In May 2007, Facebook unveiled the Facebook Platform. This launch revolutionized how applications can and would be written to integrate with Facebook's social network. The Facebook Platform provides several ways that developer's can write applications what leverage and integrate with Facebook. The Facebook Platform introduced the concept of "Canvas" applications. Canvas applications are Web applications written by third parties that run within the Facebook platform and appear to users as if they are actually part of the Facebook Web site. Canvas applications provide different integration points for the application developer to promote their application and leverage the social network.
Since the original release, Facebook has continued to update the Platform and provide new and different ways for Facebook Developers to use the platform and the data that Facebook makes available. "Canvas" applications today have many different integration points than the original "canvas" applications of the Facebook platform. The integration points that are currently available are described at http://www.metablocks.com/blog/facebook/facebook-integration-points/. In addition, Facebook has continued to expand its REST APIs and privacy policies to provide more data and more ways for applications to publish the data they generate. One last major innovation of the Platform is Facebook Connect.
The Facebook Platform continues to evolve and change very rapidly. The Developer Wiki is the best place to get up to date information and also to learn the details of creating your first Facebook application.
Facebook Platform Core Components
From the Facebook Developer Wiki
Facebook Platform comprises a number of core components, including:
- The API, which consists of a number of methods that let you add social context to your applications.
- FBML, Facebook Markup Language, which allows you to integrate your application into Facebook.
- XFBML, an extension to FBML, which lets you incorporate FBML into Facebook Connect sites and IFrame applications.
- FQL, Facebook Query Language, which lets you quickly and easily query for Facebook user data without using the API.
- FBJS, Facebook's method for letting developers incorporate JavaScript into their applications