How do I integrate Facebook into React Native?

Integrating Facebook into a React Native app allows you to add Facebook login, share content to Facebook, and access other Facebook services in your React Native app. Here are the key things you need to do to get Facebook working in React Native:

1. Create a Facebook App

First, you need to create a Facebook app in the Facebook developer dashboard. This will give you an app ID and app secret that allow your app to connect to Facebook’s APIs.

To create a Facebook app:

Go to the Facebook for Developers site and log in with your Facebook developer account.
Click “+ Add App” and select “Consumer” as the app type.
Enter a display name, contact email, and category for your app.

Accept the Facebook policies and click “Create App”.
In the app dashboard, click “Settings” > “Basic” to view your App ID and App Secret.

Make note of the App ID and App Secret as you’ll need them later.

2. Install the React Native Facebook SDK

Next, you need to install the official React Native Facebook SDK package into your project:

npm install react-native-fbsdk

Or if using Yarn:

yarn add react-native-fbsdk

This will install the SDK and allow you to integrate Facebook functionality.

3. Link the React Native Facebook SDK

Now you need to link the native Facebook SDK code to your React Native project. The linking process will differ depending on if you are building for iOS or Android.

Linking on iOS

To link the SDK on iOS:

Run npx pod-install to link the native pods.

Add the FacebookSDK framework to your Xcode project under General > Frameworks, Libraries, and Embedded Content
Add the Bolts framework in the same way.

Linking on Android

To link the SDK on Android:

Add the following to your android/settings.gradle file:

include ':react-native-fbsdk'

Add the project to your dependencies in android/app/build.gradle:

dependencies {
  ...
  implementation project(':react-native-fbsdk') 
}

Update your MainApplication.java file to register the SDK package.

Now the Facebook SDK should be successfully linked to your project!

4. Add Your Facebook App ID

The Facebook SDK needs your Facebook App ID in order to work properly. Open your AppDelegate.m (for iOS) or AndroidManifest.xml (for Android) and add your Facebook App ID:

iOS


#import <FBSDKCoreKit/FBSDKCoreKit.h>

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {

  [[FBSDKApplicationDelegate sharedInstance] application:application
                           didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:launchOptions];

  return YES;
}

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
            openURL:(NSURL *)url
  sourceApplication:(NSString *)sourceApplication
         annotation:(id)annotation {

  return [[FBSDKApplicationDelegate sharedInstance] application:application
                                                        openURL:url
                                              sourceApplication:sourceApplication
                                                     annotation:annotation];
}

Android


<application android:name="com.facebook.reactnativeboost.ReactNativeFacebookApp" ...>
  <meta-data android:name="com.facebook.sdk.ApplicationId" android:value="@string/facebook_app_id"/>
</application>

Replace the @string/facebook_app_id value with your actual App ID.

5. Initialize the Facebook SDK

Now in your root React Native component (or your entry index.js file), you need to initialize the Facebook SDK:


import { LoginManager } from 'react-native-fbsdk';

// Initialize Facebook SDK
LoginManager.initialize();

This will initialize the SDK and make Facebook functionality available to the rest of your app.

6. Add Facebook Login Button

To actually let users log in with Facebook, you need to use the <LoginButton> component provided by the Facebook SDK:


import { LoginButton, AccessToken } from 'react-native-fbsdk';

<LoginButton
  onLoginFinished={(error, result) => {
    if (error) {
      console.log("login has error: " + result.error);
    } else if (result.isCancelled) {
      console.log("login is cancelled.");
    } else {
      AccessToken.getCurrentAccessToken().then(
        (data) => {
          console.log(data.accessToken.toString())
        }
      )
    }
  }}
  onLogoutFinished={() => console.log("logout.")}/>

This will render a Facebook login button that will trigger the onLoginFinished callback on success, failure, or cancellation.

7. Get User Profile Data

Once a user successfully logs in, you can get profile information about the user by making a Graph API call:


const infoRequest = new GraphRequest(
  '/me',
  null,
  (error, result) => {
    if (error) {
      console.log('Error fetching data: ' + error.toString());
    } else {
      console.log('Success fetching data: ' + result.toString());
    }
  }
);

// Start the graph request.
new GraphRequestManager().addRequest(infoRequest).start()

The /me endpoint will return data like name, email, gender, location, etc for the logged in user.

8. Let Users Share Content

To allow users to share content from your app to Facebook, you can use the ShareDialog component:


import { ShareDialog } from 'react-native-fbsdk';

const shareLinkContent = {
  contentType: 'link',
  contentUrl: 'https://www.example.com',
  contentDescription: 'Check out this awesome website!'  
};

// Show the ShareDialog 
shareLinkWithShareDialog(shareLinkContent);

async function shareLinkWithShareDialog(content) {
  const shareDialog = new ShareDialog();
  await shareDialog.show(content);
}

This will open the Facebook share dialog allowing the user to share the provided content.

9. Check Facebook Authentication Status

You can check if a user is already logged into your app via Facebook by calling:


AccessToken.getCurrentAccessToken().then(
  data => {
    if (data) {
      // User is already logged in
    } else {
      // User is not logged in
    }
  } 
)

This asynchronous call will resolve with the access token if the user is logged in, or null if not logged in.

10. Advanced Facebook Analytics

Once you have basic Facebook integration working, you can make your analytics more advanced by tracking custom app events.

Call the logEvent method to track events like adds to cart, purchases, signups,etc:


import { AppEventsLogger } from 'react-native-fbsdk';

AppEventsLogger.logEvent("fb_mobile_add_to_cart");

You can also track the value of events like purchases:


AppEventsLogger.logPurchase(3.99, "USD", { Param: "Value" });

This powerful analytics allows you to gain insights into how users interact with your app.

Conclusion

Integrating Facebook into React Native takes a few steps, but provides powerful functionality:

Facebook Login for quick account creation and authentication.
Sharing content to Facebook from your app.
Accessing Facebook user profile data.

Tracking custom analytics events.

By following the steps outlined here like installing the SDK, linking, initializing, and using the provided components, you can leverage the Facebook platform in your React Native app.

Some key things to remember are:

Create a Facebook App for your project
Install, link, and initialize the React Native Facebook SDK
Use the LoginManager and LoginButton for authentication

Call the Graph API using GraphRequest to get profile data
Use the ShareDialog to share content to Facebook
Log events with AppEventsLogger to track analytics

With these steps, you’ll be able to build powerful social experiences in your React Native app.

Some other ideas for enhancing your Facebook integration:

Tag friends in shared content using @mentions

Publish Open Graph stories about user actions like purchases
Use Facebook Marketing API to track ads and re-target users
Show friend’s scores/achievements from your app in posts

The possibilities are endless once you combine the power of React Native and Facebook. Good luck with your project!