views:

1623

answers:

3

I have a reasonable workflow for developing an iFrame app for Facebook. It's reasonable because I can test the app on localhost with a local Apache in any one of a myriad of IDEs that support HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (Visual Web Developer, NetBeans, Komodo, Aptana).

But what if I want to develop a non-iFrame app with FBML? Is there an IDE for developing Facebook apps "locally" without uploading my work over and over to Facebook?

For those doing Facebook app programming in FBML, have you come up with a system of working with reasonable turnaround?

+9  A: 

You don't need an IDE, you need port-forwarding.

Set up some local port to be public so you can run and test your Facebook app on a local dev server.

When I was doing FB development, I had one test app and one real app.

Andrew Johnson
Interesting. Thanks. I found these instructions: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2007/07/16/how-to-local-facebook-app-development/
Nosredna
+1  A: 

Like Andrew, I have my real app that holds the current release, and I have a sandboxed app that I use to deploy test versions of the app. Facebook restricts sandboxed apps so that only the developers can see them, so it lets me test against facebook's latest changes.

Mike Heinz
A: 

I use Codelobster PHP Edition with special Facebook plug-in. It has autocomplete ability for Facebook JavaScript SDK, Facebook PHP SDK, FQL (Facebook Query Language) and FBML (Facebook Markup Language).

Stas

related questions