By that1guy on

So, not being a coder type - can anyone look at Facebook connect and see if it is it can be implemented in Drupal? http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php

Would it require a Module to be made around it? I know there are a few Modules for Facebook now but I am not sure they are really along the same lines as Connect. What about using connect to make accounts on your site? I know there is a module that does something like this but on a very basic level. I would like to see it where either you do like TechCrunch and allow people to comment with Facebook credentials http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/03/techcrunch-is-now-in-a-relationship...

Or, you use the Facebook button to allow Drupal to take that information and make a local account. Or maybe both. Just curious about if it could possibly be done. I'm sure people will be interested in this. Thoughts?

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

erasmosis’s picture

erasmosis commented

Thanks for posting this. This would be perfect for the site im developing, however I also am not a programmer. Would you please make it compatible with 6.0 too.

Eshilon Design Inc’s picture

Eshilon Design Inc commented

Hi,

We're actually working on a Facebook Connect wrapper module for Drupal 5.x and 6. If you're interested in its progress, feel free to contact me.

Thanks.

Eshilon Design Inc’s picture

Eshilon Design Inc commented

I should be very specific. We're actually working on 5.x first, because all of our clients are still on 5.x. We're looking for help in porting to 6.x. in case we get too busy.

The module we're developing will, obviously, be open source and free to the community.

Eshilon Design Inc’s picture

Eshilon Design Inc commented

You can follow our announcements here:

http://www.eshilon.com/eshilon-design-blog

Thank you

alsears’s picture

alsears commented

Sounds great!

Any estimate on the timeframe of releasing a module?

Eshilon Design Inc’s picture

Eshilon Design Inc commented

Thanks for your interest! You can track progress on our blog (linked above). We'll be announcing a tentative release date sometime this coming week. We're working hard on it.

akahn’s picture

akahn commented

Your blog announced that the module would be released in January. Do you have any code to share yet?

Alex

wanderingstan’s picture

wanderingstan commented

My new Drupal-based site will need to allow users to log in with Facebook Connect. I'm a developer and would love to help with the development of this module. I will be developing for Drupal 6, so perhaps I could work on porting to version 6? Let me know!

dkruglyak’s picture

dkruglyak commented

Sounds great, but do you think your code could be released as addon to Drupal for Facebook module? There is an issue filed to add Connect capability... Moving towards a single codebase should make everyone's life easier.

Here is the issue: http://drupal.org/node/291525

Eshilon Design Inc’s picture

Eshilon Design Inc commented

We feel it will serve the community, at this time, to create a standalone module. The truth is many people will want the login services of Connect without the overheard of Drupal for Facebook. So for now, our module will be standalone. We think that is an advantage, not a drawback. In the future, we're certainly open to assisting Drupal for Facebook in integrating our module.

dkruglyak’s picture

dkruglyak commented

Chris, what overhead are you talking about? Why would it serve the community?

Drupal for Facebook can be run with just the main sub-module to manage authentication, plus fb_app module to keep track of your applications. Anything that runs Facebook Connect is still a Facebook app, so keeping two sets of app configs makes absolutely no sense. You do not have to bother with all extra sub-modules.

Lack of integration is definitely a drawback. Yet another module to deal with for Facebook.

Eshilon Design Inc’s picture

Eshilon Design Inc commented

First, I don't agree that "anything" that uses FB Connect's login system is a fully-qualified Facebook app.

Second, we're developing this for internal purposes -- for our clients -- but because we believe in the community, we're releasing it to the community. Our needs mean a separate module, and not (for now) integrating with Drupal for Facebook.

Third, requiring the installation of a module that isn't necessary IS overhead by definition. A "Requires Drupal for Facebook" is both an extra step and, though minor, extra memory necessary.

Fourth, if you're very concerned about this, and you're a programmer, you are more than welcome to pitch in! That's what the community is all about. We encourage and welcome people to help us. We're trying to be very open about this, despite the initial need being internal.

Fifth, this is not going to be a "one size fits all" module -- especially at first. We're starting simple. We'll release a -dev release and go from there.

Sixth, we've worked extensively with Drupal for Facebook on a few large projects. While we commend their work, we've also run into some technical drawbacks in terms of the use of the FB API in some instances, and we don't want to be beholden to that. Again -- and internal necessary. If that doesn't work for you, see point four. We welcome help!

I appreciate the feedback.

Dave Cohen’s picture

Dave Cohen commented

I don't mean to speak for Dmitriy, but he may have meant that the javascript function FB.Facebook.init() requires an apikey. So anyone using it will have at least registered an app with facebook.

