minibook -------- A cross-platform desktop Facebook (FB) status updater and lister written in Python. Uses PyFacebook to make FB API calls. Requirements ------------ python pygtk pyfacebook: http://github.com/sciyoshi/pyfacebook/tree/master minibook should run on all platforms where these are available, currently tested on Linux and Windows XP. How to use it for your own good? -------------------------------- Every application has to register on FB, cannot just fool around... The FB API uses two keys, an API_KEY and a SECRET_KEY to check the application making any API request on behalf of the user. The API_KEY is unique for an application, the SECRET_KEY makes sure that other people cannot hijack the identity of the app. Thus FB does not allow the SECRET_KEY to be made public. The only problem is, that in an Open Source desktop app, this is not possible... Then there is only one solution (I know of at the moment): everyone has to have their own version of the application... (silly, isn't it?) So, to use this project, you have to do the following: 1) Create a new application on FB http://www.facebook.com/developers/ Set it's type to "desktop". 2) On your app's page, note the "API Key" and "Application Secret". Put them in a file called "config" in the root directory of minibook. The first line is the "API Key", the second is "Application Secret". 3) Setup the permission for this app to update your status. See: http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Extended_permission More specifically, point your browser to these address: http://www.facebook.com/authorize.php?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY&v=1.0&ext_perm=publish_stream http://www.facebook.com/authorize.php?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY&v=1.0&ext_perm=read_stream where you replace "YOUR_API_KEY" appropriately 4) Install dependencies, specifically PyFacebook 5) Run app, if everythings fine it should start the browser to log you in, after which you can read your friends' status updates andupdate your profile! Inherent limitations -------------------- Facebook privacy settings grately affect the behaviour of this app. If you have friends whose updates are not shown but everyone else's are there, or whose pictures regularly cannot be displayed, most likely they disabled sharing those information with applications. You can check and change your own settings after logging into Facebook: Menu Bar > Settings > Privacy Settings > Applications > Settings Licensing --------- Minibook, it's source code and artwork is released under the MIT License, basically giving you complete control of how do you use, modify and share this code, as long as the appropriate copyright information is maintained. See the file "LICENSE.txt" for detailed terms and conditions for usage.