Add support for embedding Facebook posts and videos (merge Media Entity Facebook module into this one)

Created on 21 March 2021, over 3 years ago

Updated 4 October 2024, about 1 month ago

Problem/Motivation

Facebook and Instagram APIs share the same API method for embedding data. There are two separate modules though, the other being Media Entity Facebook.

Some issues I see with this module separation:

The API interaction required between both modules is almost identical, which means there's a lot of code duplication between them.
Any changes to the API from Facebook's end affect both modules, so different maintainers must update their modules and put separate releases for each project to address issues.
Both modules require a settings page for inputting a Facebook app ID and secret, which could be annoying/confusing for any sites that require using both.

Proposed resolution

Merge the functionality of Media Entity Facebook into the Media Entity Instagram module. While the name "Media Entity Facebook" likely makes more sense for a merged module, embedding Instagram posts is far more popular (11,000 installs on this module vs < 1,000 for Facebook).

The downside to doing this is the potential confusion by site builders on if this module works with Facebook embeds. The module could be renamed to "Media Entity Instagram and Facebook" to avoid that. Or leave it as Instagram and just update description. The module page for Media Entity Facebook won't go away and we can refer users here anyway.

This was brought up in #3176739: Add support for Facebook's new oembed API → .

Remaining tasks

User interface changes

API changes

Data model changes

✨ Feature request

Status

Active

Version

3.0

Component

Code

Created by

🇺🇸United States bkosborne New Jersey, USA

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Comment about 1 month ago →
🇨🇴Colombia jasonac91
Hello,

I appreciate the efforts to streamline the integration of Media Entity modules for Facebook and Instagram. However, it's important to consider the accessibility differences between the two platforms, especially for new features like embedding Instagram reels or videos. Unlike Facebook, where many features are more publicly accessible, Instagram often requires more specific permissions to access and embed media such as reels or videos. This might necessitate keeping separate modules or at least clearly distinguishing the permissions and access requirements within a unified module to avoid confusion and ensure that users are aware of these limitations when attempting to embed content from Instagram.

Best regards, Jason

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