The Internet has plenty of social networks and communal web sites focused on helping those with like interests contact and... more

The Internet has plenty of social networks and communal web sites focused on helping those with like interests contact and interact with each other. A social network focuses on the building and verifying of online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others — which necessitates the use of software. A social platform goes beyond that, though. In addition to providing its own services and content to its users, it allows other developers and communities to extend its social attributes and reach.

This chapter is split into two parts. In the beginning, I’ll give some background information on where Facebook started and some more information on the growth and worldwide use of the web site. After that, I will go into detail about the operations and technology behind Facebook. This chapter will also cover the Facebook Application and describe what it is and how it works and give an overview of Application traits.

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Chapter 1 discussed the origins and technology of Facebook and the Facebook Platform. In this chapter, you dive right into... more

Chapter 1 discussed the origins and technology of Facebook and the Facebook Platform. In this chapter, you dive right into your first Facebook application to learn a more technical and practical approach to the Facebook Platform.

This chapter has everything you need to create, configure, and develop an application on the Facebook Platform. The opening project is written in PHP and uses the officially supported PHP Client Library. The ideas and concepts are easily transferable to any Web development language.

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Facebook applications post content to user profiles, send notifications, display content through the application Canvas,... more

Facebook applications post content to user profiles, send notifications, display content through the application Canvas, and post to the News Feed and Mini-Feed. None of this would be possible without Facebook Markup Language (FBML), the special markup language used by the Facebook Platform to parse, render, and enhance the content that has a direct impact on a user’s experience on Facebook and your application.

Chapter 2 walked you through the development of a Facebook application and used several of the Facebook Platform components — one of which was FBML and some of the entities provided. This chapter continues discussing the idea and steps you through the plethora of available FBML entities.

This chapter also walks you through some of the caveats and rules applied to your FBML by the rendering engine and provides a base of understanding for some of the more advanced concepts.

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As described in Chapter 3 and demonstrated in Chapter 2, FBML is a powerful markup language. Within it, however, are advanced... more

As described in Chapter 3 and demonstrated in Chapter 2, FBML is a powerful markup language. Within it, however, are advanced features that extend and push FBML beyond a simple markup language and widget system.

Many of these features exist within Facebook JavaScript (FBJS), a subsystem of FBML that parses and renders JavaScript. FBJS also provides a series of functions and objects that extend the commonly available JavaScript functions and objects.

This chapter describes FBJS and its merits. Without FBJS, it is very difficult to create some of the more advanced client-side effects and features that are common in everyday web applications. Within this chapter are some example projects that demonstrate how FBJS is used and what can be done with it.

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The Facebook API consists of a wide range of API methods available to developers to interact on a deeper level with the Facebook... more

The Facebook API consists of a wide range of API methods available to developers to interact on a deeper level with the Facebook Platform. With these methods, you can enable your applications to retrieve user data, create and interact with photos and albums, update user profile content, and more.

Chapters 3 and 4 unearthed the complex world of FBML and user-interface development. The FBML entities covered can be used to create the rich and unique interfaces that your users expect. This chapter takes you deeper into the Facebook Platform, enabling you to bring more functionality to your applications.

This chapter explores the Facebook API, including the formats and structures of the requests and responses of the API methods, as well as error handling and some of the special cases you may encounter while developing your applications. Web applications and Desktop applications both benefit from information in this chapter equally. Desktop application developers will find this chapter most useful, as it is the gateway to the Facebook Platform.

Each API method reviewed contains several standard elements. These include a description and overview of the API method, the required and optional request parameters, the structure of the default successful response, and the error codes that can be returned.

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The Facebook Query Language (FQL) is a generic SQL-like query language used to retrieve data from the Facebook Platform.... more

The Facebook Query Language (FQL) is a generic SQL-like query language used to retrieve data from the Facebook Platform. In many ways, FQL is one of the core components that other components (such as the Facebook API) build on top of. As seen in Chapter 5, there are several methods that can be made obsolete by crafting FQL queries.

The emphasis of Chapter 5 was on the Facebook API and its role in the Facebook Platform. The API methods available were grouped by functionality with the method parameters, and the discussion described the data structures returned.

