How clean "semantic" markup can power simple Facebook Connect integrations

How clean semantic markup in your HTML can power Facebook Connect

Chris Thorpe

FACEBOOK DEVELOPER GARAGE FOWA EDITION

So this looks like a bit of an odd title

Semantic Web


Do I mean this? Well no not yet, although RDF and other forms of semantic markup are gaining ground but some of the principles which underly RDF’s precursor - semantically marked up HTML or XHTML


Stuff more like this, either marked up in real microformats like hAtom or the wonderful hRecipe. If more publishers can build these sorts of formats into their products then we’ll be able to make really simple little bits of code which can extract, scrape and most importantly extend the information and functionality of pages and sites


<ul id="clippings"> <li class="a-clipping"> <div class="clipping-contents" id="clipping-265621"> <h2><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/26/big-brother-dropped-channel-4">Big Brother axed by Channel 4</a></h2> <div class="clipping-trail-text" id="clipping-trail-text-265621">Broadcaster confirms that reality show will be dropped after 11th series in 2010. By Mark Sweney and Leigh Holmwood</div> <p class="clipped-on" id="clipped-on-265621">Clipped on 26 August 2009 <a class="show-edit-clipping" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tools/clipping/265621/edit">Edit</a> </p> </div> </li> <li class="a-clipping"> <div class="clipping-contents" id="clipping-265614"> <h2><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/26/us-senator-ted-kennedy-dies" >Senator Ted Kennedy dies aged 77</a></h2> <div id="clipping-trail-text-265614">One of the most influential and longest serving senators in US history had battled brain cancer since May 2008</div> <p class="clipped-on" id="clipped-on-265614">Clipped on 26 August 2009 <a class="show-edit-clipping" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tools/clipping/265614/edit" name="&lid={yourClippings}{Edit}&lpos={yourClippings}{5}">Edit</a> </p> </div> </li></ul>

But we can start today with HTML with some simple semantic markup telling us what each bit does, like this rather simplified bit from The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/26/big-brother-dropped-channel-4




http://www.guardian.co.uk/tools/clipping/265621/edit




http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/26/us-senator-ted-kennedy-dies









Which outputs something which looks a bit like this


<ul> <li> <div> <h2><a href="">Title</a></h2> <div>Trail text</div> <p>Date <a href="">Edit</a> </p> </div> </li></ul>

And if we simplify it further we get this... not too interesting or useful... and certainly not semantic, but it shows the structure


title

trail text

URL

actions

What we get from this sort of structure is this


<ul id="clippings"> <li class="a-clipping"> <div class="clipping-contents" id="clipping-XXXXXX"> <h2><a href="">Title</a></h2> <div class="clipping-trail-text" id="clipping-trail-text-XXXXXX">Trail text</div> <p class="clipped-on" id="clipped-on-XXXXXX">Date <a class="show-edit-clipping" href="">Edit</a> </p> </div> </li></ul>

We can make it more semantic with a few id’s and classes which relate to the function of the text contained within some of the nodes


title

trail text

URL

And when you look at it, this


has a lot in common with the sort of things you’d want to go into the stream



So how do we get from this on The Guardian


to this on Facebook


which brings us to this...

The Guardian is interested in all sorts of things to do with identity and distributed/aggregated identity and one really great way to learn is to experiment and prototype



So if we want to go from this


to this sort of thing, how do we do it simply and in a prototype way, in say about an hour to test out how it works so we can make a case for it to go into production and help the engineers


this is a good start, JQuery is a really lovely JavaScript framework and since at it’s most basic level Facebook Connect is a client side development environment a good JavaScript libary is all we need to build a prototype



So how do we get the good bits from this...


var title = $('a', $('#clipping-'+ id)).html(); var trailtext = $('#clipping-trail-text-'+ id).html(); var href = $('a', $('#clipping-'+ id)).attr('href');


it’s pretty easy, it’s actually about 3 lines of JQuery get us the relevant bits of content if the content is marked up well, so how do we put it together with Connect


actions

but how would we add some actions to post to Facebook


actions

1

2

well actually part of the clue is that within the UL there is an iterator waiting to be unlocked


<ul id="clippings"> <li class="a-clipping"> <div class="clipping-contents" id="clipping-XXXXXX"> <h2><a href="">Title</a></h2> <div class="clipping-trail-text" id="clipping-trail-text-XXXXXX">Trail text</div> <p class="clipped-on" id="clipped-on-XXXXXX">Date <a class="show-edit-clipping" href="">Edit</a> </p> </div> </li> <li class="a-clipping"> <div class="clipping-contents" id="clipping-YYYYYY"> <h2><a href="">Title</a></h2> <div class="clipping-trail-text" id="clipping-trail-text-YYYYYY">Trail text</div> <p class="clipped-on" id="clipped-on-YYYYYY">Date <a class="show-edit-clipping" href="">Edit</a> </p> </div> </li></ul>

