Facebook Like Box for ASP.NET

Facebook Like Box is used to allow visitors of a website to add likes on Facebook page. It also shows people who like the page and messages posted on the wall of the page. Facebook Pages have become very important for any web business. If business is interesting for common public, it is very easy to collect numerous likes. Every like creates link back to page and increase search engine ranking. Links from Facebook page also bring additional visitors to website and increase authority of the site if the page has numerous fans, not just to search engine, but also to people who visit the website and see Like Box with lot of fans. Initial number of fans is also easy to collect just by asking friends to do it.

Facebook Like Box ASP.NET control is used for easy integration of Facebook Like Box in ASP.NET pages. It also allows easy dynamic setting of properties from the code behind. The control is wrapper around XFBML tag and it also has verification if all parameters are correctly set. In case of typing error, exception is thrown, and the error is immediately seen by developer. 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.

The picture of Like Box ASP.NET control shows 3 like boxes with different settings. The first one is default, with 10 fans, show stream and show header. The second one is without fan list, and the third one is without fan list and messages from Facebook page wall.

Configuration

Configuration of the Facebook Like Box ASP.NET control is done in ASPX page by setting optional properties. Default like box, without any property except PageId set, is shown on the first picture from the left. However, customizations are always possible with properties setting. If dynamic setting of properties is required, they can also be 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

PageId

String

Facebook Page ID.

Width

Int

Width of the like box in pixels. Default value is 300.

FansCount

Int

Number of fans to display. Default value is 10.

ShowStream

Bool

Set to true to show the massages from the Page Wall. Default value is true.

ShowHeader

Bool

Set to true to show the header. Default value is true.

Usage Examples:

Following examples show registration and insertion of Facebook Like Box ASP.NET control in ASPX file. The first example shows default Like Box with only PageId property set. The second example shows Like Box 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 Like Box inside ASP.NET page are highlighted.

 <%@ Page MasterPageFile="~/Master.Master" AutoEventWireup="true" Inherits="FVK_Demo.LikeBox" %>
 <%@ Register TagPrefix="fvk" TagName="likebox" Src="~/FVK/LikeBox.ascx" %>
 <asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="head" runat="server">
    <title>Facebook Like Box for ASP.NET</title>
    <meta name="description" content="ASP.NET implementation of Facebook Like Box in C# and VB.NET" />
 </asp:Content>
 <asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="ContentPlaceHolder1" runat="server">
    <fvk:likebox ID="Likebox1" runat="server" PageId="224341998463" />
 </asp:Content>

 <%@ Page MasterPageFile="~/Master.Master" AutoEventWireup="true" Inherits="FVK_Demo.LikeBox" %>
 <%@ Register TagPrefix="fvk" TagName="likebox" Src="~/FVK/LikeBox.ascx" %>
 <asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="head" runat="server">
    <title>Facebook Like Box for ASP.NET</title>
    <meta name="description" content="ASP.NET implementation of Facebook Like Box in C# and VB.NET" />
 </asp:Content>
 <asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="ContentPlaceHolder1" runat="server">
    <fvk:likebox ID="Likebox1" runat="server" PageId="224341998463" 
       FansCount = "5"
       ShowHeader = "false"
       ShowStream = "false"
       Width = "500"
    />
 </asp:Content>