Debugging facebook apps locally (web based ones)

Debugging facebook apps locally (web based ones)

If  you’re wanting to develop a facebook app then there is loads of helpful stuff out there to get you going. Specifically I’d start here if you’re interested http://www.adobe.com/devnet/facebook.html.

But what they don’t tell you is how to debug your app without you having to FTP your files each time you change something. (If your facebook app is based on AIR and not a web app, then this doesn’t matter).

  • Firstly log into facebook and go to your app settings, it will probably look like the below. What you are looking for is the ‘website with facebook login’. This is used by facebook when your app logs in ( you’d never have guess that! ). Anyway if this doesn’t match the url of where your app is deployed then you will NOT be able to log in.

    Change it to your local URL, in my case I’ve made it http://localhost/facebookLoginTest/index.html
    The important bit is the localhost as my actual app isn’t run from index.html but when I set up the app on facebook I just put that in.
  • Now that your app can login you will now be able to debug, but the default settings in Flashbuilder don’t output your files to your localhost. So this is the second part to getting everything to work.

    I’ve highlighted the two bits you need to change which is inside your projects properties (right click and select ‘Flex Build Path’).

    Change the output folder to push your output files to the folder inside your webserver. I use XAMPP to setup my webserver etc

    Also update the output folder URL, once changed when you hit debug it will load whatever URL is in that box + the html page. So as you can see I’ve changed my output folder URL to http://localhost/facebookLoginTest/ which when I run/debug my app gives me http://localhost/facebookLoginTest/FacebookTestApp.html?debug=true

That’s it.

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2 Replies to “Debugging facebook apps locally (web based ones)”

  1. This may be a little bit of overkill, but if you are actually using virtualhosts on your web server, you should be able to set up a vhost with the url local.somesite.net. Then change your /etc/hosts (or c:windowssystem32driversetchosts) file to point local.somesite.net at 127.0.0.1. From there you should be able to log into FB without having to change any application settings (good for testing updates locally without affecting the settings on the real app).

  2. As ever their is always many ways to do thing. Yes you’re right that changing the hosts file would probably work, but I’d say its much more of a pain in my option than changing a single line in the FB apps properties.
    You would still need to do the second step. But with code choice is always good. So take your pick.

    Thanks for the alternative.

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