facebook oauth, no picture with basic permissions

Question

I'm using oauth to log facebook users in to my app. I'm testing with my FB account and with the basic permissions scope. Facebook docs say that I should be able to get 'picture' with basic permissions, but my account has no 'picture' property when I access it with the API. First name, last name, etc. are there though.

Is this because my account is not publicly viewable? Why might this happen? I definitely have a profile picture attached.

Here's my fb link: http://www.facebook.com/josh.nankin

Answer 1

best way is to keep the basic permissions and fire the request for the image in a separate step. Ask the graph api in this way:

https://graph.facebook.com/[fb_user_id]?fields=picture.type(small) 

larger image:

https://graph.facebook.com/[fb_user_id]?fields=picture.type(large) 

You will get a JSON response like:

{    "id": "100001XXXXXXXXX",    "picture": {       "data": {          "url": "http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-XXXX/41524_1000018XXX51507_XXXX3_q.jpg",          "is_silhouette": false       }    } } 

Answer 2

You can derive the profile photo URL directly from the basic standard OAuth info returned from facebook as Josh Nankin noted, BUT with a clarification.

You can still use the user's ID returned to request the photo, for example:

https://graph.facebook.com/914431778578699/picture?type=large

is the same as

https://graph.facebook.com/dark.eye.1/picture?type=large

This way only one request must be made, because you can interpolate the photo URL as you store it in the DB.