I have created some facebook applications before. If you visit facebook application directory and search for "Franciscan" - you will find an app i created for an alumni site such that people on the alumni site can see the events of their site on facebook and can click on any link to get signed into the alumni site automatically and participate in any activity going on there.

I am focusing on developing facebook applications using your basic php/mysql knowlege - and the minimal requirement also include that you must have a website for testing your application!

If you are interested in this thread to continue, please signify your interest by posting something encouraging or as simple as "yo"!

I need at least 5 positive responses to continue this thread.

Remainder than 4.

***I've got to encourage all no matter what to make sure the section is lively and moving on. ***

Hey! Where are they?

Yo pal!
Get on. Let's get it started! I'm feeling you.

yeah remainder 2

right behind you,

yo

Yo pal, GO FOR IT!

I will do the same thing not only Facebook application, i will work on video social network website with more features for my people who are deaf---without incorporating to Youtube/Google Video API installation. The video blog site lacks of those features plus it is a must have Youtube/Google video API requirement.

For example, one deaf vlogger (short word for video blogger) sign up with Youtube account on video blog site, suddenly if someone flags on Youtube site pointing that deaf vlogger is something bad in which the Youtube blocked that is also affected on deaf video blog site. Deaf vlogger is stuck not able to access to deaf video blog site because it is under YouTube account.

I have seen one-year old deaf video blog site with YouTube account where many deaf vloggers  are not happy with it---lot of complains, criticisms, or quit/leave site. It loses lot of enrollments, that is bad!!!

I found beta video blog/website software application without incorporating YouTube/Google Video API is being working on newer version adding video responses/comments and many add-on features coming soon----that is what i need for my people who are deaf.

Anyway, go for it and good luck!

yeh Pah !!!
fire on

@admin - good to see you - this is the first time i am seeing you on any of my thread - and just for that - i am going to go all out.
So first - i will like to assume you are all registered on facebook. Next step is that you will now go to http://www.facebook.com/developers/
which is the area that you are going to be building your application.
For the purpose of this training - the demo i am going to do for this class will be called nairaland (to humour the admin)
Yes - i am going to create a facebook application that displays the home page of our webmasters section - i will now put it on my facebook profile.

Because this is a training section - i will keep down my codes to the minimal and am going to be providing you with screenshots as we go along.

The actual path of the application will be on www.mwebng.net/nairaland

I wasnt paying much attention while doing the screenshot - i think i mixed up a step - anyway - the lesson there is that - just signup for on facebook - then visit facebook.com/developers then click on the create application button - fill in some of the details i did above - after all that
we will now get to developing the application itself. But first we need to the client library - a package that allows you to actually connect to the facebook object and allow you to perform your magic.

The client library is called facebook-platform.tar.gz.gz - so next step - we unzip it - there will be some folders in it - and a test application called footprint - bust it - what you need is the files in the php folder - which i will display next - just put these files in your project folder

So you will now move all the files and folders shown above into your root folder - mwebng.net/nairaland in this place - our main application will be stored in index.php
So that the entire package looks like below

A sample facebook application will be:

<?php
// Copyright 2007 Facebook Corp.  All Rights Reserved. 
// 
// Application: Franciscan
// File: 'index.php' 
//   This is a sample skeleton for your application. 
// 

require_once 'facebook.php';

$appapikey = '81553d612fa9932ba4e4193cbe90629e';
$appsecret = 'eb0e2fcdaf648d4d653740b0d7a187e6';
$facebook = new Facebook($appapikey, $appsecret);
$user_id = $facebook->require_login();

// Greet the currently logged-in user!
echo "<p>Hello, <fb:name uid=\"$user_id\" useyou=\"false\" />!</p>";

// Print out at most 25 of the logged-in user's friends,
// using the friends.get API method
echo "<p>Friends:";
$friends = $facebook->api_client->friends_get();
$friends = array_slice($friends, 0, 25);
foreach ($friends as $friend) {
  echo "<br>$friend";
}
echo "</p>";

Notice i did not close the php with ?> - that is fb for you - u gotta speak their lang


Next step is to replace the application key and secret code with the one shown in the developers area - this is for security sake.

So after this, i now uploaded the folder online to mwebng.net/nairaland]

Then proceeded to test by putting www.mwebng.net/nairaland and of course it is working


So i now modified my code a bit to

index.php

<?php
 require_once 'facebook.php';

$appapikey = '1a59d3194ebeff9041b963b69asgscaf';
$appsecret = '838d223208a5c071d32776csefsdfsdc37';
$facebook = new Facebook($appapikey, $appsecret);

echo "Hello Nairalanders";
?>

This will work if you visit www.mwebng.net/nairaland by printing out Hello Nairalanders on the screen

So i now bring in my nairaland plugin which is for this tutorial set to display this particular thread - it is located on
http://www.mwebng.net/nairaland/plugin.php - i will not want to paste the source code of my php file here - that is out of question - exc for @admin.

