@Mittineague
I’m testing this importer on a dummy Discourse with 1 admin user.
I think there was some errors at fetching facebook names (This importer uses Facebook FQL to interactive with Graph API which is deprecated)
def fb_username_to_dc(name)
# Create username from full name, only letters and numbers
username = name.tr('^A-Za-z0-9', '').downcase
# Maximum length of a Discourse username is 15 characters
username = username[0,15]
end
I added puts name, nothing was written.
Well… this is a very old import script. 
I’ll see if I can find the time to have a look at it. I never did, cause my groups were converted back then.
@Sander78
Follow up:
I’m debuging your script. Here some error that I found:
Facebook doesn’t return username anymore, so I use name instead.
Line 257 => fb_writer[‘name’]
Line 273 => fb_writer[‘name’]
Here is the full code:
############################################################
#### IMPORT FACEBOOK GROUP INTO DISCOURSE
####
#### created by Sander Datema (info@sanderdatema.nl)
####
#### version 1.6.1 (11/07/2013)
############################################################
############################################################
#### Description
############################################################
#
# This rake task will import all posts and comments of a
# Facebook group into Discourse.
#
# - It will preserve post and comment dates
# - It will not import likes
# - It will create new user accounts for each imported user
# using username@localhost as email address and the full
# name of each user converted to lower case, no spaces as
# username
# - It will use the first 50 characters of the post as title
# for the topic
############################################################
#### Prerequisits
############################################################
#
# - A Facebook Graph API token. get it here:
# https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer
# Select user_groups and read_stream as permission
# - Add this to your Gemfile:
# gem 'koala', require: false
# - Edit the configuration file config/import_facebook.yml
############################################################
#### The Rake Task
############################################################
require 'koala'
desc "Import posts and comments from a Facebook group"
task "import:facebook_group" => :environment do
# Import configuration file
@config = YAML.load_file('config/import_facebook.yml')
TEST_MODE = @config['test_mode']
FB_TOKEN = @config['facebook_token']
FB_GROUP_NAME = @config['facebook_group_name']
DC_CATEGORY_NAME = @config['discourse_category_name']
DC_ADMIN = @config['discourse_admin']
REAL_EMAIL = @config['real_email_addresses']
if TEST_MODE then puts "\n*** Running in TEST mode. No changes to Discourse database are made\n".yellow end
unless REAL_EMAIL then puts "\n*** Using fake email addresses\n".yellow end
# Some checks
# Exit rake task if admin user doesn't exist
unless dc_user_exists(DC_ADMIN) then
puts "\nERROR: The admin user #{DC_ADMIN} does not exist".red
exit_script
end
# Setup Facebook connection
fb_initialize_connection(FB_TOKEN)
# Collect IDs
group_id = fb_get_group_id(FB_GROUP_NAME)
# Fetch all facebook posts
fb_fetch_posts(group_id, current_unix_time)
if TEST_MODE then
exit_script # We're done
else
# Create users in Discourse
dc_create_users_from_fb_writers
# Backup Site Settings
dc_backup_site_settings
# Then set the temporary Site Settings we need
dc_set_temporary_site_settings
# Create and/or set Discourse category
dc_category = dc_get_or_create_category(DC_CATEGORY_NAME, DC_ADMIN)
# Import Facebooks posts into Discourse
fb_import_posts_into_dc(dc_category)
