Facebook to Require HTTPS on iFrame Page Tab Apps

That’s right, another change for your Facebook Page.  If you are using an iFrame Application to host a Page Tab, beginning October 1, 2011, your Facebook Page Tab will disappear if you are not securely serving the content.  With the recent changes going on at Facebook it was decided to break off a segment of WEBphysiology to specifically address Facebook development.  By doing this we can more specifically target a segment of our business while still maintaining the deep integration with the rest of our online offerings.

So, what are all these changes coming out of Facebook?  Well, the first was the deprecation of Facebook Markup Language (FBML) back in March, 2011.  The replacement was a much better one, iFrames!  Facebook iFrames were introduced in February 2011.  iFrames are fantastic in that they utilize standard web development tools while allowing for the inclusion of the Facebook Graph API and other social media tools.  The use of iFrames in Facebook can most often be seen on Page Tabs.  Want to know how to create a Facebook Page Tab?  Then check out our Creating a Facebook iFrame Application post and How-to video.

The next major change is a mandatory requirement that will present itself on October 1, 2011.  This change is the requirement for OAuth 2.0 and HTTPS to be utilized on Facebook Canvas and Page Tab applications.  This means that the source of your Page Tab must be served via a site with an installed SSL Certificate such that the content is served securely via the HTTPS protocol.  One way to do this is to set up an Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) account.  While this may work for a lot of Facebook Page Tabs, it does not support content that relies on PHP or other server side scripting.  Amazon S3 simply serves up static pages and files.

It is this last change that has us building our iframe Valet service.  Because the pending HTTPS requirement is almost here, our service will be managed via a manual, personal touch.  In the future we hope to make this a more automated offering where that approach best serves our clients.  iframe Valet will be a service that will, amongst other things, host Facebook Page Tab content in a secure manner, thus meeting the Facebook security requirements being implemented on October 1st.  So, if you have a Facebook Page Tab that is being sourced from a site that does not provide for the secure serving of content (SSL/HTTPS), then we will host that content for a modest yearly fee.  Until the iframe Valet site is fully launched you may contact us at WEBphysiology.