Reference Guide

facebook FBML Reference Guide Page 76 of 159

Fb:ref

Description

Fetches and renders FBML from a given ref source – either a ref string "handle" you've created using

fbml.setRefHandle or a URL that serves FBML. You can use this ref to publish identical FBML to a large

number of user profiles and subsequently update those profiles, without having to republish FBML on behalf of

each user (that is, using profile.setFBML for each user). For a high level discussion of the benefits of fb:ref and

how to use it, read this forum post

Attributes

Required Name Type Description

required url

string

The URL from which to fetch the FBML. Facebook caches the content retrieved

from that URL until you call fbml.refreshRefUrl. You must specify either url or

handle, but not both.

handle

string

The string previously set by fbml.setRefHandle that identifies the FBML. You

must specify either url or handle, but not both.

Examples

Using Key/Value Pairs

When using key/value pairs, Facebook stores developer-specified FBML on its servers in the form of a

hashtable.

To set the FBML code of YourHandle, you must call fbml.setRefHandle at least once.

fbml.setRefHandle("YourHandle", "FBML_Content")

Next, include the FBML referenced by the handle. Insert the <fb:ref> tag into the appropriate place in your

markup:

<fb:ref handle="YourHandle" />

Using the URL Attribute

When using fb:ref with the url attribute, Facebook downloads the specified URL, caches the result, and parses

the FBML, passing it to the user.

To include the specified FBML, insert the <fb:ref> tag into the appropriate place in your markup:

<fb:ref url="http://www.mysite.com/someurl.php" />

To clear the cache, call fbml.refreshRefUrl:

fbml.refreshRefUrl("http://www.mysite.com/someurl.php")

Notes

Performance

If you have to update a large number of refs, you want to be using handle refs, since you can do it with a single

push, rather than URL refs, which will hammer your server on the callback.

[verify]

You may also want to stream

out your updates in parallel, which can be easily accomplished by using curl_multi instead of curl in the PHP5

facebook rest client. There's a guide available for this.