If you've encountered technical drawbacks with Drupal for Facebook, I invite you to submit issues to the issue queue here on drupal.org. That would help us out.

dkruglyak’s picture

dkruglyak commented

Chris,

Before anything else, let me say that I greatly appreciate the constraints of your project and the willingness to contribute your code, in whatever form it exists.

However, I will have to take an exception with some of your other points and say that fragmentation of contributed modules is generally a bad thing for the community.

Facebook's stated policy is to gradually erase the distinction between "Apps" and "Connected Sites". If you look at the latest app admin screen in Developer app you would find that Connect configuration is merely a config tab within an application. A website running Connect can serve the same functionality as a "Facebook App" within your site. Effective Connect implementations will make use of these capabilities, but also extend themselves into Facebook proper as "Apps". While any shortcuts to getting Connect working in any form are certainly welcome, piecemail approach is counter-productive for implementing sites that fully maximize Connect potential.

As far your personal experience with Drupal for Facebook, myself (and I bet Dave too!) would be very interested to hear any specific issues and suggestions for improvement. Speaking for myself, I only use the module to manage applications as nodes and their authentication part. The custom code implements the actual logic. As extra D4F modules stabilize I might start using them as well.

Perhaps we should all try and team to produce a solution optimal in the long run.

Dave Cohen’s picture

Dave Cohen commented

Facebook Connect actually covers a lot of things. One obvious example is logging into a Drupal-powered site using your facebook username and password. Other examples are using XFBML tags in your web pages, and even obscure things like automatically resizing iframes within canvas pages (on facebook apps).

The Drupal for Facebook project has some support for these things. For example, you can log into http://www.drupalforfacebook.org with your facebook credentials, if you click on the connect link on the right sidebar.

Note, however, this will only work if your facebook account has the developer app installed. This is because fbConnect is not open to the public yet. Facebook has been promising that it will be made public in the coming weeks, but they've been saying exactly that for months now.

Eshilon Design Inc’s picture

Eshilon Design Inc commented

Connect absolutely does include a lot more than just authentication (I write about some of this in our blog post on eshilon.com) and we're very excited to work on this expanded feature set as we improve our work. We're certainly, as you point out, at the mercy of Facebook to an extent.

that1guy’s picture

that1guy commented

Guess there was a delay?

de_wizze’s picture

de_wizze commented

.. progress that is being made by both you guys I look forward to seeing the complementary competition that help drive development.

wanderingstan’s picture

wanderingstan commented

I must admit that I prefer the lightweight implementation being suggested by Eshilon Design -- I have no desire for my Drupal app to live inside of Facebook, but I do have a desire for users to log in to my Drupal site via Facebook Connect.

I am in the beginning stages of developing an FB Connect Module myself, but don't want to be duplicating effort. If either of these approaches need coding help, please let me know.

A few implementation questions for the community:

  • If a new user connects using Facebook, should we generate a Drupal username for them? And what should we use as their email address?
    • My first thought is to use their Facebook First+Last Names, but this value can change, e.g. when someone is married or divorced. (Could part of the module dynamically update their drupal username?) Another option is to use some variant of their fb id, but that would look ugly within Drupal. What you want is a function that all usernames are filtered through, but I don't think Drupal has this.
durum’s picture

durum commented

in case.

mattmm’s picture

mattmm commented

just refreshed with their fB connect. Pretty slick.

Bobuido’s picture

Bobuido commented

As much as I hate Facebook, you cannot underestimate it's power. It's clear that a lot of participation (comments / posts) never get written because the website has an interesting discussion but doesn't provide enough worth to warrant registering. So, as much as I hate FB, I would like a FBConnect module for Drupal.

newmediaist’s picture

newmediaist commented

A lot of the features discussed in this thread sound like they are already available in http://drupal.org/project/fbconnect ... maybe we should focus efforts on contributing to that project rather than forking new modules?

munikho’s picture

munikho commented

I agree with you there, this module has already some working features, but they could be expanded much more.
For instance right now it's only possible to post comments to Facebook, it shouldn't be to difficult to build that further so that it's possible to share more information(eventhough i didn't manage to make that work, sadly enough).

Dave Cohen’s picture

Dave Cohen commented

Warner Brothers Records recently added Facebook Connect support to one of their artist's sites, Lights. They use Drupal for Facebook. More details in Ethan Kaplan's blog post.

hellonwheels’s picture

hellonwheels commented

I didn't see anything for facebook connect on the lights site... is it still drupal? and why would the remove fb connect?

Dave Cohen’s picture

Dave Cohen commented

It was removed when they upgraded that site from Drupal 5.x to 6.x. Hopefully they'll enable it again before long.

Right now, benharper.com is a good example of Drupal for Facebook's Facebook Connect implementation.