Facebook Service Module Guide

Brad Duff-Hudkins · September 2010

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Andrea Polonetsky · September 2010

Brad and Jordan- Here are a few questions I have on the guide and this process in general:

What is a Convio short name? If I don't think I have one, should I make one up? (Such as CCS for Campaign for Catholic Schools)
What are API materials? I read the Convio API License Agreement, but I don't understand it.
Will our pages look similar in setup to the screen shot examples you provided? I ask because in choosing images to provide, should we choose images similar to the ones you gave in the examples? For example, in the welcome screen example you gave, there are no faces on the left side of the photo, and text appears over the image on the left. Should we also provide an image with blank space on the left, so you can write "Welcome" there? Do you have graphic designers that will create different effects, such as the fade to white in the welcome page example you provided?
Once our pages are created, will it be easy for us to update them, swap out photos in the design, etc. if we don't know HTML?
I don't think I have a newsletter interest/group already created. Will you create it for me if I leave it blank?
Do you recommend we only collect e-mails for newsletters or could we also collect to send all of our e-mails? (We only send 3 newsletters a year)
If a facebook page name can be changed do you think ours should be changed? Ours is currently Campaign for Catholic Schools-BOSTON. I am wondering if that name would suggest that CCS is a national organization and this is the Boston chapter? Because that's not the case. We are a local organization, but I think the name "Campaign for Catholic Schools" doesn't make us seem local. What do you recommend?

Thanks so much for the wonderful help you're providing to us!

Andrea

Bryan Rahija · September 2010

I would love help with question number 3 as well.

Andrea Polonetsky · September 2010

Would it be okay to send a few high-res images and the developers can choose what looks best in each particular spot?

Ken Cantu · September 2010

Hi Andrea and Bryan,

I help run Service Modules from the behind the scenes supporting Jordan and Brad. Here are some answers:

1. All instances of Convio have a shortname that was decided on during deployment. You can usually see it in URLs and will be a series of letters such as http://<shortname>.convio.net/ or https://secure3.convio.net/<shotname./site/Donation2?df_id=1234 . I just looked it up and Andrea, yours is CCS.

2. I'll leave Brad or Jordan to answer your questions around this, it may require a quick call to clarify.

3. Your pages will look exactly like the design's in the guide, just with different colors and your images swapped out for the ones in the examples. The dimensions needed to fit these areas are in the guide itself. We just need the photo part so you don't need to create the design space to the left.

4. As of today if you don't know HTML code then you'll have hard time updating what we implement. This is because of the way Facebook allows us access to add images and designs into the tab area. However, Facebook is switching up their policy in the future and we'll be able to host those pages in Convio and pull them in with an iFrame into Facebook which will give you version control and wysiwyg creation ability. There is no exact timeline for this yet but we'll post the code to the community as soon as Facebook lets us know.

5. Yes, we can create that interest for you, just make a note in the guide that you want Convio to do that.

6. People who sign up will be opted into all housefile email. We specifically ask for Newsletter because users tend to understand what they are getting with that but if you want to change the language and just say 'receive email from our org' then that is fine too.

7. Facebook page name cannot be changed, this is a Facebook limitation. I think most people will be coming to this page via a link in Facebook or via your website so the site URL probably doesn't matter as much, especially considering the cost of switching the name means you'll have to get all your 'friends' and 'likes' all over again. I would say leave it unless you can prove it is causing a large adoption problem for some people.

Hope that helps!

Ken

JordanViator · September 2010

Hi everyone -

In response to #2, the API materials, I wanted to add some clarification. We ask for your agreement to these terms to protect all parties involved (you and Convio). This essentially lets us know that, in our providing the service for your Page, you agree to not violate Facebook terms of service or local/federal law.

Also it states that Convio Support will not extend to anything created with the APIs by the client or a third party. If for any reason it becomes necessary, Convio might also have to regulate how much bandwidth the API’s are using for your org if whatever you are using it for causes trouble for our servers (for example if you write code that accidently keeps calling our servers over and over again.) In signing this agreement, you assume sole responsibility of anything that may arise should it violate these terms of service. Lastly, it lets you know if you use the APIs we need to be able to contact you and let you know key information about changes to APIs or laws pertaining to using APIs.

Again, this is for everyone's protection: so that you know you agree to not break any service terms and that once we hand this over, it won't be fully supported by Convio if you or a third party change the code, and so that we know you have agreed to these terms before we do the work on your behalf.

Hope this helps answer any lingering questions!

Facebook Service Module Guide

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