When I start using an app on Facebook, the app shows "10K people using this app", but before to do that I need to "subscribe" to that app (click a button telling me that I'm going to be using that app) How do I do that with my own app, so I can keep track of the amount of users using it?
Besides, when someone starts using my app (an online magazine) I want to update their activity with something like "John Doe is Reading < Name of the App >"
What elements of the Facebook API do I need to achieve such behaviors?
The "number of people using this app" statistic is added by Facebook automatically to the app authentication dialog. If you want to show it in your app (manually), you can make a call to /{your_app_id} and use the weekly_active_users or monthly_active_users count.
As for the activity, Facebook automatically posts "User is using App". You won't be able to do "User is reading app" as the page needs to be a object-type that accepts 'read'. 'Read' would only work if you are reading a blog, article, etc.
If you are interested in pursuing it anyway, you need the publish_actions permission and you need to register the read action in the App Settings. The facebook documentation has everything you need to get started.
Related
I want to create an app that simply allows a user to log in, touch a like button, and then the app logs them out. I am wondering if this type of app would be allowed by Facebook, since the main functionality is all Facebook related. The app would be used by business to help them increase their Facebook page following. Is this allowed?
Yes, you are. Pratically every like button you see in blog posts and product pages in online stores works like that (except for the logout).
Hello I've read the docs and am having trouble getting a definitive answer for the following questions:
Can our app detect if another app is used by a given user. What about if we are admin of, or have the id of both apps.
If one of the apps is removed from FB is there a way to tell if a user had it installed before it was removed? A sort of history of past apps, I guess.
Here:
FB Connect: is there a way to see the logged in user's facebook apps?
Best answer is "I think the most you can do..." but I'd like to know for sure.
Thanks for any help.
If you request the permission user_actions:APP_NAMESPACE you can see the open graph actions that the user has performed in that app.
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/permissions/#open_graph_perms
In my apps I generally store the user ID of all authorized users in a database, and when I get a call via the "Deauthorize Callback URL" I don't delete the user from the database, but instead only flag the user as deauthorized.
This way I can easily get an overview of users that are using (or have used) any of my apps. This allows me to present special features for users who are using several of my apps.
For example, let's say I made a photo app (like Instagram) and a GPS running app (like Endomondo). If the user takes a photo with Instagram while running with Endomondo, I could present the option to GPS-tag the photo, or add the photo to Endomondo.
This is something that I think we developers should use more. Perhaps present an open API to other apps, to let the apps work together.
I've developed an Facebook app: http://ek2012spel.startpagina.nl/. I've developed one before and the last time I've included the option to post a message on your wall whenever you scored a point.
But I noticed Facebook changed it's policy to prevent spamming to a wall. And I salute them for it. So I wanted to try something else.
Include a Like Button.
Only the people that press the Like button get news updates in their stream.
The news updates won't be automated. It will be me telling them a new round has started or something similar.
I'm pretty sure this is (or at least was) possible. Question is; how?
Should I create a seperate Facebook user for my app?
A new page (or is it called tab)? And link the Like button on my app to that page?
Sub issue: My current Like Button is linked to an (old) URL. The URL redirects to the new one. Any chance I can change the URL without losing all the likes?
That document was referring to an old App Profile page - these were removed in February -I've updated that doc to show the current way to create a page for your app (the option is now in the 'Advanced' tab of the app settings.)
Based on what you've said above, you should do one of the following:
Create a page for the app and get users to like it, and then use the page to post updates for the game's user
Use app to user requests to alert the user that something has happened - this will increment a counter in the user's bookmark for your app to bring them back to it
Obtain the user's email address from the API (needs the email permission) and email them directly.
Posting to user's timelines (/USER_ID/feed) automatically each time you have news to share will result in the spam filters shutting down your app very quickly indeed (bear in mind this will appear to all their friends as a message 'from' that user)
Is it possible to post my own message and publish it on the app ticker whenever i want?
(Not talking about the general ticker on users feed, but the one you have when you enter an app)
For example: Every time a user logged in, facebook publish a message in app ticker (on the right) that the user started to play the app.
I believe what you're looking for is publishing an action.
For a high-level explanation: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/beta/opengraph/#news-feed
For the tutorial: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/beta/opengraph/tutorial/
You can set specific Open Graph actions for your application that will be viable to appear in the app ticker. I do not think there is anyway to FORCE facebook to display your action.
You can read more here about the Open Gaph Protocol.
I'm interested in creating an app on an external website that will publish logged-in user's article reads to their timeline. However, I've noticed that when a story is published to timeline, other users who are not connected with your app, are forced to "Add to Timeline". To me, this defeats the purpose because I want users who are not associated with our brand to discover our content and then add it to the timeline if they are a fan of ours. Is there a way to turn off this setting? or is everyone FORCED to add an app to the timeline before they can see the content?
for instance, when I click on a story posted by the Washington Post on someone's timeline, I get this screen -> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1169963/timeline.png when I expected it to just bring me straight to the article. Most users are going to abandon the app at this point and never click on a Washington Post article again
and it looks like people are making browser plugins to stop this from happening:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/01/frictionless-kills-facebook-social-article-readers-dead/
so, is there a way for developers to prevent this all together?
What do you mean about FORCED ? If i give permissions, after app produces timeline posts, it will combine and show as an application box in my timeline. But before it, i can see my friends timeline apps without installing them. Also same in newsticker in news feed...
For example in my profile http://facebook.com/chaylock , you should see my NIVEA Mega Kutu timeline app without interacting app..