More Spicing up a Facebook Application with Userplane

“Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.” - William Ruckelshaus

In my last post, I showed how to integrate Userplane's Webchat client into a Facebook application. I used the Instant Install version of the client, which made the integration straightforward. Lately I've been turning my attention to the Integrated version of the Userplane client.

My motivation for using the Integrated version is the feature set. A comparison of the feature set shows the richer functionality available with the Integrated client. I have big plans for my Facebook application and want to use the extra features.

Of course, there is no free lunch. I've started on the integration and am working my way through the integration steps. The overall plan is the same – I'll host the Facebook application on my web server and interface with Userplane from there. The two main task I have are maintaining user sessions and communicating the same to Userplane. I've been following the detailed integration steps for Webchat.

The integration has been going well enough; yet all of that integration has given me a longing for the Instant Install version. I looked back at my last post and realized that I didn't show the client in action. That's the best part, so I thought it was worth a look:

The client has a normal chat area in the upper right. One nice feature is the list of chat rooms on the left, and also the ability to create new chat rooms. And of course, the A/V dock (on the lower right) rocks.

The main point of this screenshot is to show that you get a full featured, easy to install, client with the Instant Install version. In most cases I'd pick the Instant Install version.