Notices

I have written a Facebook status update application, which can now be found in the extras-devel repository under the name "effing". Following the Linux model of "do one thing, and do a half-assed job of it" (OK...I might have modified that a little bit), I wanted a simple app that shows my current Facebook status and lets me update it.

I normally update through the http://touch.facebook.com site, but I think that this activity is ripe for a dedicated app to do it without waiting for web pages to load. I originally wrote this app in Python (using Qt through PySide) but decided to rewrite it in C++/Qt because I didn't like the delays while starting the app and because I thought it would be cool to give that a try.

I have to say that both Qt and the QtCreator SDK are very good. I was able to build and run the app directly on my Ubuntu laptop (both as a desktop app and as a simulated phone app). One click gave me a deb package that I could install on the phone and test. And Qt takes care of all the little details like properties files that can be radically different on different platforms.

The app uses QT networking to communicate with the facebook graph api, and uses webkit to show the facebook login window (facebook deviates a bit from the OAuth standard by requiring direct login instead of allowing you to send in a username/password combo for the user, so you have to show the login page with a webkit browser widget and check for a particular redirect address). And (though they don't really seem to promote it for this, so it was a bit hard to find) the ScriptEngine handling of json was extremely easy...better than the python equivalent. The whole thing worked just as well on the amd64 platform as on the simulator or actual phone. So I give the Qt C++ stuff a big thumbs up.

The one thing that was a bit difficult was packaging it to send to extras. The QtCreator spits out an armel deb package that can be installed right onto the phone, but I had a hard time finding any info on what I needed to do to get that onto Extras. I did find some example code in garage and a few entries on this site that gave some explanation, but there was a significant amount of trial and error over the past several days to get this working. One thing that made it more difficult was that I was convinced I should be able to do everything directly on my 64 bit ubuntu laptop without having to resort to scratchbox (which I had to install on a 32 bit VM last time I tried it) or some other crazy method. It turns out I was right.

In any case, the packaging (when done from the ubuntu command line) is quite simple, and I will put together a primer on how to take a working QT creator app and turn it into the files for submission to extras.

So please give the app a try and let me know what you think. Right now it is really very basic (which is what I wanted) but I am considering a few other features such as displaying comments that are posted on your status, indicators for messages, and maybe some jazzier looks. I am not looking to recreate facebrick (which I think is great, and I recommend if you are looking for a full-featured facebook app, though I have not been able to make it work for some time now due to a mysterious error). I think the N900 browser is superior to anything else mobile for browsing facebook...I just wanted to more easily update my status.

One final note: I would like to include facebook places functionality at some point, but Facebook has not made that available through the api (it is read only...no ability to share your location via the api). But I will keep my eye out for that to change.

The source is available on gitorious (I need to update it to the current point) and I am working on getting the bug tracking up. So if you have some issues, post them here until I get the bugs going.

I would quite like to be able to update my status via the IM status updater... I had hoped that it would be possible with the Facebook Conversations plugin, but alas no.

Anyhow, once i get my n900 back from Nokia, I'll give your app a try. Thanks for pushing it out for us.

thanks for the app, it looks like it could possibly be a really handy addition to my phone.
im having a little problem with it at the moment. ive tried logging in multiple times with no joy, ive turned off the auto capitalisation but it still happens when typing my usarname and pass, once i have put them in and click login, nothing happens.

The capitalization seems to be related to this bughttp://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-12171

I am going to explore some possible workarounds, including using the full and not touch version of the login box. I have experienced this with some other apps as well and I am pretty sure that there is a way to deal with this, though the bug listed above says the only way is to use the experimental qt packages.

The issue goes away if you first click in the "password" box then click in the "email or phone" box and start typing. Also, it only happens with the hardware keyboard, so use the on-screen keyboard and see if you can log in.

I will try some things and work on a new release asap.

if u change the title and add N900 image it would be cool...i'm still using facebrick coz of i dont like the name...

I should also mention that the Facebook post will say "via effing N900" on it. Mildly offensive to some (like CasTTeLLo), hopefully a bonus to others. If that offends you, you might not want to use the app. If that REALLY offends you, you might want to get an iPhone where Steve Jobs would personally remove such an app from the repository.

How about providing a configurable title?
I love posting with "the effing N900" but others may not.

imho "posted using Nokia N900" will be better.

i have installed the app but it is not letting me logged in .... whenever i enter my login details .. it does nothing ... despite attempting it several times ...

The "posted using" is not really configurable. It comes from the name of the facebook application whose app id is used to log in and communicate. I may look into allowing a selection among multiple application ids, but I need to make sure that is not a violation of facebook terms of service for the api.

I will check the login problem, but I think it is related to the QWebkit bug that was mentioned before. I am testing a change that may give a workaround, and which could resolve that issue as well. I am having trouble duplicating the issue, which means that it also could be a dependency problem, and I will double-check that I have all dependencies included.