Customer Reviews

Facebook Cookbook: Building Applications to Grow Your Facebook Empire

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This tutorial is for developers with a broad but not necessarily deep background in web development who are interested in building Facebook web applications. Although Facebook Desktop and Mobile apps are covered where applicable, the content of this book is about straight web applications. Material covered includes how to plan an app, API details and FQL calls, and how to market and attract users, so there should be something for all participants in Facebook app development.

The author assumes you already know your way around web development in the areas of HTML, CSS, PHP programming, and SQL/database design. You don't need to be an expert with any of them, and the author makes suggestions on good books on all of the supporting technologies. The following is the detailed table of contents for the book, which is currently not included in the product description:

Chapter 1. Introducing Facebook Platform - A general overview of Facebook, Facebook Platform, and an introduction to the opportunity it represents.

Chapter 2. Ideation and Strategy - If you don't have an idea in mind already for an app, this chapter helps you out by giving you some ideas for some applications that you can extend. Shows techniques for doing app design quickly and with the best possible results.

Chapter 3. Hello World - Walks you through the classic Hello World first programming example.

Chapter 4. Architecture and Design - Covers the best architectures for Facebook apps, provides some recommendations for database performance, and produces an overview of the design and user experience of some winning applications.

Chapter 5. Setting Up Your Environment - Learn about all the things you need to download in order to get started. Learn how to add apps to Facebook, how to set up a test account, and how to get information on the latest changes to Facebook.

Chapter 6. Facebook Markup Language (FBML) - FBML is the glue that holds the Facebook Platform together. Covers all of the tags, discusses some odd behaviors you might encounter, and explores some great tricks for building better frontends.

Chapter 7. Facebook JavaScript (FBJS) - This chapter explains why you can't just use regular JavaScript in your app, how to build great Ajax-like interactions using Facebook's Mock Ajax techniques, and goes into detail about all of the useful functions available to you.

Chapter 8. Facebook Query Language (FQL) - As FBML is to HTML, FQL is to SQL. This chapter examines the schema of the various database tables to which you have access, and catalogs some really useful FQL queries you can use in your apps.

Chapter 9. Facebook API - Digs deep into the code of the API that connects everything together. The chapter goes through each of the objects and methods you have at your disposal, and gives you some tips and tricks for desktop apps. The chapter covers the API using the official Facebook PHP Client, but it shouldn't be too hard to convert these examples into your language of choice.

Chapter 10. Marketing Your App - Supplies some general marketing options for Facebook applications and some techniques for measuring your success at attracting people to your app.

You should be able to use the book either by reading cover to cover or by skipping around in it. It is well-illustrated and the code is well commented. Highly recommended. Also recommended for those just starting out is FBML Essentials, since a good understanding of FBML is essential for success.

Today (October 28, 2009) I have received from Amazon this book and the book FBML Essentials by Jesse Stay.
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!

Facebook Cookbook is an excellent reference, covering and consolidating the explosion of publicly available (and often wrong) Wiki documentation. On the whole, it's well worth the Amazon price. However it's worth noting that the book all but presumes you'll be using the Facebook PHP library (which I'm not), and its "recipes" often lean so heavily on that presumption as to become useless to those of us using other APIs (or in my case, none at all). Definitely recommended as a bird's-eye survey of the Facebook Platform and API, but if you're not using PHP, you might find yourself a bit frustrated by how much of it the book contains.

The Facebook Cookbook covers pretty much everything budding Facebook application developers (and designers) need to know to get started with the platform or to expand their existing knowledge - from the ins-and-outs of setting up a development environment, to understanding the FBML, FBJS and FQL markup languages, tips on integrating a myriad of social/community features, optimizing application performance, solving common technical issues and everything in between.

It's a cookbook in every sense - so it's filled with recipes for success. But with great power comes great responsibility. Thankfully the Facebook Cookbook will make being responsible with your great Facebook app ideas that much easier, allowing you to spend more time adding value, not reinventing the wheel.

As a complete newbie to building apps for Facebook, I feel like I now have a solid base on which to build - as well as a new sense of excitement in the potential of the Facebook Platform itself. Jay's writing (along with a number of additional contributors) is both down to earth and easy to read, something that's rare in these sort of technically oriented books, making the book a pleasure to read cover-to-cover and as a great reference. As the owner of quite a number of O'Reilly books, including those from the Cookbook series, this is definitely a favourite and comes highly recommended.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got an app to go build...

