I have spent a lot of time reading FB dev docs and tutorials but I am still very confused with what canvas app and page tab are and how to use them.
What I am expecting from using FB SDK in my site is to have "continue with facebook" button on login screen , have a couple of share and like buttons and send notifications to facebook if user have allowed that. My site has internal messaging system and I want to notify users that new message or activity has happened in my site. In this way users would not have to check my site every day for activity which is important user experience as I expect rare activity(approx. few activities per week).
I have everything running but after user clicks on notification he is taken to canvas app. FB docs and tutorials focuses on code examples but I have not found anywhere description on what canvas app really is. Without this fundamental understanding I can not complete my notification logic, can not understand the terms involved like "secure canvas url" and basically does not feel confident about user experience(which I would want to make as great as possible).
If I google "what is facebook canvas app" I get "Canvas is an immersive and expressive experience on Facebook for businesses to tell their stories and showcase their products.". Apparently from comment below thats something else...
I would appreacite If someone could explain in plain word and maybe example what is canvas app and how should I use if taking into account that my main goal is to notify users about acitivity in my site to their fb account.
I am using CI framework PHP SDK v5.
Background
In Facebook, you create "apps" that run on "platforms". As a quick, very simplified summary, the three primary types of "platforms" that apps can run are:
A website that you host and control, but integrated with the Facebook Graph API (has Facebook Login, posting etc), but otherwise looks like a normal website. You host these on your own servers.
A website designed to sit inside an iFrame on the Facebook Platform. These apps will also generally interact with Facebook Graph. You still host them on your own servers but you have the added advantage that but can get limited information about the user when the page loads.
Stand alone programs (including mobile applications) that also interact with the Facebook Graph.
What you are talking about is the second of these - the iFrame on Facebook.
Facebook provide two ways to embed the application iFrame:
one is a canvas app. This has minimal surrounds for Facebook Header, Footer and a few ads on the right. It maximises your space. (e.g. https://apps.facebook.com/candycrush/?fbs=-1&fb_appcenter=1)
the other is a "page tab" (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/pages/tabs). This is smaller and designed to sit in a company's "Facebook Page" so has less space. As a marketer, however, it keeps everything more branded to your company. (Example: https://www.facebook.com/NutellaANZ/app/595447743881506/)
Note that a single app can run across all the above - canvas, a page tab and a stand-alone HTML page. With some shifting of the API, you can also wrap the same code for mobile and put on the app stores. A user can log in on your mobile app and you can have them logged in on websites and vice-versa (within some limits, but you'll need to explore those).
Games Only?
You are right in that most of the Facebook docs relating to apps refer to games.
Indeed a good place to start is https://developers.facebook.com/docs/games/gamesonfacebook which is where help leads you for Canvas Apps now.
But it doesn't have to be a game - so long as you're using the APIs anything will work. As you mention PHP, have a look at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/php/howto/example_access_token_from_canvas - no mention of a game, but is how you get information from the iFrame in PHP. (There's a lot more reading to do!).
Reading notifications
When clicking on the notification, Facebook will add parameters to the URL. Some of these are determined by the notification (see https://developers.facebook.com/docs/games/services/appnotifications) and others will help you get information about the user (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/login/signed-request, https://developers.facebook.com/docs/php/SignedRequest/5.0.0).
So use this information server-side to work out who the user is and how you want to handle the user. But what experience you want to give the user once you're in the Facebook eco-system is up to you.
Related
I'm using the plugin Like 2 Unlock for jQuery.
I'm creating WP plugin and adding this plugin to lock some settings content.
When liked, it will be unlocked and people able to manage settings.
The facebook App need the website added to the Facebook App for it to work. Since this is going to be WP plugin, it will be hosted on others people domains. Well, in this case it will not work because their domain won't match with my domain in FB app.
Do the facebook app settings have something where you don't need to specify your website and this way no need to be tied to a specific domain?
Like Gating is not allowed and not possible anymore: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/apps/changelog
You must not incentivize people to use social plugins or to like a Page. This includes offering rewards, or gating apps or app content based on whether or not a person has liked a Page. It remains acceptable to incentivize people to login to your app, checkin at a place or enter a promotion on your app's Page. To ensure quality connections and help businesses reach the people who matter to them, we want people to like Pages because they want to connect and hear from the business, not because of artificial incentives. We believe this update will benefit people and advertisers alike.
I'm trying to develop a Facebook App that works using Unity3D as front-end but using a PHP Web server to do the Facebook request saving the private key there.
