facebookplatform
Meta •
Since 2007
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is facebookplatform?
Facebookplatform is used by Facebook when apps and games on the Facebook Platform need to access external content. This includes Facebook Apps, Games, and various integrations that developers build on Facebook's platform. The crawler retrieves content that apps need to function, such as game assets, app content, or integration data. It's distinct from facebookexternalhit which handles link previews. For developers building Facebook integrations, ensuring this bot can access necessary resources is crucial.
User Agent String
facebookplatform/1.0 (+http://developers.facebook.com)
How to Control facebookplatform
Block Completely
To prevent facebookplatform from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block facebookplatform
User-agent: facebookplatform
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: facebookplatform
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /public/
Set Crawl Delay
To slow down the crawl rate (note: not all bots respect this directive):
User-agent: facebookplatform
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify facebookplatform
Verification Method:
Facebook IP ranges
Facebook IP ranges
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect facebookplatform in your application:
Basic Pattern
/facebookplatform/i
Strict Pattern
/^facebookplatform/1\.0 \(\+http\://developers\.facebook\.com\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/facebookplatform[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Meta.*facebookplatform/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for facebookplatform
function detect_facebookplatform() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/facebookplatform/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('facebookplatform detected from IP: ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
// Set cache headers
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600');
header('X-Robots-Tag: noarchive');
// Optional: Serve cached version
if (file_exists('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html')) {
readfile('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for facebookplatform
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_facebookplatform():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'facebookplatform'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class facebookplatformMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for facebookplatform
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect facebookplatform
function detectfacebookplatform(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /facebookplatform/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('facebookplatform detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'facebookplatform';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectfacebookplatform);
# Apache .htaccess rules for facebookplatform
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} facebookplatform [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} facebookplatform [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "facebookplatform" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /facebookplatform/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for facebookplatform
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_facebookplatform {
default 0;
~*facebookplatform 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_facebookplatform) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_facebookplatform) {
root /var/www/cached;
try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/index.html @backend;
}
try_files $uri @backend;
}
# Add headers for bot requests
location @backend {
if ($is_facebookplatform) {
add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600";
add_header X-Robots-Tag "noarchive";
}
proxy_pass http://backend;
}
}
Should You Block This Bot?
Recommendations based on your website type:
| Site Type | Recommendation | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Optional | Evaluate based on bandwidth usage vs. benefits |
| Blog/News | Allow | Increases content reach and discoverability |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Selective | Allow for public docs, block for internal docs |
| Corporate Site | Limit | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: facebookplatform
Crawl-delay: 5
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /*?sort=
Disallow: /*?filter=
Disallow: /*&page=
Allow: /products/
Allow: /categories/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Publishing/Blog Configuration
User-agent: facebookplatform
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: facebookplatform
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
facebookplatform
Robots.txt Name
facebookplatform
Category
social
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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