Facebook protocol

[Myshor]

Started to work without any update. Maybe they were doing something with their API.

[aekotra]

Started to work without any update. Maybe they were doing something with their API.

Confirmed!

[culinko]

For 2+ months now, I have been updating Miranda after my daily session instead of the beginning of the day, so I wouldn't need to restart Miranda and reconnect to the Facebook protocol. This means that at the beginning of my day I started Miranda and declined if there was an update (so it wouldn't restart). Then at the end of my day, I would close Miranda and would start it again at the beginning of my next day, but this time it would have the updates from the previous day. I though the issue was gone, but today after 2+ months I received the suspicious activity e-mail forcing me to reset my password yet again.

The only things worth mentioning is that I am closing Miranda from tray after my daily session (I am not clicking on disconnect for the Facebook protocol). I also sometimes visit the Facebook page in my browser at the same time I have Miranda open. Maybe it's one of these things that Facebook don't like?

[riki]

Happened again today as soon as I started Miranda. Wrote another love letter to support. They don't seem to care at all.

[riki]

One important reason why I use Miranda is that I like to have all my conversation histories tidily archived. The Facebook protocol is giving me a hard time because some messages that I sent/received via web browser (often on a different computer) are skipped and never retrieved. Luckily, there's an option to load last messages on opening message window (EXPERIMENTAL). This function works most of the times (marked as experimental after all), but sometimes it fails to retrieve some messages.

My solution: "load history". This seems to get all the messages, but it goes back to the start of time and leaves a mess of duplicate messages. So I found a trick: I replace the key LastMessageID value with one from a previous backup, so next time I open the message window, Miranda retrieves messages up to the previous value (up to 99).

It's a bit inconvenient, though, and hit-and-miss. So I'm asking for some feature to help with my aim: having an integral store of my conversations, given that some messages get lost sometimes (never arrive). I think one of the following could solve the problem.

1. "Delete duplicate messages" feature, which used to be present but got removed.
This would enable the user to reload ALL history and delete duplicates. Problem solved (but big download in some cases, Facebook site might be unhappy).

OR

2. Exposing the MessageID in all messages (through "properties" in History++ maybe?).
This would enable the user to retrieve the last 99 (max) messages by replacing the LastMessageID key in the database with the key of a message before the missed ones.
Also, increasing the limit to more than 99 could help in some cases.

OR

3. Load history back to <date> with user-selectable date?

What do you developers think about this?

[ghazan]

First of all, I think that this protocol plugin is dead, cause it still causes account lockouts , so its further development doesn't look promising.

Second, all histories are retrieved and recorded using server-side message ids, so in theory it doesn't matter how Miranda loads unread histories. Right now Miranda stores last server id retrieved and tries to load everything else since that message id. I wonder how this mechanism could fail

[SpinalBlood]

Aside from the random lockdowns of the account (really annoying), I can't get online messages since today.

If I go offline and the message is unread, I can get it when going online again, but receiving online messagges it doesn't work.

Not sure if something has changed on facebook side, but this is a serious issue. Anyone else have this problem?

The plugin is not updated anymore then? 

[aekotra]

I can't get online messages since today.

Yes, I have the same problem as of today.  You can open the individual contact and any new messages will appear immediately, but no notifications/chat window popup.

[SpinalBlood]

Mhh, I tried to open them when online already but it didn't work... (meaning I'm forced to do offline and online again)

[riki]

@SpinalBlood: confirmed. @aekotra: do you have "load last messages when opening message windows"? It's this action that triggers downloading of the latest messages. With this setting, there's no need to go offline/online again.  Re-opening the msg window is enough.

A new fact: when logging in/authenticating on FB with Miranda, I get a warning from Miranda that says not all data was loaded, but the plugin might still work. I think this is connected with this issue, reported by SpinalBlood and aekotra's and also observed by me.

I think what triggers the random lockouts is exactly loading too many past messages. If FB thinks they are already read and you re-download them too quickly (as per Miranda request), FB gets annoyed. This is my impression. I'm really not pleased with FB trying to keep our data for itself and not allowing us to download it and sort/organize/index it as we like. In this sense, Miranda helps us keep what is ours.

As for the lost messages, some do get lost repeatably (those beginning with a quote, when the other user quotes my messages using messenger). Some just get lost for some reason, but it's much rarer. It only happens when interacting both by browser and by Miranda in the same conversation, and only once in a while.

@ghazan - It would be great if the msg ID's got saved along with the messages in the message history. This would allow us to recover all past messages but only up to a certain ID, which can help in not getting FB "angry"...

[aekotra]

@aekotra: do you have "load last messages when opening message windows"? It's this action that triggers downloading of the latest messages. With this setting, there's no need to go offline/online again.  Re-opening the msg window is enough.

Oh, that makes sense.  I have that setting at 3.

I get a warning from Miranda that says not all data was loaded, but the plugin might still work.

Interesting,  I've never received that one.

[dartraiden]

Attention to all users that have the development version of Miranda NG (0.95.11.xxxxx).

The forthcoming nightly build will contain a brand new Facebook plugin based on MQTT protocol instead of the old deprecated plugin that used direct parsing of HTTP pages.

The main advantage of the new plugin is that it doesn't block your account and works pretty fast. It supports private messages for now, as well as retrieving user info + avatars, typing notifications, status updates, and some minor features.

The main disadvantage of it is that the plugin is quite raw, its development lasts for 10 days only. It has neither support for reading timeline nor support for group chats. Also, it doesn't support two-factor authorization. If these features are vitally important for you, you shall switch to the stable version of Miranda.

All other people are welcome to test new plugin, any feedback is greatly appreciated as well as bug reports at our tracker. Hopefully, this plugin will be finished quite soon.

[starcat13]

> Also, it doesn't support two-factor authorization.
it works with "App Password"

[SpinalBlood]

Can loading history from the server be implemented with this plugin?

[riki]

Can loading history from the server be implemented with this plugin?

+1, a tidy history is the main reason why I choose Miranda over Facebook direct web (or app) messaging!

Also, will messages received/sent via the new plugin merge into the old history, or will they appear as a different protocol?

I don't remember why I switched from experimental Miranda to stable version. Maybe it was some database issue, but I don't know. I am a bit afraid to switch back to experimental, but the new FB plugin is a strong reason for me to switch.

Go developers GO! Thank you and happy 2020