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, whe

Answer 1

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 2

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.

---

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.

---

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 3

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 4

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.

Answer 5

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 6

Now , Facebook need SSL

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

Works In June / 2014