February 7, 2010
Now Playing Facebook Support Updated
The “API gods” over at Facebook have decided to once again change the world by removing the ability to update profile boxes via the API. They seem to be locking down the profile by only allowing some type of tabs to be created. I am bored. Too many changes.
Given that and the difficulty in setting up profile stuff, I am bailing on the profile support and giving in to the demands of my users that have asked.
Now Playing does status updates or publishes news feed items!
You can choose between status updates or news feed items. Here is what a status update look like this. Text is fully configurable.
However, if you want a juicier post, you can go for a news feed item. If you get an Amazon match for the track, you will get a prettier display with album artwork. I am not supporting custom album artwork here because most people can’t get it right (read too hard to support). The message part of the post is configurable but the rest is not — for now.
You will have to grant Now Playing another Facebook permission to make this work. The best bet is just to repeat the setup process on the plugin configuration page.
I also brought over the recent Twitter changes I had put into the Mac edition. Now all editions have the same functionality for Facebook and Twitter.
Hope you enjoy the new stuff. Let me know how it goes.
Whether it is Status or News Feed this would be really annoying to FB friends, having this appear every 3 minutes or so. If I had a friend displaying that I'd hit the [Hide] button. I am going to uninstall Now Playing
That your call but others have asked for this. I delayed doing this feature for this reason but Facebook has forced my hand. However, I added a nice option called "Rate Limit" that allows you to say how often you want these to occur. You could set it at once an hour, once a day, or once a week. That way you don't push out too much info. Only as much as you want. On top of that Facebook only allows each application to post so many news feed items a day. And your friend's feeds will not necessarily see every news post you post. Facebook filters "like" items down into "View similar posts". So I think there are lots of good things here.
Sounds like a good deal Brandon. I'd rather it that way any how. If I don't want to continually send status updates out, I can just temporarily disable the plugin in Media Player under tools/plugins. It also solves the issue of it seeming I am still playing something days after I stopped.
Cheers for the update Brandon
Facebook seem incapable of keeping features of their API static. I was meaning to write an application for it a while back and have decided not to bother. All my time would be taken up recoding my application because they keep changing things causing it to break.
Agreed. They seem to change more than anyone else out there.
I like it! My layout is:
is jamming out to by . ( from )
Simple clean and my rate is set to 30 minutes.
Hey, Brandon. Is there something specific we should ask for if we request facebook to keep this API? (I remember reading that they're getting rid of the boxes tab, but thought it also said the tab was being removed in favor of the left side of the profile.)
I reverted back after installing the update last night, so as to get this feature back. ("Now playing" on the left side of my Facebook profile.) It appears to work for now, but obviously I'd rather not wait until it stops working to make my preferences known to FB.
Who knows? Probably not. The API used is:
http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Profile.setFBML
This change is a shame. Not blaming you, but Facebook. I much preferred the box on my profile page. Will disable the plug-in unless/until Facebook changes back.
Brandon,
I have two licenses, one for Mac and one for Windows both using iTunes. On my windows machine I have not been able to Authorize Twitter. This morning NowPlaying told me there was an update, I updated but the Twitter Auth is still failing. any thoughts?
The issue was fixed in 3.7.0.2. I had the wrong version posted. Please get that update and you will be all set.
It is a shame we lost the box feature. I really don't like spamming my friends with my status so I've turned off Facebook (luckily this is not the reason I paid for a license).
Just out of curiosity, why not leave the old implementation in and when Facebook finally disables it, it goes away?
I didn't want to have to change the user interface again when they finally remove it. Plus, I get 99% of all tech support requests from people on the plugin because they can't figure out how to add a box to their profile. Its really hurt my app ratings. This new setup is much easier and usage has grown dramatically.
Hi,i can see my NowPlaying interface on facebook,I was wondering if it's normal
Is there anyway to downgrade my installation of now playing on mac? Or has facebook already disabled the underlying features? I have the box still on my profile but the information it is showing is a month old. I just noticed that is not updating any more. This is really lame. I have 2 licenses for this software and this is the whole reason I bought it. I am not looking to spam my friends at any rate. I merely want this included in my profile information. My friends already know how much I love music and have some idea what kinds. I just want people looking at my profile to get it.
The method used was setFBML. It has been deprecated.
Hi how do go about buying playing now.
regards George
Here is the iTunes edition for Windows. Links at the top for other editions.
http://brandon.fuller.name/archives/hacks/nowplaying/