I have been following the Facebook Connect platform every since it was announced on the Facebook Developers Blog. This project makes a whole lot of sense to me as both a developer and a website owner. One of the goals that every blogger has is to build a large readership. This can sometimes be a daunting task for beginners who quickly learn that the saying, “if you build it, they will come” isn’t always correct.
Building a community of blog subscribers can take years unless for some strange reason you are already famous or have an extensive bankroll to finance some promotional campaigns. Then along comes Facebook Connect. Facebook Connect is the next iteration of the Facebook Platform that basically allows anyone with a facebook account to post comments on your blog as well as invite their friends to participate by commenting.
Why would you want to go about building a community from the ground up when you can harness one of the largest social networks on the web? I did some investigating and came into contact with another developer, Javier Reyes, who has been working on a Facebook Connect plugin for WordPress. Needless to say this peaked my interest because I am a buge fan of the WordPress CMS to start with, integrating it with Facebook was a no brainer for me, I was sold!
This past weekend I spent some time going through the source code for the plugin and getting familiar with how it operates and interacts with Facebook. It’s really simple, you simple go to the Developer Center on Facebook and apply for an API Key. You simply put your API Key and your Secret Key into the plugin and configure a sidebar widget for the application and you are all set.
So far this past week I have experimented with this plugin on 3 projects and have it running successfully on all three. I also have it installed here so that anyone who is interested can give it a shot. One of the current bugs that I have found with the plugin is that it doesn’t work with Internet Explorer, you will need to use Firefox or Safari to use the app.
Once you have this website pulled up in Firefox, simply locate the Facebook Connect Box located at the bottom of the sidebar. Click on the Facebook Login button. You will enter in your Facebook Account information if it asks for it. Once you are logged into Facebook you should see your avatar from Facebook in the Facebook Connect box. The next thing you will want to do is to come back to this blog entry and post a comment, from there you will see that it will allow you to post comments using your Facebook Account, and also gives you the option to post the comment to your facebook account as well. I recommend doing this so you can get the idea as to how this all flows.
Here is a little background information on the Facebook Connect Platform from Facebook’s Blog:
In August 2006, we introduced the first version of the Facebook API, enabling users to share their information with the third party websites and applications they choose. Hundreds of companies have leveraged these APIs, allowing users to dynamically connect their identity information from Facebook, such as basic profile, friends, photos information and more, to third party websites, as well as desktop and mobile applications.
In May 2007, we launched Facebook Platform, which allowed third party developers to build rich social applications within Facebook. More than 350,000 developers and entrepreneurs from 225 countries have signed up, and started developing applications, and have seen significant adoption by Facebook users worldwide.
Today we are announcing Facebook Connect. Facebook Connect is the next iteration of Facebook Platform that allows users to “connect” their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any site. This will now enable third party websites to implement and offer even more features of Facebook Platform off of Facebook – similar to features available to third party applications today on Facebook. Here are just a few of the coming features of Facebook Connect:
Trusted Authentication+
Users will be able to connect their Facebook account with any partner website using a trusted authentication method. Whether at login, or anywhere else a developer would like to add social context, the user will be able to authenticate and connect their account in a trusted environment. The user will have total control of the permissions granted.
Real Identity
Facebook users represent themselves with their real names and real identities. With Facebook Connect, users can bring their real identity information with them wherever they go on the Web, including: basic profile information, profile picture, name, friends, photos, events, groups, and more.
Friends Access
Users count on Facebook to stay connected to their friends and family. With Facebook Connect, users can take their friends with them wherever they go on the Web. Developers will be able to add rich social context to their websites. Developers will even be able to dynamically show which of their Facebook friends already have accounts on their sites.
Dynamic Privacy
As a user moves around the open Web, their privacy settings will follow, ensuring that users’ information and privacy rules are always up-to-date. For example, if a user changes their profile picture, or removes a friend connection, this will be automatically updated in the external website.
These are just a few steps Facebook is taking to make the vision of data portability a reality for users worldwide. We believe the next evolution of data portability is about much more than data. It’s about giving users the ability to take their identity and friends with them around the Web, while being able to trust that their information is always up to date and always protected by their privacy settings.
We look forward to working with other leading identity providers to develop the best policies and standards for enabling the portability and protection of users’ information.
We expect that Facebook Connect will be available publicly within the next several weeks. If you want to learn more about bringing Facebook users to your website, application or device, send us an email at: [email protected].
Questions or Comments?