Use Greasemonkey to extract your Facebook Phonebook
by anonymous10/12/2009 UPDATE: Added fixes from Marcel Chastain
UPDATE: It looks like the version that got uploaded was missing a * in the trigger URL! That might be the issue everyone is having.
UPDATE: Video of the process: fbimport
Facebook’s API + FBConnect is great but it has some severe limitations. Notably, it doesn’t expose all the functionality available on the Facebook site. Tonight in particular, I wanted to be able to copy a dump of my friends’ names and phone numbers off the site to load into a fresh cell phone. Unfortunately, looking at the API this isn’t possible.
Never fear – Greasemonkey provides enough of a hook into Firefox that it would be possible to write a UserScript to accomplish this.
Continuing beyond this point is probably against the Facebook TOS and will probably severely void your warranty.
You have been warned.
The following describes how to use this userscript to extract your Facebook “Phonebook”. It produces of a CSV of your friends’ names and phone numbers. Fair warning – this is a rough prototype and does almost no error handling. Also, since the “Phone” field is a free text field I can’t promise people will have formatted their numbers in any sane fashion. But either way it’s a good start to revering lost numbers.
So here is what you need to do to use the script:
1. Install Greasemonkey – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
2. Follow these instructions to install the script – http://userscripts.org/about/installing
Edit: The script is also on Userscripts at http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/43681
3. Navigate over to http://m.facebook.com/friends.php? (You’ll have to login)
4. Answer yes to the prompt and sit back – the script will move through your phonebook and eventually dump you a CSV of the results.
5. Copy/Paste the CSV wherever you want.
6. Un-install the Greasemonkey script.
So that’s it, one less walled garden to worry about. And hopefully one less “I lost my cellphone!” event/group on facebook!
The script:
// ==UserScript==
// @name fb phonebook
// @namespace setfivefb
// @description Extract name/phonenumber from fb phonebook. Navigate to http://m.facebook.com/friends.php? and switch the tab to "Phonebook". The script will extract your friends' name/phone and present a CSV at the end.
// @include http://m.facebook.com/friends.php?*
// ==/UserScript==
// lets make sure we are actually looking at a phonebook page
var nodesSnapshot = document.evaluate('//div[@class="nopad"]/div[@class="nd header"]/small', document, null, XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null );
var desc = nodesSnapshot.snapshotItem(2).childNodes;
for(var i=0; i < desc.length; i++){
// figure out what page we are on
if(desc[i].nodeName == "B" && desc[i].firstChild.textContent != "Phonebook"){
return;
}
}
// get the pagination link
var allLinks = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
var nextLink = "";
nodesSnapshot = document.evaluate('//div[@class="pager"]', document, null, XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null );
var pagerLinks = nodesSnapshot.snapshotItem(0).childNodes;
// get the stuff back from the cache
var arr = GM_getValue("setfivefb");
if(arr == null){
arr = new Array();
}else{
arr = new String(arr).split("^");
}
// we are on the first page so reset our name/phone cache
// and present a conformation dialog
if( new String(pagerLinks[0].nodeName) == "#text" ){
arr = new Array();
var res = confirm("Do you want to extract your phonebook?");
if(!res)
return;
}
for(var i=0; i < pagerLinks.length; i++){
if(pagerLinks[i].innerHTML == "Next"){
nextLink = "http://m.facebook.com" + new String(pagerLinks[i].getAttribute("href"));
break;
}
}
// grab all the names+phones off the page
nodesSnapshot = document.evaluate('//table[@class="results"]//tr', document, null, XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null );
var obj;
var ns;
var t;
var hasMatch = false;
for ( var i=0 ; i < nodesSnapshot.snapshotLength; i++ )
{
ns = nodesSnapshot.snapshotItem(i).childNodes[1].childNodes;
obj = new String();
hasMatch = false;
for(var j=0; j 0){
if(t.indexOf(":") != -1 && ns[j].childNodes[1] && !hasMatch){
obj += "," + ns[j].childNodes[1].textContent;
hasMatch = true;
}else{
obj = t;
}
}
}
if(obj.indexOf(",") == -1)
obj += ",NaN";
arr.push(obj);
}
// throw the array into our temporary storage spot and push the page forward
GM_setValue("setfivefb", arr.join("^"));
if(nextLink != "")
window.location = nextLink;
else{
// display the results of this mess somewhere
var str = new Array();
var tmp;
for(var i=0; i < arr.length; i++){
str.push(arr[i]);
}
document.body.innerHTML = str.join("");
}
Tags: facebook, fbconnect, greasemonkey, javascript, walled garden
March 6th, 2009 at 5:20 am
[...] Facebook’s API doesn’t let you do this, though, but you can do this with the help of a Greasemonkey script. We don’t recommend it, especially since it probably violates Facebook’s Terms of Service. If you’re planning to try it out anyway, you’ll need to install Greasemonkey first. The script is a bit of a rough hack, and the full instructions on how to use it are over here) [...]
