If you’re in the process of developing a new website nowadays, chances are you’ll want to link it to Facebook in some way. Facebook Connect is the Web 2.0 API style way of doing things, if you’re willing to get handy with yet another markup language… FBML. I’ll leave you to work out what it stands for*.
But anyone trying to get started is likely to stumble over two of the most bizarre, yet simple errors, right off the bat. I was trying to get things working with one of my sites, Saint Saviours Cricket Club, when I encountered these two errors:
1) Facebook Connect “Invalid URL” message
Crazy. You can try every version of your URL which you know is correct:
http://www.mydomain.com
mydomain.com
www.mydomain.com
http://mydomain.com
etc.
What works?
http://www.mydomain.com/
Notice the trailing slash. That they didn’t include a little bit of help on that is ridiculous.
2) Facebook Connect signup page closes out to a blank page
You get the page to submit, but nothing happens, and you just get a blank page. This is most likely due to a problem with the site name you’ve specified. I haven’t worked out exactly what causes the error, but it might the existence of spaces in the name. You can get through it by picking a random number (e.g., 6 digits from your mobile number) – that worked for me. And you’ll then notice that all your other attempts to submit actually got through – and you’re free to use them (and delete all the ones you don’t need).
I’m gobsmacked that there are such weird little bugs in such a big system. Have they not tested these things?
* Footnote: if, like me, you’re doing this on a Wordpress install then be sure to check out the Simple Facebook Connect plugin. He’s done *all* the grunt work for you – you’ve just got to turn it on!
And it has nothing to do with Limewire. Or MacTheRipper. I don’t do that. Really.
No, Facebook decided that my little film about a dog, infringed some copyright.
Hi,
We have removed your video entitled “The Seven Stages of Dog” uploaded at 11:16am September 7th, 2008. We did this because we learnt that your video might include copyrighted material owned by a third party, such as a video clip or background audio.
If you are the copyright owner, or have permission from the rights holder to upload and distribute this material on Facebook, you may file a counter notice of alleged infringement by following the link below.
Please note that if you re-upload this video without filing a counter notice, or if you upload another video that infringes on the rights of a third party, our system will again remove the content. This could cause your access to the Facebook Video application to be disabled, or your Facebook account to be disabled.
Presumably, the soundtrack. Fair enough. I did reference the music in the film, but I’m not about to dispute it as I clearly don’t have rights to reuse it.
But the obvious question – how on earth did they find out about this? Judging by the stats, barely even a handful of people had watched the films, yet, and I’m guessing here, someone somewhere did and reported it. Bizarre.
(No-one tell YouTube, OK?)