How to save Facebook user data to MySql database with Angular and Ionic

Question

I am working an an Ionic app where I implement native Facebook login (followed this tutorial -> https://ionicthemes.com/tutorials/about/native-facebook-login-with-ionic-framework). As you can see the Facebook data now gets stored in local storage. I need to save this data in my MySql database.

I got this to work without any issues. Now I want to store the Facebook user data to my MySql database.

Basically I am not sure where to place my http request to pass the data along to my database or how to even do it code wise.

I should mention that I have a backend already setup (which is coded with bootstrap, html, css, js php and mysql).

So the url for my users would be this: http://www.xxxxx.com/user.php

Part of my controller code:

app.controller('LoginCtrl', function($scope, $state, $q, UserService, $ionicLoading) {
  // This is the success callback from the login method
  var fbLoginSuccess = function(response) {
    if (!response.authResponse){
      fbLoginError("Cannot find the authResponse");
      return;
    }

    var authResponse = response.authResponse;

    getFacebookProfileInfo(authResponse)
    .then(function(profileInfo) {
      // For the purpose of this example I will store user data on local storage
      UserService.setUser({
        authResponse: authResponse,
                userID: profileInfo.id,
                name: profileInfo.name,
                email: profileInfo.email,
        picture : "http://graph.facebook.com/" + authResponse.userID + "/picture?type=large"
      });
      $ionicLoading.hide();
      $state.go('app.dashboard');
    }, function(fail){
      // Fail get profile info
      console.log('profile info fail', fail);
    });
  };

  // This is the fail callback from the login method
  var fbLoginError = function(error){
    console.log('fbLoginError', error);
    $ionicLoading.hide();
  };

  // This method is to get the user profile info from the facebook api
  var getFacebookProfileInfo = function (authResponse) {
    var info = $q.defer();

    facebookConnectPlugin.api('/me?fields=email,name&access_token=' + authResponse.accessToken, null,
      function (response) {
                console.log('logging facebook response',response);
        info.resolve(response);
      },
      function (response) {
                console.log(response);
        info.reject(response);
      }
    );
    return info.promise;
  };

  //This method is executed when the user press the "Login with facebook" button
  $scope.facebookSignIn = function() {
    facebookConnectPlugin.getLoginStatus(function(success){
      if(success.status === 'connected'){
        // The user is logged in and has authenticated your app, and response.authResponse supplies
        // the user's ID, a valid access token, a signed request, and the time the access token
        // and signed request each expire
        console.log('getLoginStatus', success.status);

            // Check if we have our user saved
            var user = UserService.getUser('facebook');

            if(!user.userID){
                    getFacebookProfileInfo(success.authResponse)
                    .then(function(profileInfo) {
                        // For the purpose of this example I will store user data on local storage
                        UserService.setUser({
                            authResponse: success.authResponse,
                            userID: profileInfo.id,
                            name: profileInfo.name,
                            email: profileInfo.email,
                            picture : "http://graph.facebook.com/" + success.authResponse.userID + "/picture?type=large"
                        });
                        $state.go('app.dashboard');
                    }, function(fail){
                        // Fail get profile info
                        console.log('profile info fail', fail);
                    });
                }else{
                    $state.go('app.dashboard');
                }
      } else {
        // If (success.status === 'not_authorized') the user is logged in to Facebook,
                // but has not authenticated your app
        // Else the person is not logged into Facebook,
                // so we're not sure if they are logged into this app or not.

                console.log('getLoginStatus', success.status);

                $ionicLoading.show({
          template: 'Logging in...'
        });

                // Ask the permissions you need. You can learn more about
                // FB permissions here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/permissions/v2.4
        facebookConnectPlugin.login(['email', 'public_profile'], fbLoginSuccess, fbLoginError);
      }
    });
  };
})

My service.js code (local storage)

angular.module('Challenger.services', [])

.service('UserService', function() {
  // For the purpose of this example I will store user data on ionic local storage but you should save it on a database
  var setUser = function(user_data) {
    window.localStorage.starter_facebook_user = JSON.stringify(user_data);
  };

  var getUser = function(){
    return JSON.parse(window.localStorage.starter_facebook_user || '{}');
  };

  return {
    getUser: getUser,
    setUser: setUser
  };
});

Answer 1

My recommendation is to simply use a JSON ajax PUT or POST from JavaScript. For example, assuming a backend host of example.com

Add a CSP to the Ionic HTML such as:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Security-Policy" content="default-src http://example.com; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval'">

Add the domain to the whitelist in the Cordova config.xml:

<access origin="http://example.com" />

Then you can call PHP from JavaScript with ajax in your angular controller (I used jQuery here but you can use any JavaScript ajax library):

var data = {
        authResponse: authResponse,
                userID: profileInfo.id,
                name: profileInfo.name,
                email: profileInfo.email,
        picture : "http://graph.facebook.com/" + authResponse.userID + "/picture?type=large"
      };

$.post( "http://example.com/login.php", data, function(returnData, status) {
   console.log('PHP returned HTTP status code', status);
});

Finally, on the PHP side — e.g. login.php — access the post data with $_POST['userId'], $_POST['email'], etc.