Learning Facebook Application Development: A step-by-step tutorial for creating custom Facebook applications using the Facebook platform and PHP

240 Pages·2008·6.11 MB·English

by  Mark Alexander Bain

Learning Facebook Application
Development
A step-by-step tutorial for creating custom
Facebook applications using the Facebook
platform and PHP
Hasin Hayder
Dr. Mark Alexander Bain

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Learning Facebook Application Development
Copyright © 2008 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in
critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of
the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold
without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, Packt Publishing,
nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged
to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the
companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals.
However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: May 2008
Production Reference: 1200508
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
32 Lincoln Road
Olton
Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.
ISBN 978-1-847193-69-8
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Nilesh Mohite ([email protected])
Credits
Authors Project Manager
Hasin Hayder Abhijeet Deobhakta
Dr. Mark Alexander Bain
Indexer
Reviewers Hamangini Bari
Junal Rahman
Md. Nur Hossain Proofreader
Camille Guy
Senior Acquisition Editor
David Barnes Production Coordinator
Aparna Bhagat
Development Editor
Nikhil Bangera Cover Work
Aparna Bhagat
Technical Editor
Ajay Shanker
Editorial Team Leader
Mithil Kulkarni
About the Authors
Hasin Hayder, graduated in Civil Engineering from the Rajshahi University of
Engineering and Technology (RUET) in Bangladesh. He is a Zend-certified Engineer
and expert in developing localized applications. He is currently working as a
Technical Director in Trippert Labs and managing the local branch in Bangladesh.
Beside his full time job, Hasin writes his blog at http://hasin.wordpress.com,
writes article in different websites and maintains his open-source framework Orchid
at http://orchid.phpxperts.net. Hasin lives in Bangladesh with his wife Ayesha
and his son, Afif.
Thanks goes to my colleagues at TrippertLabs and phpExperts, for
supporting me during this time. Thanks to Abhijeet, Nikhil, and
David for their patience while I was late. And definitely, thanks to
my family members, especially Ayesha and Afif for their support.
Dr. Mark Alexander Bain first started customizing CRM systems back in the mid
'90s when he was team leader for Vodafone's Cascade project—the team took the
'out-of-the-box' Clarify CRM and turned it into a radio base station planning
application, complete with a workflow engine for passing jobs between the different
departments involved in the planning, building, and implementation of a radio
network. Since then, he's lectured at the University of Central Lancashire. Currently
Mark writes articles on all things Linux and Open Source for Linux Format,
Newsforge.com and Linux Journal. SugarCRM customization, therefore, seems the
obvious choice for this, his second book, since it combines Mark's knowledge of
working with commercial CRMs and the Open Source philosophy. Mark works from
his home on the edge of the Lake District in the UK, where he lives with his wife,
two dogs and two cats, and gets the odd visit from his sons—Michael and Simon.
About the Reviewers
Junal Rahman is a Computer Science graduate from Independent University
of Bangladesh. His areas of expertise include programming with .Net and PHP
framework. He has worked for several software companies as a web application
developer. During his undergraduate studies, Junal completed his internship
program at Alliance Creation where he worked on several projects including a
garments inventory system for Opti Garments. Following his graduation, he became
a full-time employee at Alliance Creation and continued working with the PHP
framework. Later, he moved on to work for Systech Digital where he became a PHP
team leader, managing and supervising projects for Systech Digital clients. As an
aside, during his time at Alliance Creation and Systech Digital, Junal worked for a
freelancing company called Allomatch as a freelance developer, where he gained
experience in Smarty, a unique programming language. Finally, he joined Trippert
Labs, where he now works as a Development Engineer. At Trippert, Junal works
collaboratively to create Facebook applications. Apart from keeping up with the ever
changing field of information technology, he spends much of his private life pursing
his interests in screenplay and script writing. In the future, Junal hopes to create
films and short dramas, and eventually establish his very own software company.
I would like to thank Hasin Hayder, my mentor, for writing this
amazing book and dedicate my effort to my maternal uncle Shafiqul
Karim for his eternal inspiration and continual encouragement.
Md. Nur Hossain is a B.Sc graduate from Shahjalal University of Science &
Technology specializing in Computer Science & Engineering. For the past four years,
he has been working in the field of web development and performance tuning. His
area of interest is design pattern and efficiency of large DB schema. He is currently
working as a senior developer at Trippert Labs.
I am thankful to my parents who are always encouraging. Thank
you Abhijeet, for managing the resources and communications so
smoothly. And thanks Hasin, and all my colleagues for sharing your
tremendous knowledge with me.

To you, the mastermind behind each and every Facebook application.