Today I stumbled upon a app that was playable directly in a Facebook newsfeed Newsfeed SmartApps.
How is this possible? Is there a new feature that I might have missed? If so, how do I build such an app myself?
They used to have that described under the name “Feed Gaming” in the docs at one point, but I think that section has now been removed.
Basically all this is, is an SWF flash file, embedded via Open Graph meta tags as a “video” – details for that see here, https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters#video
Of course that won’t work on mobile devices that don’t have flash – but currently, it is the only way.
(Some FB partners can also embed HTML5 content as an iframe directly into newsfeed – but normal 3rd-party apps can not do that, as of now.)
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I need to link my unity app with Facebook, my game pulls data from a website, will it be possible to put it on facebook? Is there a way to also save the game status via facebook?
Yes you can link your app with Facebook. Have a look here at the SDK Facebook provides. Also have a look at this tutorial they provide. Think it has some mention of dealing with game status' via Facebook. Also this script shows an example of saving a score around line 126.
I'm using a plugin called FooBox for wordpress that puts share buttons on top of images within a Pop-Over.
Within the settings of this plugin is an option to:
Enable Facebook's new feed dialog way of sharing, rather than their old (and deprecated!) sharer.
Please note that this method requires a Facebook App Id in order to function!
I'm not exactly a developer... so I cannot determine what this means, if its better, how so..
Could someone explain in laymen terms what this is?
Thank you
The old sharer method is no longer deprecated, as Facebook have recently updated it (and removed the deprecated notice that was on their site for ages). Both methods have pros and cons. This is my understanding:
FaceBook Sharer
Easy to implement and no facebook app id needed in order to setup
Can share to personal timeline as well as other facebook pages you are admin for
Sharer recently was updated (Feb/Mar 2014) and no longer accepts custom images and overrides anything you pass it with the image opengraph tags used on the page you are linking to. This is a major problem when used with lightbox solutions like FooBox, because the specific image that is shared no longer gets recognized by facebook.
Feed Dialog
More involved to setup and get working. An app ID is required and the app ID cannot be shared across domains.
It only allows you to share to your personal timeline. No support for sharing to pages that you are an admin for.
It accepts custom images, so FooBox works and the specific image that is shared is the image that is shown in the user's timeline.
I am the developer of FooBox and will be updating the plugin soon with an updated explanation to help users on learning what the difference is.
And since Facebook have removed support for custom images since Mar 2014, we will no longer recommend the sharer, but rather push the feed dialog.
More Info
Facebook documentation page on the sharer. (further down the page under the FAQ section and hardly mentioned)
Facebook documentation page on the feed dialog.
Response from facebook about no longer supporting the custom image for the sharer.
When a user opens a link in their Facebook iPhone app to our page, how do you get the Smart App Banner to show at the top of the page? It doesn't show I'm assuming because the Apple Dev site says Smart App Banners don't show up in frames. Is there a way around this? Do I have to build my own custom banner?
This is also an issue in Twitter. Our app shares links to FB and Twitter back to our site. I'm trying to figure out how to make the Smart App Banner to show up whether viewing in iPhone Safari, Facebook, or Twitter.
Smart App Banners require a meta tag in the header of the page. They cannot be used in frames. So without access to the source code of Facebook and Twitter, this isn't possible.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SafariWebContent/PromotingAppswithAppBanners/PromotingAppswithAppBanners.html
Yes, you will have to build your own smart banner or use someones work. I had the same problem and would like the visitors to our website to find our app using a "smart banner".
I have adapted this great script: https://github.com/ijason
Had to make a few changes to link to the app in App Store instead of the artist e.g. changed the code artistViewUrl to trackViewUrl = json.results[0].trackViewUrl to link directly to the app instead of the developer in my case.
It's implemented here and has been tested it in Messenger, Twitter and the native Facebook app. The usual smart banner is shown in Safari. The other will appear in other browsers and when using frames.
https://eventsane.com/Events/United-States/New-York/New-York-City
So far it has given the result I was aiming for even though Facebook steals the best spot in the Messenger app. Hope it helps.
I have built an audio sharing application (pretty similar to soundcloud.com, but focused on a niche and just one country). I'd like to enable people to hear the tracks directly from Facebook, like they can do it with eg. Spotify.
I am having a trouble with getting development docs on how to do that.
Cheers,
Pablox
Deep-integration with Facebook (such as Spotify have done) is done via the Open Graph APIs, the beta documentation is covered here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph
If you just want users to be able to embed a player in posts/likes of your content, any app can do this with the use of meta tags on the pages, and this is covered under 'Attaching Audio and Video Data' on the Open Graph documentation
Is it possible to run games made with Adobe Director (shockwave player) in Facebook?
Yes.
Applications inside of Facebook can be rendered in two ways. FBML or inside of an iFrame. In the case of FBML you can embed FLV, SWF, and silverlight files. In the case of an iFrame you can render anything you want. You can choose the type of application canvas on the developer settings for the application.
Each of the options has certain benefits and limitations, but if you're only concerned with embedding a shockwave game then this shouldn't matter.
Well, I think that technically you can create your facebook app in whatever language you like. The apps aren't hosted on Facebook, they're just accessed through facebook.