Accessing the Graph API on Behalf of Your Users
Learn the difference between authorization and authentication along with their importance.
In preparation for accessing the Facebook Graph API on behalf of your users, there are a few core concepts that you will need to be familiar with. Getting a basic understanding of these concepts will help make sense of what is coming up in the next few lessons.
Authentication versus authorization
As an application developer — regardless of whether you are building a desktop app, a mobile app, or a web app — it is important to understand the distinction between authentication and authorization. This distinction will prove to be particularly useful if we want to start using the Facebook Graph API. Let’s make this distinction clear first, and then, we will talk about why it is important.
What is authentication?
Authentication is the verification that somebody is who they say they are. In a real-world setting, a bank might ask to see a person’s ID in order to verify if they are a certain person. A photo ID, however, is not the only way to authenticate someone. If you didn’t happen to bring your photo ID, your bank might ask to see your bank card and have you enter a PIN number. The combination of having a bank card and entering a correct PIN number is sufficient enough for the bank to accept that you are who ...