How to create a facebook app

Facebook allows you to create applications
that appear to the user in 2
different areas.
1 - The profile. This the ‘main

user page’ as far as Facebook is
concerned. Here is where your
main summary details are
displayed and your comments
wall. It would be great to have
your widget displayed here, but
the big limitation is that
applications that use javascript
are not allowed here (You must
use FMBL, the facebook version
of HTML). Too bad for me. What
we can do is display a small ad
to take the user to the Canvas
page.
2 - The ‘Canvas page’. This is an
entire page that your
application gets to use (you can
have multiple pages if you
want). On these pages you can
choose to display content from
another website through an
iframe, so that is what we’re
going to do.
Ok, thats it for the overview.
Start your clocks and lets get
cracking.
1. Create your demo page. This is the page that the user
will see on their canvas page. If
you already have a page that
you want to use, great.
Ok, now log into Facebook.
2. Install the Developer
Application.http://
developers.facebook.com/
get_started.php This allows you to create
applications.
3. Create the Application.
Click the‘create application’ link
4. Fill in the Application
details.
There are heaps of fields you
can enter, I am just going over
the ones you need to get this
demo working.
Application Name: Any name
you want.
Terms of Service checkbox:
Check it.
Click‘Optional Fields’.
Callback Url: This should be the
root directory that your
‘yk.htm’ page is found at.
You must also add a ‘/’ at the
end e.g ‘http://
olaryeankarh.blogspot.com/’.
Canvas Page URL: This is the
most confusing part, and
wasted me heaps of time. What
they want you to enter is
basically a directory name for
your applcaition. The name must
be 7 characters or more, and
must be unique from other
Facebook applications. You can use any name. When
you add ‘http://
apps.facebook.com/’ to the
front you have the Canvas page
URL.
NOTE: If you use upper case in
the Canvas Page URL, it will be
converted to lower case
automatically. Also, case is
important, so if you use upper
case in your links later on THEY
WON’T WORK.
Tick ‘Use iframe’: This means
that your canvas pages will use
an iframe.
Application Type: Leave it at
‘website’.
Can your application be added
on Facebook?: Tick ‘Yes’.
Application Description: I used
‘Cool guessing game’. If you
disagree, feel free to use your
own description.
Default FMBL: We will fill this out
last, so leave it for the moment.
Default Profile Box Column: Tick
‘Narrow’.
Side Nav URL:OK, here is where
we put a link in the side nav to
the canvas page.
The full canvas page has the
format:
http://apps.facebook.com/< value entered in Canvas Page URL>/. That's all!

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