Post on a Facebook Group using 2.0+ API, PHP SDK

Question

Even after having read Facebook Developer's FAQ I've many questions about the development of FB apps, permissions, reviews and so on.

I created my app because I wanted to use FB Login and FB id's to manage users of my (small) site; the site purpose is to organize matches between users of a game app (Aworded) and to post their result onto a FB Group of which my site's users ar members too

1) Do I really need to develop a FB app to reach this aim (edit: kinda rhetorical question...)?

2) I was able to do everything I wanted until the upgrade of my app to version 2.0; now, with basic permissions, I'm not able to publish comments on FB Group through my site/app. What permission do I need to post my site's users comments on the FB Group I administrate? Is it publish_action?

3) I'm trying to obtain this permission through Facebook Review, but every time they answer me that instructions I'm giving cannot be reproduced: how can I show them a "post on Group through my app example", if I don't have yet that permission?

4) Together with the negative response to the permission request, I received another negative one about the possibility to insert my app in the App Center: I don't think I'm interested in publishing my app in the app center (is a "members only" app...): how can I specify that I'm not interested in that? Will my app still usable by everyone connecting to my site?

Sorry for the many questions, but I really need to clarify my ideas on these arguments, and traditional FAQ are not helping me...

Answer 1

1) Yes, of course you need an App for FB Login and posting and all that stuff. How else would you implement FB Login and how else would you get Facebook IDs or post to a group?

2) You need user_managed_groups and publish_actions, as you can read in the docs: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/reference/v2.3/group/feed#publish

3) If only you are using the permission, you don´t need to go throught the review process. You can just authorize yourself with the permissions and store the Access Token. Be aware that an Extended User Token only lasts for 60 days.

4) If you don´t want your App to show up in the App Center, just don´t submit it ;)

Answer 2

As of latest changes to Graph API from August 1st, 2018, permissions user_managed_groups and publish_actions are deprecated, and now there are new permissions required for posting to groups:

publish_to_groups and groups_access_member_info. In addition to this, Facebook app will be allowed to list all user's groups. To list groups only where user is administrator or moderator, using me/groups endpoint, a privacy field should be added among other fields to retrieve for each group.