attach application’s content in facebook message

Posted by mahmud ahsan on March 31, 2009 Facebook

in this post, i’ll show how will you attach your facebook application’s content like photos, link  in facebook message.

have you ever noticed, when you compose message for your friend, there is an option named “Attach”. look below image:

in the red mark, you’ll see there are some application names. its also depends on how many applications you added and how many of them are support attachment. now i’m showing an example. now i click “Give  a hug” link from “Hug Me” application link. it is showing

look an animated image and a message is shown. when i click [Attach] button, it is showing
look the image and message is attached with facebook compose message. now if you send this message to your friend he will see the following attachment.

do you know, how will you integrate this system in your facebook application?

it’s very simple dude…

step 1: first visit “developer” application or http://www.facebook.com/developers?ref=sb . if you’re a developer of  any app your app name will be shown here. now select your app and click “Edit Setting”.

step 2: click “Advanced” . see the image below

step 3: look there is 2 options. Attachment Text and Attachment Callback URL. Attachment Text is for “The label for your application’s link to attach content. Examples: Attach Photos, Attach Files, Share Link.
and Attachment Callback Url is for “Facebook pulls the content for your attachment interface from here”

so fill this 2 fields. remember Callback Url should be your server url not facebook app url. suppose you write a file named attach.php for this purpose and that file’s url is http://myapp.myserver.com/attach.php then place this url as Callback Url.

I’m now showing an example code here:

<?php
/*
@author: mahmud ahsan
@purpose: testing attachment for facebook message
@url: http://www.thinkdiff.net/
*/
if (isset ($_REQUEST['cmd'])){
$cmd = $_REQUEST['cmd'];
}

function checkSelect($v){
global $cmd;
if ($cmd === $v)
return "checked='true'";
return '';
}

?>
<?php  if (!array_key_exists('message_sent', $_POST) || $_POST['message_sent'] < 1) { ?>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<td><input name="cmd" type="radio" value="1" <?=checkSelect('1')?> > Image 1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><input name="cmd" type="radio" value="2" <?=checkSelect('2')?> > Image 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><input name="cmd" type="radio" value="3" <?=checkSelect('3')?> > No Image</td>
</tr>
</table>
<input name="url" type="hidden" value="http://yourserverpath/attach.php">
<fb:attachment-preview>Click to preview selection!</fb:attachment-preview>

<?php } ?>

<?php
if (array_key_exists('cmd', $_POST)) {
$cmd = $_POST['cmd'];

switch($cmd){
case 1: echo "<img src='http://yourserverpath/image1.jpg' />"; break;
case 2: echo "<img src='http://yourserverpath/image2.jpg' />"; break;
default: echo "NO IMAGE";
}
}
?>

how to run this code:

1. create a file named attach.php and copy paste this code to attach.php
2. upload 2 image file named image1.jpg and image2.jpg  in your server and update the code by changing  http://yourserverpath/image2.jpg’
3. also change <input name=”url” type=”hidden” value=”http://yourserverpath/attach.php”>to the url of attach.php according to your server.

now click [Save Changes] in the settings of developer application. this will updated your applications setting in facebook database.

now visit inbox/compose and check whether your attachment text is showing in Attach option or not. if it is showing then click the link and you will see like :

click attach, and this will attach the content with the message.

have a nice day

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Tags: attach application content in facebook message, attachment, facebook app photo attachment, facebook attachement, facebook message, facebook message attachment