Facebook Group Post Scraper

This Apify actor scrapes Facebook group posts using direct API calls without Puppeteer. It efficiently collects posts from multiple groups with

⚠️ Important: Understanding isNewPosts

• isNewPosts: true - Fetches the newest/current posts in the group
• isNewPosts: false - Fetches relative/older posts from the group

Example:

{
    "url": ["https://www.facebook.com/groups/yourgroup"],
    "maxPosts": 30,
    "isNewPosts": false
}

Features

• Scrapes multiple Facebook groups in a single run
• Collects comprehensive post data including:
  • Post text and media content
  • Creation time (both timestamp and human-readable format)
  • User information
  • Engagement metrics (reactions, comments, shares)
  • Group metadata
• Automatic group ID resolution for non-numeric group URLs
• Robust error handling with retry mechanisms
• Streaming data collection with real-time processing
• Supports proxy configuration
• Rate limiting and delays to avoid blocking

Input

The actor accepts the following input format:

{
    "url": [
        "https://www.facebook.com/groups/123456789",
        "https://www.facebook.com/groups/groupname"
    ],
    "maxPosts": 200,  // Maximum number of posts to collect per group (default: 50)
    "isNewPosts": false  // false = oldest first (stable), true = newest first (less stable)
}

You can provide either a single group URL as a string or multiple URLs in an array.

Output

The actor outputs data to the Apify dataset in two formats:

1. Post Data:

{
    "type": "post",
    "post_type": "__post__",  // or "__reel__" for reels
    "group_index": 1,
    "total_groups": 2,
    "post_url": "...",
    "text": "...",
    "user_name": "...",
    "creation_time": "...",  // Human readable GMT time
    "creation_timestamp": 1234567890,
    "reactions_count": 0,
    "post_id": "...",
    "group_url": "...",
    "group_id": "...",
    "media": [...],
    "engagement": {
        "comments_count": 0,
        "reactions_count": 0,
        "shares_count": 0
    },
    "group": {
        "id": "...",
        "name": "...",
        "url": "..."
    },
    "actors": [...]
}

2. Group Info:

{
    "type": "group_info",
    "group_index": 1,
    "total_groups": 2,
    "data": {
        "name": "...",
        "id": "...",
        "url": "...",
        "input_url": "...",
        "group_id": "..."
    }
}

Required Files

• source_payload_and_cookies.json: Contains request payloads and headers
• payload.json: Additional payload configurations

Local Development

1. Install dependencies:

$npm install

2. Run the actor locally:

$apify run

Notes

• Keep your payload data up to date for optimal performance
• The actor uses a proxy by default for better reliability
• Rate limiting and delays are implemented to avoid blocking
• The actor processes groups sequentially to maintain stability