Facebook Graph API Development with Flash

Table of Contents

Facebook Graph API Development with Flash Beginner's Guide

Credits

About the Author

Acknowledgement

About the Reviewer

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Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Introduction

What's so great about Facebook?

It's popular

Numbers

It's everywhere

It's interesting to develop for

Have a go hero – get on Facebook

Web hosts

What's a web host?

Why do you need one?

How do you choose one?

Useful software

What about domain names?

Have a go hero – get a web host, upload to it, test

How much AS3 knowledge is required?

The source code

Powered by…

Debugging

Watch out for caching

A final note…

2. Welcome to the Graph

Accessing the Graph API through a Browser

Time for action – loading a Page

What just happened?

Have a go hero – exploring other objects

Accessing the Graph API through AS3

Time for action – retrieving a Page's information in AS3

What just happened?

Time for action – deserializing a JSON object

What just happened?

Time for action – visualizing the info

What just happened?

Understanding connections

Time for action – finding connections in a browser

What just happened?

Have a go hero – exploring connections

Rendering Lists

Time for action – rendering Lists of Posts

What just happened?

Rendering connections

Time for action – displaying a Graph Object's connections

What just happened?

Introducing the Requestor

Time for action – creating an HTTP Requestor

What just happened?

Understanding Connections of Connections

Time for action – loading photos from an album

What just happened?

Putting it all together

Time for action – traversing the Graph

What just happened?

Have a go hero – exploring other areas

Pop Quiz

Summary

3. Let Me In!

What can you see?

Time for action – snooping through other people's accounts

What just happened?

Have a go hero – viewing your privacy settings

What's that got to do with the Graph API?

Access tokens are proof of authorization

User/Application authorization

Time for action – registering an application with Facebook

What just happened?

Application ID + logged-in user = access token

Time for action – requesting an access token with the browser

Registering a redirect URI with our application

Using the Access Token

Me, me, me

What just happened?

Keeping secrets

What did Facebook give us?

Authenticating with AS3

Time for action – Using an access token in our Graph visualizer

That's cheating!

Time for action – authenticating through the application

What just happened?

A different approach

Time for action – authenticating via JavaScript

Creating a callback web page

Receiving the access token

What just happened?

What about users who haven't used the application before?

Have a go hero – dealing with the undecided

Extended permissions

Time for action – obtaining extended permissions

What just happened?

Time for action – requesting extended permissions

Have a go hero – using a permanent access token

I want it all, and I want it now

Have a go hero – dealing with extended permissions

Using the Adobe ActionScript 3 SDK for Facebook platform

Time for action –implementing the SDK

What just happened?

Have a go hero – requesting extended permissions with the SDK

Pop Quiz

Summary

4. Digging Deeper into the Graph

Getting more results with paging

Time for action – displaying the number of objects in a list

What just happened?

Time for action – requesting more Objects

What just happened?

Time for action – requesting more Objects at once

What just happened?

Paging

Time for action – obtaining data in pages

What just happened?

Have a go hero – using limit and offset for other connections

Time for action – adding limit and offset to GraphRequest instances

What just happened?

Date-Based filtering

Time for action – requesting data based on date

What just happened?

Time for action – adding since and until to GraphRequest instances

What just happened?

Time for action – filtering by date using the UI

What just happened?

We gon' partition like it's yo' birthday

Have a go hero – loading birthday wall posts

Date-based paging

Requesting multiple IDs at once

Time for action – using the ids parameter in a Graph URL

What just happened?

Have a go hero – creating a Compound Object based on results from a List

Summary

Pop Quiz

5. Search Me

Using the website's Search box

Time for action – examining quick search results

What just happened?

Time for action – Using the Full Search results

What just happened?

Searching with a Graph URL

Time for action – searching without authorization

What just happened?

Time for action – searching while authorized

What just happened?

Differences

Restrictions

Time for action – implementing a Search window in the Visualizer

What just happened?

Time for action – searching via the SDK

What just happened?

Have a go hero – setting the locale

Searching feeds and wall posts

Time for action – searching your news feed

What just happened?

Time for action – searching a friend@#U+0027:s Wall Posts

What just happened?

Time for action – searching feeds through the Visualizer

What just happened?

Summary

Pop Quiz

6. Adding to the Graph

Hello, Facebook!

Time for action – posting to the user's feed

Request methods

What's a request method?

Time for action – using the POST method

What just happened?

Time for action – listening for errors

What just happened?

Time for action – granting the required permission

What just happened?

Time for action – posting via the SDK

What just happened?

Going further with Wall Posts

Time for action – publishing rich posts

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Posting to another Wall

Time for action – posting to another Wall using the Visualizer

Actions, privacy, and source

Actions

Time for action – literally

What just happened?

Privacy

Time for action – setting a Post's privacy settings

What just happened?

