facebook api in the real world - myles noton - miniclip

Myles Noton@mylesnoton

www.miniclip.com

Unique visitors / month65,000,000+

Registered users20,000,000

Flash and Shockwave Games500+

At least 7 employees MIA in on-going Nerf wars…

How we use the Facebook Platform

Because of our size, the site could be impersonal and anonymous at times

The UX Problem

Using the Facebook Platform and feature we call the “Players League”

Our Solution

Er... Who are these guys?

Yay,My Friends!

Technologies we used…

• Facebook Connect• Facebook Javascript SDK• Flash External Interface• Facebook Real-time API• Facebook Graph API

Facebook Connect• Auto Signup with API User Data• Frictionless, Quick & Convenient• Single Click Sign-in

FB.ui components used to allow users to post challenges to friends

FB.ui

Users can invite friends to play on Miniclip from the league

flash.external.ExternalInterface

• Call Javascript from within flash• Directly interface with the Javascript SDK• Trigger API messages and events based on in

game events

Login triggered from Flash

Notification Triggered from flash

• No More Polling• Pre-cached fresh data• Works better with offline access

Real-time API

Facebook

User

Miniclip

Profile Update

API Call to get data

Before Real-time API

8

After Real-time API

Facebook

User

Miniclip

Profile Update

Notification of change

Call to get changed data

Implementing the Real-time API

1. Create an endpoint - Web service or script triggered on FB event2. Subscribe to events

- Receive confirmation of subscription from Facebook (once only)

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/api/realtime/

Gotchas

Per 600 seconds600 Requests

Not httpUse https + Token

Invite request bounces to Facebook HomepageRequests 2.0

Only canvas apps are supportedRequests 2.0

Modal boxes appear behind flash contentFB.ui & Flash

Be careful with window modes

Display: ‘popup’

Wmode=“opaque”

Birthday was not being returned from the API

Always sanity check data from the API and plan for failureNever trust the data

http://corporate.miniclip.com/careers

We’re hiring!

@miniclip@mylesnoton