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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Helpful and timely tutorial for the moving Facebook target, October 25, 2008
This review is from: Developing Facebook Platform Applications with Rails (Pragmatic Programmers) (Paperback)
This book serves up a helpful and timely tutorial for the Rails developer contemplating authorship of a first Facebook application. No prior Facebook API or development knowledge is assumed, although those with some familiarity may find the reading less tedious. The text assumes use of the Facebooker plugin as the mediation layer between Rails 2.x (you should plan on using Rails 2.1) and the Facebook platform (API, FBML, etc.).
Michael writes in a clear, conversational prose that leaves the focus on the task at hand: To learn how to write a Rails Facebook application by following an example coding project from installation to functional coding to "socialization" and performance optimization. The simple-to-grasp Karate Poke application serves the reference need well, and the working code available enables the reader to see "how it works" as the book moves from topic to topic.
Rails-to-Facebook is much more than an "API". Michaels does a good job of showing how to leverage and use the various Facebook integration points. If there's one flaw that keeps reappearing, it is that Facebooker itself is so new and poorly documented. This book would be a 5-star rating if there was an Appendix A that mapped the Facebooker classes to the various Facebook fbml tags and API methods. Such would save the laboring reader many trips into the bowls of Facebooker code.
Finally, the author clearly put out a superhuman effort as he entered what typically is the final editing phase: This book covers much of the (as of late Summer, 2008) New Facebook Profile. It contains the best description of how to code Rails applications for the new FB platform that I've found anywhere. It is worth the price simply for the time it will save you trying to figure out how to get your soon-to-be Top Ten Facebook Application's Profile Box to show up in a Facebook user's Wall.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great resource for facebook devleopers, August 26, 2009
This review is from: Developing Facebook Platform Applications with Rails (Pragmatic Programmers) (Paperback)
Having already built a facebook connect app, and having previously contributed to the facebooker rails plugin, I was a little hesitant to pony up for Mike Mangino's book. I finally took the plunge, partly out of frustration with the facebook api documentation, partly out of shame for abusing Mike's incredible willingness to answer questions posted to the facebooker mailing list, and partly just to see if the book had anything to offer that I hadn't already gleaned from digging through source code.
In retrospect, it was a great decision. This book not only documents the facebooker plugin for building facebook applications on rails, but also walks readers through the complete development of a facebook app from start to finish, offering useful tips along the way. It was a pleasure to read -- concise, clear, and full of interesting examples of best practices for facebook apps. As an experienced rails developer, Mike also gives example code that will likely offer the average user a few tips in general rails development.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very useful book, December 16, 2008
This review is from: Developing Facebook Platform Applications with Rails (Pragmatic Programmers) (Paperback)
I used this book to write three different facebook apps using the FBML option (instead of iframe). I've already been programming in Rails for the past year so I was looking for the quickest way to learn about the Facebook platform and the Facebooker plugin.
A bonus feature of this book is the author. He is very active on Github (where the source code is stored) and the Facebooker mailing list. Without him I don't think Facebooker would be where it is today.
I highly recommend this book if you are looking to develop a Rails app on Facebook. I also recommending joining the mailing list and subscribing to Mike's RSS commit log on Github.
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