Facebook Developers

We know that email can be an important channel for you to use to communicate with your users. To improve this channel, we've enhanced application email, letting you provide your users who've opted in to receive email from your application with a richer messaging experience.

You can now incorporate a number of HTML tags so you can format your messages as you see fit. Also, we've expanded the set of FBML tags you can include in your email messages -- including the new fb:restricted-to tag so you can extend the Demographic Restrictions feature to your email communication. Check the Developer Wiki to see the complete list of which tags you can and can't use.

In addition, you can use some FBML tags in your email subject lines like fb:name, so you can make your messages more personal. You can also use internationalization tags if you want to have your application translated into other languages.

Finally, now that users have to explicitly grant your application permission to send them email, we've eliminated the limit on how many messages you can send to a user in a given day. The number of messages you can send to users who added your application on the old profile are still limited; use admin.getAllocation to see how many messages you can send to those users.

Remember that email must still adhere to all applicable policies, including the Developer Terms of Service and Platform Policy.

Start testing these features today. As always, please send us any feedback on the Developer Forum.

Since we announced our Application Verification Program yesterday, we've received quite a few questions about how it works and how it can benefit you as a developer. We really appreciate all of your feedback and wanted to give you some answers and clarification:

Do I need to be verified to run on Facebook Platform?

No. Facebook Platform continues to be open and available to any developer who wants to build applications without barriers to entry. Simply build your app and launch it. Developers are able to leverage our tools to integrate within Facebook or outside, through Facebook Connect.

The Application Verification Program is an optional program for developers interested in building long-term businesses that encourage users to engage with their applications and that receive increased access to Facebook's communication channels. We expect the initial waves of verified applications to number in the hundreds.

Why are we launching our verification program?

We believe the badging of verified applications will encourage users who might have been hesitant before to now try these applications. Since we will have vetted verified applications, users will get a good experience and be more open to trying other applications. Verification will help foster and support a healthy long-term Platform ecosystem.

What are the benefits of verification?

The benefits of verified applications include:

• Increased visibility through boosts in allocations for communication channels such as notifications and requests. Note that our application reputation system will still work for verified applications to ensure that these applications continue to send high quality communications.
• User badging to highlight these applications to users in the Application Directory and other places on Facebook.
• Special offers including $100 in Facebook advertising credit and discounts to events like our f8 developer conference.

Why are we charging for the program?

The fee -- $375 standard and $175 for students and non-profits -- is intended to cover some of the costs associated to the detailed verification review. Due to the detail of our review, we are unable to verify every single application, so the fee gives developers who are interested in building a long-term business a way to participate.

Given the flexibility we offer developers to monetize as they can across the Web at large, we believe the fee is a relatively small investment in the context of the benefits -- increased allocations in our communication channels, badging, advertising credits, and discounts to events.

Why does the fee cover 12-months of verification?

Due to the rapid innovation and change in applications, it is important that we periodically review the application to ensure that it continues to meet the criteria of verification. We are open to evaluating our actual costs for re-verification and consider lowering the fee as appropriate.

For more information, follow our FAQ, which we'll update as we get new questions.

As members of the Facebook Platform developer community, many of you spend a lot of time thinking about how to create new social experiences that are valuable to users. We know that you want to make sure that your applications have visibility so users can discover, try out and regularly engage with them. That’s why we’re opening registration today for our Application Verification program — an optional new program designed to provide your applications with a way to stand out and reassure users that they will provide a good experience.

Badges for verified applications will appear to users early next year, beginning in an application's About Page and the Application Directory. We'll do our part to help educate users to recognize the verification badge as a symbol for applications that are respectful, transparent and meet the guiding principles for trustworthiness. In addition, users will see more information from verified applications as we increase their allocations for communication channels such as requests and notifications, and increase visibility of their stories in News Feed.

If you are interested, read about the program details. As you prepare for verification, we hope you will take the time to consider how your application meets the guiding principles for trustworthy applications. We’ve created an integration point checklist to give you more concrete insights into how the guiding principles can play out in your application. The checklist gives you our recommendations for when to use notifications versus Feed stories, best practices on how to use requests, and more. We plan to continue to provide online resources to help you learn new ways to improve your application. And even if you don’t want to have your applications verified yet, these principles and resources should still be relevant.

Here's the process to have your application verified:

1. First, register your intention to apply for verification.
2. As soon as we can review your application in a timely manner, we will notify you via email. Initially, this may take several weeks as we ramp up the program.
3. You'll then be able to complete the verification submission form (the $375 fee for verification would be due at this time, which helps us cover some of the operational costs of the program; students and non-profits are eligible for special pricing).
4. Finally, to provide greater fairness and critical mass for users, we will grant benefits to verified applications in waves starting in early 2009.

Learn more about the Application Verification program on our Developer site.

We're in the final stage of our first fbFund competition. Help us choose the top five teams. Each will be awarded $225,000 in addition to the $25,000 they received in Round 1.

Whether or not you've submitted an entry this year, we would love to hear from you and know what you think makes a great application. You've helped Facebook Platform grow into the success that it is today, and we want your voice in shaping the next generation of applications.

We've narrowed the list down from 600 teams of developers and entrepreneurs to these top 25 candidates. We made the first-round selections, but for the second round we want you to help by voting for the applications. The finalists' ideas touch on everything from sports, games and parties to education, productivity and religion. View each team's 30-second overview and try out their application before voting.

