# fbn
#### Tool to monitor fb groups and notify.
This was a small holiday project. I just absolutely hate being on Facebook.
The UI, the clunky android app.. Ughh. I uninstalled it a long time ago and just use the
mobile site.
I hate that I am forced to be on it, sometimes, because there is
valuable information from folks on there in some communities I am a part of. This tool
is to remove the need for me to keep watching these groups constantly.
```sh
$ pip install fbn
$ fbn --help
Usage: fbn [OPTIONS]
Simple CLI tool to look for new posts in a Facebook group and then send you
a notification. Public groups do not require authentication information.
Example usage:
$ export FBN_APPRISE_URL=mailto://gmailusername:gmailpassword@gmail.com
$ fbn --id craigslist --every 45m --cookies-file facebook.com_cookies.txt
--verbose
Options:
-v, --version Show the version and exit.
-i, --id TEXT The Facebook group name or id [required]
-u, --username TEXT Your Facebook username
-p, --password TEXT Your Facebook password
-c, --cookies-file FILE Path to the Facebook cookies file [default:
facebook.com_cookies.txt]
-g, --user-agent TEXT User agent to use for scraping
-s, --sample-count INTEGER Number of posts to sample [default: 10]
-e, --every TEXT Monitor frequency [default: 1h]
-a, --apprise-url TEXT The apprise URL to notify [required]
-v, --verbose Enable debug logging.
-h, --help Show this message and exit.
```
This uses [facebook-scraper](https://github.com/kevinzg/facebook-scraper) that scrapes the target group for posts.
If the group is private, authentication is required as you must be a member,
obviously. Auth can be passed using the CLI options or the env vars `FBN_FB_USERNAME` or `FBN_FB_PASSWORD`.
Auth can also be passed in the form of cookies in Netscape or JSON format. Use the CLI option.
You can extract cookies from your browser after logging into Facebook with
an extension like [Get Cookies.txt (Chrome)](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/get-cookiestxt/bgaddhkoddajcdgocldbbfleckgcbcid?hl=en)
or [Cookie Quick Manager (Firefox)](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-quick-manager/).
Make sure that you include both the c_user cookie and the xs cookie,
you will get an InvalidCookies exception if you don't.
*Since this is a scraper, the more frequently you scrape, the more the chances are of getting locked out of your account
or even banned permanently. The tool detects temporary bans and backs off appropriately, but [be warned](https://github.com/kevinzg/facebook-scraper/issues/409#issuecomment-907639417).*
Also, notifications are sent through the amazing [Apprise](https://github.com/caronc/apprise) which supports a ton of
[notification services](https://github.com/caronc/apprise/wiki#notification-services). Use the CLI option
or env var `FBN_APPRISE_URL` to set that.
