Facebook® Application Development For Dummies®

Getting the Facebook Developer Application Ready to Go

The Facebook Developer site, Developers.facebook.com, is the central location for developers and application owners on Facebook. (If you aren't a developer, don't be intimidated by this page — it's very friendly even to marketers!) You can go to the Facebook Developer page to find out about Facebook Platform.

To get you acclimated to the Facebook development environment, I encourage you to take a look around the Facebook Developer site. Knowing what's available at http://developers.facebook.com and how you can use it can really help you in the future — especially when Facebook decides to release a new feature, change existing features, or change the face of your code as you know it. (You can't say I didn't warn you; change happens, and you should be prepared.) Normally, Facebook gives you warnings on the Developer site (and the Developer application, which I show you next), so get in the habit of checking back there if you ever suspect that a feature isn't working or that a change has occurred.

On the Facebook Developer site, shown in Figure 2-2, you find the following sections:

• Mobile Apps:Facebook enables developers to fully integrate Facebook into the mobile experience. Facebook provides SDKs for the iPhone and Android to do this. According to Facebook, people spend more time on Facebook on their cell phone (via apps such as Facebook for the iPhone as well as text messaging notifications from Facebook) than on the rest ...