Cast your vote by Sunday, November 30th. We expect to announce the winners the week of December 8th.
fbFund: Help us choose.from Julia Lam

We look forward to funding more great teams in January after this competition concludes. Please fan the fbFund Page and stay tuned for announcements.

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fbFund is $10M seed fund that awards grants to talented entrepreneurs who we think will build successful, meaningful businesses on Facebook Platform.

We want to help developers ensure that content is delivered only to those for whom it’s appropriate. Along those lines, at the end of August we announced the new Demographic Restrictions feature, and our plans to revise our policies concerning alcohol content. Effective immediately, applications can now contain content promoting, facilitating, or referencing the sale of alcoholic beverages -- content that was previously prohibited -- as long as the Demographic Restrictions feature is used in the way specified by the new policy on the Platform Policy page of the Developer Wiki. Additionally, effective noon Pacific time 6 January 2009, we require that all content related to alcoholic beverages -- including unbranded, generic drink images -- be available only under Demographic Restriction. Depending on the primary purpose or focus of your application, you may be required to use the admin.setRestrictionInfo API method to restrict the entire application or you may be able to use the fb:restricted-to FBML tag to display alternate content. Please see the Platform Policy page on the wiki for more information.

In the past month we have also made several improvements to the Demographic Restrictions feature that we think you'll find extremely useful. First, we have modified the age and location parameters for the API method. Whereas previously, you had to set the same age restrictions across all countries in the location parameter, you now have the ability to set specific age restrictions for different countries. This gives you the ability to vary the restrictions across different locations for even greater flexibility. Secondly, we are releasing a new parameter called type. Type is basically a combination of pre-set age and location parameters that act as if you had manually entered the full itemized list of restrictions for what we believe to be the alcohol content requirements for almost every country in the world. If you wish, your application can then use the "alcohol" type instead of manually setting each age for each individual country. Currently, "alcohol" is the only type made available but there is the opportunity for others to follow as we find necessary or useful. For more information on types, see the documentation on the wiki.

Please note that, as the developer, you are responsible for ensuring that your application complies with all legal requirements in the country where it is viewable. You are also required to maintain compliance with Facebook Platform Policy and Guidelines. Please make sure you check out the Platform Policy wiki page for all requirements and additional information.

For any confidential questions or matters, please contact us using the new Web form within the Developer application. Otherwise, please use the Developer Forum, where we'll be participating and the whole community can join in the conversation.

The Feed system is the primary mechanism for sharing information about the actions users take within your application. Feed stories can be published in several different sizes, offering users multiple ways to express themselves. The recent introduction of action links has made it easier than ever to increase user engagement with your application through Feed.

Today we're introducing a revamped Feed Template Console to improve the process of registering a Feed template bundle for your application. The new console offers a wizard-like interface to streamline building, previewing, and validating each type of Feed story that you can publish. It offers additional guidance around the creation and manipulation of the special tokens that really make your Feed stories stand out.

One exciting feature the new wizard introduces is the ability to add an action link and preview its effect on your Feed stories!

We look forward to the great Feed stories you'll create with the Feed Template Console. As always, keep sending us your feedback in the Developer Forum.

We’re excited for more users to begin sharing and connecting with their Facebook friends around the Web with Facebook Connect. We wanted to give you an update since we first announced the availability of the Connect developer sandbox at our F8 conference.

Many Facebook Connect implementations have launched over the past several weeks. Some of our launch partners included CBS' TheInsider.com, CNN's the Forum, and Red Bull. Additionally, many sites submitted their implementations to us, and we approved them for launch, including GlobalGrind, GovIt, and IndieGoGo.

These sites all built their Facebook Connect implementations using the developer sandbox and documentation. If you haven’t done so already, you can start coding and testing your Connect site now.

If you have an implementation ready for launch, you can submit your site for approval by the Connect team. To be approved, your integration should be complete and meet all of the Facebook Connect Policies. We’ll review and approve these submissions on a rolling basis, and the response times will vary depending on demand.

As we continue to see developers produce great user experiences, we intend to open this process more widely so that you can build and launch without an approval process. Stay tuned for more announcements and keep on connecting.

To the Facebook Developer Community --

Today, our cloud is your cloud. The leading social platform and the leading enterprise platform have come together. We're announcing Force.com for Facebook, which allows any Facebook developer to build and run apps in our trusted enterprise cloud. We've spent the last ten years building out enterprise-grade functionality like workflow, security, permissions, multi-language and multi-currency, and integration services on our global trusted infrastructure so that developers like you can focus on innovation, not infrastructure. With our smart cloud, it has never been easier, faster, or more affordable to build and run Facebook apps -- there has never been a better time to be a Facebook Developer!

Why the Force.com cloud? It is the most trusted and complete set of developer services available. We've taken care of everything in a single platform in the cloud: the infrastructure, the database, the logic, the workflow, and the interface. You focus on your unique idea. Isn't that why you got into this business to begin with? Two Facebook developers, Jason Holloway and Michael Dawson, of Appsorama did a lot of work to build their Facebook project managament app, Get Stuff Done, on Java. But once they started over on Force.com, it took just days... and their app benefited from all the enterprise features like security and analytics services free and automatically.

Now available in developer preview, Force.com for Facebook is a toolkit that makes it easy for developers to call out to the Facebook APIs, make FQL queries, and generate FBML and XFBML directly from Force.com's programming language in the cloud. Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, and I believe this partnership between our platforms will enable a new class of enterprise applications on Facebook. This is your opportunity to innovate for a new market of business users and join us in reshaping the future of web applications.

This year, enterprise software will be a $60 billion market. What will it look like with the social graph?