Facebook application development

Title:

Personal Author:

Gerakines, Nick

Publication Information:

Indianapolis, IN : Wiley Publishing, 2008

Physical Description:

xxiii, 330 p. : ill. ; 24 cm

ISBN:

9780470246665

Subject Term:

Application software -- Development

Internet programming

Available:*

Library	Item Barcode	Call Number	Material Type	Item Category 1	Status
Searching... PSZ JB	30000010185535	QA76.76.A65 G47 2008	Open Access Book	Book	Searching... Unknown

The wildly popular Facebook social networking platform has published an open Application Programming Interface (API) and developers are eating it up--60,000 signed up to use it in the first few days; with this API, any programmer can create applications and new features for Facebook Explores and explains the components available to programmers, including working with Facebook Markup Language (FBML), querying Facebook with FQL, application layout and flow, advanced configuration and performance tuning, and more Businesses such as NBC, Yahoo!, Red Bull, Forbes, and the Washington Post are building branded applications to reach the growing Facebook community

Author Notes

Nick Gerakines is a software engineer at Yahoo! in San Francisco, California where he works on del.icio.us and contributes to numerous other projects and Facebook applications. In addition, he has written several Facebook applications of his own, including the popular I Play WoW application. He is an active member of the Facebook developer community and writes frequently on the topic. He lives in Mountain View, California with his wife, Carolyn, and daughter, Vanessa.

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. xix
Part I Understanding the Facebook Platform	p. 1
Chapter 1 Facebook as a Platform	p. 3
Evolution of Facebook	p. 3
Facebook Services	p. 4
The Technology behind Facebook	p. 5
Introduction to the Core Technologies	p. 5
Role of the Application	p. 6
Anatomy of an Application	p. 7
Application Canvas	p. 7
Application Profile Box	p. 8
Application About Page	p. 9
News Feed and Mini-Feed	p. 10
Application Directory	p. 12
Notifications and Requests	p. 13
Facebook Pages	p. 14
Message Attachments	p. 14
Application Request Process	p. 16
Validating the Request Signature	p. 18
Client Libraries	p. 18
The Developer Center and Developer Application	p. 18
Application Traits	p. 19
Top Friends	p. 19
iLike	p. 19
Extended Info	p. 20
Art	p. 20
Fortune Cookie	p. 21
Honesty Box	p. 21
Causes	p. 21
del.icio.us	p. 22
Pirates vs. Ninjas	p. 22
Election '08	p. 23
Scrabulous	p. 23
Application Trait Overview	p. 23
Advertising and Marketing	p. 24
Perfecting a Single Idea	p. 24
Adding New Functionality and Extending Functionality	p. 25
Cosmetic Enhancements	p. 25
Business Relationships	p. 25
Facebook Beacons	p. 25
Summary	p. 25
Chapter 2 Building Your First Application	p. 27
What You Need	p. 27
Outlining the Functionality and Features	p. 27
Creating the Application	p. 28
Introducing the Facebook Developer Application	p. 28
Creating the 'Hello World' Application	p. 28
Writing the Application	p. 33
Preparing the Application Environment	p. 33
Application Layout and Structure	p. 34
Class Overview	p. 34
Canvas Pages	p. 37
Evaluating the Status	p. 45
Summary	p. 46
Chapter 3 Facebook Markup Language (FBML)	p. 47
Understanding FBML	p. 47
Entities	p. 48
HTML	p. 48
Operators	p. 49
Navigation	p. 51
Informational	p. 54
User and Group	p. 56
Information Control	p. 58
Profile	p. 62
Profile Visibility	p. 64
Media and External Content	p. 66
Notifications and Requests	p. 70
Facebook Widgets	p. 73
Editor and Forms	p. 75
System	p. 80
Miscellaneous	p. 81
Dynamic FBML Attributes	p. 84
Visibility	p. 84
Mock-Ajax	p. 85
Forms	p. 86
Images	p. 86
Forms	p. 87
CSS and the DOM	p. 87
Summary	p. 87
Chapter 4 Advanced FBML	p. 89
FBML and FBJS	p. 89
The Basics	p. 89
Element and ID Renaming	p. 93
FBML Canvas Rules and Caveats	p. 95
FBJS DOM Objects	p. 95
CSS and Styling	p. 98
Event Handling	p. 99
Ajax	p. 100
Dialogs	p. 104
Summary	p. 108
Chapter 5 Using the Facebook API	p. 109
The Method Request	p. 109
Common Request Parameters	p. 110
Responses	p. 111
Error Handling	p. 111
XML	p. 113
JSON	p. 113
Method Definitions	p. 113
Authentication	p. 113
News Feed and Mini-Feed	p. 114
FQL	p. 121
Friends	p. 122
Notifications	p. 125
Profile	p. 128
User	p. 130
Events	p. 139
Groups	p. 143
Photos	p. 146
FBML	p. 153
Marketplace	p. 155
Summary	p. 162
Chapter 6 Data Mining with FQL	p. 163
FQL Requests	p. 163
FQL Responses	p. 164
XML	p. 164
JSON	p. 164
FQL Syntax	p. 166
Available Fields and Tables	p. 167
Additional Query Components	p. 172
Fields with Complex Data Structures	p. 173
Using This in Your Applications	p. 174
Method Replacement	p. 174
Storing Data	p. 174
Summary	p. 175
Chapter 7 Authentication	p. 177
Authentication Components	p. 177
Identifying an Application	p. 178
Sessions	p. 179
Signatures	p. 179
Application Authentication	p. 180
Validating Requests	p. 180
Forcing Views	p. 183
External Application Authentication	p. 184
Creating Sessions from Desktop Applications	p. 192
Summary	p. 195
Part II Building Facebook Applications	p. 197
Chapter 8 Resources for Developers	p. 199
The Developers Application	p. 199
My Applications	p. 200
Discussion Board	p. 206
Updates and Service Announcements	p. 207
Application Stats	p. 208
The Developers Web Site	p. 209
Documentation	p. 209
Resources	p. 209
Tools	p. 210
Wiki	p. 211
Bug-Tracking	p. 211
Test Accounts	p. 211
Summary	p. 212
Chapter 9 Doing More with Hello World	p. 213
Looking Back	p. 213
Going Forward	p. 214
Preparation	p. 214
Creating Better Profiles	p. 215
Event Tracking with Application Events	p. 220
Sending and Tracking Invitations	p. 222
Statistics and Metrics	p. 227
Summary	p. 228
Chapter 10 External Application Development	p. 229
Defining the External Application	p. 229
Creating an External Application	p. 230
Preparation	p. 230
Installing MediaWiki	p. 231
Disabling Anonymous Edits	p. 233
Disabling Account Creation	p. 233
Removing the Login Link	p. 233
Creating the External Application	p. 233
Developing the AuthFacebook Component	p. 234
Developing the Facebook Component	p. 245
Exercises	p. 248
Summary	p. 248
Chapter 11 Best Practices	p. 249
Common Goals	p. 249
Creating Automated Jobs	p. 249
Application Settings and Configuration	p. 257
Respecting User Privacy in a Social World	p. 262
Caveats	p. 263
Callback URLs Are Not to Redirect	p. 263
The 12-Second Rule	p. 263
Callback URLS Cannot Be Made Using SSL	p. 263
Design Patterns	p. 264
Common Elements	p. 264
Styles and Colors	p. 264
Canvas Navigation	p. 265
Displaying Ads	p. 266
Using Dialogs Efficiently	p. 267
Summary	p. 270
Appendix A PHP File Reference	p. 271
Index	p. 315

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Author Notes

Table of Contents