Facebook app review for autopost

I have got the autopost feature working, but the app is still in development. I submitted it to facebook for approval, since the "user" that is doing the posting has to have publish_pages sand manage_pages permissions. So I typed in instructions on how a person logs in with their facebook ID, then posts an article and then is shows up on facebook.

Facebook came back and said:We were unable to verify the use case outlined in your notes and screencast when we logged in to your app. Please check that your app has correctly integrated the requested permission, then resubmit your app for review so that we can complete testing.
Notes From Your Reviewer:
I've attached some screenshots that may help you understand my response better. You can find them here: scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.8008-...6a0fc2ee&oe=5E16E167

Then for each of the permissions they said "While your screencast and notes provide a valid use case, we were unable to verify this use case when we logged into your app. Please ensure that your app has correctly integrated the requested permission, and resubmit for review so that we can complete testing."

A screenshot of their response is at this link:

The video I sent is this one

How do I respond? They are not going to be able to log into the site with article writing permissions so they will not be able to test the functionality.

This must have come up before since it is a standard feature of JFbconnect.

Hi Alex,

hope it is ok to post beneath this post.
I have another issue with the review process since I don't get any response from them. Initially I created an app and set up all information needed and added screencast. Nothing happended for 4 Weeks. Now I added a new app and did more less the same. This app is in review process for another 12 days now without any response.
Initial confirmation that review process is initiated was send via emai. The progress bar on review page says "review started - approx 5 days".
I can't find any contact or trigger to request an actual status. Any ideas?

Thanks
Peer

So, I have to say that you are probably never going to get approved for the FB app if they can't login and see it work. I actually have a dev site that I make changes to, that potentially break the site, so that I am not making changes to my live website, without verifying that it works. I would really recommend making a dev site to do testing on, including testing that you would want to do outside of this issue. To be honest, I would not submit the autopost feature for review. I would ONLY submit the floating toolbar that they can use to "Create Post" on a test page that you have also created. It is a little bit of a pain to get this all setup, but it is worth it in the long run. I use my dev site and test facebook page 97% of the time and test very minimally on my production site/fb page.

alzander wrote: Unfortunately, it's hit or miss with the review process. What we always recommend is making it very clear that the use case is for an administrator of your website to post content. You will not be requesting the permission from everyday users, which is why they will not see the permission if they simply try to authenticate with Facebook. Normal users won't see it, just the administrators of the site.

The other alternative is to note that *after* they create an account, you can upgrade them to the administrator level so that they can see that experience, although it really shouldn't matter since users won't normally see it.

I am starting to think that I just can't use jfbconnect for the reason I purchased it, which is a feature that is advertised.

I spent a while crafting what to say to the app approvers based on your suggestion, specifically:

Platform Settings
Desktop
Site URL:https://wnymba.org/
It is not clear how I can provide step by step instructions for you to test integration because it is not something that normal users can do, only administrators of the site can do. What we trying to do is use a commercial product called jfbconnect that is specifically designed to allow posts made by administrators (i.e. uploaded content) to a joomla-based website to have this content also posted onto the facebook page associated with the same club. I had followed the instructions for "Post Content to Social Networks" on this page: www.sourcecoast.com/jfbconnect/guides/jo...-network-quick-start

When a club officer with administrative access whats to post content, he/she logs into the website and creates that content. When it published on the website, the jfbconnnect module then posts it to facebook. This works now in developer mode, but I need app approval to move it to production.

For you to implement it step by step, I would need you to create an account on our website (wnymba.org) and then notify me (you can use the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. e-mail) and I can elevate your permissions to such that you can post content. Would that be sufficient? We have it set up that you can log in using your facebook credentials; that didn't need app approval.

If is this is OK, then the step by step procedure would be as follows:

- Log into the site with your account.
- Once I have elevated your website credentials, you would see new menu items for submitting content. This is a menu item called "submit an article" and then there are submenu items that allow what topic the content would cover.
- You would type in some new content, and then click on "save".
- at this point, the content would be available both on wnymba.org and at facebook.com/wnymba

Please note that general users can not do this. Only administrators, who understand that the content generation is for both the website and for facebook, can generate this content.

publish_pages
Tell us how you're using this permission or feature
According to your documentation, "publish_pages" grants the app permission to publish posts, comments, and like Pages managed by the app user.

This app uses the Joomla plugin called jfbconnect from Sourcecoast.com . As the name implies, this plugin provides a connection between Joomla websites and facebook. The app has been developed following the instructions provided on www.sourcecoast.com/jfbconnect/guides/jo...-network-quick-start under the section: Post Content to Social Networks

The app allows for administrator-developed website content to be posted to facebook.

The only persons using this app will be website administrators. The administrators wish to push administrator-developed content onto facebook in order to not have to post the same information twice, which adds value by keeping the official information sources in sync. That is why publish_pages is necessary.

