I am trying to create a system which allows customers to add a Facebook page as an add-on to what our business offers. Ideally I want users to click a button from our site which creates a page for them on Facebook which contains an iFrame in which content is served by us from our site.
I've never done any work with Facebook before, I don't really understand how the whole app thing works (I don't really use it personally as well) and I'm not sure what the best way to achieve what we seek. I have read a few tutorials on the fb developer site, which were all completely out of date, but I created an app of type 'App on Facebook' that displays a canvas url with an iframe which displays some content.
However, what I really want is to do one of the following:
1) Create an app that can be added to someone's page, which takes a custom url and displays this url in the iframe on the canvas page.
For example, a user called bob initialises the facebook integration from our site, we automatically create a page for them, add the app we have created, and provide a url like http://ourcustomurl.com/bob which is a link to some content from our site which is then displayed in the iframe.
2) Another option I thought would be possible would be creating a new app for every user who enables the facebook integration from our site, and just setting the canvas url on creation. But this option doesn't sit well with me, we don't really want to create an app for people, but a page.
You can't create a Facebook Page or an App via the API
If i understand correctly you want page admins to install your app into a tab on their page, and have different content displayed on that page tab depending on which page it is.
Check this document: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/appsonfacebook/pagetabs/
The main takeaway you should have is that you can use the signed_request which is sent to your app to determine which Facebook Page the App is being loaded from and decide on your side which content to display based on that
Related
I'm having issues configuring my Facebook app to behave as I want when posting information via the Feed Dialog. I've set up an app and created a link that correctly posts my content when clicked, but I can't figure out how to make the link to the app in the resulting post redirect where I want it to.
As an example, here's a post made via Instagram.
If I click on the 'via Instagram' link, I get either prompted or automatically redirected from the destination URL http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=124024574287414 to www.instagram.com.
I've seen other posts suggest you can do something similar using a JavaScript redirect from the App Canvas page, and I've got a proof of concept doing this, but since I've seen Instagram and other apps do this seemingly internally to Facebook I'm convinced it's possible to do more cleanly.
That link goes to your app's canvas URL (apps.facebook.com/something) or website URL as defined in the app settings, it can't be configured with any more granularity.
This seems that it will probably do the trick most easily: http://woobox.com/statichtml
See the redirect radio button in the image they have.
I'm thinking of a facebook app that fetches a website's content (already developed with my own web builder) and display in a custom facebook fan page format. Clients already using the Web builder will only have to add the App to their fan page and they have their website's content already plugged into facebook.
The problem I'm having is knowing how exactly to automate this process. I can't seem to find the "Add app to page" menu when you click the Gear Icon, and the link below gives an approach I can't be explaining to every client (video further down in the link)
http://onlinewealthpartner.com/add-facebook-application-fan-page/
My head might swirling from everything I've read so far, but I'm just easing into the facebook app development. Help/insight would be much appreciated.
If I understand, your central problem is to make it as user-friendly as possible for your users to add your app to their fan pages?
Bottom line is they would need to visit the link mentioned in your tutorial:
https://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&display=popup&next=YOUR_URL
However, since you're the one creating the Facebook Tab Application, then you would already have and could supply to your users the "app_id" and "next" parameters, so all they would need to do is click on the custom link you provide. You could even give them a button in your web builder. Your users would just click a button, go to this link, and pick their fan page in a drop down menu.
I recently build an iframe app for within Facebook, and for facebook only. So no need to call the iframe outside of Facebook. The only problem i have now, is that as soon as i search for the app like this:
http://i44.tinypic.com/30rla83.png
I get the following warning: http://i43.tinypic.com/2uh1w20.png
I can't seem to find out how to configure the app so it won't redirect, but goes directly to the app itself. The only values set are the 'Website' and 'Page Tab' value. When i set a value for the 'App on Facebook', the iframe gets included in the game/app format (with Facebook games in the right bar) by Facebook, and not the Facebook page app content format.
And when i delete or adjust the 'Website' value and i use Facebook search, i get the error that the app is not configured correctly. It's now set to the full addresss outside of Facebook, because when i configure it to the Facebook App URL i get the same error.
The only value i'm sure of is the 'Page Tab' value.
Thanks in advance guys, i can't seem to find the answer myself..
UPDATE: it turns out the 'you are being redirected'-page only occurs with my Facebook profile! Probably because I'm the Facebook Page admin or the app creator? Anyway, as far as I'm concerned; case closed and problem solved :)
It's slightly confusing which options apply to what types of app on Facebook - and the behaviour of the search is slightly unintuitive but here are some pointers that might help you:
If your app is going to only exist as a page tab, it doesn't really make sense to search for it (it could theoretically exist on multiple facebook pages). These won't show up in search results unless you have also set one of the following two options as well
If you have set up your app as a canvas app, "app on facebook" in the developer settings then when you search for the App, it will redirect you to the canvas page (your iframe being pulled into a Facebook canvas.
if you have set your app up to work with Facebook Connect "Log in to my website using Facebook." in the developer settings, and you haven't also set up your app to operate as a canvas app, then Facebook will assume that you have a web app that is external to Facebook, and searches will redirect the user to your website url.
So, what you probably need to do is either remove your website url from your facebook settings if you aren't using Facebook Connect (in which case your app won't show up in Search results) or create a canvas page as well, which redirects you to the correct facebook page tab.
I have a facebook page for my site that was created a while ago. And now added an APP for authentication to my site, but that also has a page and a wall can I combine them?
Application profile pages are tied to each App Id, and are separate to any existing page for your brand. There's no way to merge them, but many developers change the settings on their App's profile page to disallow posting, hide various tabs, etc.
You could then add a static HTML tab to the app profile page which directs users to your existing page, and set that tab to be the default landing tab for users who arrive at the page.
This is one of the confusing things about the platform. There are two separate pages for the same thing. I started getting a lot of likes on the app page, so it seemed to go with that over a regular page, but the app page exists out of the system of business pages.
I'm currently creating a very basic Facebook application and I've run into a bit of a roadblock, so any help would be appreciated.
My application is as follows: I want to have the application pull records from my database that the user has added to my site off of Facebook and display them in a tab on one of their fan pages. Everything the user could add or edit will be done on my site (not on/through Facebook) so all I need to do is have my application check which page is requesting and display their records. I imagine the install will go something like this: user signs up on my site, user adds app to their page, user links their account and fan page (thinking of the best way to do this), user adds records.
The problem I'm running into is there's barely any information on the new Facebook PHP-SDK (does not use the require_login() method) and I'm not really sure how to start. Again, the only functionality I need on the Facebook end is for them to be able to add my application to their fan page and be able to distinguish between which page is requesting my app.
Does anyone have any resources for creating a basic application with the new SDK? Facebook's dev section is absolutely no help for beginners and I'm pulling my hair out despite a pretty solid grounding in backend development.
Thanks!
tab apps have some limitations comparing to regular fb apps. You can read about those here.
How to make a tab - register a facebook app, fill out "Tab Name" and "Tab URL" fields in the profiles settings (you might need to fill out "canvas" settings first).
Now all tabs will be loaded from "Tab URL" on your server. How to find out who is tab owner - check for fb_sig_profile_user request parameter in your tab page handler, which contains owner's user id.
This should get you started.