Facebook Cookbook - Jay Goldman [2]
Pete Forde with Rowan Hick: Advanced Relational Database Table Optimization, Advanced Relational Database Table Optimization
Pete Forde is a cofounder of Unspace Interactive, one of the world’s best Ruby on Rails consulting firms. He’s also an amazing photographer, a charismatic leader of the tech community in Toronto, founder of our Rails Pub Night, and a co-organizer of the Ruby Fringe Conference. I asked Pete to contribute a recipe about optimizing database performance and got more than I could have hoped for when he dragged Rowan along for the ride. You can find Pete at http://www.unspace.ca or on Flickr at http://flickr.com/photos/leftist. Rowan is at http://www.rowanhick.com.
Alain Chesnais: Attracting Users Through Facebook Ads, Attracting Users Through Facebook Ads
Alain is the vice president of product development for View 22, makers of the SceneCaster application. Their Facebook application, a portal into the world of SceneCaster, has quickly attracted over a million users. Alain has previously worked at Alias|Wavefront, ATI, Tucows, and TrueSpectra, and has forgotten more about the world of 3D than you or I will ever know.
Jeffrey Tseng: Measuring Your Success, Measuring Your Success
I was completely blown away when Albert Lai, Kontagent’s CEO and an old friend of mine, showed me their demo. Albert’s a very successful serial entrepreneur and has another great startup on his hands, cofounded with his CTO, Jeffrey Tseng. Kontagent is focused on providing next-generation social analytics tools for developers, and Jeffrey is well-suited to his roll, having previously been the founder of a startup that provided consulting services for wireless sensor networks. You can find them at http://www.kontagent.com.
Preface
One day, in the not too distant future, I fully expect my grandmother to ask me about Facebook. She’s particularly hip, as grandmothers go, and is already all over email. She even occasionally “surfs” the Web to read up on the latest events in her native South Africa! You might not think she falls into Facebook’s target demographic, but I would hate to be the person standing between her and her Mac if anyone told her that she could learn even more about her beloved Toronto Maple Leafs by registering for a Facebook account. She is, after all, their number-one fan.
There’s an important takeaway in there for everyone who has picked up this book in a bookstore and is weighing the idea of building a Facebook empire: my grandmother, and millions of people like her, are waiting for you to build the application that lures them into the world’s fastest growing social network. Please don’t disappoint her, because I’m her number one fan, and I have no objection to getting a little rough in the corners, if you know what I mean.
Who Should Read This Book
The contents of this cookbook are primarily aimed at developers with a general background in web development who are interested in building Facebook web applications. Although Facebook Desktop and Mobile apps are covered where applicable, the content in here is really aimed more at the web side of things. There’s a wide swath of material covered, from how to plan an app, to really gritty API details and FQL calls, to how to market and attract users, so there should be something for everyone.
Most cookbooks assume that the would-be chefs reading them have a basic knowledge of how to cook, and this book is no different. I assume you know your way around the following (even at a very fuzzy, somewhat-in-the-dark level): web development in the areas of HTML, CSS, programming (particularly PHP), and SQL/database design. You don’t need to be a master of any of them, and I’ve asked a few friends to contribute some recipes to help you out if you’re just getting started (particularly Recipes and , respectively). I’ve also pointed out some excellent books if you need to brush up on some of the related topics.
What’s in This Book?
Like all good cookbooks, this one is intended to be pulled off the shelf and rifled through