Essential Facebook Development: Build Successful Applications for the Facebook Platform, Rough Cuts

Currently Facebook has over  250 million active users and offers well beyond 52,000 applications -- and the rate at which new applications are launching is staggering. But there is a lack of up-to-date information about developing those applications effectively -- particularly in the light of platform changes that have rendered many applications obsolete. This book provides instruction on the latest Facebook platform changes, and  helps developers create and deploy successful Facebook apps, revealing what makes applications successful, how to measure progress, and how to deploy changes that will maximize the application’s value.

Table of Contents

Preface
Part 1 - Introduction to Facebook and Applications
Chapter 1 - Overview of Facebook: Environment and Integration Points, Extending Facebook, Facebook Languages Overview
Chapter 2 - What Makes a Great Application: Features of good applications, Common application mistakes to avoid, Facebook Pages that work
Chapter 3 - Platform Architecture Overview: F8 Architecture, Application architecture, Application workflow diagrams, Library Support
Chapter 4 - Platform Developer Tools: API Test Console, FBML Test Console, Feed Template Console, Registered Templates Console, Developer Accounts, Firebug, Facebook debugging support, xDebug for PHP
Chapter 5 - Facebook Terms of Service and Application Programs: General Terms of Service, What developers can store, Guidelines for interacting with users; Application Verification Program, Great Apps Program, fbFund
Part 2 - Developing Applications
Chapter 6 - Application Basics: Application specific variables, Index.php, Other include files, Ajax callback pages
Chapter 7 - Building the Canvas Page: IFRAME apps versus FBML apps, Creating an Iframe Canvas page, Creating an FBML Canvas page, Creating a Mobile Canvas page, Adding tabs for multiple pages
Chapter 8 -  Updating the Profile: Profile Boxes - Main, Wide, Narrow, Application Tabs, Application Info Sections, Refreshing the Image Cache
Chapter 9 - Communicating with Users
Chapter 10 - FBJS and Mock-Ajax and Flash: Legal FB JavaScript, Dealing with the DOM, Primitives provided by Facebook; How Mock-ajax works, Types of supported Mock-Ajax ; Using fb:swf, Communicating with Flash, Dealing with Director
Chapter 11 - Testing the application: Unit testing frameworks, Mocks, Modularizing the application
Chapter 12 - Releasing the Application: About Page, Privacy Policy and Application Terms of Service, Application Directory, Privacy Settings
Chapter 13 - Putting it on a Facebook Page: Differences between Pages and Profiles, Treating admins and users differently, Making an application run anywhere
Chapter 14 - Application Case Study: Doorbell: Description of Doorbell features, Architecture, Discussion of Viral Potential
Part 3 - Integrating Facebook into an External Website
Chapter 15 - Facebook JavaScript Library: API reference, Example application walkthrough
Chapter 16 - Facebook Connect: Demos of existing sites that integrate well, API reference, Example application walkthrough
Part 4 - Bebo Development using the F8 Platform
Chapter 17 - Overview: Overview of the Bebo Social Network and integration points, Major differences between Bebo and Facebook, Application workflow   
Chapter 18 - Walkthrough of Bebo Application Development: Setting up the application using Bebo Developer App, Step by step creation of Bebo Application
Chapter 19 - Porting a Facebook Application to Bebo: Dealing with User and Session Management issues, Handling differences in SNML and Bebo library versus Facebook, Using Bebo-only tags and features
Part 5 - Post Launch
Chapter 20 - Monitoring: Why this is so important, Metrics packages
Chapter 21 - Loop Testing and Tuning: Monitoring and A/B testing, Tuning the Viral loop
Chapter 22 - Spreading and Monitizing Applications: Seeding the user base, Advertising and Co-promoting, Monitizing
Section 6 - Best Practices
Chapter 23 - Performance: Batching API calls, FQL, Using <fb:ref>, Mod Rewrite for JavaScript and CSS, Memcached, Cookies
Chapter 24 - Hosting and Development: Setting up for multiple developers, Hosting
Chapter 25 - Handling User Feedback: Reviews and Forums, Contacting users, Asking for Feedback
Appendix A: Resources: Developer Forums, Websites, Blogs, Events - Developers' Garages, Twitter