Source

Deleting Graph Objects

Time for action – deleting a Post

Time for action – deleting Posts using the Visualizer

What just happened?

Publishing other kinds of Graph Object

Comments

Likes

What about liking other Graph Objects?

Deleting Likes

Notes

Events

Event RSVPs

Albums

Photos

Checkins

What about...?

Sending inbox messages

Creating Pages, Groups, Applications, and Videos

Changing biographical information

Making Friends

Inviting Friends to Events

Pop Quiz

Summary

7. FQL Matters

What is FQL?

Understanding the FQL interface

Models of data

Representations of data

Getting information

Time for action – retrieving info from the Page table

What just happened?

Have a go hero – creating an FQL query builder

What about connections?

Photos, Albums, and their Owners

Have a go hero – getting a user's albums

Primary keys

Crow's feet

Have a go hero – drawing your own crows' feet

Link tables

What just happened?

Time for action – getting a user's friends' names with AS3

What just happened?

Time for action – an easier way

What just happened?

Time for action – getting it down to one API call

What just happened?

Have a go hero – Mutual friends

The Graph as a layer

Have a go hero – recreating existing Graph API calls in FQL

Permissions

Checking existing permissions

Getting more information

Restrictions

Searches must use an indexable field

Does this matter in practice?

Advanced FQL

Operators

Comparison

Logical

Have a go hero – getting a list of your events based on location

Have a go hero – finding gatecrashers

Ordering

Paging

Extra functions

Have a go hero – combining what you've learned

Calling multiple queries at once

Pop Quiz

Summary

8. Finishing Off

Putting it online

On Facebook

IFrame

Time for action – setting up an IFrame application

What just happened?

Page tab

Time for action – adding an application to a Page tab

What just happened?

Off Facebook

Your own website

Flash game portals

As a desktop AIR application

Time for action – authorizing through AIR with HTTP

What just happened?

Time for action – authorizing through AIR with the SDK

What just happened?

As an AIR for Android Application

Time for action – authorizing on Android

What just happened?

Have a go hero – modifying the SDK for Android

Choosing your application's Facebook settings

Getting your application out there

Editing the application's profile page

Have a go hero – creating your application's profile page

Custom tabs

The Facebook Application Directory

Watch out for these policies!

What next?

The Official AS3 Facebook SDK

Other Facebook APIs

JavaScript SDK

Insights API

Facebook Chat API

Internationalization API

Adobe Social service

Related Technologies

PHP

Open Graph Protocol

Real-Time Updates

Brand new and coming soon

Facebook Credits

Test users

The New Messages

Facebook developer resources

Official Facebook resources

Other great websites

Me, me, me

Keeping up with the Zuckerbergs

Dealing with change

Summary

A. Pop Quiz Answers

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Index

Facebook Graph API Development with Flash Beginner's Guide

Facebook Graph API Development with Flash Beginner's Guide

Copyright © 2010 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: December 2010

Production Reference: 1081210

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

32 Lincoln Road

Olton

Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK

ISBN 978-1-849690-74-4

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Asher Wishkerman (<a.wishkerman@mpic.de>)

Credits

Author

Michael James Williams

Reviewer

Emanuele Feronato

Acquisition Editor

David Barnes

Development Editor

Hyacintha D'Souza

Technical Editors

Paramanand Bhat

Namita Sahni

Copy Editor

Laxmi Subramanian

Indexer

Monica Ajmera Mehta

Editorial Team Leader

Aditya Belpathak

Project Team Leader

Lata Basantani

Project Coordinator

Vishal Bodwani

Proofreader

Lynda Sliwoski

Graphics

Geetanjali Sawant

Production Coordinator

Arvindkumar Gupta

Cover Work

Arvindkumar Gupta

About the Author

Michael James Williams is a technical concept writer and freelance Flash developer. He is the technical editor for the tutorial website Activetuts+, and also runs his own blog about Flash game development.

He currently lives in England, in a nice little town that has both a river and a canal, and has been using Facebook since it was just some site that his American housemate wouldn't stop talking about.

You can follow Michael on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MichaelJW.

His public Facebook profile is available at http://on.fb.me/MichaelJamesWilliams.

Activetuts+ can be found at http://active.tutsplus.com/.

Michael's website is http://michaeljameswilliams.com/.

Acknowledgement

I'd like to thank my Dad, for teaching me how to be technical; my Mum, for teaching me how to write; and my little sister, for not being too jealous that I beat her to being a published author.

I also want to thank Ryan Henson Creighton, for inadvertently introducing me to David Barnes; all the Flash developers that make up the awesome community I'm happy to be a part of, particularly Bram, Ryan, Rasmus, Jeff and Steve, and Daniel; Tom, for letting me use his tutorial as a template for my first (and still most popular!) piece of writing; Ian Yates and the rest of Envato™, for enabling me to keep working and earning a living while writing this book; Keith Peters, for providing the awesome MinimalComponents I used throughout this book; and everyone that's ever commented on anything I've written – I really appreciate that.

