Simplifying the Developer App

A few months ago, we launched major updates to the Developer App to help you easily access, edit and manage your apps on the Developer Site. As part of Operation Developer Love, we have continued to release new features that address feedback that we have heard from you: the ability to add and manage test users and the ability to use Facebook Groups to manage app roles.

Today we are announcing an update to the Developer App to make it easier for you to manage all of your basic app settings in one place. The streamlined UI more clearly shows the different app integrations (Web, App on Facebook, Mobile and Devices, Page Tab) and walks you through the fields needed to get started.

To see the new navigation and page layout, click on “Edit Settings” for an app. You will see a new left-menu and a new layout:

• Settings, with Basic and Advanced sub-menu items
• Roles
• Credits

Basic

The goal of the Basic page is to give you one place to configure important settings and be a summary page for your app. The settings listed on this page are the set of fields needed for you to quickly get started building a simple “Hello World” app on Facebook Platform.

At the top of the page, you’ll see a banner for your app displaying your app name, image, icon, app ID and app secret. You can hover over the app image to see an Edit link. Clicking on Edit lets you upload a new 75x75 pixel app image. Similarly, you can click on the “edit icon” link next to the icon to upload a new 16x16 pixel app icon.

The next section, Basic Info, has information about your app that applies to all app integrations:

• App Display Name is the user-facing name of your app
• App Namespace is the short app name used for your Canvas Page URL (e.g., apps.facebook.com/YOUR_APP_NAMESPACE)
• Contact Email is the primary email address that we use to contact you for important app-related communications
• Category should best describe your app’s content

The last section allows you to select how your app integrates with Facebook. Select whether you own or want to build a website, an App on Facebook, a native mobile app, or a Page Tab app.

By selecting an app integration and hitting “Save Changes,” the Developer App will validate the required fields and prompt you if there are any errors:

To delete an app integration, simply click the “X” button on the right corner. The Developer App lets you know that once you save, any information entered will be deleted.

Advanced

The Advanced page contains the rest of the settings that are applicable to your app. The page has five sections: authentication, migrations, security, advanced canvas settings (visible only to Apps on Facebook), and contact info.

The Roles and Credits pages remain the same.

More to Come

We are continuing to develop new features that help you more easily build apps on Facebook. We started rolling out availability of the updated Developer App to a limited set of developers today and plan to make it available to all developers over the next week. We look forward to your feedback in the comments below.