FBML Essentials: Facebook Markup Language Fundamentals [Paperback]

Jesse Stay (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0596519184 | ISBN-13: 978-0596519186 | Publication Date: July 29, 2008 | Edition: 1

Do you have an idea for a Facebook application? With FBML Essentials, you'll learn how to build it quickly using the Facebook Markup Language (FBML) and other easy-to-use tools in the site's framework. If you can develop a website with HTML, writing a Facebook application with the help of this book will be a breeze.

Of course, Facebook is not just another website. Any applications you write for it will have a potential audience of 16 million dedicated users. It's not just another social networking site, either. Under the surface, Facebook is pretty sophisticated, with a development toolkit that includes it's own modified version of HTML -- FBML -- to customize the look and feel of your Facebook applications.

With FBML Essentials, you not only learn how to get started with this toolkit, you also get a complete reference on every FBML tag Facebook has ever written, with examples of how each tag works and advice on the best ways to use these tags in your code.

This book includes:

• A walkthrough of a sample Facebook application
• Design rules for using images, CSS, JavaScript, and forms
• Specific chapters on tags -- authorization tags, logic tags, user/group tags, profile-specific tags, and more
• Messaging and alerts using FBML
• Creating forms with FBML
• Facebook navigation
• Notifications and requests
• Dynamic FBML attributes, including MockAJAX
• How to test your FBML code
• A chapter on FBJS, Facebook's version of JavaScript

If you want to try your hand at writing a Facebook application, you have a willing audience, an easy-to-use toolkit, and the perfect guide to get you started. FBML Essentials will help you take your idea from conception to working application in no time.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jesse Stay runs his own Social Media consulting and development business, and has consulted for some of the top 100 applications on Facebook. Within just 2 months, he successfully sold his first Facebook application that he wrote in just a week. He is the author of I'm on Facebook -- Now What???, a book targeted towards helping individuals and business owners better manage their lives through Facebook. You can follow him on his blog, http://www.jessestay.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (July 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596519184
• ISBN-13: 978-0596519186
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #635,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jesse Stay is a speaker, author, blogger, and entrepreneur, who writes and consults on the topics of social media and new media architecture, bridging the gap between "technical" and "social" for both marketers and developers. Jesse has written four books -- his latest two, Facebook Application Development For Dummies, and the recently released Google+ For Dummies show the breadth of knowledge Jesse has to offer. Jesse was also named one of 20 developers to follow on Twitter and one of 10 entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter by the top Tech blog Mashable.com.

His unique technology background has enabled him to help others understand the new mesh of technology, marketing, PR, and customer service, which social media has come to be, and how they can deeply integrate these technologies into their own environments. Jesse has consulted for top 10 Facebook applications, large corporations, social media applications with millions of users, and has helped many people become successful through their social media efforts to merge technology with marketing. Jesse has built his own profitable social media applications in the hundreds of thousands of users. In addition to building and consulting for top social media applications, Jesse has been successful in managing Social Media campaigns for Facebook Pages in the hundreds of thousands of fans to even millions, some of them his own Facebook Pages. During his day job, Jesse serves as a Social Media Strategist for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an organization with over 14 million members, some of the largest humanitarian and service efforts in the world, and a very unique international strategy for social media.

Jesse also hosts his own successful blog, Stay N Alive, perhaps the #1 tech blog in Utah and is regularly featured on Techmeme.com. Aside from that, Jesse's articles have been featured on sites such as LouisGray.com, the top two blogs about Facebook, InsideFacebook and AllFacebook, as well as Venturebeat. You can also see the coverage and breadth of Jesse's influence on Delicious. You can find him on his blog, on Google+, on Facebook, or on LinkedIn. Contact him for a jam-packed consulting session about how your business strategy can benefit through integration of Social Media technologies and philosophy! Or book him for your next speaking engagement.

Jesse's Clients, Advisory Roles, and Former Clients Include, among others:

-Facebook
-Myspace
-Ancestry.com
-Cinch.fm (owned by Blogtalkradio)
-The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
-Pluralsight
-FamilyLink
-MovieClips.com
-SocialToo.com
-Xydo.com
-TodaysMama.com
-i.TV
-JumpStart
-OpenID Foundation
-PeopleBrowser

Jesse's Speaking Roles Include:

-Keynote Speaker - LDS SORT Conference
-Keynote Speaker - Nevada Interactive Media Summit
-Keynote Speaker - TMeetup
-Master of Ceremonies - Utah Golden Spike Awards for PR Professionals
-Facebook Success Summit
-Business Success Summit
-Next Level Hawaii
-Brigham Young University Hawaii
-Dallas Chamber of Commerce CIO Symposium
-Silicon Valley Web Builders Inside Facebook Event
-Ignite Salt Lake City
-O'Reilly Author Webinars
-Safari Books Online Author Webinars
-Panel, Utah Technology Council
-Panel, Utah Global Entrepreneurship Week Conference
-Guest Judge, Bebo's B.E.S.T. Developer Contest
-Panel, Social Media Club alongside Frank Eliason ( @comcastcares)
-PhotoCamp Utah
-Brigham Young University
-Panel, TMeetup Alongside Ben Parr from Mashable, Doug Williams and Ryan Sarver from Twitter and others in Silicon Valley
-BlogWorld Expo

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First Book I've Bought Because Of A Negative Review, January 29, 2010

By 

X. Casto "xcasto" (Madison, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: FBML Essentials: Facebook Markup Language Fundamentals (Paperback)

I purchased this book after reading a review calling this book "Totally obsolete". That reviewer has lost credibility with me, but I will admit there are portions in the book that restrict it to a period of time in the past (I feel authors should avoid referencing the future with expectation, unless they are planning a revised edition to follow those dates). This may be what the one reviewer focused on while ignoring the real context of the book. There is also a major resource link referenced I found not working, but these types of things are beyond an author's control (unless they are controlling that domain... hmmm...).

Anyway, except for a few things that date the content of this book I found it to be a solid addition to my reference library and as I begin to develop Facebook Applications it will be one of my resources to help me determine the best development route (FBML vs API).

I do appreciate the author's interests in reviews of his book and in truth it was his statements (not solely the negative review) that encouraged me to purchase the book for a closer look.

To quote Rodney Rumford; "Jesse has given you the direction to properly use FMBL with this great book. Use it often and it will save you hours of frustration." I have to agree.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Totally obsolete, October 28, 2009

By 

Kathy Halkin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FBML Essentials: Facebook Markup Language Fundamentals (Paperback)

Today (October 28, 2009) I have received from Amazon this book and the book Facebook Cookbook by Jay Goldman.
These two books might have been perfect in an earlier time but today they are utterly useless. The facebook interface has totally changed from what is described in those two books. I am a very experienced programmer (Java, C, C++, Objective C, HTML,PHP, Javascript , CSS and more) but here I am totally lost!

5.0 out of 5 stars Informational, January 4, 2011

By 

A. Walker (Ohio - The Heart of It All) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: FBML Essentials: Facebook Markup Language Fundamentals (Paperback)

Pretty detailed - probably should know SOME HTML before going through this book. Overall though, it seems like a good tool to use for work.