Alphageeks meetup - facebook api
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The document discusses Facebook applications and the OpenSocial API. It provides information on: 1. How Facebook applications work and how they integrate and communicate with Facebook through profile boxes, portlets, and APIs. 2. The Facebook API and what it allows applications to do, such as access user data, post to newsfeeds, and more. 3. OpenSocial, which aims to allow applications to work across multiple social networks through a common API, reducing code duplication for developers and giving new social sites a library of existing applications.
Alphageeks meetup - facebook api
- 2. Aluna Israel’s leading Java/JavaEE and SOA consulting company Customers:
- 3. How Facebook Apps work Every profile page is made up of many independent portlets or profile boxes. Each portlet is generated statically by a possibly external application and stored by Facebook. It could be an iframe, but in most cases is not. Portlets are not actually changed in the profile page – they are changed elsewhere! Facebook has mechanisms to link in applications, and APIs for applications to communicate with Facebook.
- 4. Facebook Communication request for profile profile request for canvas request for canvas content Facebook API use update profile box, etc. canvas canvas user facebook.com application (UCT)
- 5. What can the API do Get a list of friend ids or friends who are running the same app Get and set notifications of events Set content of profile box Get specific information on a user Add to the Newsfeed for a user Etc.
- 6. Client Libraries Client libraries will simplify the calls to the platform by reducing the amount of code you have to write. If you don’t use a client library then will have to do the following for each method call: ◦ Construct a signature ◦ Create and send a HTTP POST request ◦ Parse the XML result of the request
- 7. Example Clients Facebook Clients ◦ PHP5 ◦ Java Independent Clients ◦ ActionScript ◦ Cocoa ◦ PHP4 ◦ Ruby ◦ Python ◦ VB.NET
- 8. Methods The facebook API currently has 20 methods that can be used to get information from facebook accounts.
- 9. Authentication facebook.auth.createToken ◦ creates an auth_token to be passed in as a parameter to login.php facebook.auth.getSession ◦ returns the session key bound to an auth_token
- 10. Facebook Query Language Facebook.fql.query ◦ FQL is a way to query the same facebook data you can access through the other API functions, but with a SQL style interface. ◦ SELECT name, affiliations FROM user WHERE uid IN (SELECT uid2 FROM friend WHERE uid1=211031) AND "Facebook" IN affiliations.name AND uid < 10
- 11. Events facebook.events.get ◦ returns all visible events according to the filters specified facebook.events.getMembers ◦ returns membership list data associated with an event
- 12. Friends facebook.friends.areFriends ◦ returns whether or not each pair of specified users is friends with each other facebook.friends.get ◦ returns the identifiers of the current user’s Facebook friends facebook.friends.getAppUsers ◦ returns the identifiers of the current user’s Facebook friends who are currently signed in
- 13. Groups facebook.groups.get ◦ returns all visible groups according to the filters specified facebook.groups.getMembers ◦ returns membership list data associated with a group
- 14. Notifications facebook.notifications.get ◦ returns information on outstanding Facebook notifications for current session user. ◦ such as messages, friend requests, pokes, group invites and event invites
- 15. Photos facebook.photos.addTag ◦ adds a tag with the given information to a photo facebook.photos.createAlbum ◦ creates and returns a new album owned by the current session user facebook.photos.get ◦ returns all visible photos according to the filters specified
- 16. Photos facebook.photos.getAlbums ◦ returns metadata about all of the photo albums uploaded by the specified user facebook.photos.getTags ◦ returns the set of user tags on all photos specified facebook.photos.upload ◦ uploads a photo owned by the current session user and returns the new photo
- 17. Users facebook.users.getInfo ◦ returns the information in a users profile facebook.users.getLoggedInUser ◦ gets the user id associated with the current session
- 18. Responses Each of these methods can have a different response format depending on what you are programming in. ◦ JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) ◦ XML ◦ Facebook PHP Client
- 19. FBML Language used by Facebook to specify any fragment of Web pages. Mostly just like HTML! Forms get additional fields added to pass Facebook parameters silently. Images are redirected to local copies. Links must be absolute (parameters do not work as expected in all toolkits). Lots of additional Facebook-specific items ◦ <fb:name uid=…> for a user’s name ◦ <fb:profile-pic …> for a user’s profile picture
- 20. FQL Facebook Query Language allows access to user database with language that is similar to SQL. Example: ◦ SELECT first_name FROM user WHERE uid=$params->{user} ◦ To get the first name of a user based on the user-id
- 21. Creating an Application What you need: ◦ Web Server ◦ API toolkit or roll-your-own Add the Developer application to your profile. Switch to the Developer application. Apply for a key.
- 26. What does a typical application do? Check CGI parameters. Authenticate using Facebook API. Draw configuration Web page on canvas. Allow user to update options … Write FBML to profile box. Save per-user state in database or in filesystem.
- 29. Open Social
- 30. What problem does it try to solve? Writing applications specifically for a single API
- 32. Why? Developers Site Owners ◦ Can reuse apps on ◦ New site new social networks immediately gains ◦ Reduce code many applications maintenance ◦ Pre-existing broad ◦ Increased potential developer base audience for application
- 33. Who Does It?