Want to win a free 6 month subscription to JFBConnect? It's simple. Just go to our Facebook Page and enter the sweepstakes. It takes just a few minutes.

The contest runs until February 6th, and at the end, a winner will be chosen at random.

Go to the SourceCoast Facebook Page now and enter!

The newest version of JFBConnect is now available, and it takes promoting your site to the next level! With over 60 new features and updates, this is a big release! By far the biggest is the ability to send Requests to all of your users, or let your visitors send site invitations to their friends. All with detailed tracking of who sent, received, and acted upon each request.

The image on the right shows what was sent out to thousands of SourceCoast users to let them know about this blog post. You can do the same for your site!

Facebook Requests

Requests are the system in Facebook for applications to send status updates to their users. Think about the notices from games that it's your turn, or that your farm misses you and you need to plant new crops (yeah, you know what I mean). Now, you can send the same types of status updates to all of your Facebook users for letting them know about a new blog post, promotion, sale, or other exciting event happening at your site. Each request can be customized with the URL you want to send the user to and a brief message they will see to let them know why they should accept the request. With the click of a button, you can send a request to thousands of Facebook users!

The new system also lets you create requests that can be sent by visitors of your site to their friends. Again, the destination URL can be set, so you can have your guests invite their friends to your home page, an event page, or whatever you think would draw the best audience. It's fully up to you, and it's the most powerful way to promote your site: social sharing!

Full Request Tracking

Simply sending requests wasn't enough for us though. The Request system features a full tracking interface where you can see the Facebook user that the request was sent from and to, including their Joomla user information if they've linked an account to your site. You'll not only be able to see who's sent requests, but which user's have accepted the request and visited your site.Now you can start seeing what invitation methods are working, and which aren't, so you can refine your message and get the most out of your promotions!

For more information on setting up Facebook Requests for your Joomla site, see the Facebook Requests for Joomla configuration guide.

Other Features in JFBConnect v4.1

The 4.1 release has been in development for months, and extends the power of JFBConnect greatly. In addition to the powerful request system, there's tons of other great improvments you can take advantage of immediately upon upgrading:

• New "Subscribe" module and easy-tag for letting users get updates from Facebook users
• Support for Facebooks Enhanced Dialog box, rolling out to applications right now
• Fluid Canvas support
• Adding Page Tabs with 2 clicks right from within JFBConnect
• Vastly improved User Map area showing profile pictures and other status for each of your Facebook users
• Improved integration with JLinked (LinkedIn for Joomla)
• Google Analytics for social actions from your users (Like clicks and new Comments)

JFBConnect v4.1 is ready for download now for Joomla 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, and is ready for Joomla 2.5 coming out later this month. All users are recommended to upgrade immediately to take advantage of the new features and updates that Facebook has recently made.

Ready to Socialize Your Site?

Get JFBConnect now by using the links below. Also, check out our extensions page for a bundle option of JFBConnect and JLinked and save 10% on both!

New Releases & Support for 6 Months - $49.99   New Releases & Support for 12 Months - $84.99

After months of development, JLinked (JED Link), SourceCoast's social extension for integrating LinkedIn into your Joomla site is now available. This release leverages over 3 years of development time creating the best Facebook integration extension, JFBConnect, allowing for this v1.0 release to be packed with great features that any Joomla admin would want!

With JLinked, you can now let users create accounts and log into your site with just their LinkedIn credentials. Additionally, during the registration process, you can import their avatar and profile information from LinkedIn into JomSocial, Community Builder, Kunena, K2, or Agora. 

LinkedIn, being the largest professional social network, has great tools for including company or user profile information on your site, letting users apply for positions in your company with one click. Additionally, share and recommend social buttons for your content allow you to tap into your user's professional network for the best kind of promotion around: free social advertising. JLinked includes the following LinkedIn widgets in both module and easy-tag (ex. {JLinkedApply} ) form:

• LinkedIn Apply - Add to any pages with job offers to let user's send their resume and contact information from LinkedIn in one click!
• LinkedIn Company Insider - Show a company profile with employee information directly on your site
• LinkedIn Company Profile - Show the LinkedIn bio and employee stats of any company easily
• LinkedIn Member - Display a single user's member profile (great for "Who are we?" or employee listing type pages)
• LinkedIn Recommend - Let your users recommend content to their LinkedIn contacts
• LinkedIn Share - An easy way for user's to post content from your site to their LinkedIn wall

Other features include social widget integration for easily adding a LinkedIn Share, Twitter Share, Google +1, or Facebook Like button to any Joomla or K2 content on your site. For more information, see the full JLinked Product Page. 

