FacebookWidget

NOTICE: Using this application can sometimes lead to your Facebook account's restriction or suspension, so make sure to use a secondary account cookies if possible or don't use any cookies at all.

FacebookWidget is a widget tool that shows a small widget with the active status and unread messages of a Facebook user on the taskbar.

[The widget is shown on the bottom left of the image (a.k.a the left of the taskbar).]

Requirements

• .NET Framework 4.5
• Visual Studio 2012 or higher (for source code editing)

Dependencies

• HTMLAgilityPack version 1.11.45

How to use?

• Step 1: Build the application from the source code, or download the pre-built application from the Releases section.
• Step 2: Create a file called Config.ini in the same folder as the executable file (FacebookWidget.exe) like this example, with the parameters explained on the table below the code:

[Config]
ID=
Cookie=
Position=
XOffset=
YOffset=
FontName=
FontSize=
NameColor=
StatusColor=
OnlineStatusColor=
Width=
Height=
TransparencyKey=
AdditionalStyle=

Property	Type	Description
ID	string	The Facebook ID that you want to get the information.
Cookie	string	Your additional Facebook cookie data to be able to get the active status and unread messages. If undefined, the status section will display Active status unavailable.
Position	string	The position of the widget. Must be one of these positions: UpperLeft, UpperRight, LowerLeft or LowerRight.
XOffset	int	The X offset of the widget position. If the position is XXXLeft, the widget will move to the right. If the position is XXXRight, the widget will move to the left.
YOffset	int	The Y offset of the widget position. If the position is UpperXXX, the widget will move to the bottom. If the position is LowerXXX, the widget will move to the top.
FontName	string	The font name of the widget.
FontSize	int	The font size of the widget (as point/pt)
NameColor	string	The color of the Display Name text section. You can get the color names from this website.
StatusColor	string	The color of the Status text section. You can get the color names from this website.
OnlineStatusColor	string	The additional color of the Status text section when the user is online. You can get the color names from this website.
Width	int	The width of the widget box (as pixel/px).
Height	int	The width of the widget box (as pixel/px).
TransparencyKey	string	The transparency key color of the widget (for better font rendering).
AdditionalStyle	string	The additional style of the texts. Supported additional styles are Bold or Italic.
CustomName	string	The custom name to be displayed instead of the actual Facebook name.
CustomClickLink	string	The custom link to be opened when clicking the widget, with $id as the user's Facebook ID.
CustomImagePath	string	The custom image path of the widget (can be an URL or a path to the image on your computer).

If you don't want to configure this application yourself, there are some presets on the Presets folder of the pre-built application. Just copy one of them to the executable folder, rename it to Config.ini and edit the ID and cookie of that file.

About the cookies

Facebook cookies are actually not required by this application, but if you want to get the active status and unread messages, or you need to display an user that can't be visited by a non-logged-in user, you need to provide it in the Cookie parameter of the config file.

* Disclaimer: This application sends the cookie directly to the Facebook "API", and it doesn't collect any of your information. You can review the source code and build it manually before providing your cookie.

How to get the cookies?

• Step 1: Visit the Facebook website.
• Step 2: Open the Developer Tools by clicking F12 or Ctrl + Shift + I.
• Step 3: Switch to the Network tab of the Developer Tools and refresh the page.
• Step 4: At the first request of that section (request to www.facebook.com), click in the request.
• Step 5: On the right of the window, scroll down to the Request Headers part and you will see the Cookie header. You just need to copy its value and done.

The copied cookies will look like this:

sb=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX; datr=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX; dpr=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX; wd=XXXXXXXX; locale=XXXXX; c_user=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX; xs=XXXXXXXXXX; fr=XXXXXXXXXXXX; presence=XXXXXXXXXXXX

• Step 6: Paste it to the Cookie parameter of the config file, and save the file.

Tips

Make this software auto-startup

• Step 1: Go to this folder by using the Run window or File Explorer: %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.
• Step 2: Create a new shortcut and point the location to the FacebookWidget.exe file.
• Step 3: Save this shortcut and done!

Building

If you don't trust the pre-built application, you can manually build it.

• Step 1: Clone this repository, and open the FacebookWidget.csproj file using your Visual Studio.
• Step 2: On the opened project, just change it into your needing in any ways you want.
• Step 3: Change the Build Type to Debug or Release according to your needing.
• Step 4: Build this project. The built application will be in the bin folder of the opened project.

Known bugs

• Sometimes it maybe unable to retrieve the data even you have provided the correct cookies. This can be Facebook's fault because the structure of the profile page is different for each user, or your account may be temporarily restricted because of spamming. You can try again after some hours or report that bug to this application's developer.
• The widget disappears when focusing on taskbar or clicking the Show Desktop button. This is Windows' restriction and I will find a way to fix it later. If you encounter this error, just press the Alt + Tab combination and click on the widget window. Fixed in version 1.1!
• The unread messages count is 0 in all cases, and it will send a Seen status to that person without notificating anything. Fixed in version 1.3!

Contacting the developer

You can contact me at the Social Networks section of my profile.

Have fun using this application!