Facebook API Developers Guide Firstpress
January 13, 2010 by admin
Filed under General Twitter Tips
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The Facebook API allows web developers to create Facebook applications and access Facebook data from other applications. Facebook API Developers Guide covers the use and implementation of the Facebook API—what the key features are and how you can access them. You will learn, through practical examples, the main features of the Facebook API including an introduction to the API–specific languages FQL and FBML. These examples are further supported by the introduction of other technologies like language libraries, relational database management systems, and XML.
- Covers all key features of the Facebook API
- Explains the API languages FQL and FBML
- Teaches by example, with useful code and tips you can use in your own applications
What you’ll learn
- Provides “real” language description of the API that’s easy to understand
- Presents multiple API examples that you can use in your own projects
- Fills holes in the official documentation
- Demonstrates integration with other technologies
- Illustrates how adoption of social–technical behavior shapes technology design
- Shows that Facebook development is fun!
Who is this book for?
This book is for web developers wanting to learn how to leverage the API in their own applications or how to create bespoke applications in Facebook. It will also appeal to Facebook users who are interested in using the API to develop their own programs. The code in the book is aimed at the beginner–to–intermediate level, so you don’t need to be a pro to use it, but some programming or web development experience is recommended.
Not Very Useful
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
This book only covers the very basics. I would only recommend it to someone thinking about Facebook API development. If you’ve already jumped into it, this book won’t take you very far.
Good starting point, insufficient for advanced developers
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
The book does go over a lot of the basic elements of the API, but I felt it didn’t offer me much more than what I could already learn from the Facebook Developers wiki or resource pages. Keep in mind that it’s only 100 pages – there is a chapter on building a sample Facebook app, though I wish it had offered more “cookbook” style recipes. The author gives you what he promises, which is an API guide, but I was hoping for more concrete examples. I would not recommend this book for more advanced developers.
One last thing I wanted to mention is that it doesn’t seem to include some of the newer features of Facebook, such as Pages.
First Out Of The Gate
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
As far as I know, this was the first book released about Facebook development. So it comes as no surprise that it feels like it was written in a weekend. It’s quite an accomplishment to make a book that’s only 100 pages long feel padded, yet somehow the author manages to achieve this. For example, the bit of code that shows you how to set your API Key variable in the config.php file is repeated at least 3 times! The sample application that occupies the rear third of the book is extremely disappointing because it is just a plain old PHP app. It does not take advantage of the Facebook API.
I’m giving this book 2 stars in part because there is a dearth of Facebook development books. And there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the information provided here, it’s just limited. As a primer it will be enough to get you started, but you’ll be done with the book in a couple hours and hungering for more.