# Restore Site Settings
dc_restore_site_settings
end
puts "\n*** DONE".green
# DONE!
end
############################################################
#### Methods
############################################################
# Returns the Facebook Group ID of the given group name
# User must be a member of given group
def fb_get_group_id(groupname)
groups = @graph.get_connections("me", "groups")
groups = groups.select {|g| g['name'] == groupname}
groups[0]['id']
end
# Connect to the Facebook Graph API
def fb_initialize_connection(token)
begin
@graph = Koala::Facebook::API.new(token)
test = @graph.get_object('me')
rescue Koala::Facebook::APIError => e
puts "\nERROR: Connection with Facebook failed\n#{e.message}".red
exit_script
end
puts "\nFacebook token accepted".green
end
def fb_fetch_posts(group_id, until_time)
@fb_posts ||= [] # Initialize if needed
time_of_last_imported_post = until_time
# Fetch Facebook posts in batches and download writer/user info
loop do
query = "SELECT created_time,
updated_time,
post_id,
actor_id,
permalink,
message,
comments
FROM stream
WHERE source_id = '#{group_id}'
AND created_time < #{time_of_last_imported_post}
LIMIT 500"
result = @graph.fql_query(query)
break if result.count == 0 # No more posts to import
# Add the results of this batch to the rest of the imported posts
@fb_posts = @fb_posts.concat(result)
puts "Batch: #{result.count.to_s} posts (since #{unix_to_human_time(result[-1]['created_time'])} until #{unix_to_human_time(result[0]['created_time'])})"
time_of_last_imported_post = result[-1]['created_time']
result.each do |post|
fb_extract_writer(post) # Extract the writer from the post
comments = post['comments']['comment_list']
if comments.count > 0 then
comments.each do |comment|
fb_extract_writer(comment)
end
end
end
end
puts "\nAmount of posts: #{@fb_posts.count.to_s}"
puts "Amount of writers: #{@fb_writers.count.to_s}"
end
# Import Facebook posts into Discourse
def fb_import_posts_into_dc(dc_category)
post_count = 0
@fb_posts.each do |fb_post|
post_count += 1
# Get details of the writer of this post
fb_post_user = @fb_writers.find {|k| k['id'] == fb_post['actor_id'].to_s}
p fb_post_user
# Get the Discourse user of this writer
dc_user = dc_get_user(fb_username_to_dc(fb_post_user['name']))
# Facebook posts don't have a title, so use first 50 characters of the post as title
topic_title = fb_post['message'][0,50]
# Remove new lines and replace with a space
topic_title = topic_title.gsub( /\n/m, " " )
progress = post_count.percent_of(@fb_posts.count).round.to_s
puts "[#{progress}%]".blue + " Creating topic '" + topic_title.blue + "' (#{Time.at(fb_post['created_time'])})"
post_creator = PostCreator.new(dc_user,
raw: fb_post['message'],
title: topic_title,
archetype: 'regular',
category: DC_CATEGORY_NAME,
created_at: Time.at(fb_post['created_time']))
p Time.at(fb_post['created_time'])
p fb_post['created_time']
Time.now - 1.week
Time.at(Time.now - 1.week)
post = post_creator.create
# Everything set, save the topic
unless post_creator.errors.present? then
topic_id = post.topic.id
post_serializer = PostSerializer.new(post, scope: true, root: false)
post_serializer.topic_slug = post.topic.slug if post.topic.present?
post_serializer.draft_sequence = DraftSequence.current(dc_user, post.topic.draft_key)
puts " - First post of topic created".green
# Now create the replies, using the Facebook comments
unless fb_post['comments']['count'] == 0 then
fb_post['comments']['comment_list'].each do |comment|
# Get details of the writer of this comment
comment_user = @fb_writers.find {|k| k['id'] == comment['fromid'].to_s}
# Get the Discourse user of this writer
dc_user = dc_get_user(fb_username_to_dc(comment_user['username']))
post_creator = PostCreator.new(dc_user,
raw: comment['text'],
topic_id: topic_id,
created_at: Time.at(comment['time']))
post = post_creator.create
unless post_creator.errors.present? then
post_serializer = PostSerializer.new(post, scope: true, root: false)
post_serializer.topic_slug = post.topic.slug if post.topic.present?