This chapter continues where Chapter 5 left off with the FQL. This chapter discusses the tables and fields that are available, as well as the common data structures returned by those fields. Additionally, there are several advanced features provided in the FQL processor that allow developers to interact with the data guarded by the Facebook Platform. This chapter also discusses complex data structures within FQL responses, anonymous fields, and complex subqueries.

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Authentication is one of the key pieces to the Facebook Platform, as well as application development. It is used by every... more

Authentication is one of the key pieces to the Facebook Platform, as well as application development. It is used by every other component of the Facebook Platform in some form or fashion. Chapter 5 described the facebook.auth methods, and throughout the book, there are clear examples of signature creation and validation, which are all part of authentication.

While Chapter 6 examined FQL, this chapter delves deep into authentication and examines how its components are spread throughout the Facebook Platform.

Authentication is really a combination of pieces and parts that individually may belong to another piece of the Facebook Platform, but as a whole, play a part in the complex authentication and validation process.

So many different pieces have come into existence because of the different types of authentication available. Internal, external, and desktop applications all have unique forms of authentication with a wide degree of variance between them. This chapter explains the different types of authentication and provides you with example projects to demonstrate how authentication really works.

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Before going any further in development, let’s stop for a moment and highlight the resources available to Facebook application... more

Before going any further in development, let’s stop for a moment and highlight the resources available to Facebook application developers. This chapter reviews the official Developers Application and Developers Web Site provided by Facebook. This chapter will also touch the community-supported wiki and the bug-tracker provided by Facebook.

The key to developing social applications is that the main focus should be (and is always) on the user and community. The Facebook Platform allows developers to tap into the userbase and framework for creating social applications, but without focus on the user, your efforts will be lost.

Through the Discussion Board, official wiki, mailing lists, and blogs, there is a vast amount of knowledge about how to best do things, what to watch for, and what to focus on.

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Chapter 8 took a turn from active development and focused on the resources and tools available to developers. The community... more

Chapter 8 took a turn from active development and focused on the resources and tools available to developers. The community behind Facebook application development is growing significantly, and many people have put a lot of time, effort, and energy into documenting their efforts and experiences for public benefit.

This chapter turns back to application development to follow up with the example application from Chapter 2. This chapter will take the application that has been created and enhance its functionality by adding several staple features.

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Up to this point, you have been working with Facebook applications that, from a user’s point of view, exist completely within... more

Up to this point, you have been working with Facebook applications that, from a user’s point of view, exist completely within Facebook. They are made to use the Facebook Application Canvas and interact with their users in a very direct way. In most cases, profile changes take effect immediately because a user did something on the application through Facebook.

Chapter 9 expanded the features and functionality of the sample project from Chapter 2 — in some ways turning it into a project that could be released into the wild with functionality that is scalable and practical.

This chapter moves into the realm of external application development. The external application model is very different from what you’ve been doing thus far because an external application is usually a web site or service that interacts with Facebook without the user taking action on Facebook. An example could be an application that updates a user’s profile or adds an item to the user’s News Feed when he or she buys a book or finishes a project on another web site.

The role that an external application plays on Facebook is often underestimated. There are many web sites and web services available that have the capability to promote their brand and features by integrating their services through the Facebook Platform. Having a simple Profile Box or Mini-Feed entry not only can draw new users, but also provide existing users with new functionality.

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In the world of software development (as well as many other realms), there are some universal rules. One of them is that... more

In the world of software development (as well as many other realms), there are some universal rules. One of them is that there are many ways to do the same thing, and few of them are good. This is especially true when developing applications for the Facebook Platform. Chapter 10 followed this thought by taking a non-traditional web service and creating a Facebook application using some of the simple guidelines outlined throughout the book.

This chapter walks you through several of the strategies used when approaching specific situations and developing features for your applications. This includes example projects that work with automated jobs and protect the privacy of your application users. This chapter also looks at some of the common design patterns seen throughout Facebook and some applications.

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This appendix provides code listings for the following:... more

This appendix provides code listings for the following:

• The facebook.php PHP file (Listing A-1)

• The facebook_desktop.php PHP file (Listing A-2)

• The facebookapi_php5_restlib.php PHP file (Listing A-3)

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