Facebook Cookbook

Setting Up a New App

Problem

I’m rip-roarin’ to go on my new app and have the Developer app installed and mastered. Now what?

Note

If you don’t have the Developer app installed, check out Installing the Facebook Developer App. You’ll also need to have hosting set up with a third-party hosting provider; if you don’t, check out Hosting for more information. For the purposes of this recipe, we’re going to use http://yourdomain.com as the name of your third-party host.

Solution

Inside the Developer app (http://www.facebook.com/developers), you’ll find a Set Up New Application button, shown in Figure 3-2.

Figure 3-2. The fabled Set Up New Application button in its natural habitat

On the Developer app page, which lists all of your apps (http://www.facebook.com/developers/apps.php), you’ll find a button that looks similar but is labeled Apply for an Application Key (Figure 3-3).

Figure 3-3. Set Up New App’s evil twin, Apply for an Application Key

Click on either button to jump into the world’s most deceptive form, shown in Figure 3-4. Sure, you could just provide an Application Name, check the ToS box, and ignore the innocent-looking Optional Fields area, but you’d be in for a nasty surprise when your app doesn’t work.

Figure 3-4. Simple version of the Set Up New Application form

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