Finally, I must express my appreciation for and thanks to David, Vishal, Hyacintha, Paramanand, Priya, Namita, and everyone else at Packt Publishing for all their support, help, and hard work. I know I can be stubborn, but it's been a pleasure to work with you all. In particular, thank you to David, who not only approved this book in the first place, but also gave me a huge amount of guidance in all aspects of writing it. And of course, I have to thank Emanuele, not just for doing the technical review of this book, but also for his blog, which (by a funny turn of events) was one of my key inspirations to start writing about Flash in the first place.

About the Reviewer

Emanuele Feronato has been studying programming languages since the early eighties, with a particular interest in web and game development. He taught online programming for the European Social Fund and now co-owns a web development company in Italy where he also works as a lead programmer. His blog, www.emanueleferonato.com, is one of the most visited blogs about indie programming.

I would like to thank Vishal Bodwani at Packt Publishing for the opportunity to review this book, and my little daughter Kimora for making my life happy.

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Preface

Facebook is big, by all meanings of the word. It's used by half a billion people—and countless businesses, bands, and public figures—for socializing and self-promotion. It's also a huge development platform, with tens of thousands of applications.

It's now common to see a Facebook Like button on blog posts, news articles, and many other websites. In the same way, Facebook integration is becoming more and more desirable for browser-based RIAs and games, with some, like FarmVille, even being based entirely around Facebook. That's where Flash comes in.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introduction, gets you up to speed with Facebook and ready to learn to develop Flash applications that connect with the Facebook platform. You'll learn why it's worth putting more time into developing for Facebook than other social networks (and why it's likely to stay that way), and get yourself technically set up for coding.

Chapter 2, Welcome to the Graph, introduces you to Facebook's model for connecting all the information in its huge data stores—the Graph API. You'll discover how intuitive this model is, and will start to explore the publicly available data using AS3 through utility code, which you'll build from scratch.

Chapter 3, Let Me In!, breaks down Facebook's systems for security, permissions, and authentication. You'll learn how to access the private data of Facebook users (including their photos, biographical information, and lists of friends). You will also start using the official Adobe ActionScript 3 SDK for Facebook platform alongside your own utility code.

Chapter 4, Digging Deeper into the Graph, helps you understand the concepts of paging and filtering, so that you aren't restricted to using only the default dataset that Facebook presents you with. You'll find out how to obtain data from specified dates, and how to speed up your applications by retrieving information from multiple sources at once.

Chapter 5, Search Me, builds on the previous chapter by teaching you how to search for data based on criteria other than dates. You'll learn how to retrieve Wall Posts by specific users, pages with specific names, and places by specific geographical coordinates.

Chapter 6, Adding to the Graph, takes you beyond merely retrieving data and into publishing new data to Facebook. You'll find out how to create new Wall Posts (including rich posts including images and embedded hyperlinks); how to comment on other users' Wall Posts; how to create new events, notes, and albums; and how to upload photos from your hard drive.

Chapter 7, FQL Matters, takes a break from the Graph API to teach you how to learn a powerful search tool—Facebook Query Language. You'll trade the Graph API's intuitiveness and simplicity for FQL's depth and additional features, while also understanding the benefits that each approach offers over the other.

Chapter 8, Finishing Off, wraps up what you've learned throughout the book and gets you ready to release your application to the wild. You'll find out how to embed your application into the Facebook website itself; how to get it into the official Facebook Application Directory; and how to export it as a desktop or Android application, while still keeping its Facebook connectivity. Finally, you'll learn how to keep up-to-date with the ever-changing Facebook platform, and discover some useful resources for taking what you've learned even further.

Appendix, Pop Quiz Answers, contains answers to all the Pop Quizzes in the book

What you need for this book

To develop and compile the example code in this book, you will need an AS3 compiler. Sample projects are provided for use with Flash Professional (CS3 and above), Flash Builder, and the free FlashDevelop IDE (with the Flex SDK); if you use a different workflow you will be able to convert these to fit your tools.

You'll also need previous experience with AS3 class-based coding and a Facebook account. The exact requirements here, along with what to do if you don't meet them, are detailed in Chapter 1.

Who this book is for

If you are an AS3 developer who wants to create applications and games that integrate with Facebook—either on the Facebook website itself or off it, then this book is for you. Even if you have no previous experience with Facebook, databases, or server-side programming, you can follow this book.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: All we have to do is pass it an argument of type graph.GraphObject.

A block of code is set as follows:

  for (var key:String in decodedJSON)

  {

    graphObject[key] = decodedJSON[key];

  }

When I wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

if (decodedJSON.data)

{

  //has a data property so we assume it is a Graph List

  var graphList:GraphList = new GraphList();

}

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: Compile and run your SWF, then expand the Connections box and click on posts.

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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