post_serializer.draft_sequence = DraftSequence.current(dc_user, post.topic.draft_key)
else # Skip if not valid for some reason
puts " - Comment (#{comment['id']}) failed to import, #{post_creator.errors.messages[:raw][0]}".yellow
end
end
puts " - #{fb_post['comments']['count'].to_s} Comments imported".green
end
else # Skip if not valid for some reason
puts "Contents of topic from Facebook post #{fb_post['post_id']} failed to import, #{post_creator.errors.messages[:base]}".yellow
end
end
end
# Returns the Discourse category where imported Facebook posts will go
def dc_get_or_create_category(name, owner)
if Category.where('name = ?', name).empty? then
puts "Creating category '#{name}'"
owner = User.where('username = ?', owner).first
category = Category.create!(name: name, user_id: owner.id)
else
puts "Category '#{name}' exists"
category = Category.where('name = ?', name).first
end
end
# Create a Discourse user with Facebook info unless it already exists
def dc_create_users_from_fb_writers
@fb_writers.each do |fb_writer|
# Setup Discourse username
dc_username = fb_username_to_dc(fb_writer['name'])
# Create email address for user
if fb_writer['email'].nil? then
dc_email = dc_username + "@localhost.fake"
else
if REAL_EMAIL then
dc_email = fb_writer['email']
else
dc_email = fb_writer['email'] + '.fake'
end
end
# Create user if it doesn't exist
if User.where('username = ?', dc_username).empty? then
dc_user = User.create!(username: dc_username,
name: fb_writer['name'],
email: dc_email,
approved: true,
approved_by_id: dc_get_user_id(DC_ADMIN))
# Create Facebook credentials so the user could login later and claim his account
FacebookUserInfo.create!(user_id: dc_user.id,
facebook_user_id: fb_writer['id'].to_i,
username: fb_writer['name'],
first_name: fb_writer['first_name'],
last_name: fb_writer['last_name'],
name: fb_writer['name'].tr(' ', '_'),
link: fb_writer['link'])
puts "User #{fb_writer['name']} (#{dc_username} / #{dc_email}) created".green
end
end
end
# Backup site settings
def dc_backup_site_settings
@site_settings = {}
@site_settings['unique_posts_mins'] = SiteSetting.unique_posts_mins
@site_settings['rate_limit_create_topic'] = SiteSetting.rate_limit_create_topic
@site_settings['rate_limit_create_post'] = SiteSetting.rate_limit_create_post
@site_settings['max_topics_per_day'] = SiteSetting.max_topics_per_day
@site_settings['title_min_entropy'] = SiteSetting.title_min_entropy
@site_settings['body_min_entropy'] = SiteSetting.body_min_entropy
end
# Restore site settings
def dc_restore_site_settings
SiteSetting.send("unique_posts_mins=", @site_settings['unique_posts_mins'])
SiteSetting.send("rate_limit_create_topic=", @site_settings['rate_limit_create_topic'])
SiteSetting.send("rate_limit_create_post=", @site_settings['rate_limit_create_post'])
SiteSetting.send("max_topics_per_day=", @site_settings['max_topics_per_day'])
SiteSetting.send("title_min_entropy=", @site_settings['title_min_entropy'])
SiteSetting.send("body_min_entropy=", @site_settings['body_min_entropy'])
end
# Set temporary site settings needed for this rake task
def dc_set_temporary_site_settings
SiteSetting.send("unique_posts_mins=", 0)
SiteSetting.send("rate_limit_create_topic=", 0)
SiteSetting.send("rate_limit_create_post=", 0)
SiteSetting.send("max_topics_per_day=", 10000)
SiteSetting.send("title_min_entropy=", 1)
SiteSetting.send("body_min_entropy=", 1)
end
# Check if user exists
# For some really weird reason this method returns the opposite value
# So if it did find the user, the result is false
def dc_user_exists(name)
User.where('username = ?', name).exists?
