Installing fabEE
What you need to know
In order use fabEE you will need to install the fabEE software in your ExpressionEngine site and add a few tags to your site templates. You will also need to create an application on Facebook. Facebook Connect sites can be thought of like ordinary Facebook applications except that they are accessed on external sites (your ExpressionEngine site) rather than within Facebook (on what is called the Facebook Canvas). This means that once fabEE is installed it can be searched for within Facebook and may appear within the Facebook application directory.
Installing the fabEE software
fabEE must be installed on a site that is publically accessible or an internal site that can be port forwarded external web requests. Facebook Connect ‘pings’ your site when a user authorises or deauthorises it. fabEE uses these ‘pings’ and it will not work correctly otherwise. See extending fabEE for more information about what happens when these ‘pings’ occur.
Inside your download zip you should find the following files:
- xd_receiver.html (file)
- fabee.js (file)
- images (folder) containing a folder called fabee
- extensions (folder) containing ext.pur_fabee.php and a folder called pur_fabee
- language (folder) containing a folder called english and within that a file called lang.pur_fabee.php
- plugins (folder) containing a plugin as an example of how to extend fabEE. This file is not required to use fabEE.
- documentation (folder)
Follow these steps to install fabEE
- Copy xd_receiver.html to the root of your ExpressionEngine installation i.e. the same directory as your index.php file
- Copy fabee.js to your webroot i.e. where your index.php file is located
- Copy the images/fabee folder into your EE images folder
- Copy the file silhouette.gif from your images/fabee folder into your images/member_photos folder
- Copy the file silhouette.gif from your images/fabee folder into your images/avatars/uploads folder
- Copy extensions/ext.pur_fabee.php into your system/extensions directory
- Copy extensions/pur_fabee into your system/extensions directory
- Copy language/english/lang.pur_fabee.php into your system/languages/english folder
Now go into your control panel and verify that the extension is available to install. Install it as normal.
Note: The extension does make two changes to core ExpressionEngine database tables. Facebook Connect does not pass email addresses for authorised users. However, it does provide a proxied email address. This address can be up to 100 characters in length. The default email fields in the exp_comments and exp_members tables is only 50 characters in length so these fields are altered when the extension is installed. They are altered back when the extension is uninstalled.
Now that the extension is installed go into the extension settings. You will see that an API key and an application secret are required. These are generated when you create your application on Facebook. So, go ahead and log into Facebook and create your application