title: URL to open Facebook search results with name and city
body: <p>I already have code in my Nativescript app that will open facebook to a specific page, using the Facebook app if it's installed or otherwise using the default browser. </p>
  
  <p>Now I have a case where I have the name and address of a person, and I'd like to add a "Find on Facebook" function that will open the search results page, in Facebook, given that person's name, city, and state.  </p>
  
  <p>If I go into Facebook, do a simple search on name only, the results have a url such as </p>
  
  <pre><code>https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Aaron%20Rider&amp;epa=SEARCH_BOX
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If I tap the Person tab and add a city and state, then the url becomes: </p>
  
  <pre><code>https://www.facebook.com/search/people/?q=Aaron%20Rider&amp;epa=FILTERS&amp;filters=eyJjaXR5Ijoie1wibmFtZVwiOlwidXNlcnNfbG9jYXRpb25cIixcImFyZ3NcIjpcIjEwNzc0MjQ2OTI1NDk3M1wifSJ9
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And, in either case, using the Facebook scheme of fb:// with the url only opens the app but not to the search results.  </p>
  
  <p>So, is there a way to open the Facebook app or web site, via a url, to the search results for a given name, city, and state?  My searches and testing to date haven't yielded any useful results. </p>
  
  <p>Edit May 14, 2020:  </p>
  
  <p>To clarify further...  my app determines whether the Facebook app is installed or not.  If so, in invokes Facebook via a fb://... url, and if not, it opens a browser with an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.facebook.com/</a>... url. </p>
  
  <p>Based on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/jon-steiger/how-to-filter-your-people-searches-on-facebook-using-the-address-bar/163272303758672/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this page</a>, I discovered the http solution.  For example, if the person in question is Andy Griffith in Raleigh, then the associated url would be <a href="https://www.facebook.com/search.php?type=users&amp;q=Andy%20Griffith&amp;lo=Raleigh" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.facebook.com/search.php?type=users&amp;q=Andy%20Griffith&amp;lo=Raleigh</a>.  This brings up facebook's search results page with the location filter added. Yay!  </p>
  
  <p>What I'm still looking for is the equivalent fb:// url when opening the Facebook app.  So far I can only bring up the search page, but without any input parameters or filters applied.    </p>
  
  <p>Edit May 15, 2020, for those following along at home...</p>
  
  <p>Still searching.  I happened to find <a href="https://sowdust.github.io/fb-search/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this repository</a>, which can create Facebook search urls with filters, and <a href="https://gist.github.com/nemec/2ba8afa589032f20e2d6509512381114" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this page</a>, which describes how the filters are created (base64 encoding of a JSON object).  </p>
  
  <p>I was able to compose a URL that worked with the Facebook web site, but that same url content with the fb:// scheme just takes me to the Facebook app's search home screen with no parameters passed.  </p>
  
  <p>Dang, this looked so promising!</p>