{"id":12376,"date":"2024-09-03T15:20:18","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T14:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/?p=12376"},"modified":"2024-09-03T15:20:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T14:20:19","slug":"simplifying-facebook-conversions-api-php-integration-keeping-it-lightweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/simplifying-facebook-conversions-api-php-integration-keeping-it-lightweight\/","title":{"rendered":"Simplifying Facebook Conversions API PHP Integration: Keeping It Lightweight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Skip to the code<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s web development landscape, there\u2019s an ever-growing reliance on libraries and package managers, often bundled with many dependencies. While these tools speed up development and help solve complex problems, there\u2019s a number of downsides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When integrating the Facebook Conversion API, you might consider using a prebuilt library like the facebook-php-business-sdk, which requires Composer. Not only does this add extra setup steps, but an SDK like this is packed with features – most of which are unnecessary for the task at hand \u2013 unless that task is to build a user-friendly interface for the entire Facebook ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our case, we often want to leverage the Facebook Conversions API to send events server-side, rather than relying on the Facebook Pixel, which has become less dependable in the age of cookie banners and privacy regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By building a solution from scratch, we ensured it was lightweight, easily transferrable to other projects, and adaptable for our future needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Implementing Facebook Conversions API<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Setting up a PHP Class<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We start by defining a simple PHP class FacebookConversionsAPI<\/strong><\/em> to handle our API integration. This class will include methods for sending event data, making HTTP requests, and hashing user data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a larger applications, you might wish to split off your cURL code into other classes to avoid repetition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<?php\n\nclass FacebookConversionsAPI {\n\n    private $pixel_id;\n    private $access_token;\n    private $api_url;\n\n    \/\/ constructor to set up initial values\n    public function __construct(){\n        $this->pixel_id = 'YOUR_PIXEL_ID_HERE'; \/\/ replace with your actual Pixel ID\n        $this->access_token = 'YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN_HERE'; \/\/ replace with your actual access token\n        $this->api_url = "https:\/\/graph.facebook.com\/v18.0\/{$this->pixel_id}\/events";\n    }\n\n    \/\/ method to send conversion data to Facebook\n    public function sendEvent($event_name, $user_data = [], $custom_data = []) {\n        \/\/ determine if the request is over HTTPS or HTTP\n        $protocol = ((!empty($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && $_SERVER['HTTPS'] != 'off') || $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'] == 443) ? "https:\/\/" : "http:\/\/";\n        \n        \/\/ build the full URL of the current page\n        $event_source_url = $protocol . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];\n        \n        \/\/ collect Facebook cookies that are important for tracking\n        $user_data['fbc'] = $_COOKIE["_fbc"];\n        $user_data['fbp'] = $_COOKIE["_fbp"];\n        \n        \/\/ collect the client's IP address and user agent\n        $user_data['client_ip_address'] = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];\n        $user_data['client_user_agent'] = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];\n\n        \/\/ prepare event data to be sent to Facebook\n        $event_data = [\n            'event_name' => $event_name, \/\/ name of the event (e.g., 'Lead')\n            'event_time' => time(), \/\/ current timestamp\n            'event_source_url' => $event_source_url, \/\/ URL where the event occurred\n            'user_data' => $user_data, \/\/ hashed and non-hashed user data\n            'custom_data' => $custom_data, \/\/ any additional custom data for the event\n            'action_source' => 'website' \/\/ specifies that the event came from the website\n        ];\n\n        \/\/ prepare the full payload including the access token\n        $payload = [\n            'data' => [$event_data],\n            'access_token' => $this->access_token\n        ];\n\n        \/\/ send the payload to Facebook using the makeRequest method\n        return $this->makeRequest($payload);\n    }\n\n    \/\/ private method to handle the CURL request to Facebook\n    private function makeRequest($payload) {\n        $payload_encode = json_encode($payload); \/\/ encode the payload as JSON\n        \n        \/\/ initialize CURL with the API URL\n        $ch = curl_init($this->api_url);\n        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true); \/\/ set CURL to use POST method\n        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $payload_encode); \/\/ attach the payload\n        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); \/\/ return the response as a string\n        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application\/json')); \/\/ set the content type to JSON\n\n        \/\/ execute the CURL request and get the response\n        $response = curl_exec($ch);\n        $http_code = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE); \/\/ get the HTTP status code\n        curl_close($ch); \/\/ close the CURL session\n\n        \/\/ check if the response was successful\n        if ($http_code !== 200 || json_decode($response)->error) {\n            return 'Error : ' . json_encode($response); \/\/ return error if the response is not OK\n        } else {\n            return true; \/\/ return true if the event was tracked successfully\n        }\n    }\n\n    \/\/ method to hash user data as per Facebook's requirements\n    public function hashUserData($data) {\n        $hashed_data = [];\n        \n        \/\/ hash each piece of user data using SHA-256\n        foreach ($data as $key => $value) {\n            $hashed_data[$key] = hash('sha256', strtolower(trim($value))); \/\/ trim, lowercase, and hash the data\n        }\n\n        return $hashed_data; \/\/ return the hashed data\n    }\n}\n?><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Sending an event to Facebook<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
With our class set up, we can now track conversions by invoking the sendEvent<\/em><\/strong> method. Here\u2019s how you can use it in your project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<?php\n\n\/\/ include the Facebook Conversions API class\nrequire realpath($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']) . '\/FOLDER_LOCATION\/fb_conversions_api.php';\n\n\/\/ create an instance of the FacebookConversionsAPI class\n$fb_api = new FacebookConversionsAPI();\n\n\/\/ prepare the data to be hashed, obtain data from form data as required \n$data_to_hash = [\n    'em' => $email, \/\/ user's email\n    'fn' => $first_name, \/\/ first name\n    'ln' => $last_name, \/\/ last name\n    'pn' => $telephone, \/\/ telephone number\n    'zp' => $postcide \/\/ post\/zip code\n];\n\n\/\/ any custom data you want to send with the event\n$custom_data = [\n    'lead_event_source' => $form_name \/\/ example custom data\n];\n\n\/\/ hash the user data using the hashUserData method\n$user_data = $fb_api->hashUserData($data_to_hash);\n\n\/\/ send the 'Lead' event to Facebook with the hashed user data and custom data\n$fb_api->sendEvent('Lead', $user_data, $custom_data);\n\n?><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Skip to the code In today\u2019s web development landscape, there\u2019s an ever-growing reliance on libraries and package managers, often bundled with many dependencies. While these tools speed up development and help solve complex problems, there\u2019s a number of downsides. When integrating the Facebook Conversion API, you might consider using a prebuilt library like the facebook-php-business-sdk, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"class_list":["post-12376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-web-and-ux"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12376"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12380,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12376\/revisions\/12380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bronco.co.uk\/our-ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}