Facebook Comments for ASP.NET

Facebook Comment Box control is used to allow users of Facebook Connect web site or Facebook application to place comments about a web site or some specific article on it. There is an option to distinguish comment boxes inside the same web page by setting unique ID for each comment box. Facebook Comment Box became very popular on news websites because it eliminates the requirement to register to discuss some news. Also, there is no need to integrate some other discussion implementation, which usually requires database for storing comments and registered users. Facebook Comments can be integrated in any type of website or Facebook application, not just to allow commenting, but to spread a work about commented content. Each comment creates link back to website from user’s Facebook profile. This way, friends of user are encouraged to see these comments, and also reply to comments, and that leads to increase in traffic on the website. If there is lot of commenting on some website links from users’ profiles, that also increases search engine rating and brings more visitors from them too.

Facebook Comments ASP.NET control provides an easy way to integrate this feature in ASP.NET page. It also supports dynamic setting of properties from the code behind. This is very important if there is a lot of dynamic content on website, like on news sites. Comments control is usually created automatically and a setting for it is usually defined in some configuration. Also, there are comment IDs which have to be unique for each article, so it is impossible to set it statically only in ASPX file. Compiled version and source code version of this ASP.NET control are available in C# and VB.NET programming languages, as part of Facebook ASP.NET (C# and VB.NET) Control library.

Following image shows Facebook Comments ASP.NET control with only one comment on it. There is a live demo with lots of comments on how it works. It can be seen on link provided bellow.

Configuration

Configuration of Facebook Comments ASP.NET control is done in ASPX page by setting optional properties. Default Comments control which is typically used does not have any property set. However, there is always a chance that some customizations are required, and these are made by setting couple of properties. If dynamic setting of properties is required, they can be also set in the code behind, for example on Page_Load method. Following table shows the list of all properties with their types and descriptions.

Property Name

Type

Description

Xid

String

Unique id. Should be set if there are more comment boxes for the same web site.

PostsNum

String

The max number of posts to display. Default is 10.

Width

Int

Width of the control in pixels. Default is 550.

CssUrl

String

URL of custom CSS style of the control.

Title

String

Title of the feed story published when comment is made. Default is the title of the page from where comment is made.

Url

String

URL of a page where the comment is made i.e. URL of back link.

IsSimple

Bool

A rounded box does not appear around each post on a site if this property is true. Default is false.

IsReverse

Bool

If property is set to true comments are shown in reverse order. Default is false.

Usage Examples:

Following examples show registration and insertion of Facebook Comments ASP.NET control in ASPX file. First example shows default Comments control without any property set. Second example shows Facebook Comments control with all properties set. Examples of ASPX files show only the code required for registration and integration of ASP.NET control in a web page. To see all requirements for registered components, including JavaScript, CSS style and header setting, please look at the manual for page requirements. For following examples, all page requirements are placed in ASP.NET master page. Important parts for registration and integration of Facebook Comments inside ASP.NET page are highlighted.

 <%@ Page MasterPageFile="~/Master.Master" AutoEventWireup="true" Inherits="FVK_Demo.Comments" %>
 <%@ Register TagPrefix="fvk" TagName="comments" Src="~/FVK/Comments.ascx" %>
 <asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="head" runat="server">
    <title>Facebook Comments for ASP.NET</title>
    <meta name="description" content="ASP.NET implementation of Facebook Comments Box C# and VB.NET" />
 </asp:Content>
 <asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="ContentPlaceHolder1" runat="server">
    <fvk:comments ID="comments1" runat="server" Xid="commentbox1" />
 </asp:Content>

 <%@ Page MasterPageFile="~/Master.Master" AutoEventWireup="true" Inherits="FVK_Demo.Comments" %>
 <%@ Register TagPrefix="fvk" TagName="comments" Src="~/FVK/Comments.ascx" %>
 <asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="head" runat="server">
    <title>Facebook Comments for ASP.NET</title>
    <meta name="description" content="ASP.NET implementation of Facebook Comments Box C# and VB.NET" />
 </asp:Content>
 <asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="ContentPlaceHolder1" runat="server">
    <fvk:comments ID="comments1" runat="server" 
       Xid="comment_on_something"
       CssUrl="http://mydomain.com/mycss.css"
       IsReverse="true"
       IsSimple="true"
       PostsNum="5"
       Title="ASP.NET Facebook Comments"
       Url="http://vatlab.com"
       Width="400"
    />
 </asp:Content>