Facebook API Question posted in
The official documentation for the Facebook APIs can be found here.

How to get all messages sent to a Smooch appid without using webhooks?

Using the Smooch API, I am trying to obtain all of the messages sent to my Facebook appid in the past few minutes or hours.

The Get Messages REST method does exactly what I need, except for that it only returns messages from a particular appUserId. This isn’t useful unless you already know what users have sent you messages. I cannot use a webhook as the application resides behind a corporate firewall. Opening the firewall to connections that originate from the outside is not an option (even with white-listing).

Is there a way to invoke the Get Messages REST method such that it will ignore the appUserId filter? Perhaps some sort of wildcard character? 

GET {{url}}/{{apiVersion}}/apps/{{appId}}/appusers/{{appUserId}}/messages
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  1. Chosen as BEST ANSWER
    0

    @alavers We would like to leverage nearly every messaging integration you offer.

    @alavers You may want to consider providing a Get Messages variant that is better suited for use within a corporate firewall environment. An excellent example is the http long poll implementation provided by APIs such Amazon's SQS API. Their receiveMessage method waits for up to the specified time period but returns as soon as a message is received. This provides nearly the same performance of a webhook but eliminates the need for a customer to open their corporate firewall to connections that originate from outside the corporation. Most IT departments will approve connections that originate from within the corporation, but permitting connections that originate from the outside becomes a very difficult sell.


  2. 0

    Unfortunately you do need to have the appUserId (or userId) on hand in order to query user messages.

    Webhooks are a pretty essential part of building a Smooch integration. If you can’t receive them through your firewall, then you might consider building an intermediary service outside of your corporate network for receiving Smooch webhooks. For each webhook event you receive it would either:

    • Forward it through a secure tunnel into your coprorate network
    • Store the appUserId (or the whole event) in its own database, and provide a secure endpoint that allows your corporate network service to query that data

    I’m curious to know more about your use case, e.g which Smooch channels are you integrating? With more details I might be able to improve this answer.

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