March 6th, 2009 at 6:20 am
[...] Facebook’s API doesn’t let you do this, though, but you can do this with the help of a Greasemonkey script. We don’t recommend it, especially since it probably violates Facebook’s Terms of Service. If you’re planning to try it out anyway, you’ll need to install Greasemonkey first. The script is a bit of a rough hack, and the full instructions on how to use it are over here. [...]
March 6th, 2009 at 6:51 am
it says something like this when i try to install script in firefox:
[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520003 (NS_ERROR_FILE_EXECUTION_FAILED) [nsIProcess.run]” nsresult: “0×80520003 (NS_ERROR_FILE_EXECUTION_FAILED)” location: “JS frame :: chrome://greasemonkey/content/utils.js :: launchApplicationWithDoc :: line 188″ data: no]
March 6th, 2009 at 9:34 am
same problem here… anyone can help?
March 6th, 2009 at 11:14 am
It might be due to a Greasemonkey version discrepancy. Check to make sure you are running the latest release – 0.8.20090123.1
March 6th, 2009 at 11:56 am
i downloaded that version from mashable this morning… can i do something wrong?
March 6th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
even when i try other greasemonkey scripts, it gives me an option to install automatically… this one doesnt :( i really need to make this work :(
March 6th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
[...] Facebook’s API doesn’t let you do this, though, but you can do this with the help of a Greasemonkey script. We don’t recommend it, especially since it probably violates Facebook’s Terms of Service. If you’re planning to try it out anyway, you’ll need to install Greasemonkey first. The script is a bit of a rough hack, and the full instructions on how to use it are over here. [...]
March 6th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
I don’t get how this is supposed to work. It installed ok but how do you run it? Just navigating to the phonebook page doesn’t seem to be triggering any action :-(
March 6th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
[...] Facebook’s API doesn’t let you do this, though, but you can do this with the help of a Greasemonkey script. We don’t recommend it, especially since it probably violates Facebook’s Terms of Service. If you’re planning to try it out anyway, you’ll need to install Greasemonkey first. The script is a bit of a rough hack, and the full instructions on how to use it are over here. [...]
March 6th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Hey guys give this a shot http://userscripts.org/scripts/review/43681
March 7th, 2009 at 11:05 am
[...] Facebook’s API doesn’t let you do this, though, but you can do this with the help of a Greasemonkey script. We don’t recommend it, especially since it probably violates Facebook’s Terms of Service. If you’re planning to try it out anyway, you’ll need to install Greasemonkey first. The script is a bit of a rough hack, and the full instructions on how to use it are over here. [...]
March 8th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
doesnt work… i tried everything…
June 17th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Could this script be modified to extract all the messenger addresses (Skype, MSN, …) of the friendlist?
August 19th, 2009 at 7:39 am
[...] Import Facebook Contacts into your Google Voice Contacts (Script) Facebook’s API + FBConnect is great but it has some severe limitations. Notably, it [...]
September 25th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
It doesn’t work
October 4th, 2009 at 9:42 am
You should just use sprnch.com it does this already. works on myspace twitter too.
October 11th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
2 changes needed to get this working.
On line 9, change
div[@class="lnav header"]
to
div[@class="nd header"]
On line 10, change
var desc = nodesSnapshot.snapshotItem(0).childNodes;
to
var desc = nodesSnapshot.snapshotItem(2).childNodes;
That’s it!
–mC
October 12th, 2009 at 8:55 am
thanks Marcel!
October 15th, 2009 at 11:52 am
I have installed the script and made the changes as noted by Marcel, but when I load http://www.facebook.com/friends/?filter=pfp nothing happens. GM says it’s enabled and there is a check next to the script. I verified that the above URL is in GM under manage scripts. Any ideas what I missed? This is my first GM script so keep that in mind.
November 24th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Paul , you are supposed to go to
http://m.facebook.com/friends.php?
and not to
http://www.facebook.com/friends/?filter=pfp