Publishing User Actions

1. Generate a facebook_publisher.

   $ ./script/generate facebook_publisher sample
         exists  app/models
         create  app/models/sample_publisher.rb
         exists  db/migrate
         create  db/migrate/20090421171137_create_facebook_templates.rb

2. Migrate the database. You'll only need to do this once regardless of how many facebook_publishers you create.

   $ rake db:migrate
   (in /Users/philip/Work/PJKH/facebooker_on_rails/web)
   ==  CreateFacebookTemplates: migrating ========================================
   -- create_table(:facebook_templates, {:force=>true})
      -> 0.0016s
   -- add_index(:facebook_templates, :template_name, {:unique=>true})
      -> 0.0806s
   ==  CreateFacebookTemplates: migrated (0.0825s) ===============================

3. Create the appropriate methods in app/models/sample_publisher.rb.

   class SamplePublisher < Facebooker::Rails::Publisher
   
     def sample_template
       one_line_story_template "{*actor*} spent some of {*hisher*} time on {*weekday*} exploring Facebooker on Rails."
       action_links action_link('Check it out!', 'http://facebooker.pjkh.com')
     end
   
     def sample(user)
       send_as :user_action
       from user.facebook_session.user
       story_size ONE_LINE
       data :hisher => (case user.facebook_session.user.sex when 'male' then 'his' when 'female' then 'her' else 'their' end),
            :weekday => Date.today.strftime('%A')
     end
     
   end
   

4. Register the template. Be sure to do this both for your development and production environments. Be sure to do this anytime you change the template.

   >> SamplePublisher.register_sample
   facebook.feed.registerTemplateBundle (0.729419946670532) action_links = [{"text": "Check it out!", "href": "http://apps.facebook.com/localhost/"}], one_line_story_templates = ["{*actor*} spent some of {*hisher} time on {*weekday*} exploring Facebooker on Rails."]
     Facebooker::Rails::Publisher::FacebookTemplate Load (0.2ms)   SELECT * FROM "facebook_templates" WHERE ("facebook_templates"."template_name" = 'SamplePublisher::sample') LIMIT 1
     Facebooker::Rails::Publisher::FacebookTemplate Create (0.5ms)   INSERT INTO "facebook_templates" ("bundle_id", "template_name", "content_hash") VALUES(90095065780, 'SamplePublisher::sample', '6b266ca12fbba2b5466906c42155ac39')
   => #

5. Have the user do something that triggers the action. See Facebook's Feed Policy for acceptable triggers.
6. For this demonstration we simply POST to this page. The controller action looks like this:

   def user_action
     if request.post?
       @user_action_to_publish = SamplePublisher.create_sample(@current_user)
       end
     end

7. Then in our applications layout just after the opening body tag we have this. The second to last line is the important one.

   <%= fb_connect_javascript_tag %>
       <% init_fb_connect "XFBML","Api" do %>
         <%= yield :fb_connect %>
         <%= fb_user_action(@user_action_to_publish) if @user_action_to_publish %>
       <% end %>

8. Click the button below to trigger the action. If you're not using a test account I would recommend clicking 'skip' when the dialog appears. Otherwise it's safe to publish it and you will see it appear in your profile. If this app was much more popular I believe you'd see it appear on your wall directly.

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