Building apps integrated with Facebook using Sencha Touch

A few months back, we demonstrated the power of HTML5 by building a responsive, high-performance Facebook client web app using Sencha Touch, called Fastbook (you can read about the making of this app here). We are happy to share the news that Sencha will be among one of the app development tool providers admitted to the new Facebook® Technology Partners program. From Facebook’s announcement:

“The Facebook Technology Partners program connects developers to 3rd party resources that are built on top of Facebook Platform and SDKs to enable Facebook integration.”

Sencha Touch, our JavaScript framework that enables you to build high performance, touch-based web apps, allows you to easily integrate these apps into any back end, including Facebook. We’ve built a sample application, called The Watch List that leverages a Node.js server, a MongoDB database (hosted by MongoLab), the Facebook Open Graph API, Login with Facebook and of course Sencha Touch. The client side Sencha Touch app authenticates the user with Login with Facebook and talks to the node.js server to make Facebook Open Graph API calls and to store what movies you’re watching in MongoDB.

We’ve recorded a code walkthrough that goes through the core pieces of The Watch List sample app, and shows how it implements Facebook integration both on the Sencha Touch client and on the node.js server side.

You can find the source code for the The Watch List on GitHub: https://github.com/senchalearn/Watchlist.

To learn more about building your apps with Sencha Touch, don’t miss SenchaCon 2013 July 16–19 in Orlando where Sencha engineers will present an entire track dedicated to Sencha Touch covering new features, advanced topics, insider tips and tricks. This is a great opportunity to meet 1:1 with Sencha engineers, meet other HTML5 and Sencha developers in the community, share best practices and network. We are also offering a pre-conference Sencha Touch Bootcamp where you will use Sencha Touch and Sencha Architect to create a working, enterprise mobile application in just one day. You can read more about this year’s event at www.senchacon.com.

If you’re new to Sencha Touch, check out the documentation and get started building your first Sencha Touch app. When you’re done, let us know and submit your app to the Sencha Touch app gallery. Happy coding!