Facebook Application Framework

Overview

Facebook Application Framework (FBApp) is a set of modules designed to build Facebook Applications using Drupal. It provides an API to execute Graph API operations and FQL queries with built-in caching and support for Real-Time Updates and notifications. Includes also submodules for Rules and Views 3 integration and an OAuth 2.0 authentication mechanism that enables one-click registration and single sign-on. It is meant to be generic and compatible with other modules to allow for as many different use cases as possible. External modules that provide Social Plugins can be used with FBApp.

Features

• Lightweight and flexible architecture;
• Highly configurable;
• Compatible with modules that provide Social Plugins;
• Free from FB's PHP SDK or any client-side javascript;
• Supports Real-Time Updates and notifications.

Requirements

• No external libraries required;
• Depends on Token, Views (version 3) and Rules modules;
• PHP cURL extension;
• Facebook application credentials (App ID and Secret).

Project status

Although still in alpha version and lacking thorough testing in different conditions and use cases, I have always tried to only push usable code to the repository. From integrating with Drupal core, Token, Rules and Views to authenticating and executing operations in Facebook's API all functionality should work (or have worked at some point in development).

However, it is not advisable at all to use this module in production environments yet. Please report any bugs you find in the issue queue of this project with as much information about your setup as possible (enabled modules, rules and rulesets and integrations with other modules). Contact the author if you need support installing and/or setting up the module.

Known problems

• Some application settings cannot be changed through the administration form (for instance, if you're using SSL, you must set the secure URL's for canvas and tab pages using Facebook Developer). See this and this bugs on Facebook's bugtracker.

Tutorials

Post to FB when creating new content (and store related FB post ID for use in Social Plugins, for instance). – WIP

Recommended modules

• Views Infinite Scroll - To create Stream Views that grow dynamically when scrolling down the page;
• Page Theme – To switch themes on canvas pages.

Similar projects

Drupal For Facebook – DFFB is a mature and well-rounded project that, although it is a feature-rich solution, is not focused on integrating with Facebook exclusively server-side. FBApp, however, uses only the recent Graph API to read/write data and OAuth 2.0 to authenticate users. Also, unlike DFFB, FBApp does not use Facebook's PHP SDK and is compatible with other modules that provide Social Plugins.

Roadmap

This list is only indicative and may change over time. If you have any feature requests, please post in the issue queue.

Version 1.0:

• Implement basic cache system (done);
• Implement Views FQL query plugin (done);
• Map user's FB data to Content Profile fields;
• Custom theme for canvas and tab pages;
• D7 version. (in progress)

Version 2.0:

• Open Graph integration (maybe through external RDF module?);
• Support Page Login.

Credits

Originally developed and sponsored by Sophostech.