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Step One: Basic Facebook Application Setup and Plugin Activation

A. Upload Plugin to WordPress

Copy the entire wpbook directory into your wordpress plugins folder, /wp-content/plugins/

You should have a directory structure like this (of course you'll likely have different plugins installed):

B. Create Facebook App

Set up a New Application at http://www.facebook.com/developers/, obtaining a secret and API key. You can use the following image (click for full size) to see an example of all the fields on the "Basic" tab in Facebook:

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I believe the icon, logo, user support address, and bookmark url are all optional, but it might be a good idea to fill them out.

On the "Authentication" tab, check both "Users" and "Facebook Pages" if you intend to make any use of the functions associated with Pages, or just "Users" if you only want users to be able to add to profile. (If in doubt, check both).

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On the "Profiles" tab: set the Tab Name to something that represents your blog. In the tab url section, put: ?app_tab=true&fb_force_mode=fbml

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On the "Canvas" tab: Set the canvas callback url to your blog url, including a trailing slash. (Example: http://www.yourblogurl.com/)

For canvas url, you just need something all lower case, unique, with no spaces, and no trailing slash.

Set the application to use an iFrame, not fbml, and to "resizable" NOT "smart size." Set "Canvas Width" to full width.

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On the "Connect" tab, set the connect url to your WordPress site url, including a trailing slash. (Example: http://www.yourblogurl.com/). I don't believe the account preview URL is required; if yu set it, use the url of your Facebook application (as shown).

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For the "Widgets" and "Advanced" and "Migrations" tabs, you should be able to accept the defaults, but just in case:

  • Widgets: Make sure permissions is set to Blacklist mode
  • Advanced: Make sure Application Type is set to "Web" and Sandbox mode is set to "Disabled"
  • Migrations: All four settings here should be disabled

C. Activate the Plugin

Login to Wordpress Admin and activate the plugin

D. Fill out Basic Plugin Settings

Required Settings

Using the WPBook menu, (Dashboard->Settings->WPBook) fill in the appropriate information including Facebook application secret, API key, and canvas url.

After you've filled in the required settings, jump to the bottom of the page and hit "save" to save your settings.

That's It!

You should now be able to visit your Facebook application's URL (it will look something like http://apps.facebook.com/openparenthesis/, with the "openparenthesis" part replaced with whatever you provided on the "Canvas" tab in Facebook, under the setting titled "Canvas Page URL"

Back to Install Instructions | On to Step 2: Facebook Profile and Tabs

Optional Customizations

In addition to the required settings, there are many potential customizations for WPBook. Most of these are found in the WPBook Settings page in WordPress, under the heading "Customize Facebook Application View" and are described below. NOTE: These are optional, and defaults should be fine for most users.

Commenting Options

These options all have to do with commenting from inside your Facebook application view. That is, they do not apply to Facebook comments made in response to excerpts posted on your FB wall, but only when users are veiwing the full text of a blog post inside your FB application, at a url like: http://apps.facebook.com/yourcanvaspageurl/2010/01/page-slug/ (your permalink url appended to your facebook app url).

  • Allow comments inside Facebook: Checking this will open a panel to show additional comments settings. Unchecked, no comments form will be shown inside the FB app.
  • Require Comment Authors E-Mail Address: WPBook will automatically pull the users name and prefill the comment form, but they are given an option to input an email address. This setting makes that email required. Note this will not change the email requirement (or lack thereof) on your usual WordPress blog pages.
  • Show Gravatar Images Inside Facebook: This will show gravatars in the comment lists when blog posts are viewed inside Facebook. If checked, it will reveal a pane with more settings assocated with Gravatars
  • Gravatar rating: Highest rating for Gravatars to be show.
  • Gravatar default: what to show when the email address provided doesn't match any existing Gravatar.

Socialize Options

These options have to do with the template for views inside the Facebook app.

  • Show Invite Friends Link: Shows a button users can use to invite their friends to your Facebook application
  • Enable Facebook users to add your app to their profile: Shows a button users can use to add your application as a tab on their profile
  • Enable "Share This Post": Adds a "share this" link to each post, which can be used inside Facebook
  • Enable "View post at external site": Adds a link to each post pointing to that post's permalink on your WordPress blog outside Facebook. Uses your blog's "name" as defined in your WordPress settings
  • Links position: Show the share and view external link either above the post content or at the bottom of it, for each post.

Page Options

These options control how WPBook deals with pages in your WordPress site, in the Facebook application view.

  • Enable pages: This will show pages inside Facebook, not just posts. Checking this also reveals other associated settings.
  • Display menu of parent pages at top of application: This will list the first level pages in your WordPress site at the top of the Facebook application view
  • Show a list of pages below content: This will list the pages at the bottom of the application view
  • Exclude some pages: This reveals a list of pages in your WordPress site and lets you choose to exclude certain pages from the Facebook Application view

General Options

More options which apply to the Facebook Application view

  • Include post date with title: This will prepend the title of the post with the date it was posted. You can control the format of the date using the advanced options (see below).
  • Give WPBook Credit: This just turns on and off the "This Facebook Application powered by the WPBook plugin for WordPress." line at the bottom of the page in Facebook
  • Show a list of recent posts below content: This lists recent posts under the main content. This is really useful if your main homepage doesn't show a list of posts.
  • How many?: applies to the list of recent posts.

Advanced Options

These are hidden under the "Show Advanced Options" checkbox - checking that will reveal them.

  • Date format: Used for the post date with the title (per above) or in the custom header/footer.
  • Time foramt: Used for the post time in the custom header/footer
  • Custom header/footer: Basically custom metainfo about each post, shown inside Facebook. (Just as many themes put this in post metainfo).
  • Show Custom Header/Footer: Where the custom header/footer defined will show up (above or below the content, or both, or neither)

Back to Install Instructions | On to Step 2: Facebook Profile and Tabs