Facebook just recently celebrated their one year anniversary for the release of their developer platform. The API was released on May 28, 2007 and has exploded with user applications since then. The application directory has tens of thousands of applications, some with over 1.5 million daily users. For those of you, like me, who may not have jumped on the bandwagon right away, here are some great tutorials and information to get you started now.

• Facebook Developer Documentation - This is the main Facebook Developer website. It has all kinds of information from a wiki, to tutorials, to getting started guides.
• Facebook PHP Tutorial - This is a great tutorial for beginners. It goes through the very basics of what is needed to begin developing with the Facebook APIs and PHP. It Includes a basic application example.
• Developing with the Facebook Platform and PHP - This is another great tutorial for PHP developers, this time from Sitepoint. It covers the basics and gets a little more in-depth, covering topics like the News Feed and the User Profile Box.
• How to Develop a Hit Facebook App: 29 Essential Tools and Tutorials - This is not a tutorial, but a site that links to 29 useful websites that provide more information to help you in your journey to create the next best Facebook App.
• An Introduction to FBML - This link provides a nice overview to FBML (Facebook Markup Language). It is fairly basic, but an easy read. Definitely recommended when in need of a quick understanding.
• Facebook Developer Tutorials - A good listing of many tutorials covering many different topics. There is a lot of good information here. It is definitely worth checking out.
• How to use the Facebook API - This is a very basic overview of the API. It offers some good information, but is very short and to the point.
• Getting Started with the Facebook Platform API (Screencast) - There are 3 screencasts here that cover the basics of setting up an application through Facebook and writing the code once the application has been set up through the Facebook developer application.
• How To Set Up A Facebook Feed Reader Application For Your Blog - HowtoForge gives a nicely written tutorial on how to create an RSS feed reader application. This is a great tutorial and a great idea. This is a good way to spread the word about your blog in a fairly easily.
• Facebook Development Kit - Here is a development kit released by Microsoft, that includes control and samples for both Visual Basic and Visual C#. The site includes some nice walkthrough videos as well.

What other resources have you used to learn your way through the Facebook API's? Let us know in the comments.

I am pleased to announce that I have created my first Facebook application for the blog. The application will show the 5 latest posts from the blog in order to keep you up to date on the latest info. The application will add a profile box to your profile containing links to the 5 latest posts. There isn't any detail from the post in the profile box, just the title as a link.

Be sure to check it out here and add it to your profile!

I have finally given in and registered for Facebook (thanks Nate). I have stood strong (and alone) in my stance against having a Facebook account. I am a nerd and nerds spend entirely too much time on computers as it is, so I only viewed Facebook as a potential problem. Turns out I was right...

I registered for Facebook at the request of developing a Facebook Application for conVerge Church. As I figured, Facebook is now a new tool for me to learn and will consume many hours of browsing documentation, testing code, and developing new apps. At the moment the application is very basic, but with any help from God, I will be able to learn the Facebook API and turn the app into a fun and useful tool. I am very happy to continue helping conVerge Church with their online presence and will continue to develop, whether it be their website or Facebook Apps!

Be sure to check out both the website and the Facebook Application.

Comments and requests are always welcome and appreciated in helping me develop new and helpful pieces to the website!