Comments on: Starting your First Facebook App: Demystifying Application Form Field by Field

By: Bruce Gendler

Bruce Gendler — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:32:02 +0000

Thanks. I came to that realization shortly after posting and reordered the pecking order in my httpd.conf file so index.php was first.

Thanks again.

By: Aaronontheweb

Aaronontheweb — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:23:33 +0000

Facebook will pick up the “default document” in your folder based upon the default document settings on your web server. So in IIS, the default document pecking order usually looks something like this:

index.html
index.htm
default.html
default.htm
default.aspx

If I have both default.htm and default.aspx sitting in my root folder and my callback url doesn’t explicitly say which one to link to, my web server will tell facebook that DEFAULT.HTM is the default document for that path, when what I really want is default.aspx.

As for index.php - if you set that up as a default document on your web server then Facebook will detect it.

By: Bruce Gendler

Bruce Gendler — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 05:13:20 +0000

You describe the callback URL - ending with a slash. Later you say FB adds default.aspx to it. How does FB know what to add? What if you have index.php and not an aspx?

By: Luis Escobar

Luis Escobar — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:34:08 +0000

I find your article very helpful but Facebook keeps on asking me to ad minimum 5 users and I’m lost

By: juanpablo cetina

juanpablo cetina — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:49:47 +0000

Great article! the best that i found on web for add a application to facebook

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:05:56 +0000

I’m new to this, and to add to Tomiwa’s question, can the development be done on a local host?

By: Tomiwa Adefokun

Tomiwa Adefokun — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:17:42 +0000

Does it mean I can not develop a Facebook application offline on my localhost?

I need “Starting Facebok App for Dummies” I’ll appreciate having it.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:27:36 +0000

Grrrrrr…the “Default FBML” field just ain’t workin’ for me. Nothing is ever displayed in the profile box (except for a “no content to display” message). I’m not writing profile FBML from my app, either.

By: Aaronontheweb

Aaronontheweb — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:43:03 +0000

Do you mean the side nav on the profile? The only image that will show up there is the icon that you designate for your application which you can specify through the form mentioned in this post.

If you’re trying to build a side nav for a canvas page then you simply embed the image using any of the acceptable FBML/HTML markup.

By: conspirisi

conspirisi — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:36:56 +0000

how do i get an image to appear in the facebook side nav when a user adds the application

By: renukadevi

renukadevi — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:48:54 +0000

am using Iframe for Java aplication for intigrating in Facebook , facing problem while redirecting to the application page from Servlet , the page is occupying full Screen with change of Canvas url to call back url instead rendering in the facebook as an application if any body knows the solution plz reply to it

and how to post mini feeds in profile page if we use Iframe

By: Bernie

Bernie — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 03:57:29 +0000

This is extremely helpful!

By: Facebook.NET Hacks - How to Publish an Item on a User's Feed

Facebook.NET Hacks - How to Publish an Item on a User's Feed — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:42:13 +0000

[...] Facebook uses a proxy-caching system in order to help maintain scalability, which I described in my New Facebook Application Form Demystification article. The images I was trying to publish were protected behind windows authentication, thus [...]

By: Maqsood Ahmad-PK

Maqsood Ahmad-PK — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:12:00 +0000

Thank you for article.

i hv learnt much from this.

may you hv long life with good health.

By: Aaronontheweb

Aaronontheweb — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:40:23 +0000

The default FBML is what will appear on the user’s profile page unless you make a call to the Facebook API to set the user’s profile FBML explicitly. Do you make any calls in your application to render the user’s profile FBML?

Can you show a bit of the source if are making calls? It’d make it easier to help!

By: Mohd Ahmad

Mohd Ahmad — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:46:36 +0000

I am not able to add my apps in profile page

I want to show my apps content in profile page when user add my apps in your account.

my apps is http://apps.facebook.com/body-philosophy

I am enter “” in default FBML but it’s not showing in profile page.

Please help me that which method will be use for showing my apps in profile page.

By: Aaronontheweb

Aaronontheweb — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:25:14 +0000

Harry,

You’re correct! I will make the appropriate changes to the article as soon as I can. Thanks for your feedback!

By: Harry

Harry — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 01:15:41 +0000

You have an error in your otherwise helpful article.
When a user selects to remove your application they are not sent to the ‘Post-Remove URL’ as they have removed the application and so will have no further contact with it. A POST request will be sent to this address in the background however containing the uid of the leaving user.

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:44:27 +0000

Great article! That form is very confusing. It’s hard to tell what the result will be when you’re filling it out, so this helps a lot!

I’ve written a tutorial for getting started with Facebook using PHP:
http://www.merchantos.com/makebeta/facebook/facebook-php-tutorial/
I’ll add this article under the resources section.

Thanks!
-justin