Snow Reports in Facebook
Dec 06
May 27
CakePHP and Facebook
Do you want to integrate the Facebook API with CakePHP? Good news - it is really easy!
CakePHP is a free open-source rapid development framework for PHP. It's a structure of libraries and classes for programmers creating web applications originally inspired by Ruby on Rails. The primary goal is to enable you to work in a structured and rapid manner - without loss of flexibility.
In case you've been off the grid for the past few months, Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you. It is like MySpace, only more about your friends, with more features, and less intrusive advertising.
After reading the only blog post on CakePHP and Facebook, I was left with many questions because I'm new to Cake. So I did some further Google searching and found how to build a photo gallery using CakePHP and Flickr, which utilizes Miguel Ros' Flickr component. This was exactly what I was looking for - a CakePHP component. Then it was just a matter of reverse engineering it to work with the Facebook API.
Here's the code...
Facebook Component
app/controllers/components/facebook.php
<?php
/**
* Facebook Component
* @author Matt Savarino
* @license MIT
* @version 0.1
*/
$GLOBALS['facebook_config']['debug'] = NULL;
class FacebookComponent extends Object
{
var $api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY";
var $secret = "YOUR_API_SECRET";
function startup(&$controller)
{
vendor('facebook/facebook');
$controller->facebook =& new Facebook($this->api_key, $this->secret);
$controller->set('facebook', $controller->facebook);
}
}
?>Sample Controller
app/controllers/nodes_controller.php
vendor('facebook/facebook');
class NodesController extends AppController
{
var $name = 'Nodes';
var $components = array('Facebook');
...
}Accessing the API
The Facebook API is now available in both your controller and views.
Controllers: $this->facebook->api_client->users_getLoggedInUser()
Views: $facebook->api_client->users_getLoggedInUser()
Next Steps
I need to figure out the best method for forcing the user to install the application. The beforeFilter() function in the controllers seems to be the best place, but I'm having some issues.
Please comment with your questions/suggestions! I'll try to update this post with any improvements.
