Essential Facebook Development: Build Successful Applications for the Facebook Platform

by John Maver, Cappy Popp

“What sets this title apart is the authors’ deep insight of how to leverage the Facebook API to create wildly successful applications. They even provide instructions of how to a/b test, track, and analyze metrics to increase the exposure and engagement of your applications. Their knowledge is practical and after putting their techniques to use, my applications have achieved better results.”

–Joseph Annuzzi, Jr., App Architect, PeerDynamic.com

 

With more than 250 million active users, Facebook is the world’s #1 social networking platform. But developing successful Facebook applications presents unique challenges, both technical and nontechnical. Now, two of the world’s most experienced Facebook developers show you exactly how to meet those challenges. Essential Facebook Development offers insider guidance and up-to-the-minute best practices for the entire application design, coding, testing, distribution, post-launch monitoring, metrics, and even application marketing.

 

Using extensive real-world examples, John Maver and Cappy Popp reveal why some Facebook applications succeed brilliantly while others fail. Next, they walk through building a complete application using every major component of the Facebook platform. Maver and Popp thoroughly cover Facebook’s most important new features, including Facebook Connect, and provide extensive information available nowhere else–from measuring application success to monetization. Coverage includes

 


Thorough introductions to Facebook’s current architecture, integration points, and development technologies

Discussion of successful Facebook applications–and what makes them successful

What every developer must know about Facebook’s Terms of Service

Creating an effective application infrastructure

Creating canvas pages with FBML and IFrames

Adding support for profiles, application tabs, and messaging

Incorporating JavaScript into Facebook applications with FBJS

Integrating Facebook into external sites with Facebook Connect and the Facebook JavaScript Client Library

Debugging techniques for Facebook applications

Spreading, monitoring, and tuning applications
 

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

John Maver has been involved with the Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace platforms from the time they were released, and he has written several successful applications.

He has been a speaker at conferences and webinars about Facebook development and was the Featured Developer for the Bebo platform in the spring of 2008.

John co-wrote Essential Facebook Development Build Successful Applications for the Facebook Platform as a guide to help other create amazing applications on Facebook.

As co-founder and principal of Thought Labs, John has worked with small businesses and Fortune 100 companies to find the right goals, strategies, and implementations for their social media campaigns.

Prior to specializing in social media, John spent ten years leading software-development teams and building award-winning software-debugging products.

You can connect with John on Facebook or @jmaver on Twitter, or read his blog posts on social media