This is most reader friendly Facebook development book I have read so far. I own about 5 books on the subject and the case studies (problem, solution, discussion) found in this book have been the most useful by far.

This is the "must-have" book for Facebook application development. Other books I've seen on the subject are essentially primitive step-by-step tutorials that rarely, if ever, go beyond the simplest levels.

"Facebook Cookbook", on the other hand, gets into the real nitty-gritty. It goes into areas that other books don't, such as the use of Amazon Web Services for hosting your Facebook related storage needs, Facebook policies such as how many invitations you can send out a day and the criteria for their acceptibility to the Facebook "police" and so on.

The Problem/Solution approach taken is especially appropriate for a subject like Facebook application development. The Problem is posed, the Solution is suggested and then a Discussion may ensue that provides additional details. It is a very effective approach here.

The author has deliberately limited the range of tools he discusses in order to simplify matters, which is a wise move.

The range of subjects is broad. You can read this book straight through or dip into it as time and needs dictate.

I don't think this should be your only book on Facebook application development, though. One of the other "step-by-step" books should be considered, but you might want to wait a couple of months until new editions have been released to cover the new Facebook user interface.

Jerry

This is certainly the best book on this topic that I have read so far.

I am not technical at all but got it. Jay is able to explain in plain english what certain functionality is about.

The book gives a good summary of the viral viral integration points and how to leverage them. It is a theme through the book... and let's face it... that quite often makes the difference between successful or unsuccessful apps.

In addition it gave a comprehensive summary of what's out there on Facebook in terms of user interface elements that have been prebuilt already.

Oh yes, and the odd bit of humor is always welcome!

If you have a fundamental understanding of PHP and MySQL, then the "Facebook Cookbook" will teach you everything you need to know about developing Facebook apps. I have read three books about Facebook developer, and this one is defiantly the best book by far. In three words,

Buy this book!

Jay Goldman's FACEBOOK COOKBOOK: BUILDING APPLICATIONS TO GROW YOUR FACEBOOK EMPIRE provides a fine cookbook of applications designed to allow internet programmers methods of finding useful ways to design and build scalable applications. From tips on designing with hosting and using Facebook's integration point to understanding differences between JavaScript and SQL and how they are used on Facebook, libraries catering to web applications developers will find this a fine survey.

Let me preface this review by stating that I'm not a coder, not a programmer, not even a designer really. I am more of a creative thinker & people person, but I do have some experience with wireframing and user experience design. I wasn't sure how much of Jay's book was going to be over my head when I began, the Facebook platform interested me enough though, so I figured I could tough it out and learn some things along the way.

Now that I've had a chance to read the book cover to cover, I have to say this book is amazing. There were very few instances where I found myself confused, or frantically googling to understand technical terms. Jay has done a terrific job of not getting overly technical and remaining 'reader/user friendly'. The toughest sections to read were a couple of the code examples, but even then, I found myself able to at least grasp what the code was doing thanks to the great explanations offered with each code snippet.

The Facebook Cookbook is engaging, I even laughed out loud a few times at some of the lighter quips and comments made. The most upsetting thing for me as a reader, was to learn that Jay is a dog person, as opposed to the cat person I am! The use of guest cooks who offered some great insights into not only their creative processes, but also how they go about creating a recipe for success was invaluable to me.

The most in depth portion of the book covers the brilliant FBML (Facebook Markup Language). While Jay is quick to suggest another book which documents FBML even more, this section is simply chock full of great insight & information about how Facebook has created their own super powerful version of HTML, which makes the job of any aspiring app developer SO much easier! Even as a non-coder the vast potential of this specialized language is very apparent. If you do any coding, I suspect you'll be blown away by the power that lies within.

The author sets every recipe up in a well defined and easy to follow method. He starts with a problem, then offers the solution, and afterwards he provides interesting and thorough discussion as to why the solution works, and what kinds of pitfalls to avoid when creating a successful Facebook Application. It's very easy to follow along, and the information is not too dense for it to sink in after reading.

I chose to read the book cover to cover and was not disappointed, people with more coding experience than I, may choose to go from section to section, the book is very accessible by either method, so go with what you like!

Overall, I feel that I learned a TON of useful information, and I feel ready to begin the creation of my Facebook empire. Reading the Facebook Cookbook has helped to get my creative juices flowing like sap in the springtime. I have no doubt it will have the same effect on other readers, so don't wait, order it now, and get started on your own Facebook empire!