Automated Facebook login for server-side headless browsing

Other Questions Headless Browser
1

Hey everyone, I’m working on a project that needs to automate some Facebook tasks using a headless browser on the server side. I’ve got the Facebook SDK set up to log users in and grab info from their news feed, like links and stuff.

The tricky part is that once I’ve collected all the links, I want to pass them to the headless browser to visit them. But the browser isn’t logged in as the user who started the task.

I’m wondering if there’s a way to temporarily log the headless browser in as the user who initiated the process from my app. Has anyone tackled something like this before? Any tips or suggestions would be super helpful!

Here’s a quick example of what I’m trying to do:

function automateTask(user) {
  const browser = await launchHeadlessBrowser();
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  
  // How can I log in here as the user?
  await page.goto('https://facebook.com');
  
  // Visit collected links
  for (const link of user.collectedLinks) {
    await page.goto(link);
    // Do some stuff
  }
}

Is this even possible? Thanks in advance for any help!

2

hey sarahj, i’ve done something similar. one trick is to use puppeteer’s page.setCookie() method to set the user’s FB cookies in the headless browser. you’ll need to grab the cookies when the user logs in through ur app, store em securely, then inject em before visiting FB. just be super careful with storing sensitive data!

3

I’ve tackled a similar challenge before, and there are a couple approaches you could consider. One method is to use the Facebook API to generate a short-lived access token for the user, then inject that into the headless browser session. You’d need to implement server-side token handling and renewal. Another option is to capture and store the user’s cookies after they log in through your app, then inject those cookies into the headless browser. This requires careful security considerations to protect the stored credentials. Both approaches have pros and cons in terms of complexity and security. The API token method is generally safer but more complex to implement. The cookie method is simpler but riskier if not properly secured. Whichever route you choose, make sure to thoroughly test and secure your implementation to protect user data. Good luck with your project!

4

I’ve been down this road before, and it’s definitely a tricky one. One approach that worked well for me was using Selenium WebDriver with a custom Chrome profile. Here’s the gist:

  1. Create a separate Chrome profile for each user.
  2. When a user logs in through your app, use Selenium to automate the login process and save the profile.
  3. For the headless browsing, load that saved profile.

This way, you’re essentially ‘cloning’ the user’s logged-in state. It’s not perfect - you’ll need to handle profile storage securely and deal with session expirations. But it’s been pretty reliable in my experience.

Just a word of caution: make sure you’re complying with Facebook’s terms of service. They’re not always fans of automated browsing, so tread carefully and consider rate limiting your requests.