Facebook Application Development with Graph API Cookbook

Shashwat Srivastava

Shashwat Srivastava

— 4 min read

With Facebook transforming into the alter ego of every tech-savvy on this planet…the staggering 1 billion user figure and a collage entailing integration of 7 million websites bears ample testimony to the colossal popularity of this avant-garde, courtesy Mark Zuckerberg. It won’t be a hyperbole to state that Facebook is the numero-uno among a myriad nunmber of social networking websites. While every developer wants to jump on this bandwagon to create applications and games, there are a legion of tutorial websites sharing the tips and tricks on Facebook evolving API. For the assistance in Facebook application development, it is feasible alright to use snippets from online websites but if you are developing a complex application or game, stand alone snippets won’t take you far. On top of that, you have an ever evolving Facebook API which makes development more cumbersome.

Also in complex Facebook applications which are akin to a baffling labyrinth, if you don’t adopt a consistent approach from scratch, you might land yourself in bigger problems. For consistent approach, one way is to follow some Book where all most commonly used features and scenarios are explained with examples and code.

Facebook launched Graph API last year but they have made several updates since then and now require all legacy apps to migrate to Graph API. For Facebook Open Graph Beta, you can get some really handy tips with some intuitive ready-to-use applications from Facebook Application Development with Graph API Cookbook.

Facebook Application Development with Graph API Cookbook

Overview of Facebook Application Development with Graph API Cookbook

  • Dive headfirst into Facebook application development with the all new Facebook Graph API.
  • Packed with many demonstrations on how to use Facebook PHP and JS SDKs.
  • Step by step examples demonstrating common scenarios and problems encountered during Facebook Application Development.
  • Houses an exquisite collection of ready to use Facebook applications.
  • Learn how to leverage Facebook Query Language in order to obtain complex Facebook user data.
  • Power your websites with Facebook Social Plugins.
  • See how to incorporate Facebook Dialogs to make attractive applications.
  • Use the newly launched Facebook virtual currency to sell premium items to users.

Where to get it

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With a user base of nearly 800 million people, Facebook is the number one social networking platform. Applications can be created to interact with this huge user base in various ways both inside and outside Facebook. These applications, if developed effectively and efficiently, offer a free medium for promotion and publicity of a product or an organization.

Facebook Application Development with Graph API Cookbook covers both the concepts and implementations necessary to develop Facebook applications and provides ready to use code for common scenarios faced by a developer while creating these applications. It incorporates the newly launched Facebook Graph API and also presents the reader with some intuitive ready to use applications.

This book guides the reader step by step, from start to finish, through various stages of Facebook application development. It begins by exploring the Facebook application registration and discussing the verification and authentication technique. It then takes you through the various ways in which you can use Facebook Graph API for interacting with users such as posting on a user’s wall, tagging a user in a picture, etc. Accessing complex Facebook user data by formulating a series of queries, doing client side scripting and incorporating Facebook Dialog interface are some other features that have been incorporated in this book. Integration of various Facebook Social Plugins such as the like box in your web page has also been discussed. Further you will get to know the concept of virtual currency and how to programmatically derive Facebook analytics data. As the book progresses, you will learn to use and integrate many more advanced features in Facebook application development. The book contains ready to use code that can be deployed instantly. Towards the end, the book houses a variety of ready to use Facebook applications so as to help readers derive their own applications from them.


What you will learn from this book :

  • Install Facebook PHP SDK and register your Facebook application
  • Obtain access token and perform session validation for current Facebook user
  • Work with the newly launched Facebook Graph API
  • Get an insight into the core of Facebook application development such as creating a post on wall, publishing pictures, tagging users, etc
  • Connect to Facebook Social Graph by using Facebook PHP and JavaScript SDKs
  • Leverage Facebook Query Language in order to obtain complex Facebook user data
  • Use Facebook Dialogs to enhance user experience
  • Power your websites with Facebook Social Plugins
  • Define your website content to Facebook Graph using Facebook Open Graph Protocol
  • Handle transactions through Facebook Credits
  • Use XFBML tags to enrich your application
  • Extract Facebook application analytics data
  • Create your own applications, from tip to toe, with ready to use code


Approach

Written in a cookbook style, this book offers solutions using a recipe-based approach. Each recipe contains step-by-step instructions followed by an analysis of what was done in each task and other useful information. The cookbook approach means you can dive into whatever recipes you want in no particular order. The book provides tips and tricks to the most common problems and scenarios faced in Facebook Application Development.


Who this book is written for

This book is written for Facebook developers ranging from novice to expert. It uses PHP, HTML and jQuery, the most commonly used platforms, to build applications in Facebook.

Where to get it

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