According to the docs, the "Add to Timeline" button will be deprecated as of August 2012. Unfortunately, there is no guidance on how to achieve the same functionality. Perplexingly, the Open Graph tutorial uses the button (which seems unwise given that it will be broken in a couple months). Since I'm writing a new implementation of actions/timeline right now, I'm not going to include something that I'll have to delete in a couple months. Everything works fine with AJAX and the PHP-SDK and only two issues remain unresolved (which I imagine the button would handle):
No way to tell if an action is posted already. I have "unique" enabled already but I have no way to hide the "Add to timeline" option if it's already posted.
No nice visual. I could render the current (soon to be deprecated) button and steal the image but I'd prefer to use something that will look the same as other sites and make users comfortable that they know what will happen when they click.
Does Facebook have a replacement for this button? Or are all timeline posts supposed to be taking place silently after an initial permission grant? I thought Facebook encouraged more user approval for Timeline actions--where is that control supposed to go? To third party UI elements? Doesn't that undermine some of the power of the Facebook ecosystem--the fact that it's the same buttons with the same behavior everywhere on the web? It's kind of frustrating the way it's presented now--pushing you in one direction in the tutorial only to tell you that the feature will be deprecated within months. I've mostly given up hope for problem #1 but is there an official non-deprecated button that will give me a nice comforting visual?
Also, are there other features that this button does that are being/have been transitioned to other plugins?
EDIT: Does it make sense to link the "Like" button to a timeline event? It seems like semantically that would make sense but there doesn't seem to be any built-in way to do it.
Related
Since last week, my Facebook like button with count display + send button ("button_count layout" as they name it in their plugin page) is looking weird, missing the blank space there used to be between the "like" count and the "send" buttons. First I thought it had something to do with Wordpress and the plugin being used to display it since I first noticed it in my WP based site, but after investigating I've come to the conclussion that Facebook has changed the styling without advice. It is looking this way in their own plugin page, tested with different browsers and operating systems.
This is how it looks now. Notice the lack of space between like count and the send button:
This is how it used to look until one or two weeks ago:
Has anyone else noticed this change? I still have not tried to add the missing spacing by any means because I am not yet sure if the change will be permanent or if it is some sort of "bug" by Facebook. I haven't been able to find any reference using Google about this.
Well, after 9 days with no answers and having Facebook changed during this period the style of its "like with count + send" button, getting back the little gap between them, this question has lost its sense. It seems like they weren't minding a lot their "old" button since they were going to change it.
It seems also like I have such good aim making the right questions in the right moment! xD
How do you implement custom css on a Facebook activity feed plugin? This related post does not fully answer the question. Is this the right way?
Where does the
<fb:tag name='link'></fb:tag>
go? Inside of of the
<fb:activity site="..." app_id="..." ></fb:activity>
outside of it, before or after? I'm sort of confused...
the only way i use activity feed is when its in a widget that will generically upate in all posts. Anyone who inserts these snippets into blog posts or other 'hard to find and edit later' posts and pages, will regret it
Why?
Because Facebook changes their script every month or so and the script snippet you inserted wont work anymore
I have hundreds of blank areas in blog posts where i inserted an activity feed and the script always stops working after some weeks when fb adds some code or changes the location of some script or renames a file and the old script has no canonical or generic way of readjusting.
There is no point in using a script which gets made obsolete every month and you then need to find all posts where you inserted the snippet and change it for the new working code.
Im always having to reinsert new code into my fb social widgets because they cease to function...
Not viable unless you take it into consideration. Only insert in spaces where oyu wil notice it when it stops working
As Facebook Answers answered, you cannot really style it with a custom CSS, nor via JS, as the activity feed widget creates an iframe.
The info from martincarlin87 is useful, but that is not exactly what you get with the Activity Plugin, which is what you meant I guess:
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/activity/
For using this you cannot really interact with the Facebook API, it is a little world apart. By now... (July 12th 2012)
Facebook PHP SDK: https://github.com/facebook/php-sdk
Comes with some simple examples, I would suggest uploading it to your server and tinkering with it, Facebook has a steep learning curve but here at Stack Overflow there is even a Facebook section: facebook.stackoverflow.com so just take each step at a time and if you can't get it by reading the facebook docs: developers.facebook.com then you can always ask here and I'm sure someone will be able to help you.
Getting Started: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/php/
Once you have made an app, you add it to your fan page and then you will be abel to test what information you can get using the Graph API Explorer: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer
That post you refer to is a red herring I'm afraid. If you put any HTML between the activity tags it gets rendered BEFORE the iframe is added. So its a no starter, from what I can see. However, I eventually found a solution, which I gave on that thread. I am repeating it here in case somebody searching doesn't see the other thread.
I managed to customise an Activity plugin, after a great deal of effort.
