Available as a PDF Electronic Book or Print On Demand Facebook API Developers Guide CHAPTER 1 Introducing the Facebook Platform . 1 CHAPTER 2 Getting Ready for Facebook Application Development . 9 CHAPTER 3 Learning Facebook Platform Fundamentals . 31 CHAPTER 4 Building a Facebook Application, Start to Finish. 71 CHAPTER 5 Going Further with Your Application . 129 137 PAGES Wayne Graham www.allitebooks.com www.allitebooks.com Facebook API Developers Guide WAYNE GRAHAM www.allitebooks.com Facebook API Developers Guide Copyright © 2008 by Wayne Graham All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-1-4302-0969-0 ISBN-10: 1-4302-0969-0 eISBN-13: 978-1-4302-0970-6 Printed and bound in the United States of America (POD) Trademarked names may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trade- marked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Lead Editor: Ben Renow-Clarke Technical Reviewer: Mark Johnson Editorial Board: Clay Andres, Steve Anglin, Ewan Buckingham, Tony Campbell, Gary Cornell, Jonathan Gennick, Kevin Goff, Matthew Moodie, Joseph Ottinger, Jeffrey Pepper, Frank Pohlmann, Ben Renow-Clarke, Dominic Shakeshaft, Matt Wade, Tom Welsh Senior Project Manager: Tracy Brown Collins Copy Editor: Kim Wimpsett Compositor: Richard Ables Cover Designer: Kurt Krames Manufacturing Director: Tom Debolski Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 233 Spring Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10013. Phone 1-800-SPRINGER, fax 201-348-4505, e-mail [email protected], or visit http://www.springeronline.com. For information on translations, please contact Apress directly at 2855 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 600, Berkeley, CA 94705. Phone 510-549-5930, fax 510-549-5939, e-mail info//www.apress.com. Apress and friends of ED books may be purchased in bulk for academic, corporate, or promotional use. eBook ver- sions and licenses are also available for most titles. For more information, reference our Special Bulk Sales—eBook Licensing web page at http://www.apress.com/info/bulksales. The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author(s) nor Apress shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this work. The source code for this book is available to readers at http://www.apress.com. www.allitebooks.com For Anna and Stella. www.allitebooks.com www.allitebooks.com Contents About the Author . ix About the Technical Reviewer . xi ■CHAPTER 1 Introducing the Facebook Platform. 1 What Is Facebook?. 1 A Brief History of Facebook . 1 The Elements of the Facebook Platform . 2 Facebook Markup Language . 3 REST API Calls . 3 Facebook Query Language . 4 Facebook JavaScript . 5 Client Libraries . 6 Summary. 7 ■CHAPTER 2 Getting Ready for Facebook Application Development . 9 What’s Needed. 9 Creating a Facebook Account. 10 Understanding Facebook Layout and Terms . 10 Setting Up Your Server . 12 Adding the Developer Application. 13 Understanding How Facebook Applications Work . 15 Creating a New Application . 17 Facebook Terms of Service Highlights . 19 Using Facebook Tools. 20 API Tab . 20 XML. 21 JSON. 22 PHP . 23 FBML Tab . 24 Feed Preview Console Tab . 28 Using Programming Tools. 29 Summary. 29 ■CHAPTER 3 Learning Facebook Platform Fundamentals . 31 Client Library Primer . 31 API Primer . 33 v www.allitebooks.com vi ■CONTENTS Authentication . 35 Events . 37 FBML. 37 Feed . 37 FQL . 38 Friends . 38 Groups. 38 Marketplace . 38 Notifications . 39 Photos. 39 Profile . 39 Users. 39 Error Codes . 39 Data Store API . 40 FQL Primer. 42 Tables . 42 Functions and Operators . 44 Facebook Markup Language Primer. 46 Valid HTML Tags . 46 FBML Tags. 47 Conditionals. 48 User/Group Information . 51 Profile Specific. 51 Embedded Media. 52 Visibility on Profile . 52 Tools . 53 Forms . 53 Other. 54 Editor Display . 54 Page Navigation. 56 Dialog Boxes . 58 Wall. 60 Mock Ajax . 61 Facebook JavaScript Primer. 63 DOM Objects . 65 Putting It Together . 65 Things to Remember . 69 Summary. 70 ■CHAPTER 4 Building a Facebook Application, Start to Finish . 71 Setting Up Eclipse . 71 www.allitebooks.com ■CONTENTS vii Using Plug-Ins . 73 Remote Project Support (FTP/SFTP) . ..