One of the big questions that’s arisen around the changes to Facebook Pages is: How will it affect applications that were built using FBML? FBML, or Facebook Markup Language, was designed to enable users to build applications that deeply integrate into the Facebook experience. Several months ago, Facebook announced that they were in the process of deprecating FBML, and in their February 10th announcement of changes to their Pages they confirmed that FBML will be discontinued after March 10th. While existing FBML applications will continue to work, it will no longer be possible to build new applications using FBML.
iFrame Advantages
Instead of FBML, users can now build applications for Facebook tabs with HTML iFrames, enabling limitless integration of standard open web technologies without sandboxing or modification by Facebook’s servers. An iFrame or “inline frame” is simply an HTML code that allows users to embed any web page within another web page, in this case Facebook. In practical terms, this means that brands can continue to benefit from the tremendous viral capabilities of Facebook, and create more visual consistency between their web site and Facebook, as well as being able to redeploy existing assets. They’ll be able to run Javascripts on page loads and deeplink to highlight specific content as it appears in their streams. Facebook offers the following diagram of how it works.
Source: Facebook
All this makes it easier for you to incorporate all the rich content you use on your site into Facebook. You can also now engage certain basic analytics off your site to track page views and Facebook ad conversion.
Revising Tab Capabilities
But the change also means that certain other tab functions, which were easy for site admins to implement, now require the capabilities of a developer. Fan-gating, for example, a powerful way for brands to build their fan base by requiring visitors to Like their page in order to access applications, now requires a complex process involving JSON objects and Boolean code to set up.
So while the new Facebook Pages promise a future in which brands can create more consistency between their web site and Facebook profiles, and applications will function at a higher level, it’s also clear that implementation for some of the most basic functions will now require developer support.
Facebook no longer offers a static FBML app to take care of hosting, which means brands need to provide their own server infrastructure or utilize some of the solutions offered by companies like Involver, which can provide hosting, application support, and insulation from any future changes Facebook makes.
Involver will continue to support existing FBML applications, and make it possible for our customers to combine increased application functionality with the power of Facebook to interact directly with customers and grow audience. We can help you render your Pages in HTML as you continue to access our core suite of applications.
If you have further questions or would like to speak to one of our experts, feel free to get in touch with us here or comment below.
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