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Posted by
Matt 
When we were developing IP.Board 3.0 we were looking for ways to lower the barrier for registering. There are many single sign in providers but most of them required separate registration and set-up. Around this time, Facebook released their emerging API "Facebook Connect". We seized the opportunity to implement it within IP.Board 3 and adhered to all their guidelines. The first implementation of the Facebook Connect API was less of a point of authentication but more of a way to appear as a member of a site.
This was slightly at odds with the concept of permanent registration at a forum and a few work-arounds had to be made. For example, there was no way to request your Facebook data without you actually being active on the board and connected (logged into Facebook). Also, Facebook did not allow you to request the Facebook user's real email address but instead had to make do with a long proxy email address that Facebook would use to forward mail to your Facebook account. Despite these limitations, it worked well in allowing users with a Facebook account to register almost instantly on your forum.
Since then, Facebook have updated their API dramatically allowing so much more functionality. Naturally, we have taken the opportunity to update the integration within IP.Board. You can now request several different permissions to allow IP.Board to fetch your Facebook data without you being online. Furthermore, IP.Board can now store a permanent "key" to link your forum account to your Facebook account meaning that you shouldn't see the "Connect" button once you initially set up your forum account.
As these permissions need to be explicitly granted, we have added a little section to the "Manage Facebook Connect" page to list the permissions IP.Board requires and whether or not such permission has been granted. If permission has not been granted, you will be give the option of requesting permission.
You can now also publish your status updates directly to your Facebook account using the new API methods:
This new implementation should clear up a lot of the current Facebook issues people experience, mostly due to authorization errors between IP.Board and Facebook caused by expired sessions.
The new methods also allow the new sharing links system.
This was slightly at odds with the concept of permanent registration at a forum and a few work-arounds had to be made. For example, there was no way to request your Facebook data without you actually being active on the board and connected (logged into Facebook). Also, Facebook did not allow you to request the Facebook user's real email address but instead had to make do with a long proxy email address that Facebook would use to forward mail to your Facebook account. Despite these limitations, it worked well in allowing users with a Facebook account to register almost instantly on your forum.
Since then, Facebook have updated their API dramatically allowing so much more functionality. Naturally, we have taken the opportunity to update the integration within IP.Board. You can now request several different permissions to allow IP.Board to fetch your Facebook data without you being online. Furthermore, IP.Board can now store a permanent "key" to link your forum account to your Facebook account meaning that you shouldn't see the "Connect" button once you initially set up your forum account.
As these permissions need to be explicitly granted, we have added a little section to the "Manage Facebook Connect" page to list the permissions IP.Board requires and whether or not such permission has been granted. If permission has not been granted, you will be give the option of requesting permission.
You can now also publish your status updates directly to your Facebook account using the new API methods:
This new implementation should clear up a lot of the current Facebook issues people experience, mostly due to authorization errors between IP.Board and Facebook caused by expired sessions.
The new methods also allow the new sharing links system.
37 Comments On This Entry
Nicolas from Club Poker
08 February 2010 - 03:59 PM
Whoah.
IPS, you just rock. It is a pleasure to see that you follow the latest trends on the web.
Thank you a lot.
IPS, you just rock. It is a pleasure to see that you follow the latest trends on the web.
Thank you a lot.
Tanax
08 February 2010 - 05:36 PM
Wow, great!
Will it be possible to post an already posted status on the forums, to ones' facebook?
Say I automatically fetch status from my twitter, will it be possible to publish that status to facebook aswell? So the forum will act as a sort of "bridge" between twitter statuses and facebook statuse?
Good work! You truly are fantastic.
Will it be possible to post an already posted status on the forums, to ones' facebook?
Say I automatically fetch status from my twitter, will it be possible to publish that status to facebook aswell? So the forum will act as a sort of "bridge" between twitter statuses and facebook statuse?
Good work! You truly are fantastic.
Wolfie
08 February 2010 - 05:45 PM
With the permissions, if someone registers on the board via FBC, is it possible to 'require' them to give permission before granting them full access to the board?
