How to test/debug your Facebook App

Over the past few weeks/month I have been adding various third party plugins to allow users to connect to Journalhome using their favourite social network account, (to date I have added Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin).

But one of the problems I have been facing is, how to debug/test my Facebook app. When you create an app, (on your facebook developer account), it is expected to redirect to your live server. The obvious solution is to create a new 'test' account.

So lets say your test account is http://127.0.0.1/, (or whatever IP address/website you use), create a new app in facebook using that address. Make sure that all the values are as close as possible to your 'live' server.

I have been having some issues with htpp://localhost/, I think this is because facebook tries to parse the URL and it doesn't like it, so it might be better to use the ip address.
It did work some times, but not always, but when you debugging you don't want to have it nor work 'sometimes'.

Pay special attention to the 'Web Site' section, make sure that the site URL points to your test website, (even if it is local and only accessible to you). Facebook uses this address to allow only applications from that address to make 'calls'.

Note your new Application ID and Application secret, they are obviously not the same as your live application details.

And that's all you need to do with Facebook really, (You can also use port number like http://www.example.com:6141/) if you need to.

You now need to create some test accounts, to do that, download the facebook test user manager, it will allow you to create test accounts, (and delete them/edit them/add friends). Just copy the files somewhere on your test server and run it from there, (like http://127.0.0.1/testuser/).

That's all you need really, just make sure that your test server is pointing to the 'test' version of your application and Facebook will return you back to your test server.

NB: This might be stating the obvious, but make sure that you replace the App ID and App secret when you nove to the live server. In my case I have config files that are 'live' and 'test' to ensure that I don't need to bother about changing the app ID and secret.

That's it, let me know if you have an easier way of testing Facebook apps. I am also very interested to know if there are other tools to help you test your Facebook app.

05h23 - 8/6/2011 - comments {0} - trackbacks {35}

Added Vimeo.com support

I added a new short code for Vimeo: [Vimeo:url], (or [vimeo:id] or [vimeo url=url]), now all you need to do is add this tag in your post and Journalhome will automatically embed Vimeo.com.

I will also update the list of short keys to make it easier to remember/use, (it will be added to the Youtue, Digg, Mp3).

Let me know if you come across any issues using this tag, (Thanks flightsim for suggesting this new shortkey).

09h55 - 4/26/2011 - comments {1}

Fixed some bugs with the editor.

11h07 - 8/15/2007 - comments {0}

What should I do next?

Hi,

I am kind-of running out things to do at the moment, (to make JH a better place to blog), and I am supposed to go to the shop to get ingredients for sangria, (The wife and I are going to a Mexican evening tonight and somehow I was asked to bring a famously Spanish drink).

So needless to say that tomorrow I will be feeling worse for wear and probably spend the day staring at my computer thinking of what to do next.

So... what should I do next?

Any widgets/plugins that you think would go well in JournalHome?
What tool would you looooove to have on your blogs?

Let me know and I will write something tomorrow... well, I'll try anyway ;).

FFMG

10h45 - 8/4/2007 - comments {0}

All in the cache... again

Since October last year I have been caching some of the old entries from users that had not visited the site for a while. 
It allowed me to iron out a few problems with caching pages, (as you can set various privacy levels for all your posts), and it also proved to be very successful in releasing a huge amount of database resources, (trust me things used to be a lot worse than they are now!).
The site has a little less down time for an overall increase in traffic of about 50%, (I don't have the stats handy so you will have to take my word for it).

I have increased the number of cached pages, (currently in the region of 90 000 pages), in the aim of releasing even more resources that will enable things to run even faster.

That coupled with the new server coming up in the next few days/weeks and we should be safe for at least another year.

The numbers are tiny, on average a cached page takes 0.1s to be generated whereas a non cached page takes about 0.9s. This might not sound like a lot but seen that we are building a few thousands pages a second it helps a lot.

What I am trying to say is, if you come across anything odd, please let me know.

FFMG

13h45 - 7/19/2007 - comments {2}

Upgraded the messages.

Hi,

Just a quick little note to let you know what I have been doing.

I upgraded my computer this week-end so I didn't have time to do much, (actually I went  to the Durban July, but that's another story)

I upgraded the  messages so you can now use your preferred editor, (Advanced or Basic), so you can now use some HTML in your messages, (if you want).

I also fixed an email message error that would send the wrong message when a visitor adds a message to your wall.

I am also making some changes to the embeded code, (it works for the basic editor but the advanced editor is a bit more strict so I need to change that). 

Let me know if you think of anything else.

FFMG 

07h44 - 7/11/2007 - comments {2}

Some changes to the comments.

You can now ask your visitors to leave a website address as well as their own email address. The address is used to send them an email when the

You can revert back to the normal comment system by going to your blog general settings and changing the comments at the bottom of the page.

17h41 - 5/18/2007 - comments {0}

Insert Youtube.com to Journalhome.com

1. To use the basic editor, (the advanced editor will not display the <object> properly).
2. because the code above is html code you need to ensure that the youtube.com code is added as html.
   - To do that you need to 'check' the html box.
3. 3- It is important to remember that when you switch back tonormal view, (uncheck the html box), the editor will not display theyoutube.com video. This is why it is best to leave it until the end.

09h16 - 8/27/2006 - comments {1}

My quest for international recognition.

I am still working very hard to get the editor(s) to work for all our users.

I think I almost have it working now, (I hope).

If you have a non 101 keyboard, (a non western keyboard to you and I), please try and enter some entry and tell me if you have any problems.

Thanks

FMG

00h12 - 8/5/2006 - comments {0}

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