"fb://" url scheme - official or not?
Some dev blogs have published information about the "fb://" url scheme for opening various views in the Facebook iPhone App. No matter how much I've searched, I haven't found one word from any official Facebook source about this.
Since the information is public anyways, I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd like to know, whether using this url scheme is officially approved, am I allowed to use it, does it work correctly, and if it's not approved, will it be and what's the approximate schedule for that?
Thanks in advance for any info on this subject!
Answer
It's for iOS only. The iOS API lets you define you own URL scheme, so Facebook must have developed their application to register the fb:// URL scheme on iOS devices. It's not a feature that was created by Apple, it's something you, the developer, can make up.
Here are some resources you can investigate
- The Facebook iOS SDK
- Here on StackOverflow
- A tutorial on how it works (not Facebook-specific)
You can use it from your own applications on iOS, but only if the Facebook application is installed. There are, however, plugins and browser extensions out there that mimic the behavior by handling the fb:// schema on your desktop browser.