Facebook Connect Test

Some of you that follow my blog will remember that I have been testing Facebook Connect on my personal blog using some code written by Javier Reyes of Six Jumps that he was kind enough to share with me.  I have to admit that I have struggled to get my mind around this platform but I think that I am very close to having it functional and ready for deployment on some client applications.  In fact, I am going to tap my social network of web developer friends this evening to see if any of them would be kind enough to help me test this out by commenting on this post using their Facebook accounts as a login.

It’s a pretty detailed process, you have to first setup a developers profile in facebook, explain your application in detail, then get your API Keys, etc. and plug those all in but once you think you have it all setup you have to request that Facebook more or less “flip the switch” to allow you full access to the Connect Platform. It’s a pretty detailed process (and thank goodness for developers like Javier who have devoted their time to this project so the rest of us can benefit from it)

If you are doing your own sandbox deployment with this app and are having issues, shoot me a note and maybe I can help or at least point you to someone who can.

If you are puzzled as to exactly what Facebook Connect is, here is an explanation I pulled from the Facebook Developers Website:

Facebook Connect is the next evolution of Facebook Platform – enabling you to integrate the power of Facebook Platform into your own site. Enable your users to…

• Seamlessly “connect” their Facebook account and information with your site
• Connect and find their friends who also use your site
• Share information and actions on your site with their friends on Facebook

Trusted Authentication

Users can connect their Facebook account with any partner Web site using our simplified and trusted authentication. Whether at login, or anywhere else a developer would like to add social context, the user can 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.

Friend Linking

People count on Facebook to stay connected to their friends and family. With Facebook Connect, they can take their friends with them wherever they go on the Web. Developers can add rich social context to their sites. Developers even can 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 them, 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 site. And the users can control who can see what pieces of their information – the same rules that they set on Facebook can be applied through your site too using our dynamic privacy controls.

Social Distribution

As a user moves around the open Web, they discover interesting content, share information about themselves, and engage in a lot of experiences. With Facebook Connect, users can easily share and distribute this information and actions to their friends via Facebook Feed, requests, and notifications.

Facebook Developers | Resources