Friday, December 11, 2009 Sales of the plugin have been ceased until the plugin can be modified to comply with the new Facebook policy effective December 1, 2009.  As of this date, you may not store any information retrieved from Facebook (other than userid and a few other id numbers) for more than 24 hours on your site.  This means that the avatar URL, status, date of birth, hometown, etc may not be automatically stored.  Furthermore, the policy states that you may not pre-fill forms with data retrieved from Facebook and ask the user to submit the form.

Sunday, October 25, 2009 Resumed working on Pro version.  Facebook has intrduced some new methods and deprected some of the existing methods I have been using.  The good news is that the new methods are much easier to implement. The bad news is I have to re-write everything to use them.  Please note I am developing the Pro version on this site.  You may get errors.  There are no known errors with the regular version of Facebook Correct.

See a video on How to Install Facebook Correct!

Background (skip this unless you really care)

My initial Facebook hack (v1.01) was released on June 29, 2009.  The final version (v1.03) of the hack was released on July 3, 2009.  Since then I have had many satisfied users that have implemented the hack with no problems whatsoever.

Due to issues with new versions of JomSocial rendering my hacks inoperable (clearly my problem, not theirs) and some concern over the ever-changing and mysterious JomSocial license, I have converted my revised JomSocial Facebook registration workflow to a plugin.  It was not an easy transition, as JomSocial rightfully does not handle calls from a plugin in the same manner in which calls from the core functionality are handled.

Compounding the problem was relatively little documentation about the manner in which the API is implemented.  There was a lot of "trial and error".  I had to enlist the services of an outside programmer to help me with the final touches, and even at that point he couldn't figure it out (he did, however, narrow the problem down to a specific JomSocial method, which in turn allowed me to eventually fix the problem by... you guessed it.. trial-and-error).

What Is It?

Facebook Correct is a JomSocial plugin that replaces the standard JomSocial Facebook registration process with our improved version.  "Replaces" is a bit of a misnomer, as Facebook Correct simply overrides the existing version.  No changes are made to the files furnished with JomSocial.

When a user clicks on the "Connect with Facebook" button in mod_jomsocialconnect, the Community homepage, hello_me or under the "Associate my Account" in the Profile>Edit Details section of JomSocial, this plugin will override the standard JomSocial facebook process.

Disabling the Facebook Correct plugins will revert you back to the original functionality provided with JomSocial.  In this event, all the accounts created with Facebook Correct will continue to work with the standard JomSocial facebook workflow.

What Does It Do?

Facebook Correct adds the following functionality to the JomSocial Facebook registration workflow:

• Imports the user's Education History (last school attended and year graduated)
• Imports the user's locale (if you have the appropriate language pack installed, it will automatically be selected)
• Sets the user's timezone (ie it will set GMT -0400 if you live in that timezone)
• Gathers an email address from the user
• Allows the user to select their own username
• Prompts for password if the email address already exists (no more multiple accounts when an existing user clicks on the 'Connect with Facebook' button)
• Directs user to enter a new username OR enter their existing email address and password if a user tries to select an existing username.
• Updates the user's JomSocial status from their Facebook status ONLY if the Facebook status is NEWER (will not overwrite a status set in JomSocial today with a status set in Facebook last month!)
• Allows the administrator to select where the user is redirected after a successful registration from a selectable list (site homepage, community homepage) OR a custom redirect (http://redirect.here) from the administration page.
• Allows the administrator to select where the user is redirected after a successful login from a selectable list (site homepage, community homepage, user profile) or a custom redirect.
• Allows the administrator to require email validation of Facebook users independently of the standard Joomla registration (you can require an email validation for Joomla but not Facebook, or vice-versa or for both)
• Adheres to the CSS styling of your existing website
• [PRO] Imports extended Facebook fields (Activities, Books, Interests, Movies, Music, Political, Relationship Status, Quotes, TV)
• [PRO] Publishes to user's Facebook newsfeed upon registration
• Does it all without any branding.

(features marked "Pro" are only available in the Pro edition of our software, which is not yet available.)

What Doesn't It Do?

While Facebook Correct adds a tremendous amount of functionality to the JomSocial Facebook registration process, there are some things it does not (currently) do:

• It does not publish anything on the user's Facebook page.
• It does not allow a user to maintain their Joomla password when they convert to Facebook authentication (they may retain their existing username, but will no longer be able to login with their Joomla username and password using the Joomla authentication module)
• It does not allow an Administrator or Super-Administrator to use Facebook authentication
• It does not correct some minor oversights in the JomSocial code (for example, JomSocial will only import the user's month of birth if their language is English on Facebook).  At least, not yet.
• Slice, dice and make julienne fries.

The Legal Stuff (license, use, blah blah blah)

Unlike my previous "hack", which I made freely available without restriction, this plugin is copywritten.  There will be an [as yet undetermined] fee for the plugin.  Once you purchase the plugin, you will be entitled ("licensed") to use the plugin for one domain.

"One domain" means you can run multiple copies on the same domain name, to wit:

• You purchase the plugin once and are entitled to use it on www.dals.org, beta.dals.org, forum.dals.org and come.visit.dals.org
• You purchase the plugin once if you are running the plugin on www.dals.org and beta.dals.org and you have a third website "www.foo.com" that redirects to www.dals.org.

If you would like to run the plugin on www.dals.org and www.foo.com, you would need to purchase it twice.

Put simply, if when visiting your site a user sees "http://whatever.domain.com", the plugin needs to be associated with "domain.com".  If you purchased the plugin for dals.org and you have a site beta.dals.org that redirects to "foo.com" (eg the user sees "whatever.foo.com" when browsing the site), you need to purchase an additional license.  Pretty simple stuff, but I am trying to be as clear as possible.

You are free to modify the source code for you own use.  You may not redistribute your modifications without permission.

Of course, you may not redistribute the plugin files, either.

We will include a "key" to uniquely identify your website as being registered for using the plugin.  No, we don't call home.  No, the code is not modified with the key.  No, nothing horrible happens if you use the code on a non-registered site.  No, you cannot modify or remove the key.  If you do any of these things and live within 1 hour of my home, I will drive to your house and give you a stern talking to.  I may even raise my voice.

There is no warranty, express or implied.  If your site stops working because of our plugin, our liability for damages is limited to the cost of the plugin.  We'll even throw in an apology at no extra cost.

We'll provide free updates to the plugin for a period of one year from the date of purchase, provided we keep updating it for that long.  If we stop updating it, well, there's no free update for you to receive.  So technically, we're not lying.

After one year, you can continue using the old version ad infinitum.  Or you could purchase a new license.  We may offer a new license at a discount.  Or we may double the fee.  Who knows.

We WILL be offering a higher tier version of this plugin ("Pro"?).  This version will include publishing events on your Facebook newsfeed.  No, we don't know when it will be finished.  We do know it will be [at least] $10 more for the "Pro" version, so if you want publishing right now, I would recommend purchasing com_welcome (see the JomSocial forum for details), it's cheaper.

If you buy the normal version of Facebook Correct, we will allow you to upgrade to "Pro" for the difference in price, so there's no reason to wait for the "Pro" version, it won't cost you any more to buy now and upgrade to "Pro" later.