I am not talking about the public graph api, i am asking is it technically possible to consume facebook's private api that facebook official apps use, and benifit from login/sign up and such features?
Like if i reverse engineered messenger or facebook app and mimic their communication with their API, whould i be able to build a working client?
Thank you.
There are existing projects that have already done the same.
Take a look at the works of dequis e.g. purple-facebook. He has also written tutorials on reverse-engineering the APIs of Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Take a look at the source code of the Facebook protocol plugin of Miranda NG. They reverse-engineered the API used by the desktop web frontend of Facebook.
They exist for years. None of them have been sued so far. However, hiding your identity is recommended if you plan to do such things. Also you may want to open-source your project and host it on multiple sites. Corporate arrogance of tech companies is at very high levels nowadays.
Yes, it is theoretically possible.
However, remember that you will be easily sued if Facebook do not agree with what you're trying to do. For example, if you're trying to use their own private Intellectual Property without their permission, or if you violate their Terms of Service agreements (reverse-engineering is going to be in there without a doubt), then they can legally sue.
Facebook have public APIs with documentation which is what is intended to be used by developers. If you decide to ignore it and go digging into things which you do not own, nor have consent to access, you're going to land yourself into trouble.
I don't mean to be a kill-joy, I'm just saying how it is from a realistic point-of-view.
I currently need to collect pictures-comment (someone comment by pasting a picture) from facebook page group
I have done some research and find that
1.Support for this hasn't yet been added to the Graph API and as with many of the other messaging APIs, it's currently only avaialable for testing (i.e you must be a developer of the app to use it presently)
from
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2.You have to use the old php SDK until graph supports attachments
from
Posting Attachment Facebook Graph API
could any one provide some codes to me?
I need to know
Are the two approaches really works?? If yes, then... If no, I guess i will need to write/find a crawler (but it again sounds difficult as facebook group page is dynamic web)
What should I do if I want to follow 1st approach?
Should I register as developer and set up an app and...? (I have no experience in setting up facebook app and would appreciate any useful step-by-step tutorial)
If I am going the 2nd approach (php SDK), are there are tutorial as I have no idea what should I do next.
I know java, c++ and little js but facebook apis are something really new to me.
Really appreciate any help.
In FBML they have this fb:wallpost tag which I can use to display a wall post, but they said it's deprecated.
Is there any other alternative to display a facebook post with full features such as comment and like button ?
Indeed, the fb:wallpost FBML tag made the rendering of a wall-style post possible. The FBML purpose was to emulate the native Facebook rendering on your own app. Here is what they offer now:
You can use our JavaScript SDK and Social Plugins to embedded many of
the same social features which were available in FBML.
Many of the same, but not all of them. And particularly not an alternative to fb:wallpost.
Let's say that what they supply instead hasn't really the same purpose that had FBML. It's not about UI anymore. Now, it's not Facebook which is helping you to render the existing content, but it's you who helps Facebook to increase its traffic when your app brings social interactions. If we look at what they provide, we've got only interaction enhancers like: follow, like, comments, recommendations, login, registration.
We understand that they don't want us to make a dupe of their content, but they favor further social activities.
Their political consulting change and you have to do with it.
By the way, it's not worth to look for plugins or templates that you might find on the net (or even to make your own), because it's forbidden to reproduce one's design. Speaking about that: Before you go ahead and copy Facebook's look, be aware of any legal implications. Anyway, you can still find some nice ways to display the API's content.
I am developing a flash game and I want to integrate it with Facebook. It should be very simple integration. My app only need username and e-mail address. I searched the web not I still don't know how to do it. It seems to me very complicated.
All I want is to connect my app to Facebook through Actionscript SDK, with few simple functions.
Can someone help me with a code to do that...I'll be very thankful guys :-)
Well, it's a general question, but here are a few links that might help steer you in the right direction. The first link has the SWC library and some examples:
Facebook ActionScript API resources:
libraries and examples
API documentation (though fairly sparse)
Adobe page
On their page, Adobe links to a tutorial / walkthrough for building a mobile Facebook app that's pretty helpful, though it expands on a desktop-based article and references it regularly, so that can be a bit confusing, but it does get the job done.
Then you need to understand the Facebook Graph API - basically Facebook passes around objects that contain data pertaining to the user, their friends, etc (and of course, passing around this data is subject to the permissions your app has setup). Facebook provides an online tool (Facebook Graph API Explorer) that let's you explore these objects for your own account.
Pouring over this information, I got my first flash-based mobile app talking to Facebook in a few hours. There you go, ask a generic question, get a big swath of links to read that are only semi-related to your question. =D
I want to develop an online application and I am considering EITHER building a website with community features built in or building ONLY a facebook app. I was wondering if other people have had to make the same decision and what things I will need to consider.
