WPBook 1.5 Released – Let the Streaming begin!

WPBook

So for a while I’ve been working on and beta testing the next version of WPBook. Tonight I’ve just tagged it for release, so it will be available for download shortly. (I’ve already been running it here for a while and testing it on a few other test blogs).

The main improvement in WPBook 1.5 is that it now knows how to use stream.publish, meaning that it will automatically post to your wall in Facebook when you publish a post in WordPress. Your friends should see that notification as well in their streams. (We’re not, however, sending application updates or tracking all users’ user id’s – instead you enter your own userid into the settings and it uses that to post to your wall). Included are attachments (first image attached to the post is used) and excerpts (if you hand craft excerpts they will be used in the wall post).

The other main improvement is that WPBook now requires PHP5, and as such can wrap Facebook calls in Try/Catch blocks. For the non-programmer, this means those awful, dramatic “fatal uncaught exception” error screens are gone. WPBook isn’t doing anything terribly meaningful with those errors yet – still working on that- but at least it traps them.
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Try Rollip (With Free Credits)

I was recently invited to try a service called Rollip, a web application which processes photos and applies effect to them. As a bonus, the first 15 people to visit the service using this link will each get 30 free credits: Rollip Online Photo Processing

The effects are similar to those you’d get by applying filters in Photoshop or Gimp, but all the processing happens on the server, requiring no software install – handy for working on a guest machine or for folks who don’t need the full power of a graphics program but want to stylize a photo.
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Facebook Comments Box, Ownership

I’ve been looking into the Facebook Comments Box, which launched in February.

Photo by suburbanslice

It’s a perfect example of what I’m seeing as a growing trend, in which various “social widgets” actually replace functionality which should be built into the platform hosting the site. Bundling together the ability to use your Facebook identity with the actual management of comments themselves looks like progress but I think it’s really a step backwards.
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WPBook 0.9.7: Share Posts, Ease of Installation, Add to pages

I’ve just released version 0.9.7 of WPBook (a WordPress plugin to bring blog posts into Facebook and enable comments from Facebook users) here and at the WordPress site.

A few changes since 0.9.3, the last version I blogged about (the most recent version can always be found on this page or at the WordPress site):

Share Button. This version adds a Facebook style “Share this post” button next to each blog post in Facebook, which allows the user to send the posts to Facebook friends or post and individual blog entry to their profile.
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Updated: WordPress Facebook plugin update – with Profile Boxes!

Updated for 0.9.3 (Jan 13 2009)

Updated for 0.9.2. (Jan 7 2009)
Updated for 0.9.1 (Jan 2 2009)

I’ve been working on an update to WPBook, the WordPress to Facebook plugin I co-developed.

I haven’t yet released this version on the WordPress plugin site, but I do think it’s stable enough for use – try it out and let me know what you think.

I’m using it here: http://apps.facebook.com/openparenthesis/.

This version allows an “add to profile” button inside the app, which presents the five most recent posts in a profile box – can be on the user’s main profile or inside the “boxes” tab.

It also enables – if the “application settings” inside Facebook are set – for the blog app to be added to FaceBook “pages.”

Download: WPBook 0.9.3

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