How-To for new installations of the FaceBook Connection on VBulletin

This is a fix for an error code that you may see while trying to integrate FaceBook connection in Vbulletin. This fix addresses this error code when trying to use FaceBook connect in Vbulletin:

API Error Code: 100
API Error Description: Invalid parameter
Error Message: next is not owned by the application.

First I will start by saying this I did this on VBulletin 4.07. This may be applicable to previous versions of VBulletin – but I just haven’t tested it. I was really frustrated because after upgrading VBulletin – I saw this awesome FaceBook button. Everyone said it was easy – simply install it – put a few links in place and you will be good to go. It’s really not as intuitive so I decided to post a how-to here.

Before you start – get a FaceBook account!

Once you have a FaceBook account go here : http://www.facebook.com/developers/

Create a new application

You will need 2 codes for your application : the FaceBook application ID and the FaceBook Secret. Save these in notepad somewhere. As soon as you create the application you will get the two codes.

Step 1 – Upgrade your Vbulletin

Step 2 – Go into your VBulletin Admin Control Panel

Step 3 – Click on Options under settings

Step 4 – on the right, Click on FaceBook Options

Step 5 – Enter the Application ID and the FaceBook Secret Code that you saved in notepad

Step 6 – Fill out the rest of the fields. They are fairly intuitive – and most of what you enter won’t affect the outcome of this article.

Now you are NOT done! You need to go BACK to FaceBook and make some changes to your application. This is where I met my first point of frustration with this solution. If you have been reading articles that say – just enter your post authorize URL and have NO idea what that means – this is what they are talking about :

Step 7 – Go to http://www.facebook.com/developers/

Step 8 – Select your application – it will be listed under My applications to the right

Step 9 – Click on your application name

Step 10 – Click on edit settings

Step 11 – Fill out the basic information. You can also upload an icon and a logo for your application. Make sure that you have a page with your privacy statement, you will be asked to link to it on this page.

Step 12 – Click on the Website tab on the left

Step 13 – You will need to enter the site URL and the site domain. This is the crucial step that makes your integration possible.

Once you have done this – your FaceBook integration on your forums should be activated.

After spending half a day trying to google the answer to this and always coming up on one-sentence answers on forum postings, I figured this little frustration deserved a proper step by step how-to.