I don't know what else to say. It is still rejected with the same stock answer "We were unable to verify the use case outlined in your notes and screencast when we logged in to your app. Please check that your app has correctly integrated the requested permission, then resubmit your app for review so that we can complete testing." and for each of the requested permissions "While your screencast and notes provide a valid use case, we were unable to verify this use case when we logged into your app. Please ensure that your app has correctly integrated the requested permission, and resubmit for review so that we can complete testing."

Even after creating the account for facebook to use the system as publisher and recording a new video, they still won't accept. As it is now 30 days, I am requesting a refund for this extention. It works as advertised in the testing mode, but Facebook will not accept it. I have tried everything. Below is the latest instructions to facebook that got rejected (I have deleted the text of the credentials I supplied).

USER wrote: The text below the dashed lines is what I submitted the first time. This is my third submission requesting approval. In the second request, I added text asking that you create an account so you can log into the website and do the post creation for which I am requesting approval. Now, I am revising this new text because I already created the new user for you.

Your reply last time was "We were unable to verify the use case outlined in your notes and screencast when we logged in to your app. Please check that your app has correctly integrated the requested permission, then resubmit your app for review so that we can complete testing."

As I mentioned in the fourth paragraph below the dashes, you have to log into the website. I have created an account for you to use on the website to check this app. The username is ---- and the password is ----. To log in:

- go to wnymba.org
- on the menu (on the left on a computer screen, or the hamburger icon on a phone) and select "login form" and enter "----" for username and "----" for password
- Now log in

Now, proceed with the instructions below that i have earlier provided and have now slightly edited to reflect that you now have an account. Please note I also updated the video with a new video showing the login.

---

It is not clear how I can provide step by step instructions for you to test integration because it is not something that normal users can do, only administrators of the site can do. What we trying to do is use a commercial product called jfbconnect that is specifically designed to allow posts made by administrators (i.e. uploaded content) to a joomla-based website to have this content also posted onto the facebook page associated with the same club. I had followed the instructions for "Post Content to Social Networks" on this page: www.sourcecoast.com/jfbconnect/guides/jo...-network-quick-start

When my initial request for app approval was rejected, I posted my question to the support forum of the vendor that supplies this content, sourcecoast. Here is the record of the discussion: www.sourcecoast.com/forums/jfbconnect/jf...-review-for-autopost

When a club officer with administrative access whats to post content, he/she logs into the website and creates that content. When it published on the website, the jfbconnnect module then posts it to facebook. This works now in developer mode, but I need app approval to move it to production.

For you to implement it step by step, I would need you to

- Log into the site with your account as described above the dashed lines above.
- Find the menu items for submitting content. This is a menu item called "submit an article" and then there are submenu items that allow what topic the content would cover. Pick "general news"
- You would type in some new content, and then click on "save".
- at this point, the content would be available both on wnymba.org and at facebook.com/wnymba

Please note that general users can not do this. Only administrators/publishers, who understand that the content generation is for both the website and for facebook, can generate this content.

So, I have to say that I DO NOT work for SourceCoast, but you CAN get this app approved. I know it is frustrating because I fought FB myself. The easiest way to do it is to NOT use the autopost as the example. Facebook's review process needs to be written for dummies. No offense to anyone that works there, but it's true. They want to be able to login to your site, publish an article, click a button to post it to Facebook and view it on your sandbox page. Here is exactly what I did to get my app approved:

* Create a fake page, with your facebook user
* Create a Facebook app with the same user
* Hook the FB app to your real page & fake page (you can use your real page for the final documents, etc)
* Hook your dev site JFBConnect to your FB app (through the JFBConnect configuration)
* Make sure that Enable Social Toolbar, within JFBConnect Configuration -> Advanced section, is set to Yes
* Set the FB Permissions on your dev site to manage_pages,publish_pages (found in JFBConnect Configuration on the Facebook Tab)
* Login to the front end of your dev site with a user that has rights to use the JFBConnect Social Toolbar
* You should be prompted: Grant permission for the app to use manage_pages and publish_pages (If you are not prompted, you may need to remove the user from the User Map in JFBConnect ->User Map)
* DO NOT turn on Autopost
* Create a Channel for the Fake Page, with the user that you approved the app with (don't add any autopost stuff)

* Make a video, using QuickTime or whatever screen recorder you want, with the following items in it:
1. Show the Fake FB Page that has no posts (go to the POSTS section)
2. Create an article (Frontend or Backend) - You can do this before the video if you want
3. View the article on the frontend and click the Create Post button, that is on the social toolbar
4. Select the channel that you created in the previous step and click Post
5. Show the Facebook Page, where the post came through

Once you make that video, submit it, along with the details about what you just did. Don't mention anything about Autopost, it will only confuse them. The trick is to make the process as easy as possible for them to do. If they can't login to at least the front end of your site and submit one of the articles to your test page, it will likely not get approved. Just my experience!

Hopefully this helps!