Jozef Chúťka's blog

This article continues my exploration of best facebook graph api integration into your flash app. Before continue reading, make sure you understand the previous article. Due to huge interest, I am adding codes that makes your flash app working with graph api within facebook iframe. Try this app live on http://apps.facebook.com/blogoauthgraph/, notice once you get there, you are redirected to grant permissions (if not authorized or granted already) and then redirected back to the app, where you are connected and ready to use graph api.

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Those are hard times. Facebook discontinued support for Notifications.send method March 1, 2010. Calling this method returns error code 3 (Unknown method). Instead, developers are directed to use other communication channels. From those some are not yet even a part of facebook-actionscript-api yet (dashboard) other not published from facebook (invites) and those that may work via api are experimental and may change any day (activities).

Excluding streams as communication channel, the only usable way, these days, to acquire some new facebook application users is using <Fb:request-form> (part of FBML). When your application is IFrame, you may find interesting that you are able to use FBML within your HTML files. In order to make this happen, you have to use <Fb:serverFbml> (renders the FBML on a Facebook server inside an iframe). Now, lets see how to open request form in your Facebook Iframe application:

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Have you ever heard about inline images? Inline images use the data URI scheme to embed images directly within web pages. As defined by RFC 2397, data URIs are designed to embed small data items as “immediate” data, as if they were referenced externally. This basicaly means, you can insert base64 encoded byte code of any image directly into html file. Using inline images saves HTTP requests over externally referenced objects. Data URIs can potentially store any type of data, not just images!

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It is a little wonder to me how flash player communicates with JavaScript. Calls are fully synchronous, it works as those (fp and js) were fully integrated into each other. To simulate this lets test some simple flow:

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Have you ever tought about accessing DOM from ActionScript? In fact, you can do it and even far more. You can create and call JavaScript methods and objects, access cookies, change styles… All you need is correct AllowScriptAccess parameter within your flash object. No framework needed here, no hacks, ExternalInterface takes care.

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There are still some issues with facebook flash api vs. facebook communication. Some of them, you as an application developer, will never get into, but general user will. For example, when new user comes into your facebook iframe flash application for a first time, the first thing he see is “Allow Access?” window:

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If your facebook iframe applications need extra permissions granted, you can use Facebook JavaScript Api to generate modal window over your content to request permissions from users. For this purpose I created a simple FB_test_perm() function. It takes 4 arguments:

• api_key – your application api key
• xd_receiver – path to xd_receiver.htm file (Cross-Domain Receiver Page)
• permission – publish_stream, read_stream …
• callback – your function with boolean return (true if permission granted, false if not granted)

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You can not have a web browser inside your web flash applications right? Well, you can! This solution uses html iframe to generate fake build in browser. So the behaviour of the browser in flash is the same as the one you are previewing this flash in (it is the same one). The best part of it is, you can manipulate with the position and size of this browser directly from flash. sk.yoz.html.IFrame solution was inspired by Alistair Rutherford, www.netthreads.co.uk.

• sk.yoz.html.IFrame
• FlexIFrame.js
• Application
• Application html

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First, my golden rule: method with more than 12 rows is too long. Methods should be short, simple, clean and reusable. In most cases your methods fits into 5-12 rows. If not, you should consider rewriting your methods.

Look at the next code. There is too much nested tests. Soon you get lost with more and more nested levels:

function gimmeResult(a, b, c)
{
    var result;
    if(a)
    {
        if(b || c)
        {
            if(b && c < 0)
            {
                result = 1;
            }
            else
            {
                result = 2;
                // where am I?
            }
        }
        else
        {
            result = 3;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        result = 4;
    }
    return result;
}

Try to linearize code, it is much more cleaner for reading when no multiple nesting used:

function gimmeResult(a, b, c)
{
    if(!a)
        return 4;
    if(!b && !c)
        return 3;
    if(b && c < 0)
        return 1;
    return 2;
}

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