I tested various things like uploading photos and comments an then it get reflected the new App Insigths of the App as Stories Published.
The thing I can't achieve is to see the Likes and Comments of those Stories, it remains 0.
¿There is something that I don't understand about the Likes/Comments there, or I'm doing something bad?
Thank you all.
P.D: Sorry about my English ^^'
Edit:
I can't provide example code of what i've done but I can explain it.
Actually my front-end do get requests to a backend PHP server that do the requests to Facebook.
When a user want to log in the server return the login url in a string and the front-end launches a Internet navigator (in my case is Google Chrome).
The callback url given to Facebook go to a site that closes automatically the navigator and putting in first plane my front-end.
From there you can do the request to the back-end to publish stories in Facebook and then log-out
Actually this is what my application do and it works. The only problem is that the comments and likes that those stories got are not reflected in the App Insights section.
I'm wondering if it is possible to allow a user to invite friends to join my app, even though it is registered as a fitness app and not a game through facebook. Does this even matter?
I'd like to use the facebook requests dialog, but I am being tripped up by the wording in the info section of this page: http://goo.gl/zfx4R where it says that the request dialog is only available to games on facebook.com.
If the requests dialog is not the answer, how should I go about allowing a user to invite their friends? If there is a PHP solution I'd prefer it.
Thanks for the help in advance
As far as I know, there are no features which are restricted to the "type" of app, so game versus app should make no difference.
You can open the FB.ui({method: 'apprequests'}) Facebook Javascript dialog on any web page, the app doesn't need to be in a canvas or page tab. The wording may be confusing, but what is meant is that, when a user does accept an invitation, they will be sent to the app canvas.
This means that you will need to configure your Facebook app to have a namespace (apps.facebook.com/<namespace>) and you will need to handle users coming from invitations at that point. What you do with them afterwards is up to you, you could redirect them to your website if you wish.
You should be aware that the Facebook Requests process is deliberately quite cryptic to avoid gaining information from users who don't want to be involved in your app. Unless you have a specific reason to track invitations, I suggest using the FB.ui({ method: 'feed'}) dialog with a target_id.
Because of this, there isn't and will not be a way in PHP to perform this. You will need to load the JS SDK onto your page and invoke the dialog, then allow the user to make their decision (whether using the 'feed' or 'apprequests' dialog).
When posting to the page wall (feed) through my application, under the post contents facebook adds '20 minutes ago *via my_app*'. This is a problem for my company, since they don't want the fans knowing the posting is done through an application, thus losing the personal touch.
Is there any way to lose the '*via my_ap*p' part of the post? These are some of the things I have tried:
I have given every possible permission on the page admin user, including 'manage_pages'
Have tried with the token returned from graph api me/accounts for that page / Impersonating pages
Please tell me, short of making a bot to do the whole thing, is there any way to do this through the facebook api.
Thank you for any help you can provide.
If you don't want the people to see which company you are, then Facebook is the wrong platform for you!
I'm pretty sure, you also would violate the terms of Facebook (Developer).
See what your competitors are doing. The largest company in this business has named their app "Publisher". When users click on this a page will open up that doesn't say anything about who created the app - actually it doesn't say anything at all. You could also use the name "Publisher" for your Facebook publishing app - in Facebook app names don't have to be unique.
I've read quite a bit of documentation, and it's all based around on setting up full blown Facebook integration on your site to the point where you're completely relying on Facebook.
All I want to know is 2 things:
1) How do I allow my users to find out which of their Facebook friends have already joined my site
2) And what's the easiest way to let them invite Facebook friends to the site?
The site that does it perfectly and exactly how I want to duplicate is Gowalla at http://gowalla.com/friends/find
Note: I've never used Facebook Connect, however I have an API key somewhere.
You need to become best buddies with the Facebook Developer Documentation, especially the web guide.
Where you can start is the Login With Faces plugin, although the Facepile could apply as well. But understand this: If you're not using Facebook to authenticate your users (i.e., using Facebook Connect*), these plugins will be worthless to you.
In terms of inviting people, there's not going to be a great way to do that. You can implement request forms through the XFBML ServerFbml tag, but that's really for inviting people to other Facebook entities, not your own site. There's the share button but that's not really the same thing as an invite.
**Note: It's actually no longer called Facebook Connect - they are slowly moving away from that moniker. They are moving to the terminology "single sign-on". However, the "Facebook Connect" name still pops up in many places.*