Facebook Cookbook

Installing Your App: It’s All About the About Page

Problem

Now that I have an app set up, how do people install it?

Solution

You probably know this already if you’ve ever installed an app, but the general case is that all installation roads lead to your About Page. It’s worth noting that this used to be more true when you had to install an app before you could see any of its content, but it has become slightly less the case now that pages inside an app can be publicly visible. The URL to your application’s About Page will take the form http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=8653633892 (obviously with your app’s ID rather than the Zerofootprint Calculator’s), which leads to a page profiling your masterwork.

The screenshot in Figure 3-6 shows the About Page for an application that I’ve added and for which I’m a developer. Contrast this with the page for tvClickr (Figure 3-7; see http://www. facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=16534688290), an app I haven’t installed.^[5]

In Figure 3-7, you’ll note the big blue “Go to Application” button in the top-right, as well as the absence of the links that would enable me to edit the app’s settings (which are present in Figure 3-6). Clicking on the button takes me to the “Log in to Application” page where I can grant the app access to my information, as shown in Figure 3-8.

Actually adding the application takes me to the post-add URL specified by the developer (see Setting Up a New App for more information).

Figure 3-6. Zerofootprint Calculator’s ...