I'm having trouble finding solution for my client's new web app - within this app, customers will be able to create ads for facebook, instagram and google (and others in future), all from 1 place. So, somehow I need to be able to manage ads for customers' Pages. For personal accounts it's "quite simple", through ads manager, big green button 'Add people', but I need this permission for Pages, not for personal accounts.
We already have approved "ads_management", "ads_read" and "manage_pages" (I'm not 100% sure if we'll need manage_pages permission) - we'll probably ask for "Ads Management Standard Access" too.
After some research, I think this whole thing might be possible through Business Manager (so we'll need "business_management" permission too, right?), then in app settings, there's business manager ID input (for linking business account with app).
Here's my proposed solution (simplified):
in our web app, customers will provide us with url/ID of their Page
api call to check whether logged-in user is administrator of provided Page
api call to add this Page to Business manager (send invitation)
api call to check if user/Page has accepted invitation - if so, we'll be able to manage their ads
Question is, is this (very simplified) solution possible? Will it work? There are dozens of APIs and I'm not sure I picked the right one.
Development is at early stage, so we don't have any in-depth research yet.
Something very similar might be here - Facebook ads, add customer page to business manager but it's 2 years old and after all scandals, there were a lot of changes in APIs, so I'm not sure whether it's still actual.
Thanks in advance
So Twitter was a stroll in the park, Facebook requires jumping through a few more hoops. I'm not building an "app" per se; all we really need is live access to a small subset of graph api functionality. If that requires publishing a do-nothing "app" on FB for the sole purpose of collecting access tokens, so be it.
A few questions arise:
1. Are all apps to be created via personal Facebook accounts, even for businesses?
2. Can/does an app in any way expose the underlying personal account which created it?
3. Is the review process currently a super long, highly invasive rectal exam, or surprisingly smooth?
Thanks and apologies for the non-codey nature of this post.
Yes, you have to use a Facebook account and you have to apply as developer.
No.
Depends on the amount of permissions, but in general it is smooth. That is highly opinionated though.
after a lot of back and forth with the Twitter documentation I am now able to authenticate with OAuth 1.0 and make request behalf on the user who sign-ined and accepted my app to preform changes / retrieve data.
Now, I'm trying to make requests to the Twitter Ads API.
This is the error I get:
{"errors":[{"code":"UNAUTHORIZED_CLIENT_APPLICATION","message":"The client application making this request does not have access to this API"}],"request":{"params":{}}}
As it seems, there is a need of another app registration. I registered it with my app id, assuming the 'developer' stage is the fit for me. I'm trying to retrieve analytics, e.g., retrieve campaigns for the user who accepted it.
After registration the Ads App Form, the error stays the same. The docs don't specify if there is a need for a special implementation for the ads-api. Also, the Ads App I opened isn't mentioned anywhere, nor in my twitter apps.
Am I missing something?
Thanks before.
Looking at Twitter ads API documentation, getting access is a pretty involved process. From their site, you'll need:
One positive referral from a client, advertiser or Twitter team
(outside of Ads API)
Clear value proposition on how how your solution
will supplement the Twitter ads offering and improve advertiser
performance
History of compliance with Twitter developer policies
Experience running Twitter Ads
Twitter App ID associated with a corporate #username, with no more than 5 active tokens
It seems a little overkill, but I haven't seen any other way around it. If you find a better way to get ads API access, please post another answer here because I have a potential project that would use these APIs, but the application process has been too daunting to really justify starting the effort.
As of Sept 2016, the application process appears to be much easier.
It appears you no longer need positive referrals, value props, history, or experience running Twitter ads.
The app (trophy manager), uses iframe, zynga games autobookmarks for example (without user requests), what am I missing? The documentation in facebook developers says it bookmarks on install and sorts the apps after activity, but it does not seem to be the case.
"zynga games autobookmarks for example (without user requests), what am I missing?" What you're seeing is the partnership between Zynga and Facebook at work. They've developed a great "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" relationship. I'm sure it cost a lot of time and money and legal time and legal money for that agreement to be reached. Facebook does have a team setup to handle just this sort of thing. I would suggest having your business development team contact facebook to see what type of deal can be arranged.
"The documentation in facebook developers says it bookmarks on install and sorts the apps after activity, but it does not seem to be the case." Then log it as a bug with Facebook and put the bug report link here so others can see.
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.