What's New on the Facebook Platform, March 2012

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All materials contained within this presentation are copyright Syncapse Corp. 2012.

SYNCAPSE | New York | Toronto | London | Portland

WHAT’S NEW ON THE FACEBOOK PLATFORM, MARCH 2012

Iskandar Najmuddin21st March 2012Facebook Developer Garage London

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TIMELINE FOR PAGES

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A big deal for brands, marketers, and others in Facebook.

Timeline includes:

•Cover photo

•Milestones (aka Life Events)

•Direct Messaging with Users

•Featured & Pinned Posts

•Page Apps (aka Tabs)

•Better admin panel

•Activity Log

•LOTS!

Timeline for Pages!!!1!one

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First you’ll need manage_pages Permission and a Page Access Token

Update: POST /PAGE_ID

Fields

•about

•description

•general_info

•website

•phone

Cover Photo Fields

•cover: A FB Photo ID, 399px min. width

•offset_y: % offset from top

•no_feed_story: set to true to suppress a feed story

Page Timeline: Attributes & Cover Photo

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Page Timeline: Attributes API Example

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Page Timeline: Attributes API Example

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Now called Page Apps – “Tabs” really doesn’t make sense any more.

•Gone: default landing Tab

• You can still link through to a Page App directly by URL

•New: Tab Image (111x74)

Existing APIs Unchanged

•Reading list of installed Apps

•Adding/removing Apps

•Changing App Position

•Changing App name

Page Timeline: Apps

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Let’s update the Page App Image!

Update: POST /PAGE_ID/tabs/APP_ID

Fields

•custom_image_url

•custom_image: for raw image data

Page Timeline: Apps API Example

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Let’s update the Page App Image!

Page Timeline: Apps API Example

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Again, you’ll need manage_pages Permission and a Page Access Token

Read: GET /PAGE_ID/milestones

Create: POST /PAGE_ID/milestonesFields

•title

•description

•start_time

Delete: DELETE /OBJECT_ID

Page Timeline: Milestones

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POST /PAGE_ID/milestones

Page Timeline: Milestone API Example

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Note: Founded is probably a bad example of a custom Milestone title, as FB treats the ‘start date’ of a page specially!

Page Timeline: Milestone API Example

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You’re gonna need manage_pages, read_inbox and Page Access Token.

Pages can only reply to messages, and cannot initiate any contact.

Read: GET /PAGE_ID/conversations

Reply: POST /THREAD_ID/messagesFields

•message

Page Timeline: Messages

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You’ve got mail

This is thread t_id.154426338013265

•as retrieved from /PAGE_ID/conversations

Let’s reply using the Graph API!

POST /THREAD_ID/messages

Page Timeline: Messages API Example

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And our happy result!

Page Timeline: Messages API Example

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Great for Moderation-type apps!

Change visibility: POST /POST_IDFields

•is_hidden: ‘true’ or ‘false’

Page Timeline: Post Visibility

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Publically available stats

Page Timeline: Public Insights

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Pinning a Post

Featuring a Post

Back-dating content

Page Timeline: Missing Stuff

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OPEN GRAPH STUFF

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Read OG Actions generated by arbitrary apps!

•GET /USER_ID/APP_NAMESPACE:ACTION

•GET /USER_ID/VERTICAL

Permission(s) Required

•user_actions.VERTICAL• Where VERTICAL is one of music, news, video

•user_actions:APP_NAMESPACE• Where APP_NAMEPACE is the, er, App namespace

Use the same permissions format for a user’s friends with

•friends_actions

Reading Open Graph Actions

Example Request•user_actions.video•user_actions:my_demo_app

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Add Place ID to an OG Action

https://graph.facebook.com/me/fdgl_demo:chow_down_on? pizza_slice=http://domain/pineapple-pizza-slice& place=PLACE_PAGE_ID& access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN

Location Tagging: OG Actions

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Allows Map view in feed and Map Layout Timeline Aggregation.

Add lat/long to OG object metadata:<meta property="your-og-app:location:latitude" content="37.416382">

<meta property="your-og-app:location:longitude" content="-122.152659">

<meta property="your-og-app:location:altitude" content="42">

You can also add a place field to the normal Graph API when creating a post via POSTing to a user’s feed.

Location Tagging: OG Object

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Tag People in Posts

Add Tags to OG Actions or Feed Stories. This only works with a valid place ID, mind you.

Create Post: POST /me/feedFields•(normal post fields)•place: valid Page ID of a FB Place. Required.•tags: Comma-separated list of Facebook IDs

The fields are named the same when creating an OG Action

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Other Location and Tagging Stuff

Search Examples

Get posts by friends near a Placehttps://graph.facebook.com/search?type=location&place=233218519879&access_token=_

Get objects near a specific lat/longhttps://graph.facebook.com/search?type=location&center=37.76,-122.427&distance=1000

Using locations_post FQL tableSELECT id, tagged_uids FROM location_post WHERE page_id=110506962309835

There’s loads of room for doing cool new stuff with this kind of data!

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We can now add UGC images, which display in the Timeline way bigger and may get more distribution.

Here’s how

•Add a user_generated parameter

•Image must be at least 520px (both dimensions)

https://graph.facebook.com/me/fdgl_demo:chow_down_on? pizza_slice=http://domain/pineapple-pizza-slice& place=PLACE_PAGE_ID& image[0][url]=http://domain/user-photo.jpg& image[0][user_generated]=true& access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN

UGC Photos with Actions

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UGC Photos with Actions: Result

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OTHER BITS

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When you use the Scores API to manage your users’ scores these stories will be generated automatically.

See https://developers.facebook.com/docs/score/

•The Score story: Bob User scored 4321 points playing Frooble

•The Passing story: Bob User passed Jane Person’s high score in Frooble

•The High Score story: Bob User got a new high score in Frooble

Games: New Stories in News Feed

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Migration for all users and apps started in early March and is nearing completion.

Permission change

publish_actions now automatically includes these permissions:

•Post to timeline (as before)

•Tag photos

•Publish photos and videos

Enhanced Auth Dialog rollout

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Feed stories can 'deep link' from the Facebook iOS app directly to native iOS apps

•or App Store if App not installed.

iOS Integration Deep Linking

For mobile web apps, keep doing UA-sniffing and redirection.

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Policy Updates

Autoplay of media Allowed for tabs

•This means your tab can go crazy if that’s what you really want.

Three revisions were made to the Facebook Platform Policies on Tuesday, March 7, 2012:1.We removed our policy which prohibited Page Apps from hosting media that played automatically without a user’s interaction.2.We revised our Mobile Web App policy to make it clear that Mobile Web Apps running within a Facebook iOS app may only use iOS approved payment methods and may not reference, use, or otherwise encourage use of Facebook Credits and other non-iOS payment methods.3.We included a reminder that, if applicable, developers must be sure to comply with the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), and obtain any opt-in consent necessary from users so that user data subject to the VPPA may be shared on Facebook.

From https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2012/03/07/platform-updates--operation-developer-love/

Warning: the new Page Cover Photo rules are super strict.

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Other Updates

• Graph API now returns error codes

• Insights now shows nice Mobile referral info

• New FB training courses• http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/Courses/TableOfContents?

courseName=fb-platform

• Inline Video in News Feed works• Set og:video to your video URL

Don’t forget to check the Facebook Developer Roadmap for detailed breakage info!

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The End. Or is it?

Ask me about social media, technology, or e-cigarettes:•[email protected]•twitter.com/iskandar•+44(0)207.096.0146

Technology

What's New on the Facebook Platform, March 2012