Special 20% Discount Through End of the Year

For all users with an active subscription to JFBConnect, you're eligible for a special 20% discount on JLinked for the rest of December! Simply choose a 6 month or 12 month subscription and the discount will be shown at checkout.

Get JLinked

JLinked is available in 6 and 12 month subscriptions which include all new releases and our excellent support for the subscription's lifetime. We also have a 30-day, no questions asked, money back guarantee. Just pick the subscription you'd like below, and you can add LinkedIn to your site in minutes:

Bundle pricing is available with JFBConnect for 10% off! See our extensions page for all subscription options.

Today, SourceCoast attended the Facebook Developer Roadshow here in Austin, TX. The topics ranged from the new Open Graph system to the new timeline features rolling out to an updated invitation system as well as an improved user authentication dialog box. Overall, it was a great time for us to hear about some of the upcoming features of Facebook... Features that we're excited to be working on for our next release of our popular Joomla Facebook integration extension, JFBConnect!

Overall, the roadshow was focused around the new Open Graph system that Facebook is rolling out. Amazingly, it was in 2010 that Facebook introduced the world to the Like button and Open Graph tags as we know it. Those features, well supported in Joomla using JFBConnect, are a way for a user to "Like" an object (usually a page from your site):

"John likes SourceCoast Joomla Extensions"

The Open Graph tags are what let you describe that object easily, so that when the Like is added to the user's timeline, it has the proper context with the page's title, description and image.

So that's great and all, and of course true, because John does "Like" SourceCoast Joomla Extension, everyone does! However, what if John absolutely Loves SourceCoast because our extensions made his Joomla site rock? After more than a year, and billions of Like clicks, Facebook realized that people needed to be able to 'do' more and that "Like" was a little generic. That 'more' is coming in a flexible system from Facebook to use any verb you want on your site. For instance, in your Facebook application, you'll be able to define verbs like "Loves", "Read", "Attended", "Made", and whatever else would work on your site. Combined with some additional Open Graph love, you'll be able to define your pages with a lot more flexibility: one page can be a "Recipe" another an "Event" and another still a "Joomla Extension", if you'd like.

Putting them together, when users interact on your site, you'll be able perform any combination of verbs and objects:

"John loves JFBConnect"

"Alex attended a Super Event"

"Melissa made Sourdough Cookies!"

Each one of these events will push a notification to the users timeline, with links back to your Joomla site. Others can use those links from Facebook to learn more about why (and how) John, Alex, and Melissa were all interacting with your site! Great for visibility, promotion, and engaging with your users as well as growing your site in organic (and free!) ways.

It's exciting stuff, and we're excited to be working on making it just as easy to integrate into your Joomla site as the rest of our social features like single-sign on, Facebook Likes, comments, Page Tab Integration and more. There's a reason that JFBConnect is used on the Joomla Extension Directory itself, and that's simply because we continue to add the best features in the most user-friendly way to make social integration a breeze on your Joomla site!

JFBConnect 4.0 is out now, and packs a punch! New authentication scheme. Google +1, Twitter, and LinkedIn Share buttons. Improved K2 and Joomla support for Likes & Comments. Speed improvements. Bug fixes. Oh my! That's Facebook for Joomla Integration! With v3.4, we added Facebook Page & Canvas support, K2 content integration for automatic Likes & Comments, and tons of other features. Less than a month later, JFBConnect is delivering a slew of new improvements and optimizations to the best Joomla Facebook suite.

So what's in this new release?

Updated facebook authentication for Joomla

The main reason for this release (and the major version number change) is due to an update in the Facebook authentication system to use OAuth2. This new system will be required by Facebook in October. If you're using JFBConnect's registration/login functionality, you'll need to upgrade to JFBConnect 4.0 as soon as possible to make sure you're ready for the switch. However, there's a whole lot more in 4.0 than just some under-the-hood changes to authentication!

Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google +1 social buttons

Our user's asked for it, and now you've got it! In addition to the Facebook Comments and Facebook LIke button, you can now automatically add the Google +1, LinkedIn, and Twitter Share buttons to your Joomla Articles or K2 Content! These buttons will automatically take on the style of your Facebook like button for standard, box-count, or button-count. See them in action at the bottom of this article!

Big code improvements for speed and future development

While not always as exciting to hear about as big new features, this release has a ton of improvements behind the scenes. We've really peeled back the code and overhauled things for big speed and logic improvements, reduced Javascript, improved search engine optimization, and lots of other tidying up. JFBConnect has grown quickly over the last 3 years, and these improvements will help to ensure the same great improvements over the next few years!

Used by Joomla.org. No-risk guarantee. What are you waiting for?

JFBConnect is used on the Joomla Extension Directory for Facebook Login, and comes with a 30-day money back guaratnee. If you aren't already using the most powerful Facebook integration extension for Joomla, now's a great time to add more users to your site and getting your site noticed!

For all the features in this version, see our changelog. Or to get, JFBConnect, use the easy buttons below:

The newest version of JFBConnect is out now and is all about tighter integration between your site and Facebook. We get tons of feedback about what our user's are looking for and are very excited about the new features that we're delivering with this release includingFacebook Page Tab integration, "Reveal Page" support, Canvas Apps, full K2 integration, customizeable usernames and tons of other minor improvements and bug-fixes.

Facebook Page Integration: Have a Facebook Page that you're looking to spruce up and take control over? Now you can with the ease of Joomla. With a few clicks, show your site in your Facebook page. For full customization, you can select a custom template for use with your Facebook Page to customize it to your Page's layout.

Get More Likes Using a Facebook Reveal Page: In addition to showing your site in Facebook, you can show a custom article page to user's who haven't Like'd your FB Page yet. This is a great way to get user's to Like your page, by providing incentive's to Like the page. For a demo:

See the new SourceCoast Facebook Page

Facebook Canvas Support: Show your whole site inside a Facebook application page. Great for a wider canvas to work with, while still getting the bonus of being seen inside a Facebook window which broaden's your site's appeal.

See the JFBConnect Canvas App

Full K2 Integration: After we added automatic Like & Comment support for standard Joomla articles, we got a ton of requests for the same support in K2. This release delivers! Now you can set which K2 categories, or specific articles the Likes & Comments should show up on. Additonally, you can set the look and feel, email notification preferences, and Open Graph tags with the same ease as previous JFBConnect releases.

Customizeable Auto-Usernames: For those sites using the automatic user generation (the Facebook User Only setting), you'll now be able to select from a username scheme of either fb_12345 (the Facebook user's ID), john.smith123 (first.lastYYY), or johsmi123 (first 3 letters of first and last name, followed by unique ID). This will allow the ease of registration of the automatic user creation, with a more personal touch for look of your site

Much, Much More: In addition to the above, there's tons of new features, like improved Open Graph integration, new user redirection settings, improved notification emails for Likes & Comments, and a lot of other nice touches.

Interested in learning more? See the Facebook For Joomla home page!

Late last month, we were very excited to find out that the Joomla Extension Directory chose JFBConnect to power-up it's registration process with Facebook Connect integration. With this addition to the JED, it becomes even easier for users to register via Facebook, leave reviews, add new extensions and generally interact with others in the Joomlasphere.

Even more exciting is the impact JFBConnect is having. Within 12 hours of adding it to the JED, Matt Lipscomb tweeted that over 100 people had already registered, or linked their existing Joomla account, to their Facebook account. Since then, according to Facebook, the extension directory now has almost 1500 active monthly Facebook users!

Have you added JFBConnect to your site? Would you like to give immediate access to over 500 million Facebook users and have an additional 1500 monthly users register on your site? 

If you aren't currently subscribed and want to get the best, and most supported, Facebook for Joomla extension, subscribe now! Support and access to new releases is for the duration below. As always, you're free to use JFBConnect forever, even after your subscription expires:

1) Each version is tailored for your specific version of Joomla - No extra code meant for a different Joomla version to slow your site down or add additional complexity if you're looking at the code.