The website I want to build will be an educational portal where people can make and take tests online
I disagree with some of the other answers here. There is a huge difference between a) trying to advertise a new place on the web and b) trying to advertise a new functionality of an existing place. Even if this new website would offer a very tight integration with Facebook and some other social platforms. Keep in mind: facebook users really don't like to leave facebook, no matter what the reason would be. That's why the click-through rate for the advertisements is so embarrassingly poor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#Company
That said you can of course always do both: build a website and offer the same functionality through a facebook app. However my opinion here is that if you're application only offers its users a single functionality, you'll be better off just doing the latter.
What exactly is the advantage you expect by creating a Facebook-ONLY-App for that?
If it's only about taking tests you can still build a "normal" portal and include some of the Facebook-functionality through the JavaScript-SDK, like posting to the wall, Single-Sign-On, find your friends and so on. This way the user still has the choice if he wants to connect with Facebook or not. This way you also don't minimize your userbase to Facebook-users
(yeah I know, "everyone" has Facebook these days... ;) Still not everyone wants it to be connected to every single site he's using through Facebook)
Considering this comment:
Well I guess its easier for people to recommend my app if it is a facebook app, is the main reason I want to know if facebook is a good option – Zubair Mar 3 at 14:51
Build a website and then add the Facebook 'like' button. See: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/web/#plugins
You should put a Twitter button as well:
http://twitter.com/about/resources/tweetbutton
In my opinion you have to develop both. First develop you website. Although facebook is having millions of users But in my opinion you cannot implement every thing as freely as you can in your web application than facebook application. You should have a website and a page on facebook. You can integrate other facebook social plugins on your website to interact with facebook.
From monitization point of it is easy for new users on website than application on facebook. Other reason website especially related to educational purposes have a huge click through rate which you cannot find on facebook application advertiser.
What is the goal of the website?
If its to make money dont do a facebook app, you have far more control of your site by designing it entirely yourself.
If you want social networking features there are plenty of APIs you can tie in to which will provide you with functionality and allow you to link into facebook / twitter etc.
A website would look more professional, it would allow you to gather statistics on unique hits, revisits etc, having your own database of users means you can gather information and market your site more specifically ( which users took which tests).
A website also allows you to monetize it by adding advertisement if that is your goal, and you can gain search engine rankings.
If you want to get publicity for your website you can use facebook by creating a group / page for the site and promoting it that way.
Also your own website wont leave you vulnerable to changes in Facebook, what if you put in all this work and in a year the terms change and a portion of your app is now in violation of the terms. What if you want to add X feature and facebook wont allow it?
Basically your site = 100% in your controll, thats a big advantage to you. With facebook you loose that advantage but maybe gain a little in being able to use more of their features. Personally id always go for my own site.
You should go for the website first, then add the social elements in the website.
Like you can enable users to login using there facebook credentials. Like/share Button.
And later on, you can also go for the facebook app, when you want to shoot for much much more traffic. Therefore, whenever you think that you have figured out what exactly you want out of your application then only go for it, otherwise try your options with website. Because once your facebook app is up, you will get hell lot of traffic.
Let me know if you need help in creating facebook application or social elements enabled website. I have built an Facebook Easy API on top of all facebook features, which will enable you to easily access anything on facebook and meanwhile reducing your work effort.
You first build it like web app and use Graph API and FBConnect to use Facebook functionalities. Then you need to create a facebook app version also because getting facebook traffic is also required. People from facebook most like come to facebook app then to another web.
You will not need to convert it to facebook app, it will be just less in width and it would be a facebook iframe app. as I some where read that facebook is depreciating fbml and iframe app is recommended.
So now you can make both things, as I think , test app can have flexible layout so that you don't need to change width for facebook iframe. So you can both things by doing one.
thanks
i'm pretty sure many people will not agre with me, but IMHO you should focus on build a good Web-App that work well also on Mobile-Phones. keep it simple, intuitive, responsive, lightweight, cross-browser and straight to the point.
if your only concern is about "recommend your app to other people" make it SEO and Multi-Language too. google will do the rest.
then if you want make your app bold, slowly and planty of useless stuffs start to add all the facebook widget you want.
PS: i'm also on facebook, twitter,
flickr, google etc etc, i'm also
sharing photos, links and usefull
stuffs, my google rss reader is full
of links with tons of nice things, well i
have never had a minute to look at it, when i need something i just start searching google
I agree with most of the answers here—a native website is the way to go. Personally, I don't trust/like FB apps. Dunno what they do, and given the number of scammers out there and FB's lack of responsibility (IMO), I rarely if ever use an FB app.
Creating the website gives users choice about whether they want to share results/integrate with their FB wall/profile. Users don't like to be forced into something.
And in the spirit of adventure that is typical of SO, it's always more fun to build your own website than to build a template-based (sort of), boring and nearly irrelevant (drowning in a sea of other poorly made apps) FB app. But that's just my 2¢
In your case, I would do a hybrid. First, build your website, but integrate it with Facebook via connect. This way you can concentrate on building your value added services and let Facebook worry about the community.
I would also not ignore the Facebook app. Now, with iframes being fully supported on Facebook, you can adapt your existing site to work within Facebook with minimal effort, as long as you keep this requirement in mind when building your original application.