the screencast I showed them exactly what we had discussed and how the permissions are used. Before I take the time and resubmit I want to see how other webmaster reviews have gone. There's no point me submitting as there is not really much I can see changing with my current submission.

On re-inspection of the review submission I see an additional box at the bottom of the review.

Additional Information Required
We couldn't find the Facebook Login button in your app.
Please make sure that the button is easy to find and consistent with the Facebook brand guidelines. You can show us where to find the Facebook Login button using your screencast and reviewer instructions. Go here to learn more about making and submitting a successful screencast.
If any of your platforms, (iOS, Android, other) don't use Facebook Login, please remove that platform from Settings. Please also ensure that you have a different App ID for the second platform.


It doesn't say what permission this additional info is needed for. I notice in my video for publish_pages that when I logged into the front-end I did use my username instead of logging in via the facebook button which is located right above the login form and impossible to miss. The admin user I used is linked to my facebook account (not that they would know that) and I did show the create a post functionality and how publish_pages permission is used and I did mention in both the text description and in the screencast that this is for Admins only and not general users.

As I said above once we get a few people who have approved submissions I want to take the text they used exactly for their description and then watch the video they use and then do it word for word except using my site so I have the greatest chance of getting approved. :-)
Last edit: 5 years 8 months ago by eSilverStrike.
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Support Specialist
5 years 8 months ago #64384 by alzander
We agree about knowledge sharing. We're awaiting approval of a few apps to see how it goes, find tune, and then publish our results. We'll make it very clear what works for us.. and we'll be very persistent as well :)

Alex
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  7. Anyone get a Successful Facebook App Review?
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