2) Feature parity between Joomla releases - While some features may be specific to Joomla 1.5 or 1.6, in general, when a Facebook specific feature is implemented for one version of JFBConnect, it works automatically for both!

Both of these traits together will allow for quicker development and a better overall experience for all of our users. As always, the Joomla 1.5 and Joomla 1.6 versions are available under the same subscription package, which makes choosing JFBConnect a no-brainer.

The new versions, v3.2.2 for Joomla 1.5 and v3.3.1 for Joomla 1.6, add new feature's like Facebook's Send button for Joomla. Additionally, there are multiple improvements such as improved login logic for compatibility with additional SEF extensions for Joomla and better handling of returning user profile imports. For all of the changes, make sure you check out the JFBConnect Changelog.

The 3.2.2 release is likely the last revision of the 3.x branch of JFBConnect. From here on out, we're focusing on JFBConnect 4.x which will implement Facebook's new OAuth 2.0 authentication scheme, and have other great new features. Expect the first release of the 4.x series in July!

Recently, Facebook began emailing a small subset of JFBConnect user's notifying them that their application may be in violation of Facebook policy by inadvertantly leaking some user data. We have researched this situation thoroughly, and feel these emails are in error, but would like to obtain as much information from our users about their configuration as possible.

What is the possible data leak?

When a user authenticates through Facebook on your site, a unique security token for that user is handed from Facebook to your site. That token then allows JFBConnect to connect to Facebook to retrieve information about that user without any further authentication.

In some authentication methods that Facebook allows, the security token is passed in the URL query string. If the page on your site that receives this special URL is also loading content from a separate domain (through an img tag, iframe, or javascript inclusion), the token can be 'seen' by this 3rd party if they look at the referrer header in the page. The referrer header is simply a way for a 3rd party to know where requests for it's content is coming from, and is a standard internet mechanism.

Once sent to a 3rd party, even inadvertantly, that outside source would have access to the user's information just as if they were your application.

Is JFBConnect affected by this?

As far as we can determine, in no way is JFBConnect leaking user data by passing the token to 3rd parties. Using the tool Fiddler2, which allows us to inspect the full login/authentication process, we've put together the following 4 minute video. In this demonstration, you can see the actual data leak in action, not using JFBConnect, and how JFBConnect handles the login process in the correct way:

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That's nice, but I still received an email!

Currently, we're unsure why a small amount of our users have received this email (currently under 1% from the reports we've received). While we are continuing to test, if you can please take the quick survey linked below to let us know a little about your configuration, we'd appreciate it. Due to JFBConnect's many different login capabilities and integration with 3rd party Joomla extensions, it's difficult to test every combination thoroughly. Through this questionnaire we'll be able to see if there are any common settings which are triggering the email from Facebook. All survey answers will remain confidential:

If you've received an email from Facebook, please take the questionnaire.

Additionally, if your email states that you should contact them once you've resolved the issue, please do so. Let them know that you think you are not affected.

JFBConnect has been a powerhouse for Facebook Integration on Joomla 1.5 since early 2009. Now, over 2 years of development and features bring these Facebook features to Joomla 1.6 with the new version 3.3 of JFBConnect. Powerful single-sign on integration, Open Graph support, automatic Likes/Comments in articles with email notifications, and a ton more is at your fingertips with the latest and greatest version of Joomla.

There's a lot of developers who are shying away from developing for Joomla 1.6 right now, and we'll agree that there are some rough edges. However, Joomla 1.6, and it's successor version 1.7 due out soon, are the future of Joomla. We're happy to be on-board early and with a very solid release.

If you've ever wondered how our Facebook integration for Joomla is so robust, be assured that a lot goes into test each release well before you ever install it on your site. Below, is a video of one of our extensive automated tests running JFBConnect through it's paces on Joomla 1.6. These tests are for the front-end of your Joomla site, and test all the Facebook configuration options of JFBConnect to make sure there are no unforeseen issues or configuration conflicts. Go ahead, and check it out, it's only 2 minutes long, and should give you the confidence you need to know you're working with the best Facebook Integration suite for Joomla!

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JFBConnect Automated Tests on Joomla 1.6

For more information, visit our JFBConnect overview page using the link below: