We’ve Added Maps to Our Facebook Integration

January 21st, 2009

Here I am inside fm_generate_button

Today we have released more updates to our Facebook Connect integration. Now you can display map thumbnails in your news feed. Its a small but useful addition that makes it easier to share your publicly visible locations with your Facebook friends. Learn how to enable maps below.

To display map thumbnails in your news feed you need to enable full stories on Facebook. Here’s how to do it:

First be sure your Facebook sharing is enabled here. Next, visit your authorized applications page and click Edit Settings for Brightkite.

Finally, in the Edit Brightkite Settings pop up window select the option to allow Brightkite to publish specific story sizes automatically and select full. Click Okay.

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Posted by Brady Becker at 11:19 AM in Facebook

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@maxbeatty

405 weeks ago

This is awesome! I love the direction Brightkite is taking!

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Taylor Smith

405 weeks ago

This is really cool. Something I've noticed, which may be a Facebook bug, is that after setting these options, they save and work fine, but will not show up when you click "Edit Settings" again - as if you never set them to begin with. Is that happening for anyone else?

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2 replies · active 405 weeks ago

Lesley

39p

405 weeks ago

Taylor, I've noticed that as well. The bug on Facebook's end, so there's not much we can do.

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Taylor Smith

405 weeks ago

Thanks Lesley, that's what I figured.

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charlieok

39p

405 weeks ago

Very cool! This is what I was hoping to help create :-/

My request would be to have more control over what is being posted, at the individual post level. Some posts I'd like to direct to facebook, others not so much. I wouldn't want to change the settings every few posts.

Also, they should have mentioned you here:

/save/_embed/http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17...

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Beau Lebens

150p

405 weeks ago

Pretty slick! I might have to give BK a try again.

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Andrew

404 weeks ago

This is great stuff, but I have a question (I tried your feedback thing, but it's not working so well...). Can you add an option to only post stories to FB if I Check In publicly? I hate how my FB page has all these posts that say "Andrew checked in @ Aurora" and the same map is there all the time too.

Another option would be to use the place where I place snapped as the @ Place. Loopt does this. So you can check in @ Home.

Anyway, keep up the great work!

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2 replies · active 404 weeks ago

Lesley

39p

404 weeks ago

Andrew, one quick way to get it to do what you want is to set "everyone else" to hidden when you are in private mode. Then whenever you post publicly it will show on FB, but in private mode your activity will be hidden from sharing.

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Robert

403 weeks ago

I must be doing something wrong. I followed the instructions as given, but when I "Post a Photo" in BrightKite (using iPhone app), the only thing that appears on my facebook wall is an entry that:

-- says "Brightkite Photos"

-- has the picture I posted (full sized)

-- caption I entered

I did a screen capture of all my settings: /save/_embed/http://picasaweb.google.com/r.andrade1969/BrightK...

Also, since the iPhone app says "Check In and Post a Photo", I would have expected my "status" to be what I had put in the caption for the photo...this hasn't happened.

Any assistance or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Robert

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2 replies · active 399 weeks ago

Lesley

39p

399 weeks ago

Hi Robert, it looks like you have the FB app sharing photos to an album and that is the expected behavior. If you want them to post to your wall as a thumbnail with a map showing your location, you will have to set them to post to the news feed and then authorize the app to post short or full stories here: /save/_embed/http://www.facebook.com/editapps.php?v=allowed

The only way to have the status update with your photo caption would be to set your photos to post as a status, which will include the caption and a link to your photo on Brightkite. I hope that helps.

Lesley

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Robert

399 weeks ago

Lesley, thanks for the input. I guess my initial comment was more related to a feature that was only available for a short time. I do currently have my photos set to "News Feed", and it works how you described. The thing I liked (a while back) was that it had also updated the status with the photo comment. Not sure if that was just a glitch or one time thing, but I thought it was pretty cool.

Maybe add that as an option? When posting a photo to News Feed (thumbnail + map) have an option to also update status. :)

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mszatny

399 weeks ago

Same happened to me as Robert......I had BOTH picture and location displayed when I tried a couple of weeks ago. But now, only the picture shows.

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1 reply · active 399 weeks ago

Lesley

39p

399 weeks ago

In your Brightkite sharing settings do you have photos going to your news feed or a photo album?

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Ryan W Smith

391 weeks ago

Perhaps I'm going something wrong, but I only get options for one line and short stories, not long stories :( I've tried reloading the app, with no luck, has the app changed or am I missing something?

Thanks,

Ryan

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2 replies · active 391 weeks ago

Lesley

39p

391 weeks ago

Ryan, I think that's something that has changed on Facebook's end. When I try to edit my app settings in Facebook those options aren't even there anymore. You might try pinging their support about it, I'm not sure if it's a permanent change or a bug.

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Ryan

389 weeks ago

My edit settings just gives me a "bookmark" tab and and "additional permissions" tab

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2 replies · active 389 weeks ago

Lesley

39p

389 weeks ago

Hi Ryan, with Facebook's new design the applications work a little differently, which is why you see different options available. I believe they basically took out the option for one-line and full stories and made everything short stories. We're investigating to see if there is something we can do on our end to still have different story sizes.

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Ryan

388 weeks ago

Well whatever the reason, my map does not appear and these instructions do not reflect the current FB environment. My options to match up to what is posted here.

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Chris

382 weeks ago

These intstructions seem obsolete, or I'm doing something wrong?

On my "Edit Settings" for Brightkite I just see "Bookmark" and "Additional Permissions", no "Wall" nor "Profile" tabs.

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2 replies · active 382 weeks ago

Lesley

39p

382 weeks ago

Hi Chris, these settings are no longer available. When FB changed its design, it changed our application settings as well. Instead of having those story options, now FB just publishes news feed items as short stories, which automatically include the thumbnail and map. We will edit this post to reflect the changes. Sorry for the confusion.

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John D

379 weeks ago

A few issues I have with the Facebook integration and Check in with photo:

- if I choose to share as a Facebook photo, there is no link back to the Brightkite site so my friends can see the location/map

- if I choose to share to my status, there's just the text and a link

- if I publish to news feed, the little map and photo shows up OK - but not visibile in the Facebook iPhone app

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Ajit

352 weeks ago

Has something changed in BK ? I am not able to see any posts sent from BK on FB. Settings seem to be set fin and they just stopped working a few days back