How to start facebook app?

Question

Just want to know what is better way to get start developing faccebook app?Any tutorial recommnedation?And which is better to start up -php or rails?

Answer 1

Here is how you start using PHP:

http://www.merchantos.com/makebeta/facebook/facebook-php-tutorial/

If you are using Ruby, use this link:

http://rfacebook.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/tutorial/

Answer 2

Silly answer but I assume you have gone over the resources here?

http://developers.new.facebook.com/?ref=pf

There is their own dev community there they should be able to help.

Answer 3

This simple howto looked like a good starting point: Simple app

Answer 4

Start with their docs: http://developer.facebook.com/get_started.php?tab=tutorial

There are libraries floating around for lots of different languages and frameworks so I say: whatever you're happiest with is where you should start.

Answer 5

Rails on Facebook PDF and screencast.

Answer 6

Use the Get Started tutorial on developers.facebook.com. This will suggest you use the sample code button which will give you some PHP to list your friends. Then you can start playing with the PHP using the wiki for reference to the FQL and FBML.

PHP will be easier to start with as there are lots of samples in PHP. Rails may have advantages in the long term though.

Answer 7

Re: Ruby on Rails vs. PHP - whichever you're currently competent in. If neither, whichever you'd like to become competent in. Both can do what you want.

Answer 8

I've seen pretty complete FB wrapper libraries for both PHP and Ruby. Which one you should choose really depends on which language/framework you're more comfortable with.

I will say that when I was evaluating Ruby libraries recently, Facebooker seemed to be superior in terms of active development and tutorial content on the web. (Be sure to use the Facebooker project on GitHub, not the deprecated one on RubyForge.)

Answer 9

Btw, you can also use ASP.NET, in which case here is how to get started:

http://www.stevetrefethen.com/wiki/Facebook%20application%20development%20in%20ASP.NET.ashx

The link includes a VS.NET starter kit which makes it very easy to get started quickly.

Answer 10

From my experience, there is a much better support focus on PHP than on anything else. That said, there'd be no point learning PHP just to take advantage of the superior support.

Two other general points:

1. The official support community is really awful. The community has no expert voices and the FB staff only interject when their reputation is at stake. Your best friend is Google and your ability to extrapolate from tutorials.
2. The FB style of interaction doesn't really lend itself to an MVC framework. One might still save you time, but I find they get under my feet. If you need convincing on this point, may I refer you to the many cases where JSON responses are required or where FBML needs to be 'set' for the profile.

The Facebook platform isn't a whole lot of fun and your users won't thank you for your work. But it's a massive audience and a very useful learning experience.

Good luck!

Answer 11

I've made a PHP application for facebook. Its a simple RSS reader with some images....the fact is when I set up everything and I reech the application url I only get a page with the app, I would like that this application can be active on the wall or on the profile.... I don't know how to make it. Please help

Answer 12

Can I put a shout out for Ruby On Rails with the Koala gem?

I have built a Facebook app in the last two months learning Ruby On Rails from scratch (the last programming of any kind I did was mathematical modeling for my Physics degree project in 1995 in Fortran!).

Ruby On Rails was very simple to pick up and there is a ton of help out there. There are also lots of work already done for you in the way of Ruby Gems. For Facebook I looked through them all and I found Koala the easiest to use, personally.

http://github.com/arsduo/koala/