Facebook Developers

With the new profile design preview launching to our users some time this week, we'd like to call your attention to some new features and enhancements we've added to Platform.

IFrame Popups. Now you can render Feed forms and prompt users to add profile boxes and application info sections in iframes with JavaScript. A JavaScript call to prompt users to approve extended permissions in an iframe is coming soon.

API Tier. The api.new.facebook.com domain points to a larger tier so you should have less trouble setting information for your apps. All new API calls should still call api.new.facebook.com during the user preview period.

New Parameters. We're now sending the following parameters to canvas pages:

• fb_sig_in_profile_tab -- This parameter indicates whether the current request is for a user's tab content. We're sending this parameter instead of is_tab now.
• fb_sig_profile_user -- This parameter specifies the ID of the user whose profile is being published to. This is in addition to fb_sig_user, which specifies the ID of a user who is interacting with the Publisher.

Accessing User Data without Sessions. You can get the following information about a user without an active session key by using the new method, users.getStandardInfo:

• uid
• first_name
• last_name
• name
• timezone
• birthday
• sex
• affiliations (regional type only)

Checking for User Authorization. We've released a new call, Users.isAppUser, so you can determine whether or not a given user has authorized your application.

Prompting Users for Extended Permissions. So you can prompt your users to grant extended permissions for your application, we've released a new FBML tag, fb:prompt-permission. The permissions users can grant to your application include:

• Allowing email to be sent to the user
• Granting an infinite session for your application
• Updating user status
• Uploading and tagging photos
• Creating and modifying Facebook Marketplace listings

You can also prompt a user for an extended permission on a form by passing the promptpermission attribute.

Prompting Users to Add Boxes to Profiles. You can provide some content to encourage your users to add application info sections and profile boxes to their profiles. Wrap this content in fb:if-section-not-added tags.

Notifications. For further clarification on notifications, you should use general notifications whenever your application is sending a notification on behalf of one user to another user. The user you are sending the notification to can be either another user of your application (including friends of the sender) or a friend of the user who is not a user of your application. We're adding support to send notifications from one user to another user even if they are not friends, as long as both are users of your application. General notifications must always be sent with an active session for the user who is sending the notification.

Announcement notifications are a new type of notification. They are sent on an application's behalf to a user of the application and do not require an active session. They should be in the voice of the application.

Contacting Us

We continue to want to hear from you about the new design and your experiences trying it out. Please report any bugs you see in the new design. Make sure you use the New Profile category. You can help us solve your issue faster by adding one of the following components to your report: Feed, Info Sections, Profile Boxes, Publisher, and Tabs.

You can send us your feedback and ask questions in the New Profile and Related Changes section of the Developer Forum.