You can see the result here:
http://www.quniverse.co.uk/shopdata/about_us.php
Feel free to post a comment on that site, it exists purely for test purposes so I'm not fussed what goes up there provided its clean.
I explain how I achieved this in the blog article posted here:
http://facebookanswers.co.uk/?p=302
To summarise briefly:
You cannot insert CSS into the activity plugin.
Rely on the fact it has a transparent background, and supply your own.
Turn off the header and supply your own.
You can specify a light or a dark font, a few fontfaces and a border colour.
If you read the blog article you will get a full explanation.
Considering the component (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/dialogs/requests/), I would like know how to change the text of your button. I would like replace the "SEND REQUEST" to just "SEND".
Thanks.
Just a note: http://developers.facebook.com/policy/ states:
IV. Application Integration Points
4 Platform integrations, including social plugins:
d. You must not obscure or cover elements of our social plugins,
such as the Like button or Like box plugin.
Which I think applies to that button as well. There is a discussion over the like button here:
http://forum.developers.facebook.net/viewtopic.php?id=81844
that probably applies to this question. Other than that, with fbml and fbjs, there was a way to change it, but facebook is deprecating them soon, so it won't even be worth trying using that. I think the only way to go would be to try and get a hold of facebook and make a request to change it, but seeing as how they are always changing things, not sure how that's going to work. If you have an argument as to why, they might listen.
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/fbml/
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/fbjs/
Sorry for this basic question but all attempts at Googling and using facebook help only provide out of date information.
I am attempting to make my first fb app. Just an html page saying hello. From what I understand the app (or webpage) is stored on my server and I set up a facebook app that basically points to the URL of the app (or webpage) on my server.
Is this basically correct.
Where do I enter this URL information in my edit app screen. I have followed the latest fb instructions and all I see when I view the app is the admin page in fb for the app.
Does it take a long time for the page to appear.
Is there a current idiots guide. The app design is not a problem for me loading it in to facebook is the problem.
Unfortunately this wasn't very helpful, not because of what you posted but due to the fact that it appears that Facebook has updated the way in which pages are linked to again.
The pages you suggested I look at were well laid out with lots of information on them but they are already out of date and do not seem to correspond with the layout of the Facebook 'dev app' and even the fields in the form seem to have been either dropped added to renamed.
Thanks for trying to help me and I hope that FB may produce some up to date information soon and not keep changing the interface.
I can completely understand your confusion - the Facebook docs give very little information for the complete beginner. The 'Getting Started' section makes some massive assumptions and completely ignores huge key areas you need to know to get your first application up and running.
So to address your points:
Yes, this is basically correct. Apps on Facebook are served up to the user in one of two ways. Either as a 'Canvas App' or a 'Tab App'. A Tab App is an application you can install as a tab on a profile page. A Canvas App can operate on it's own page and has more room as there's no left menu as you would have on a profile page. You can configure a single app to work in both ways.
To edit your application settings, go to your own Facebook home page. Use the search bar to search for the 'Developer App'. Typing in 'developer' should do it - it should be the first result in the App section with around 830,000 monthly users. This Developer app is the window into your own app settings. You need to install it if you haven't already. It's a hub where all the apps you create will be available for you to edit. Whenever you want to edit one of your app settings in future, you click the Developer bookmark that will now be in the left menu on your own Facebook home page.
No. Apps are basically an iframe onto your code. There should be very little if any wait at all. Start with something very simple like spitting out some straight html so you can easily tell if things are set up correctly.
Yes. I found thinkdiff.net to be massively useful in the early days to get my head round the basics and then more advanced concepts. There's tons of examples ranging from very simple to quite advanced. I've just had a quick look around and found this page which should give you a decent head start in getting things moving. Note: I have no affiliation with thinkdiff.net at all - I just found them helpful in the past.
Finally, a request from me; this whole stack overflow thing is new for Facebook developers and very few people are voting up answers they consider helpful. This means new users to SO but experienced FB developers can't vote up good answers and vote down bad ones as we need enough Reputation Points to do so. If this has helped you, please ensure you vote up the answer. Of course if it was rubbish and you're just as lost, dont :D
Hope I've helped in some small way; I know I was completely lost for the first few weeks with FB development and even now there are things that make me tear my hair out! In the end it's very rewarding, but you have to put in the time. Good luck :)
Can anyone tell how can remove unlike functionality from facebook like button?
Modification of the "Like" button is not allowed...
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/
"By using the Like Button, you agree to the general guidelines and terms found here. You also agree that you will not modify the Like Button in any way beyond the customization options provided on this page."
I thought unlike was added by 3rd party apps anyway. The only way I can think of doing it is using jquery to find the unlike elements on the page after everything has loaded and then remove them.