Facebook Releases Updated Graph API

Software engineer Mahesh Sharma wrote in a post on the Facebook developer blog that applications created starting Thursday may only call version 2.2 of the Graph API or greater, adding that version 2.1 will be depreciated Oct. 30, 2016.

Facebook had announced at its F8 global developer conference in San Francisco April 30 that version 1.0 will be depreciated April 30, 2015.

Sharma offered some highlights of new features of version 2.2, saying that the full list of additions, changes and depreciations can be found in the change logs for the Graph API and the iOS and Android SDKs, as well as the upgrade guide:

• Apps can now programmatically hide and unhide comments on page posts.
• A new token_for_business field on the user object makes it easier to identify the same person across multiple apps owned by the same business.
• There’s a new way to manage page subscriptions for real-time updates via a dedicated subscribed_apps edge.
• More of a page’s attributes are now editable via the API through the page node or the settings edge.

Sharma wrote on the addition of support for versioning to the ads API:

We recently announced new access levels for the ads API. In addition, from v2.2 onward, the ads API now supports versioning.

For developers using the ads API, versioning means increased control over how you opt into new ads API features. Rather than changing a migration setting in your app dashboard, you can now control the behavior by specifying the version number in your client codebase.

Our advertising products continue to evolve at a fast pace. To ensure that developers take advantage of this progress, the ads API will follow a 90-day breaking-change policy. To make this behavior clear, ads API methods will be removed from a version 90 days after the next version is released.

As v2.2 is the first release for the ads API, ads API methods will be removed from v1.0, v2.0 and v2.1 in 90 days’ time. Developers using the Ads API should update their apps to call v2.2 before Jan. 28, 2015. After that date, all calls to ads API methods that do not specify v2.2 (including calls that do not specify any version) will result in an error.

For full details on the changes to the Ads API in v2.2, see the ads API blog and the dedicated ads API change log and upgrade guide.

Finally, Sharma reminded developers of policy changes tied to the release of version 2.1 of the Graph API, which take effect at the end of their 90-day depreciation period, Nov. 5:

The recommendation bar plugin is deprecated and will stop appearing on your pages after Nov. 5. Please remove the <fb:recommendations-bar/> XFBML tag from your pages at the earliest opportunity.

You must not incentivize people to use social plugins or to like a page. This includes offering rewards, or gating apps or app content based on whether or not a person has liked a page. From Nov. 5, the liked field within the page property of the signed_request object will return true for all apps created before Aug. 7, 2014, when those apps are rendered inside a page tab.

The insights edge will be removed from the application object in v1.0 and v2.0. You should update your apps to call /v2.1/{app_id}/app_insights or /v2.2/{app_id}/app_insights to take advantage of the new app insights API.

Developers: What are your initial thoughts?