showDialog("friends") on iOS is NOT supported ?

[evanspro]

Hello !

After finally doing the migration to Facebook v4 beta, I realized that showDialog(“friends”) doesn’t work on iOS (as described in the documentation) : "

“Using Facebook “Places” or “Friends” via facebook.showDialog() is not supported.”

Does it mean it isn’t CURRENTLY supported, or that it will NEVER be supported ?
 

And if will be supported, do you know approximately when ? I’m asking because I’m planning on releasing my game in january / february. If not, should I go back to the previous Facebook plugin ?
 

[Ajay_McCaleb]

Hi evanspro,

Facebook Places and Friends currently are  not supported and most likely will  NEVER be supported on iOS.

The reasoning for this is three-fold:

1. Facebook removed the separate Places and Friends dialogs from version 4 of their SDK on iOS and Android.
2. The functionality of Facebook Places and Friends has been baked into Facebook’s new Sharing model (as well as adding OpenGraph stories like “eating a birthday cake”).
3. For us to support Facebook Places and Friends on iOS, we’d have to rewrite it from scratch, which isn’t really worth it given point 2.

On Android, we got lucky and the implementation of Facebook Places and Friends was kept in their Scrumptious sample. This made it relatively easy for us to continue supporting those on Android.

As far as your game is concerned, you can use facebook.showDialog(“link”) to allow your users to tag friends and a location. Bear in mind that you aren’t required to actually provide a link here.

Furthermore, when using facebook.showDialog(“link”), you’ll only be able to tag friends if the Facebook app is installed on the device. If the Facebook app isn’t installed, the native share dialog will popup and you’ll only be able to tag a location.

Considering how big the Facebook app is, it’s highly unlikely that not being able to tag friends without the Facebook app would be a deal breaker.

[evanspro]

Hi Ajay !

Thanks a lot for your answer !

I’ve tried using facebook.showDialog(“link”) but it shows a popup where the user is actually about to post something on a friends wall.

Previously, by using facebook.showDialog(“friends”), I had a popup where the user would simply select one or more friends and that was it : I was then able to retrieve the user app ids and use them how I wanted (in my case, I wanted to do this).

I’m trying to “digest” the Facebook V4 / Open Graph documentation right now, but do you know how I could achieve the same thing ? (I’m sorry, I know this is a little off-topic…).

[Ajay_McCaleb]

Hi evanspro,

For gifting things to friends, you can use the Game Request Dialog in our Facebook-v4 plugin. This dialog presents the user with a list of friends to choose from, and a button to just send the gift after they’ve selected their friends.

You’ll need to make an OpenGraph object for your item to be gifted, which can be done in the Object Browser.

The minimal code for this will look something like:

facebook.showDialog("requests", { actionType = "SEND", objectId = "[YOUR OPENGRAPH OBJECT ID AS A STRING HERE]", -- ... whatever other options you want to provide ... })

[evanspro]

Hi Ajay ! Just wanted to say, again : thank you again !

[Ajay_McCaleb]

Hi evanspro,

Facebook Places and Friends currently are  not supported and most likely will  NEVER be supported on iOS.

The reasoning for this is three-fold:

1. Facebook removed the separate Places and Friends dialogs from version 4 of their SDK on iOS and Android.
2. The functionality of Facebook Places and Friends has been baked into Facebook’s new Sharing model (as well as adding OpenGraph stories like “eating a birthday cake”).
3. For us to support Facebook Places and Friends on iOS, we’d have to rewrite it from scratch, which isn’t really worth it given point 2.

On Android, we got lucky and the implementation of Facebook Places and Friends was kept in their Scrumptious sample. This made it relatively easy for us to continue supporting those on Android.

As far as your game is concerned, you can use facebook.showDialog(“link”) to allow your users to tag friends and a location. Bear in mind that you aren’t required to actually provide a link here.

Furthermore, when using facebook.showDialog(“link”), you’ll only be able to tag friends if the Facebook app is installed on the device. If the Facebook app isn’t installed, the native share dialog will popup and you’ll only be able to tag a location.

Considering how big the Facebook app is, it’s highly unlikely that not being able to tag friends without the Facebook app would be a deal breaker.

[evanspro]

Hi Ajay !

Thanks a lot for your answer !

I’ve tried using facebook.showDialog(“link”) but it shows a popup where the user is actually about to post something on a friends wall.

Previously, by using facebook.showDialog(“friends”), I had a popup where the user would simply select one or more friends and that was it : I was then able to retrieve the user app ids and use them how I wanted (in my case, I wanted to do this).

I’m trying to “digest” the Facebook V4 / Open Graph documentation right now, but do you know how I could achieve the same thing ? (I’m sorry, I know this is a little off-topic…).

[Ajay_McCaleb]

Hi evanspro,

For gifting things to friends, you can use the Game Request Dialog in our Facebook-v4 plugin. This dialog presents the user with a list of friends to choose from, and a button to just send the gift after they’ve selected their friends.

You’ll need to make an OpenGraph object for your item to be gifted, which can be done in the Object Browser.

The minimal code for this will look something like:

facebook.showDialog("requests", { actionType = "SEND", objectId = "[YOUR OPENGRAPH OBJECT ID AS A STRING HERE]", -- ... whatever other options you want to provide ... })

[evanspro]

Hi Ajay ! Just wanted to say, again : thank you again !