Tag Archives: Facebook

Facebook FB.Connect.showFeedDialog

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FB.Connect.showFeedDialog is a very powerful method which pops up a Feed form, without the need of a session, and an iframe pops up letting the user confirm publication of a story.

The required parameters are:

  • template_bundle_id  string
    The id of the feed template you want to use
  • template_data  object
    Data associated with the template (for short and full stories)
  • target_id array
    If you are publishing to other people’s Feeds, this array contains that friend’s user ID. The Feed story template must include the {*target*} token
  • body_general string
    Associated text for short and full stories
  • story_size FeedStorySize
    This parameter has been deprecated. Pass null in its place
  • require_connect RequireConnect
    Either FB.RequireConnect.doNotRequire, FB.RequireConnect.require, or FB.RequireConnect.promptConnect – The action to occur if the user has not authorized this application
  • callback Callback
    Callback to be executed after function is completed

The optional parameters are :

  • user_message_prompt string
    The label (which could be in the form of a question) that appears above the text box on the Feed form
  • user_message object
    A simple JavaScript object containing single property, value, which is set to the content that the user enters into the Feed form. When the Feed form is created, you can pass along this object to populate suggested text in the text box. The user can then edit this text. When the user publishes the Feed form, Facebook sets the value property to whatever text the user typed

Some tutorials about the FB.Connect.showFeedDialog method are shown hereafter :

Development of facebook applications

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The Facebook guide Creating a Platform Application shows how to configure the settings and integration points for a Facebook Platform application and how to configure a host server. Demo applications are also available on the Facebook development website. The Anatomy of a Facebook Application is useful to get an idea how to integrate an application into the Facebook experience. If you plan on internationalizing your application, you should use English as the native language, as the Translations tool can translate from English only. Platform guidelines,  terms of service (Statement of Rights and Responsibilities) and Facebook Platform Policy and Escalation Procedures are accessible on the same website. The following guide explains how applications are authorized, the Developers blog runs all major Facebook announcements.

The following url gives access to the personal facebook developer webpage :

The developer API key is linked to the domain name.

Integration of an application in Facebook can take many forms :

  • The Application Directory allows users to find an application
  • The About page tells users about an application
  • The Canvas page is the main page of the application (FBML or an iframe
  • The Facebook profile is the online representation of a user’s real world identity
  • The profile box is usually the place to show the most recently updated information or the most recent actions of the user
  • The Applications menu is where users go to access your applications
  • Bookmarks appear on every user’s home page as well as on the Applications menu
  • Application tabs let users feature full canvas-like pages for applications they enjoy the most
  • The Boxes tab contains application profile boxes
  • The Info tab on the profile allows users to express their interests in a more structured way than before
  • Applications can integrate into the Publisher so users can create or find rich content and post it directly into their own or their friends’ Walls
  • Feed forms are special FBML components that allow applications to publish Feed stories on the behalf of users. Your application can publish directly into the user’s and the user’s friends’ Mini-Feeds
  • Users can set their privacy options from your application’s privacy/settings page
  • Applications can access News Feed and post stories to it
  • Applications can send notifications to a user through email
  • Requests are also sent in the form of notifications and displayed on the right top corner of the homepage
  • Dashboards allow users to manage their own content in an application

Ten succesfully integrations of Facebook Connect into websites are presented by Aziz Haddad (in french).

Facebook Connect API

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Facebook Connect is the next evolution of Facebook Platform which enables developers to integrate the power of Facebook Platform into their site. Facebook Connect was announced on 23 July 2008 at Facebook’s annual conference for developers and made available to users on 4 December 2008.

There are four ways to add social context to a private website : Identity, Friends, Social Distribution and Privacy.

At its core, Facebook Connect is an alternative means of logging into a website. The Facebook Connect Button is best placed near the standard login flow. Once a user is connected, it’s important to provide him with an indicator that they are logged in with Facebook (for example a Facebook profile pic with the Facebook favicon (“f”) in the corner). To avoid unexpected or conflicting states, it’s best to use the auto-login and auto-logout functions. The Facebook Developer Terms of Service states that an application can only store user data from Facebook for up to 24 hours to make sure that if a user changes their data, it is refreshed across the web. To obey this rule, one way is to do an API call to Facebook for data on every page load, another way is to use XFBML, a markup language that pushes data access to the client layer.

Whenever a user creates content on a website, the API allows to publish that back to Facebook. Publication actions include forum or blog posts, calendar items, photos or albums, events and wiki articles. A tutorial to create a blog that allows user comments, a trying-out and a demonstration (The Run Around) with Facebook Connect are available on the developer website. An easy way to set up a first Facebook Connect application is the comment-box.

How to add Facebook Connect to your website using Javascript or PHP are two very usefuls tutorials with sample codes and demos to start with a Facebook Connect application.

In 2006, Facebook added News Feeds and Mini-Feeds to their application. News Feed highlights information that includes profile changes, upcoming events, and birthdays, among other updates. News Feed also shows conversations taking place between the walls of a user’s friends. An integral part of the News Feed interface is the Mini-Feed, a news stream on the user’s profile page that shows updates about that user.

One line stories get their point across in a single line and appear only on the Wall on the user’s profile. Short stories are formatted with templates and allow a small amount of text with media – which can be an image, MP3, video, or a SWF file. Short stories appear in the stream in a user’s and the user’s friends’ News Feeds and on the user’s Wall.

The Wall is a space on each user’s profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see while displaying the time and date the message was written. One user’s wall is visible to anyone with the ability to see his or her full profile, and different users’ wall posts show up in an individual’s News Feed.

To integrate with the Feed system, you need to create a framework for the stories you want your application to tell. You create this framework through a set of templates that you register with Facebook. You combine templates in bundles, and each bundle contains one template for each story size. A template bundle tells facebook how to display the data that you are sending to a feed. An application can have multiple Template Bundles as well as supports ‘one line stories’, a slightly longer ‘short story’, and a more verbose ‘full story’. Links to referring descriptions are listed herafter :

There are three ways an application can publish to a user’s Feed :

This link shows a feed form example (smiley). Template bundles can be created at the Facebook feed link. The creation of a new Template bundle is not possible (message error that id is not valid) if the developer has no friend.

An xd_receiver.htm file is necessary for cross-domain, the included XdCommReceiver.debug.js library corrects some errors existing in teh XdCommReceiver.js library. I experienced a weird [“null” is null or not an object] Javascript error when using Facebook Connect applications with IE (versions 6, 7 and 8 ) which has also been reported by other developers (Anuragsharma). Ajennings proposes a workaround solution described in the Facebook Connect Forum. His test application is available at the shoptivate website.

On March 11, 2009, Facebook released a new home page for users.

Facebook Open Stream API

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last update : 29 august 2010

On april 27th, 2009, Facebook announced a new Open Stream API that will allow developers access the home page and profile streams. Facebook has always been known as a walled garden of social data (bringing lots of information in but rarely letting information out). Until now, the only data you could access was the status updates of the user, and a few other things.

The stream is the flow of information on Facebook, which manifests itself on a user’s home page as the News Feed and on the user’s profile as the Wall. It represents the content a user shares with friends in a real-time setting. Initially the stream content appeared only on Facebook, and now with the Open Stream API, developers can connect to their users’ streams and let their users read their streams wherever they want. This means that for the first time, you can build new user interfaces for the stream everywhere including Web, mobile, and desktop applications.

The stream API allows for reading and creating content. Thus, your applications can get users’ stories, comments, and likes, and incorporate this data into your user experience. More informations are available in the release notes.