Drupal for Facebook

I plan to attend the upcoming Bay Area Drupal Camp. For those interested in learning about Drupal for Facebook, I've proposed a session. If you might attend, please vote for it now. Without votes, it will not be included in the program.

I'm also going to hold a smaller session there for developers who want to get Drupal for Facebook up and running. If you've run into problems and would like to ask me in person or if you're new to DFF and want a jump start, that may be the session for you: http://badcamp.net/session/drupal-facebook-hackathon

As you probably know, Facebook recently introduced a number of changes to their API. To use the new API, you need a new PHP library from Facebook, which adds several functions as well as changing and removing others. To support the new API I've had to make the same sort of changes to the Drupal for Facebook modules. With so many changes, I'm calling the new code version 2.

The new facebook profile comes with an updated API for writing feed messages. As of now, this site is using that new API. So please let me know if you see anything looking wrong, or error messages.

The new API includes templates for one-line, short, and longer feed messages. So after you post a topic to these forums you'll see a link to the topic written to your feed. And you can choose the longer feed format to include the teaser of your post right on your facebook wall.

Facebook recently changed the way applications affect user accounts and profiles. It used to be that a user would add an application, and in doing so the application was allowed to write to the users profile, minifeed and do other things on behalf of the user. In the new scheme, the user has more control over exactly what an application can do, and by default most of these permissions are turned off.

I've applied for a grant with the Knight Foundation, which would fund considerable development of the Drupal for Facebook project. For the application to be considered, it needs some votes in favor of it. So please help out this project by reviewing the application. Leave your comments and vote favorably.

I've proposed a talk at the next DrupalCon about Drupal for Facebook. The talk will include a brief introduction, demonstration of live app(s), and some how-to.

In order to be accepted, it needs some positive votes. So, please head on over an vote for this session. Especially if you're going to DrupalCon. Hope to see you there!

http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/program/sessions/building-facebook-appli...

Drupal for Facebook now provides an invitation page, like this one:
http://apps.facebook.com/drupalforfacebook/fb/invite

This allows your users to invite other friends to install the application. This can be done when a user first installs the app, or anytime afterward.

They don't give a lot of details, unclear whether there's a bug, or just liberal privacy settings by default:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7376738.stm

Here's advance warning about some changes that are on the way. Anyone using Drupal for Facebook will need to manually alter settings when these changes take effect.

What you need to be aware of is that all callback URLs will change. Right now, if your site is, say, www.drupalforfacebook.org, then the callback URL (as specified in the app settings form on apps.facebook.com/developer) is http://www.drupalforfacebook.org/. This will change to http://www.drupalforfacebook.org/fb_cb/NNN/, where NNN is the id used by Drupal to identify the app. I'll document this in the README and elsewhere when the change gets checked in.

Drupal for Facebook still needs work when it comes to authmapping existing (drupal) accounts and facebook user ids. I've made some progress and it would be nice to have some extra eyeballs taking a look at it before check-in.

If you have time to test this patch, please do!