Toluu

Self Debugging

The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none -- Thomas Carlyle

The SV Google Technology User GroupNovember 15

I recently heard about an interesting user group that I should’ve known about earlier. The SV Google Technology User Group meets once a month at the Googleplex in Mountain View to discuss the latest from Google.

At the last meetup on Wednesday Ryan Barrett from the App Engine team talked about recent updates and ideas they’re thinking about. The most interesting for me was the idea of a local library that allows me to run a script locally to access my data on the Data Store through a REST API. That would make it easier to do things like making global updates to the data store or pulling everything to a local database for advanced reporting. Not that it can’t be done today, but a library from Google would standardize that and open the door for developers to write scripts that can work with any app engine application with little or no changes.

The main presentation was about SproutCore, a JavaScript framework that feels a lot like Ruby on Rails. It supports an MVC model, data bindings, automatic packing of JS files, and a big library of UI components. My view is that it has a great potential, especially with the continuing trend of pushing more functionality to the client side. But it’s still in it’s e

A Super Simple Facebook AppOctober 28

Last night I was invited to do a quick presentation at the Facebook meetup at AOL on how to start building Facebook applications. I generally prefer the hands-on approach, so rather than talking about the concepts, I chose to write a simple app on stage to show how easy it is to get started on Facebook development. I chose to build a gifting app because it’s simple enough that it can be done in an hour, and it covers the basic concepts of Facebook development including invites. Things went well, and we had a functional app running live on Facebook by the end of the hour. If you want to try, it’s called Hello Halloween.

Many in the audience wanted a copy of the source code, so I’m releasing it here under the if-something-goes-wrong-I-have-nothing-to-do-with-it license. Feel free to use and change it in any shape or form you like, commercial or non-commercial. So, without further ado, here is the code, and then more details below:

<? require_once 'facebook/facebook.php'; $API_KEY = "???api_key"; $SECRET_KEY = "???secret_key"; $CODE_ROOT = "??? path to your server. e.g.: http://mydomain.com/halloween/"; $fb = new Facebook($API_KEY, $SECRET_KEY); $uid = $fb->require_login(); $conn = mysql_connect('???mysql_host', '???mysql_user', '???mysql_password'); mysql_select_db('???mysql_database', $conn); mysql_query("INSERT Users(uid) VALUES($uid);", $conn); ?> <style>

Facebook Connect DemoOctober 4

Update: I removed the widget from the right side column because Facebook Connect still has bugs and it didn’t work for all users. Instead, here is an image of how the widget would look like live on the blog.

This is a demo I wrote for the Facebook Meetup on Sept. 29th. Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to show it, so I’m posting it here for anyone interested in seeing a sample use of Facebook Connect on a blog.

The demo is a widget you add to your blog to allow your readers to become fans. It stores the data on the Facebook datastore, and therefore doesn’t require a database on your server. It consists of a simple HTML/Javascript widget to put on your blog, and a few php files to put on your server to handle communication with the Facebook APIs.

Here I’ll explain how I did this so you can try it yourself.

1. First, I created a Facebook Application called “SelfDebugging”, and I set the callback URL to the root of my blog: http://www.selfdebugging.com . I didn’t change any other setting.

2. I uploaded the xd_receiver.htm file to the root o

Facebook Profile Migration - How I did itJuly 26

As I went throught converting my application, Blog Networks, to the new profile design, I document the steps I went through hoping to help others who’re going through the same process. In this post I’ll cover the essential changes that you need to do, and in a futuer post I’ll describe how to utilize some of the new features the new profile brings.

 

1. Get the new Facebook client library

First, download the latest version of the PHP client library and overwrite the old one. Get the latest version here:

http://svn.facebook.com/svnroot/platform/clients/php/branches/redesign-changes/

 

2. Which version of the APIs to use?

During the transition period some users will be on the old profile and some on the new. However, the new client library points all API calls to the new URL, api.new.facebook.com. While this works, it has the side effect of switching your users to the new profile the moment they hit any of your pages that require the user to login because it’ll forward them to a www.new url to log in. I didn’t feel comfortable making my users feel that my application was responsible for changing their Facebook experience. I also wanted to utilize the fact that adding the profile box and the email opt-in are selected by default.

So, instead, I decide to let users on the old profile use the old APIs and

Facebook Change-athon EventJuly 22

Time for a new developer meetup. Just 3 days after f8, Sudha and I are organizing a Facebook Profile Change-athon to get developers together and help each other migrate our apps to the new Facebook APIs. It’s also to catch up and discuss the announcements from f8 if you miss it.

This is a full day event, 9am - 9pm, on Saturday July 26 and is divided into two parts:

1. The first part at 9:00am is for developers (bring your laptop) and will consist of coding sessions and a technical presentation about the migration path and new features.

2. The second part at 6:30 pm is for both, developers and non-developers and will include a presentation about the new Facebook features and a panel discussion about the new business opportunities coming along.

See the schedule here (subject to change): http://blog.weekendapps.com/schedule-activities/

We’ll announce the location in the next couple of days (either San Francisco or the South Bay). If you’re interested, join the Facebook event.