So now, we just include the plugin into our first script - both files are in the same folder anyway

So we now have

index.php

<?php
 require_once 'facebook.php';

$appapikey = '1a59d3194ebeff9041b963b69a568caf';
$appsecret = '838d223208a5c071d32776cdc1bbcc37';
$facebook = new Facebook($appapikey, $appsecret);

include "plugin.php";
?>

So we are now somewhere - we testrun again - http://mwebng.net/nairaland/ - it works - ope o!

Yo - so we want to complete the setup - go back to your development area - then edit the settings,
We wish to change our Canvas URL to http://apps.facebook.com/nairaland/
The steps below will show how to do just that. Once we have created the canvas url - we will look at how to add buttons like "Add To Profile" button.

Another interesting aspect to all this (while i am waiting for my internet connection to return) is that facebook actually use json - a technique in javascript that allows you pass alot of information accross from server to client - like say all your friend's list with as many details as possible - u can now interprete it and display the contents anyway u like - using ajax - which fb uses alot - my connection is back - so lemme add the next slides.

So i had to tweak my code slightly to use their frame method - reasons is a bit complex

index.php

<?php
 require_once 'facebook.php';

$appapikey = '1a59d3194ebeff9041b963b6sefsaf';
$appsecret = '838d223208a5c071d32776csdfsdfsdbcc37';
$facebook = new Facebook($appapikey, $appsecret);

echo '<fb:iframe src="http://www.mwebng.net/nairaland/plugin.php" width=760 height=720 name="Nairaland Forums" frameborder=0>';
?>

The result: is on http://apps.facebook.com/nairalanders/

iight guys - see ya later - i am done for today - i will continue later - i guess this should be simple enough - maybe i should wait
for feedbacks from yo guys!

Great!

Have been eye(ing) facebook platform since last year. the potential for revenue-generation is massive, but ideas that turn traffic into monies is another dimension altogether. current model is still based on piggy-backing on adverts displayed while users are on your application. Nairaland could make a smooth transition or establish a parallel model that allows Nairalanders who are hooked (certified addiction to nl) on facebook to still stay in touch. I am sure google adsense revenue can be supplimented with fb ads.

So, bottomline. killa-app ideas that are not dependent on ad revenue, but have practical use that online users (individuals and companies) can pay for based on how many users install, i am thinkin, ringtone catalogs, stock market info/tips, news, bulk sms to fbusers with numbers etc

ppl are complaining that i am moving too fast - so lemme slow down a bit - anyway all that is still preambles - we still need to talk about
how to utilize the facebook framework properly - now, i am not sure of how to go about it - but the facebook framework is divided into
2 aspects - client sided (ajax/javascript) and server sided - a powerful php class. And they made use of lots of json stuffs.
I dont think a strong knowlege of json (Javascript Object Notation) is that important but the implementation.

On the overall, the framework allows the application to pull information from people's profile with their permission, send notifications to ppl, import friend's list, i assume you would have seen alot of facebook applications, so all this na repetition.

Anyway - it is too complex for me to explain - but if u visit the developer's area, try read the reference materials there, then we may discuss it here.
The annoying part of the whole thing was that - it took me about a week of reading all those their materials before i could even get the demo to work.
Immagine, to insert a frame, you cant even use <iframe src=""></iframe>, and to worsen matters, they seem to have their own markup language and "php style" - even their json and ajax calls are even different slightly from the regular one - with all my strength in javascript, i still had to read all those their documentations before i can even write simple codes that i have known for a long time.

In short, it is like learning ABCD is another language. So what me i usually do is that - i will write my application and embed it a facebook frame - if you include in your regular php code style directly into the application - the errors go plenty no be small.

i can only say you are doing amazing job here

dhtml:

Questions !! Questions !!! Questions !!!

. . .Oboy u don dey work for FACEBOOK now?

THanks guyz.

Please post any questions that you may have here so we solve it o.

Now the next part is, how to add facebook connect to your website to pull information from facebook into your website. . .

That's a good one. Looking forward for the second part!

*dhtml:

Now the next part is, how to add facebook connect to your website to pull information from facebook into your website. . .

hmm, cool,

Before i can do that (i have done that already), before i can upload that, i will like to see a few facebook apps by you guys