Getting the “real” Facebook profile picture URL from graph API

Question

Facebook graph API tells me I can get a profile picture of a user using

http://graph.facebook.com/517267866/picture?type=large

which works fine. However, when you type above URL into a browser, the actual address of the image is

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/profile-ak-snc1/v227/560/83/n517267866_1928.jpg

How can I get the second URL using the first one programmatically?

Answer 1

The first URL gives a HTTP 302 (temporary redirect) to the second. So, to find the second URL programatically, you could issue a HTTP request for the first URL and get the Location header of the response.

That said, don't rely on the second URL being pemanent. Reading a little in to the HTTP response code (of 302 as opposed to a permanent 301), it is possible Facebook changes those URLs on a regular basis to prevent people from—for example—using their servers to host images.

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Edit: Notice that the CDN URL the OP posted is now a 404, so we know that we cannot rely on the URL being long-lived. Also, if you're linking to the Graph API from an <img> on a SSL-secured page, there's a parameter you have to add make sure you use https://graph.facebook.com.

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Update: The API has added a parameter – redirect=false – which causes JSON to be returned rather than a redirect. The retruned JSON includes the CDN URL:

{
   "data": {
      "url": "http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/...",
      "is_silhouette": false
   }
}

Again, I wouldn't rely on this CDN URL being long-lived. The JSON response is sent with permissive CORS headers, so you're free to do this client-side with XHR requests.

Answer 2

http://graph.facebook.com/517267866/?fields=picture&type=large

Would return the URL in JSON

Answer 3

I realize this is late, but there is another way to obtain the URL of the profile image.

To your original url, you can add the parameter redirect=false to obtain the actual URL of the image you'd normally be redirected to.

So, the new request would look like http://graph.facebook.com/517267866/picture?type=large&redirect=false. This will return a JSON object containing the URL of the picture and a boolean is_silhouette (true if the picture is the default Facebook picture).

The picture will be of the size you specified, as well. You can test this additionally by adding dimensions: http://graph.facebook.com/517267866/picture?type=large&redirect=false&width=400&height=400

Answer 4

For anyone else looking to get the profile pic in iOS:

I just did this to get the user's Facebook pic:

NSString *profilePicURL = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"http://graph.facebook.com/%@/picture?type=large", fbUserID];

where 'fbUserID' is the Facebook user's profile ID.

This way I can always just call the url in profilePicURL to get the image, and I always get it, no problem. If you've already got the user ID, you don't need any API requests, just stick the ID into the url after facebook.com/.

FYI to anyone looking who needs the fbUserID in iOS:

if (FBSession.activeSession.isOpen) {
    [[FBRequest requestForMe] startWithCompletionHandler:
     ^(FBRequestConnection *connection,
       NSDictionary<FBGraphUser> *user,
       NSError *error) {
         if (!error) {
             self.userName = user.name;
             self.fbUserID = user.id;
         }
     }];
}

You'll need an active FBSession for that to work (see Facebook's docs, and the "Scrumptious" example).

Answer 5

If you want the JSON of a good quality profile picture with the URL you can use that:

http://graph.facebook.com/517267866/picture?height=1024&redirect=false

if you just need the picture use it without the parameter redirect:

http://graph.facebook.com/517267866/picture?height=1024

517267866 is the profile ID of one of the above examples. Put the facebook id that you need

I hope that helps

Answer 6

$url = 'http://graph.facebook.com/100000771470028/picture?type=large';
$rray=get_headers($url);
$hd = $rray[4];
echo(substr($hd,strpos($hd,'http')));

This will return the url that you asked, and the problem of changing the url by facebook doesn't matter because you are dynamically calling the url from the original url.

Answer 7

this is the only one that really works:

me?fields=picture.type(*YOURTYPE*)

where YOURTYPE can be one of the following: small, normal, album, large, square

Answer 8

For Android:

According to latest Facebook SDK,

First you need to call GraphRequest API for getting all the details of user in which API also gives URL of current Profile Picture.

Bundle params = new Bundle();
params.putString("fields", "id,email,gender,cover,picture.type(large)");
new GraphRequest(token, "me", params, HttpMethod.GET,
        new GraphRequest.Callback() {
            @Override
            public void onCompleted(GraphResponse response) {
                if (response != null) {
                    try {
                        JSONObject data = response.getJSONObject();
                        if (data.has("picture")) {
                            String profilePicUrl = data.getJSONObject("picture").getJSONObject("data").getString("url");
                        }
                    } catch (Exception e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }
            }
}).executeAsync();

Answer 9

function getFacebookImageFromURL($url)
{
  $headers = get_headers($url, 1);
  if (isset($headers['Location']))
  {
    return $headers['Location'];
  }
}

$url = 'https://graph.facebook.com/zuck/picture?type=large';
$imageURL = getFacebookImageFromURL($url);

Answer 10

Now , Facebook need SSL

-> Important added S, https -> https://graph.facebook.com/userId/?fields=picture&type=large

Works In June / 2014

Answer 11

Hmm..i tried everything to get url to user image.The perfect solution was fql use like this->

    $fql_b = 'SELECT pic from user where uid = ' . $user_id;
    $ret_obj_b = $facebook->api(array(
                               'method' => 'fql.query',
                               'query' => $fql_b,
                             ));


             $dp_url =$ret_obj_b[0]['pic'];

replace pic by big,pic_square to get other desired results. Hope IT HELPED....

Answer 12

ImageView user_picture;
userpicture=(ImageView)findViewById(R.id.userpicture);
URL img_value = null;
img_value = new URL("http://graph.facebook.com/"+id+"/picture?type=large");
Bitmap mIcon1 = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(img_value.openConnection().getInputStream());
userpicture.setImageBitmap(mIcon1);

Where ID is one your profile ID.