Creating a content managed facebook app

Creating a content
managed facebook app

Integrating a content managed
website with Facebook

What you will need to get
started
 A facebook account, with either a cell phone
number or a valid attached credit card.
 A facebook PAGE for your site (This is no longer
required)
 A developer API Key
 A suitable content management platform (this
example uses DotNetNuke)
 A place to host your website
 Preferably a secure certificate
 A skin (or as they are called on other platforms,
a template)
 Some jscript integration knowhow

Facebook Account
 One facebook account is responsible for
creating and logging into the Developer API key
configuration.
 While an individual may own this, it should be
someone whom you trust and who will have
longevity with your company, or it should be a
generic account set up for this specific purpose
 After the site is created you may add additional
administrators or content editors to the site.
After the app is created your editors will do all
the content editing on the CMS system so they
don‟t need facebook administrator privileges at
all to change the app content

Facebook Page (This is no
longer required!)
 The content managed portion of your facebook site
will be hosted on a Facebook APP (not page)
 Create the page using the same account you are
going to use for the API key. If the page is already
created have them add that account as an admin.
 It‟s important not to duplicate content between your
app and the facebook page. Carefully consider
where you want information to go
 Get enough friends to “like” the page that you get
your own vanity URL for it.
 Create a page here
https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?ref=ts
and be sure to select the correct category for your
page.

Facebook APP
 Think of the page as a presence for your
new “app” which will be your content
managed site
 The app and Facebook site page are now
completely separate.
 You should specifically decide what content
you want on facebook (timely, updated
frequently etc) and what you want on the
app (permanent, interactive, etc.).

The Developer API Key
 The developer API key and the APP name are determined when
you create a developer account in Facebook. Again – use the
same facebook profile for this.
 To create an API key go to:
https://developers.facebook.com/
 Click on Apps (far right)
 Click on Create New App
 Name your app (this name is how it will appear on your PAGE)
 App Namespace – use a short name which will be used for opengraph
if you implement it.
 DO NOT check web hosting
 Enter your password and Captcha. The system will text you a code or
check your credit card before proceeding

 Fill in the form, and the system will generate a key. This key is
used to authenticate your app with Facebook, for sharing
comments, and for creating a more interactive experience

Where to find your app key

https://developers.facebook.com/apps

Why do you need it
 Each page in your app needs the following code in its
page header:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:og="http://ogp.me/ns#"
xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml">
<meta property="fb:admins" content=“<your login id for
facebook here>"/>
<meta property="fb:app_id" content=“<your app id
here>">

Example (app ID purposefully
altered)
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:og="http://ogp.me/ns#"
xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml">
<meta property="fb:admins" content="lee.drake"/>
<meta property="fb:app_id" content=“1111111111">

Why the APP ID
 It tells facebook that this page is owned by
you and it‟s a valid page to be displayed
within the context of your app.
 With that meta data you can start to use
open-graph items like comments, likes and
newsfeeds more easily.
 It allows you to retrieve and customize the
experience for the user with their info.

How do I create my app?

 An app has the following
characteristics:
 Each page must have the meta data for
the app id and login in the header.
 Each page must be formatted to fit the
“box” that facebook will frame your site
within (2 standard sizes)
 Within that box, you basically need a
website that is self contained, or that –
if it has a link – links to a new window.

How does a Content managed
system help?
 In a CMS we can just load up a skin or
template that is the right size to fit the
requirements for size
 In a CMS we can put the meta data in as
a parameter in the page definition – no
coding required
 In a CMS we can add/remove/modify any
content without needing to know or
understand facebook or it‟s programming
language
 In a CMS we can use Facebooks code
widgets to implement specific features

Skin design requirements
 Besides typical design requirements for
look and feel the skin should have:
 520px width (there is an alternate width of 810px
for “wide applications), but 520 is preferred
 A fixed height at a specific number of PX or a
fluid height, with the awareness that you will lose
the scroll bar on the right side of the screen
 Some sort of content (either full page, or tabbed
within the site)

Example from Eyes on the Future

What should I set my general
settings to

 General settings

Defining your page tabs
 On the app page refer to the first page of
your tabs as the main “tab page”, choose
Edit Settings on your app and check “tabs”:

Defining mobile app page
 You can either set the mobile app page to
the same tab if it will work well with touch,
otherwise create a custom formatted page
for mobile and point to it. Choose App/Edit
settings:

Set the “Canvas” for your app

 This page is the default canvas for
the app, where you will locate app
events etc. if using opengraph:

That‟s it!
 Those are all the main settings for your
app.
 There is a lot more you can do once your
app is set up with opengraph, showing
the wall on your page, integrating likes
and recommendations, and other cool
things.
 Once this basic setup is done, content on
your pages, and other modifications to
the tabs within your app are all handled
inside your CMS

Additional CMS advantages

 Have a registration form? Reformat
it to fit the narrower screen and
drop it into your app – now people
can register from inside FB for your
event or product
 Have an ecommerce section? You
can create link-out‟s that will
advertise a product on the FB app
and link to a place to go buy them
in a new window.

Additional CMS advantages

 You can place duplicate modules
from your website on the facebook
CMS pages – so that when you
change content in one place, you
change it in both places
 Integrate commenting and walls
deeply into your application to
enhance the social experience of
your site.

Advanced topics

 Adding like buttons
 Adding a wall to your facebook page
 Future add-ons – opengraph api

Likes
 Likes can be added to any CMS page without an
app, however if you have an app it adds the
app id and associates the like‟s with the app
 There is a page to generate the code to insert:
 https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/pl
ugins/like/
 Example code:
<div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id)
{ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if
(d.getElementById(id)) return; js =
d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src =
"//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1&app
Id=<yourappidhere>";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document,
'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>

Adding your page‟s wall
 You can show comments from your page or app within your apps other pages or on
separate web pages inside your website – this improves customer engagement, just
add the following jscript to a text/html element.
 Facebook generates a channel.html file at this web page which must be uploaded to
your site:

 In the module or page header
<script>window.fbAsyncInit = function () {FB.init({appId: „<your app id here>', // App ID
channelUrl: '//yourwebsitename/channel.html', // Channel File – must be uploaded from FB
status: true, // check login status
cookie: true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the session
xfbml: true // parse XFBML
});
// Additional initialization code here
};
// Load the SDK Asynchronously
(function (d) {var js, id = 'facebook-jssdk', ref = d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; if
(d.getElementById(id)) { return; } js = d.createElement('script'); js.id = id; js.async = true; js.src =
"//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js"; ref.parentNode.insertBefore(js, ref);} (document));</script>
 In the content where you want the wall
<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id))
return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>
<div class="fb-comments" data-href="http://yourwebsitehere.com" data-num-posts="3" data-
width="300"> </div>

Words of wisdom
 If you‟re not a designer either buy a custom design from a
store, or have someone customize one for you.
 You must be at least basically familiar with html/jscript to
be able to easily debug these
 READ THE INSTRUCTIONS, while not CMS specific
Facebook actually has pretty good instructions for how to
do all this on their help pages
 Have a professional available, and be prepared to
reimburse them for their service, to assist with things like
opengraph and advanced debugging
 Get a secure certificate for your site – these days many of
the people using your app will be using SSL – if you have
a secure certificate you avoid having them be forced to
authenticate the unsecure info every time they browse the
app

OS-Cubed

 Experts at Social Media integration
on DotNetNuke platforms
 Contact info: ldrake@os-cubed.com
 Phone: 585-756-2444
 Twitter @leedrake and @oscubed

Creating a content managed facebook app

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