An update on Quint Dice. I turned on all the Facebook registration and login stuff that’s actually been done for a while, but I had off for a few reasons. Users may now sign up with their Facebook account, to make it easier to get started. Adding Facebook support has been one of the bigger time sinks in this project. Here’s a list of what’s done and not, so you’ll see why.
Done:
- Facebook accounts – done!
- Facebook link accounts (if you have a password based account, you can add Facebook to it, then log in with your FB account in the future).
Not Done:
- Facebook Canvas – as I mentioned in an earlier post, it looks like ads are a problem within Canvas. I still have to figure out what to do about that.
- Facebook notifications – The setting is available, so you may opt-out (it’s on by default) but I haven’t set it up to send notifications yet. It looks like I need to have a return URL within a Canvas app to make it work, but I’m not certain, and need to read the FB docs more carefully.
- Native Facebook in Cordova for Android and iOS. This is turning into an endless headache. There are at least 3 Meteor packages that promise to do this, but each needs a Cordova plugin that I just can’t seem to build (a third one that I’m not sure how to install). I had hoped this would be much easier (and I’m actually pretty sure I once had it working), but it’s costing me a lot of time, so I’m probably going to let it lie for a while.
- A user who registers with Facebook will have no username – I need to make sure they enter one, since that’s the primary way we do user discovery ATM.
- No friends list, which is an important feature in my mind – starting games and inviting folks to play.
- Account merging – if a user signs up one way (password) then signs up again another way (Facebook) then wants to link their accounts, they should be able to. There is a Meteor package (or 2) for this, but I have to implement some glue for it.
Other updates in this round are better styling for forms, and the ability to set other profile data, such as your email address (useful if you forget your password!). You can also change your username if you want, and opt-out of push notifications on mobile.
More soon!