Sociogram: A Sample Application Exploring the Facebook SDK and the Graph API

February 7, 2013 in Backbone.js, Facebook, JavaScript

I’ve recently been working on a few applications that integrate with Facebook. As a reference for myself and other developers building similar applications, I thought it would be useful to put together a sample application that demonstrates some commonly used integration scenarios and workflows when using the Facebook JavaScript SDK and the Graph API. So, Sociogram is a sample application that demonstrates how to:

  • Load the Facebook SDK
  • Login with Facebook
  • Request specific permissions
  • Revoke permissions
  • Get data (list of friends, mutual friends, feed items, etc.)
  • Post to the wall using your application’s custom UI or the Facebook dialogs
  • Listen to Facebook events such as status change, etc

The Graph API provides access to a lot more data and actions, but you are essentially always using the same API with a different path into the graph.

There are other examples out there, each of them built around different use cases. This application is built with Backbone.js using a single page architecture, but the code can easily be reused in a different context.

Running the Application

Click here to run the application in your browser.

Source Code

The source code is available in this GitHub repository.

Mobile App Version

In my next post, I will share a PhoneGap version of the same application (using the PhoneGap Facebook plugin).

Disclaimer

This is a sample application, not a production application. Some trade-offs were made to keep the code generic, simple and readable.

  • Thanks for this and other great tutorials. Application looks awesome. Like the Facebook authentication.

    • Thirunavukkarasu

      Christophe,

      Actually while i tried to deploy the application with my “app_id” the /me section is working as expected, but whereas the /me/friends api call is returning an empty page ? Is this because of v2 FB API change ? Please clarify!

      Regards,
      Thiru

      • Alex

        Hi, did you find out how to make the “/me/friends” api call works ?

        Thanks
        Alex.

        • Thirunavukkarasu

          No .. not yet Alex!

  • Charan

    Your tutorials are the best to get introduced to Backbone. Please keep them coming :)

  • Amir

    Great sample,
    Very helpful.
    Thank you.

  • Jan

    I see that you put the app id in the Facebook.js file, but where are you putting the app secret? Can you provide some guidance?

  • Dipock Das

    Thanks Christophe !!

  • Eduard

    this sample is great. might as well want to ask how change the tpl pages from html to php file. I tried changing it, but the links wont direct to php file. Please help

  • himilc

    any idea how to run it locally I’m pretty new to nodejs and backbone

  • Pingback: Sociogram Mobile: A Starter-Kit Application for PhoneGap and Facebook Integration | Christophe Coenraets()

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  • Shlook

    Thanks for this! I would like to know what should be changed in order to run it on my localhost (under Apache)

    Currently after clicking on “Login with Facebook” button, Facebook error message apear in the new window: “An error occurred. Please try again later.

    I tried to change facbook.js channelUrl var to point the location, but it doesn’t help.

    Thanks!

  • Matt Tullett

    This a great starting point for getting started with backbone and facebook.

    I downloaded the code and setup everything like you have. I keep having a strange issue.
    If reload a page i get the error screen so i click retry and it works.

    I keep getting the error message :”An active access token must be used to query information about the current user.” even though i’m clearly logged in.

    The only things different is i’m running this on the Laravel framework and its using my app keys instead.

  • Matija

    Hi Christophe!
    Thanks for this tutorial! Have a question. What’s with javascript FB SDK, where is that file from? On regular FB web, JS SDK is included async from FB servers directly, and there’s no “offline” version. From where did you download this js file? (is it just take it from a browser after it’s downloaded async? )

    What happens if FB updates their FB SKD library? How can we update to Phonegap app as well?

    My other question, can we somehow use “longToken” with this set-up? From a mobile app perspective, we want our users to login once, and if possible, never again ( or once in few months ). Wouldn’t using standard web FB SDK library require user to login every 1h?

    Looking forward to your answers!
    Thanks,
    Matija

  • Great work. Thank you for sharing this nice tutorial.

  • How about Facebook SDK for PHP, I want to use it with php code please.

    • Dou Yi·

      Do you finally make the php version ? I also need to use it with php code.

  • hi

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  • AB

    Thanks for this great tutorial! On the demo I am not able to see my feed. Any advice?

  • Douglas K.M.

    Thanks for the sample apps but could you please do another one that combines backbone.js, Facebook and Parse.com. Basically a Sociogram that can save some data to Parse.com and retrieve the data as in the case of the Employee Directory app. So that one can do a search through a collection and read the details of a selected item. This would make sense due to Facebook’s ownership of Parse.com.

  • Obaid

    The sample app is not working. When I click on ‘Login with Facebook’ it gives the following error: Given URL is not allowed by the Application configuration.: One or more of the given URLs is not allowed by the App’s settings. It must match the Website URL or Canvas URL, or the domain must be a subdomain of one of the App’s domains.

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  • guys. what if I’m going to copy only the login and logout? any suggestions?

  • Pingback: Sociogram: A Pattern Software demonstrating AngularJS/Ionic and Fb Integration | PakUltimate()

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  • bhathu

    hai sir.

    i want to login facebook and and once login means in index page i can able to view firstname,lastname,
    email,country username by using facebook graph api and it should store in databse..
    can you please guide or send some links..

  • Alexandre

    Hello,

    I read that the new facebook GRAPH API allow the apps to access only the friends who also use the app (and when I do /me/friends is that that happens). But I noticed that your APP is able to access list all of my friends?
    How is it done?

    Thanks a lot.

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