Facebook 1.1.6 beta teaches DevRelations team a thing or two 37
One of the greatest parts of knowing that the Palm Developer Relations team are the ones working on the Facebook app, is hearing their comments on development.
A few days ago, Palm updated Facebook on their beta feed to version 1.1.6. On the Palm Developer Center Blog, the team posted an interesting article on it. Evidently, there were 2 central issues they discovered during development, that could prove useful for third party developers to learn from.
The first issue was that if service requests don't get assigned to a variable, there's a chance the javascript garbage collector might scoop it off into oblivion. Kevin Decker has written up a very informative article discussing a solution that is not only effective, but also memory efficient.
The second issue has to do with multi-stage applications and reminds developers that some old habits, like referencing the document directly, or using prototype to get a document's element, may cause trouble. The team found a few workable alternatives that will hopefully save other developers some time debugging.
The Developer Relations team assist developers with issues on a daily basis. Their work on the Facebook app has been a testament to that. Makes one wonder what the future of the Facebook app may hold.
37 Comments
yup, it truly sets an example for other companies to follow (cough, apple)
sorry not from the topic... i cannot use fb beta in germany... i installed it almost 6 times still the same error.... please help....
they got lots more fun things to do with face book app.
is there any plans to add landscape view to this app? just curious...
Despite my earlier criticisms of the strategy in creating a self-contained facebook app, I am actually falling in love with it.
It provides a near perfect mirroring of the web facebook experience... even a general people search with option to make friends request.
Very very good.
Did the team discover anything that will make their website more functional and reliable?
Can we update to 1.1.6? I am still at version 1.1.0.
yes, available in beta feed. (so its not in the catalog) i got it through preware, but i think you can get it from the feed in a browser, or even webOS Quick Install
Here's the download link for Facebook Beta ...
http://developer.palm.com/webChannel/index.php?packageid=com.palm.app.fa...
Just click it on your phone or on the desktop to download it.
Thanks for the helpful comments everybody. The problem was that I didn't have the Palm-beta-updates feed turned on in Preware, so I couldn't see it. At one time I disabled some of the feeds because Preware was taking so long to load.
Happy Easter!
you don't have to do all that just go to the app catalog and download and app called app scoop which will have the facebook app you seek and then download the fb app and you'll have what we have
The update is welcome as the app is getting closer and closer to working very well. Now if they update the messaging app to include facebook chat since it support XMPP.
Unfortunately, the facebook xmpp connections are do not have an ssl option, so they're not secure. Facebook decided against using security for some stupid reason.
SirRob, you can update it via App Catalog (at least I did). Just go to the update section and it could pop-up.
Happy Easter Everyone!!!
are you sure? I just went there and mine says 1.1.0 and not 1.1.6. Are you sure you updated to 1.6 and not just 1.1?
you have to go to the app catalog and download an app called app scoop from there it will have the facebook beta app you are looking for the fb beta app isn't in the app catalog but app scoop is so download that.
Beta software updates only show up in the App Catalog for an individual if they've already installed a BETA version of the application in question.
So, a person would need to install the app from a beta feed location (AppScoop, Preware, or Palm's Developer website).
Facebook 1.1.0 is an official release that EVERYONE can see. Anything later than that (like 1.1.6) is BETA and isn't in the official App Catalog.
just waiting on chat (in app not in the messaging app) and it will be perfect..atleast it will have everything i need.
One thing I still notice is loading up images is really really slow.
I doubt you'll see In App chat. 1. it will complicate/bog down the app, 2. It's antithetical to the synergistic concepts behind WebOS. Why build a whole chat system within FB, when it can be much more easily integrated into your existing chat functionality?
my only request was option to turn off webos alerts and this latest update did not let me down. Great app,, good job guys and thanks.
my only request was option to turn off webos alerts and this latest update did not let me down. Great app,, good job guys and thanks.
The most annoying thing about this beta app is you can not see comments on photos!! I mean really, what is the point of notifying me that someone commented on my photo if I cant see what was post or which photo?
until recently, I didn't know about the messenger plugins, and idk if all these people asking for fb chat know about it either. But they are awesome. Many messenger options, ie I've added facebook, windows live, and myspace. http://forums.precentral.net/homebrew-apps/233983-messaging-plugins-add-...
could these/are these plugins in a feed that I can turn on in preware? That might help people find out about em too
until recently, I didn't know about the messenger plugins, and idk if all these people asking for fb chat know about it either. But they are awesome. Many messenger options, ie I've added facebook, windows live, and myspace. http://forums.precentral.net/homebrew-apps/233983-messaging-plugins-add-...
could these/are these plugins in a feed that I can turn on in preware? That might help people find out about em too
Is it possible that the standard facebook app and this beta do not have to be installed on the same device at the same time?
for some reasons in the beta there is no accout shown (but it shows my wallpaper-info from facebook) and there is also no opportunity to click on any options in the menu (the icons for messanges, news, profile and so on are shown but if I tap on them nothing happens??)
idk what's going on with your beta app, might want to reinstall, but I am only using the beta. I've deleted the catalog app, but they were working fine simultaniously for me.
What is your locale? I'm having the same problem in Canada, I've got all sorts of problems with the app in general (news feed *never* loads, etc) so I started looking at some of the code, it seems like some of the localization stuff might not be done and that's why the preferences screen is useless?
I am located in Germany. I uninstalled both apps (the official version as well as the beta) and then installed the beta again but I face the same problems: No account, nothing works in the men
Everybody that is using the beta version. Thanks. I don't feel the urge to use it but once the changes hit the regular app, I'll be VERY happy.
I like the beta alot but would like to see a way to remove friends as well as the option to make a picture a profile pic without the crop utility (cropping window does not work on the phone) also the ability to see photo comments and reply. Really great work though and I'm hopeful to be using one FB app instead of 3 apps and 2 versions of the website. Keep up the good work and thanks FOR all the hard work!
Really I'm not sure why they don't just release the 1.16 beta into the main catalog. Compared to some of the previous releases, it SEEMS stable enough right now to possibly push it past being beta software.
http://translate.google.de/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pre-ticker.de%2F...
I LOVE THE WAY THAT THIS COULD POSSIBLY BE THE FUTURE OF webOS!!!
To see picture comments, tap the picture.
How would taping the picture help if you have no idea which photo was commented on? The notification tells you "whoever" just commented on your photo......but that's it! You cant see which photo they commented on. I'm sure they are working on fix, hopefully soon because I really do love this app.
Actually, I'm wondering if I imagined this. One of these apps I was using showed photo comments. But this latest beta is not it (sorry).
That said, you can see the photo if you tap the word 'photo' in the notification
OK. Maybe I should just stop commenting:)
When I accessed a commented photo from the notification list, tapping did not bring up the context controls. But, when I accessed the same photo from my profile --> albums view, tapping worked.
I'm loving the frequent updates to the app. Today I noticed that with 1.1.6 when I search for friends I don't get any results. Searching for everyone however still works. Is anyone else experiencing this?
EDIT: It's working just fine now. Must have been some temporary glitch. Maybe it's some intermittent bug.