Question: Is there any way I can authenticate a Facebook user without requiring them to connect in the front end? I'm trying to report the number of "likes" for an alcohol-gated page and will need to access the information with an over-21 access token, but do not want to have to log in every time I access the data. 

Or is there a way to generate an access token that doesn't expire?

I'm really not that much of an expert with facebook, so any alternatives to these ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Answer: 
When you're requesting the access token you're going to use to check the Page, request the `offline_access` extended permission and the token won't expire when you/the user logs out.
If you're using the [Graph API](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/), when you initially get the `access_token`, add `offline_access` to the list of permissions you're requesting via the `scope` parameter. From the [permissions](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/permissions/) documentation:

> 
> The set of permissions below basically explain what types of permissions you can ask a u ser in the scope parameter of your auth dialog to get the permissions you need for your app.
> 
> 
> 

So add `offline_access` to the permissions you're requesting in the `scope` parameter:

```
$config = array(
  ...
  "scope" => "offline_access,...",
  ...
);
...

```