▲ 6 points

Ask HN: How do I write a website that uses the Facebook API or whatever?

by isomorph·15y ago·6 comments·view on hn ↗

I want to write a toy app that isn't actually a "Facebook app" (which I have never done, by the way). I want it to be a standalone website with its own URL but users log in with FB and it uses their data.

I need to learn the Facebook API or whatever, obviously

However, I am out of the web dev loop. I need someone to tell me what's what. What is jQuery? Am I... Node.js? Sinatra? Ruby on Rails? Which of this is important to me?

I can do like HTML and CSS.

WHAT DO I DO?

6 comments

i don't mean to be pessimistic, but I think you have a bit to learn before you get into Facebook login functionality. If your skillset is HTML and CSS, then you should start learning how to make a basic web app without a database. Personally, I'd check out Sinatra or PHP. Rails can be overwhelming to start with. First, get a basic app to send some data to a browser, then do some stuff, then look at connecting a database to it.

To phrase this as a metaphor, you're asking how to install lightning rods for a tower you're about to build, but all you've ever done is paint a house.

I've made basic webapps with Scalatra and Scala by keeping all the complexity in the Scala, which I know quite well

That's a good start, I may dive into database driven apps now. I know its a swarm of technologies. Don't worry about JavaScript or jQuery right now since those are front-end tools that add icing to the cake (unless it's node.js, but let's keep it simple).

Databases generally fall into 2 classes: NoSQL and SQL. I'd stick with SQL based databases such as MySQL, Postgre, and SQLite. For the most part, they can be interchangeable. MongoDB falls into the former and is an entirely different way of thinking about databases.

Cool, thanks. Any particular thing I should look out for? "MongoDB" - is that anything to do with this? SQL-lite?

WHAT DO I DO?

Read all of this: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/web/