FaceBay User Guide
Ning Song. 06, 2010
1. Download and Installation
The application can be easily download as an installer file online. Download address is:
To install the application on computer, user needs to double click the installation package and setup the installation path. Once installed, the application can be started by clicking its desktop icon or start menu icon. The application will ask user to log on to Facebook by showing a separate login window (see Figure1). Facebook login is required. If a user chooses not to log on to Facebook at this time, he/she will still be able to launch the application and reach the default main “desktop” view. The application will prompt the user to log on to Facebook later if it should access any Facebook data locate on the server.
Figure 1: Facebook login window
2. Navigating the UI Interface
Facebook friends display:
Once logged on to Facebook, user can click on the “Facebook” button to call in the Facebook friend list from the bottom of the application (login window will pop up to prompt user to login if the user has not done so). This list (Figure 2) corresponds to the user’s confirmed Facebook friends list. User can choose a member from the list and drag the icon onto the desktop for later interactions. User can also double-click on the friend’s icon to bring up the Facebook dialogue panel from the bottom of the application.
Figure 2: Facebook friend list
Facebook dialogue panel:
Upon user double-click on any member of the Facebook friend list, the dialogue panel (Figure 3) will rise from the bottom of the application. The dialogue panel contains the following sections: images and names of the current friends that involves in the dialogue; a text input area that allow user to post new message to Facebook’s “main” wall as well as the profile page; a comment text input area that allow user to comment on selected post; a post display area displays the posts originated from the current user to the friend that being selected.
Figure 3: Facebook dialogue panel expanded
Search eBay button:
The “Search eBay” button brings the search panel into the application from the left boarder.
Search panel:
This contains the search bar and result display area (see Figure4). Users can type in search keywords in the search input area and click the “Search” button to conduct the search. Search results will be displayed in the search result area below the search bar. Alternatively, user can search the keyword on Facebook by clicking the “Search Facebook” button to obtain any search result related to the search keywords.
Figure 4: Search panel
For each item, user can place the mouse cursor over the item for a short period to pop up a window that displays details of the eBay listing. Alternatively, user can double-click on the item in the search result list to go to the actual eBay listing webpage, which shows up as a new page in user’s default web browser.
Every item displayed in the search result panel is drag-drop enabled. User can drag any item from the panel and placed it on the application’s “desktop”. In this way user can bookmark (save) this item for future viewing or interaction. A saved eBay item is represented by a “desktop eBay item” icon.
Desktop eBay item icon:
Once an eBay item is saved on the desktop can be dragged around or drag over the “trash can” to delete it from the desktop.
If a user would like to share the link of the eBay item to Facebook friends, he/she can drag any member from the Facebook friend list and drop it onto the eBay item icon. The application will add the member into the list of friends to whom the link will be posted on their Facebook wall. Once added into the list, an icon of the friend will be displayed on top of the item (see figure5). Double-click on the friend’s icon will delete the friend from the list.
Figure 5: desktop item icons with one showing friends added
User can double-click the desktop item icon to display the “chat” state (Figure6). Here a user can post message related to the item to Facebook friends and make comments.
Figure6: Chat state of a desktop item
Once a post is sent out to friends from the application, a post with message, photo and link will be displayed on those friends’ Facebook wall. User’s Facebook friends can comment on the post just like what they would do normally to any Facebook posts. URL Links can be included in the reply as well, such as links to review articles or link to other Facebook user’s profile page. Once the application receives the reply message from the Facebook server, it parses the data to look for URLs. Any links will then be highlighted and made clickable.
Search Facebook Button:
The application allows users to search information related to an item on Facebook. Once the user conduct a search on an item on eBay through the application, the exact search key words will be used to search Facebook for related search results. To access the Facebook search result, user needs to click on the “Search Facebook” button next to the “search eBay” button to bring up the “Facebook search result” panel.
Facebook Search Result Panel:
The Facebook search result panel rise from the bottom of the application once it is called upon. The panel displays the following contents: Facebook search results, the current user’s Facebook group membership information and member information of groups that the user has joined (see Figure 7).
By default, the “Facebook search result” panel displays the search results returned by Facebook based on user’s search keywords.
Figure 7: Facebook fan groups search results
User can view the group information of any group that he/she is a member of by clicking on the “Groups” button. The “Groups” view displays the users’ Facebook groups in a list. User can choose a group by clicking on it. This will allow the user to display more detailed group member information in the next “Members” view.
Once user has chosen a group, he/she can view all members of the group by going to the “Member” view (Figure8). The group member view display the member information by a customized icon showing a photo and name of each member.
Figure 8: Facebook group member list
Double-click on a user’s icon will pop-up an information window where user can view more details of the member and add him/her as a Facebook friend.
Trash can icon:
The trash can on the desktop of the application is the equivalent to the “Recycle Bin” in Windows operation system. Users can drag any unwanted items (eBay items or friends) on the desktop into the trash can and effectively delete them from the desktop.
Permission panel:
The Facebook permission panel can be called in by clicking the “setup” button . If determined additional permissions—post on Facebook, retrieve posts from Facebook, upload images—were needed, the permission panel will pop up and prompt the user to grant permission accordingly. User only needs to grant permission to the application once.