end
def dc_get_user_id(name)
User.where('username = ?', name).first.id
end
def dc_get_user(name)
User.where('username = ?', name).first
end
# Returns current unix time
def current_unix_time
Time.now.to_i
end
def unix_to_human_time(unix_time)
Time.at(unix_time).strftime("%d/%m/%Y %H:%M")
end
# Exit the script
def exit_script
puts "\nScript will now exit\n".yellow
exit
end
def fb_extract_writer(post)
@fb_writers ||= [] # Initialize if needed
if post.has_key? 'actor_id' # Facebook post
writer = post['actor_id']
else # Facebook comment
writer = post['fromid']
end
# Fetch user info from Facebook and add to writers array
unless @fb_writers.any? {|w| w['id'] == writer.to_s}
@fb_writers << @graph.get_object(writer)
end
end
def fb_username_to_dc(name)
# Create username from full name, only letters and numbers
username = name.tr('^A-Za-z0-9', '').downcase
# Maximum length of a Discourse username is 15 characters
username = username[0,15]
end
# Add colors to class String
class String
def red
colorize(self, 33);
end
def green
colorize(self, 32);
end
def yellow
colorize(self, 33);
end
def blue
colorize(self, 33);
end
def colorize(text, color_code)
"\033[#{color_code}m#{text}\033[0m"
end
end
# Calculate percentage
class Numeric
def percent_of(n)
self.to_f / n.to_f * 100.0
end
end
But I can’t get this script work. It show an error with post creator
rake aborted!
NoMethodError: undefined method `topic_slug=' for #<PostSerializer:0xd4891a0>
/vagrant/lib/tasks/import_facebook.rake:204:in `block in fb_import_posts_into_d
/vagrant/lib/tasks/import_facebook.rake:170:in `each'
/vagrant/lib/tasks/import_facebook.rake:170:in `fb_import_posts_into_dc'
/vagrant/lib/tasks/import_facebook.rake:88:in `block in <top (required)>'
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/task.rb:240:i
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/task.rb:240:i
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/task.rb:235:i
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/task.rb:235:i
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/task.rb:179:i
/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/lib/ruby/2.0.0/monitor.rb:211:in `mon
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/task.rb:172:i
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/task.rb:165:i
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/application.r
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/application.r
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/application.r
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/application.r
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/application.r
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/application.r
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/application.r
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/application.r
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/lib/rake/application.r
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/gems/rake-10.4.0/bin/rake:33:in `<top (
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/bin/rake:23:in `load'
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/bin/rake:23:in `<main>'
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/bin/ruby_noexec_wrapper:14:in `eval'
/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0-turbo/bin/ruby_noexec_wrapper:14:in `<main>'It looks like this importer needs quite a rewrite.
To be honest I’m not swimming in time these days (my daughter was born since I released that importer and you know how that goes… endless feature requests).
However, I can imagine more people would like to switch from Facebook Groups to Discourse (how can they not?), so I really like to have a look.
In the mean time: PRs are welcome! 
If we get a business hosting customer who wants to be imported from Facebook, we can take this on. So I encourage anyone interested to sign up for a hosting account 
@codinghorror just signed up… (and look forward to being the test case)
In that case I think I’ll take a step back. No need to have two teams work on the exact same thing.
Hi guys
Due to my own needs, I almost fixed FB groups importer, but don’t have a solution to properly convert ‘created_time’ value from FBGraph. This value is needed when importer creates posts and topics. After importing from FB, this value looks like this:
"2015-02-01T19:02:49+0000"
and I don’t know how to convert to form accepted by PostCreator, here:
post_creator = PostCreator.new(dc_user, raw: comment['message'], topic_id: topic_id, created_at: Time.at(comment['created_time']))
Any clue?
Will publish new version of importer when will be finished.
Solved. Going forward…
DateTime.iso8601 method will do it.
http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib-1.9.3/libdoc/date/rdoc/DateTime.html#method-c-iso8601
Nice of you to pick it up! Could you make a PR? Then other people can use it too. Would be great.
Yes, figured it out 10mins later
Please share! I’m sure many of us would love to use this.
Changed, working againg import module:
https://github.com/VannillaSky/import_facebook_into_discourse
Pulled request to original script repository
Does this plugin scrap the facebook group info or do you have to export all facebook group posts
and then import them into discourse?
Thanks! 
In summary, plugin:
Thanks for your reply
Will it import images posted on a faceook group to discourse?
How many facebook groups can you add?
Thanks again!
Currently, without images/attachments
In config file, you can point only only groupID, so its imports one group at once. But of course, you can multiply module (changing filenames and/or dirs) and make it usable in way you mentioned.
Thanks again for your help
Sorry just one last question please, can it work for fanpages or be modified to work with fanpages?
I think fan pages are a whole different beast. This script is really aimed at groups.