1

2

We can build the iterator out of the HTML and JQuery, within the UL which has the unique id of clippings there are DIVs which have a class of clipping-contents

and because we’ve got the HTML maked up with the clipping id we can do something interesting with this


<ul id="clippings"> <li class="a-clipping"> <div class="clipping-contents" id="clipping-265621"> </div> </li> <li class="a-clipping"> <div class="clipping-contents" id="clipping-265614"> </div> </li></ul>

$("#clippings .clipping-contents").each( function() { var currentid = $(this).attr('id').replace('clipping-', ''); $('#clipped-on-'+ currentid).append(" | <a href=\"javascript:onPost("+ currentid +")\">share on Facebook</a>");});

like this, which basically says for each time you find a something with a class of clipping-contents then get the content id of it through a bit of JavaScript string manipulation


<ul id="clippings"> <li class="a-clipping"> <div class="clipping-contents" id="clipping-265621"> </div> </li> <li class="a-clipping"> <div class="clipping-contents" id="clipping-265614"> </div> </li></ul>

$("#clippings .clipping-contents").each( function() { var currentid = $(this).attr('id').replace('clipping-', ''); $('#clipped-on-'+ currentid).append(" | <a href=\"javascript:onPost("+ currentid +")\">share on Facebook</a>");});

then in the node which has an id of clipped-on and that content id append a piece of HTML which gives the link to share on Facebook


new actions

then in the node which has an id of clipped-on and that content id append a piece of HTML which gives the link to share on Facebook


<script type="text/javascript"> function onConnected() { $('#connectbutton').remove(); $('#connectdetails').show(); $("#clippings .clipping-contents").each( function() { var currentid = $(this).attr('id').replace('clipping-', ''); $('#clipped-on-'+ currentid).append(" | <a href=\"javascript:onPost("+ currentid +")\">share on Facebook</a>");

}); }

FB.init("MY_API_KEY_FOR_MY_APP", "/xd_receiver.htm", {"ifUserConnected":onConnected});

</script>

we can now add in some of the simple Connect stuff



}); }


</script>




}); }


</script>



<div id="connectbutton"> <h2>Share your clippings with your friends on Facebook</h2> <fb:login-button size="large" background="white" length="long"></fb:login-button></div>

<div id="connectdetails"> <fb:profile-pic uid="loggedinuser" facebook-logo="true" size="thumb" linked="true"></fb:profile-pic> <fb:name uid="loggedinuser" useyou="false"></fb:name></div>


}); }

$('#connectdetails').hide();FB.init("MY_API_KEY_FOR_MY_APP", "/xd_receiver.htm", {"ifUserConnected":onConnected});

</script>

and can add in a pair of divs to contain the Connect login button and the Connect details, we’ll hide the Connect details div by default on page load and if the user connects or is connected we’ll hide the Connect button div and show the Connect details one


function onPost(id) { var title = $('a', $('#clipping-'+ id)).html(); var trailtext = $('#clipping-trail-text-'+ id).html(); var href = $('a', $('#clipping-'+ id)).attr('href'); var attachment = { 'name': title, 'href': href, 'caption': '{*actor*} just clipped a link on The Guardian and shared it.', 'description': trailtext, }; FB.Connect.streamPublish('', attachment, null, null, 'Tell people about your clipping'); }

and then we’ll roll up the pieces of JavaScript where we were assembling the content to go into the stream into a handler for when the user clicks the link and pass them as an attachment to the FB.Connect.streamPublish method


function onPost(id) { var title = $('a', $('#clipping-'+ id)).html(); var trailtext = $('#clipping-trail-text-'+ id).html(); var href = $('a', $('#clipping-'+ id)).attr('href'); var attachment = { 'name': title, 'href': href, 'caption': '{*actor*} just clipped a link on The Guardian and shared it.', 'description': trailtext, }; FB.Connect.streamPublish('', attachment, null, null, 'Tell people about your clipping'); }

and then we’ll roll up the pieces of JavaScript where we were assembling the content to go into the stream into a handler for when the user clicks the link and pass them as an attachment to the FB.Connect.streamPublish method


and here’s how it works...


time to connect


click Share on Facebook


Up pops the feed box


Up pops the feed box


What next?

Well we have an API for ourcontent, so it could be thatyou could make socially connected content widgets for your site.


Thank you

http://www.guardian.co.uk/open-platformTwitter: @openplatform

[email protected]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/open-platform

http://www.guardian.co.uk/open-platform

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Date post:	09-May-2015
Category:	Technology
Upload:	the-guardian-open-platform
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How clean "semantic" markup can power simple Facebook Connect integrations

Technology