Facebook Gives App Developers A Simpler Way To Integrate With The Platform

Facebook announced today that it is simplifying the process for developers integrating apps into the social network.

A blog post by software engineer Dmitry Soshnikov explained how it used to be:

In the original app-creation flow, you had to find and download our latest SDKs, create a Facebook App ID, enable the platform you were building for, and then copy and paste certain information between our docs and your development environment — all while trying to read our documentation. We are always trying to improve the experience for developers, and having a quick start to integrating with Facebook is one example.

The new process — try it out here — walks developers through interactive guides, displaying only the steps relevant to their app. SDK downloads are included inline, along with code that can be copy and pasted into the app.

Currently, the new process supports iOS, Android, websites and Canvas. Facebook said it plans to expand to other platforms — “as well as extend the steps to let you fully integrate each of our products such as Login, Sharing or App Links.”

Developers working on Windows Phone and Facebook Page Tabs apps can still access the older app creation tools by using the “advanced setup” link.