Tutorials

In part 1, I explained how key-based SSL authentication works. In part 2, I intend to explain how to implement a certificate authorized SSL connection in Java.

If you haven't read part 1 yet, you might want to check it out. I'll still be here when you get back.

Working (as I do) with secure equipment, it was inevitable that I'd eventually have to connect to a server using SSL. I didn't even get to write my own code; I had to use a Java client library that was provided to me.

The programmers of my client library weren't exactly forthcoming on where I could change its configuration, but at least they had provided me with the certificates I needed. I had to do a lot of research to find out how to use them, and I'm recording that information here.

After all, isn't learning supposed to be cooperative? Read on, and I'll show you how to work with SSL sockets in Java.

I haven't added my app to the Facebook directory or even told anyone about it yet; nevertheless, I somehow wound up with more than 1000 users in my database! (And oddly, Facebook only mentioned 299 "monthly active users"; I wonder how they got that number?)

The app is nowhere near ready, and I don't anyone seeing my plans, since stealing Facebook app ideas is rampant (just look at anything by Zynga)! So I shut it down.

But I still need to develop. And I'd like to let my friends visit, since they'll give me good feedback without causing me trouble. What to do?

Program them in, of course. Read on for my three-step approach.

As I said before, I've had some trouble with PHP Facebook development.. This time, I couldn't get a user ID because the user came from a non-Facebook page.

An application's drawing page is called it's "canvas page". It's the starting point for the whole app. Unfortunately, when the user jumps there from a bookmark, or enters the URL into the browser directly, Facebook can't supply the user ID. The app can't do anything, because it doesn't know who the heck it's working for. The user must visit your app's canvas page from a Facebook page.

Since your canvas page is a Facebook page, and the user just visited it directly, you'd think that redirecting to the same page would do the job. And it does! But only if the user clicks on a link.

Then there's the additional problem of users who don't allow you to see their user ID. You have to ask them for permission first.

I put together a skeleton that takes care of all these issues for FBML pages (I don't think it'll work for iFrame pages). Read on for the code.

I'm doing some Facebook development, using the PHP client library. I've been absolutely boggled by the lack of documentation. I mean, maybe I'm just missing it, but... nothing for the PHP client library at all. And the way they treat some development issues as trivial reminds me of professors leaving the really difficult problems as "an exercise for the student".

So I'm going to document my problems and solutions here on my website. I assume you're already familiar with web development in general, so you should have a good grasp of HTML and whatever client you're using. I'm a PHP programmer, so that's what I'll deal with first.