Axel Wers
08 February 2010 - 05:59 PM
Quote
This new implementation should clear up a lot of the current Facebook issues people experience, mostly due to authorization errors between IP.Board and Facebook caused by expired sessions.
OK, issues were fixed and now You can focus on own IPB features.
Hennet
08 February 2010 - 07:48 PM
Thats Great!
how rude.
Axel Wers, on 08 February 2010 - 03:59 PM, said:
OK, issues were fixed and now You can focus on own IPB features.
how rude.
Mat (FDNZ)
08 February 2010 - 08:21 PM
.Wolfie, on 09 February 2010 - 03:45 AM, said:
With the permissions, if someone registers on the board via FBC, is it possible to 'require' them to give permission before granting them full access to the board?
I can almost guarantee that Facebook has forbidden that along with the other laundry list of "don't-do-that" things.
Axel Wers
08 February 2010 - 09:10 PM
Hennet, on 08 February 2010 - 06:48 PM, said:
how rude.
Nope. Only in last time I have feelings that our civilization probably would crash down without facebook. There are more important and more usefull things than facebook.
.Ian
08 February 2010 - 09:33 PM
keeps getting better....
can't be any more surprises for 3.1 by now....
can't be any more surprises for 3.1 by now....
mikkee
08 February 2010 - 09:45 PM
whats with all the facebook/twitter features
third party stuff such as tweetfeed can do a fair bit already
the big hole in all these features is that you have to surrender member control to facebook
the day you do that your forum is on its way to being nothing more than a external facebook application imo
shame that the same amount of effort couldnt be put into intergrating with drupal, joomla,wordpress etc
third party stuff such as tweetfeed can do a fair bit already
the big hole in all these features is that you have to surrender member control to facebook
the day you do that your forum is on its way to being nothing more than a external facebook application imo
shame that the same amount of effort couldnt be put into intergrating with drupal, joomla,wordpress etc
Kfir
08 February 2010 - 09:48 PM
Members who had registered with the old API will have the new features of the new API?
Cyrem
08 February 2010 - 11:37 PM
It's good news yes.
But I'd rather see IPB improve the forum software rather then making all these features to support other sites. For a person like me, all these twitter, facebook, myspace features etc... etc... serve no purpose on my forum. I've been waiting for announcements on new forum features, however I've been quite disappointed.
But I'd rather see IPB improve the forum software rather then making all these features to support other sites. For a person like me, all these twitter, facebook, myspace features etc... etc... serve no purpose on my forum. I've been waiting for announcements on new forum features, however I've been quite disappointed.
IP.iBaLLiN
09 February 2010 - 01:21 AM
Please add a feature that will automatically ask you to input a Display Name after you facebook connect to register. I, and many others, do not want my full name showing as my display name.
Booth
09 February 2010 - 01:26 AM
Sweet! Nice that I will be able to post my status on my own site and it gets automatically posted on Facebook and vice-versa 
MyTalkbox
09 February 2010 - 03:36 AM
IP.iBaLLiN, on 08 February 2010 - 11:21 PM, said:
Please add a feature that will automatically ask you to input a Display Name after you facebook connect to register. I, and many others, do not want my full name showing as my display name.
Yes. This is ESSENTIAL !
Please, please, please.
xecutey
09 February 2010 - 05:05 AM
I know 3.1.0 is going to support twitter logins. Will it also support Google logins too?
I've noticed Soundcloud.com supports Google logins, So I guess it is possible (I do believe almost everyone under the sun has either a GMail account or/and uses iGoogle as a homepage. I think it would be the most widely used login type even surpassing windows live login (Which I can't get to work along with Open I.D. (No idea why).
I've noticed Soundcloud.com supports Google logins, So I guess it is possible (I do believe almost everyone under the sun has either a GMail account or/and uses iGoogle as a homepage. I think it would be the most widely used login type even surpassing windows live login (Which I can't get to work along with Open I.D. (No idea why).
Firewater
09 February 2010 - 09:59 AM
does this work for SSL correctly yet, as i did notice difficulties with this recently.
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