ESSENTIALS OF
FACEBOOK
DEVELOPMENT
by Jesse Stay
The “Social” Geek
Author, FBML Essentials (O’Reilly)

JOIN THE DISCUSSION
ON FACEBOOK
http://www.facebook.com/pages/FBML-Essentials/
17595902703
Become a Fan!

WHERE TO FIND ME
• Twitter: @Jesse
• FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/jessestay
• Facebook: http://jessestay.socialtoo.com
• Blog: http://StayNAlive.com

WHY FACEBOOK
DEVELOPMENT?
• “Social Software Development”
• The weaving of Technical and Marketing
• 200 million plus users
• Relationships between those users
• The ultimate platform to spread your software

FACEBOOK PLATFORM
• Traditional Software Development
• API Communication
• Social Integration Points

TRADITIONAL SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT IN FACEBOOK
• Librariesavailable for most languages - Perl, PHP,
Java, Ruby, .NET, others
• Official Library is PHP, with Java being “semi-official”
• Javascript Client API and/or FBJS
• HTML and FBML
• Download libraries at
• http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/
Client_Libraries

FACEBOOK API
COMMUNICATION
• Traditional REST calls
• Yousend GET/POST communication via a URL, Facebook
Returns an XML/JSON response
• Certain calls require authentication
• App requires API Key, some times Private Key
• Mostly, the libraries do most of the work!

SOCIAL INTEGRATION
POINTS
• Canvas Page
• Profile Box
• Wall
• News Feed
• Publisher
• Notifications
• Requests
• Tabs

FACEBOOK CONNECT
• The Future of Facebook Platform
• Start
with your own website, then integrate
Facebook on top
• Access to entire Facebook API, from your website
• Universal login and registration for your users
• Works on top of the Facebook Javascript Client
Library

ARCHITECTURE

LET’S GET STARTED!
1.Get a Developer Account
1.http://developer.facebook.com

LET’S GET STARTED!
2.Add Your Application, Fill out Form
1.http://developer.facebook.com/get_started.php

LET’S GET STARTED!
3.Write some code
1.Basic FBML:
2.Facebook API:

LET’S GET STARTED!
4.Test Your App!
http://apps.facebook.com/fbmlessentials/test.php

FACEBOOK CONNECT
• XFBML
• http://www.allfacebook.com/2008/09/intro-to-facebook-
connect-development/

GET STARTED LEARNING
• Learn FBML Tags Available
• http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/FBML
• Learn API Methods Available
• http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/API
• Learn Facebook Connect
• http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Facebook_Connect
• Learn FBJS, FQL
• http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/FBJS
• http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/FQL
• Learn how your Language-specific Library adapts the API

OTHER RESOURCES
• Facebook Developers Wiki - http://wiki.developers.facebook.com
• Facebook Developers Forums - http://forum.developers.facebook.com
• IRC - freenode - irc.freenode.net #facebook
• Facebook Page - http://page.fbmlessentials.com
• AllFacebook.com
• InsideFacebook.com
• FaceReviews.com
• StayNAlive.com (of course!)
• Hire Me!