How do you get a new access token after expiration without a page reload?

Question

First, I want to note that I do not want to request the offline_access extended permission. It's there for a reason but this isn't it.

I am creating an html5 app using the Facebook Javascript API. The user is on a single page for a long time playing the game. I get an access token at the beginning of the flow with FB.getLoginStatus but this token expires at some point and so I am then unable to query Facebook for the user.

I have tried calling FB.getLoginStatus again when the first token fails but this does not appear to be giving me a new access token.

Is the only way to reload the page? Kind of sucks because the user's state is disrupted.

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 18 '12 at 08:09

4

FB.getLoginStatus will reauthenticate a user to your application and will give you a new access token to work with. You should be able to get the new token from response.authResponse.accessToken.

Are you receiving any particular error after the first token fails?

answered Feb 18 '12 at 08:09

Jordan

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Thanks Jordan. Is there any way to refresh this manually beforehand? Say once every 15 minutes? I have a setInterval that calls FB.getLoginStatus every few minutes but I think what must be happening is that the users are calling with the expired token before FB.getLoginStatus is called with the expired key. Being able to get a new one preemptively would be a big help. – Brad Dwyer Feb 18 '12 at 08:14
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What your application should probably do is handle any exceptions by trying to reauthenticate with FB.getLoginStatus, rather than trying to preempt it. Logic would be: attempt FB interaction. If interaction succeeds, great. If interaction does not succeed, try FB.getLoginStatus() to reauthenticate, and then attempt FB interaction again. – Jordan Feb 18 '12 at 08:17

How do you get a new access token after expiration without a page reload?

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