The Facebook Web Application Model

The Facebook Web Application Model

As far as your application users are concerned, they will just access Facebook.com and your application, by using a web browser and the Internet. But, that's not where the application lives—it's actually on your own server:

Once you've looked at the Facebook web application model and realized that your application actually resides on your own server, it becomes obvious what the purpose of the Facebook Platform is—to provide an interface between your application and itself.

There is an important matter to be considered here. If the application actually resides on your server, and your application becomes very successful (according to Facebook there are currently 25 million active users), then will your server be able to able to cope with that number of hits?

Don't be too alarmed. This doesn't mean that your server will be accessed every time someone looks at his or her profile. Facebook employs a cache to stop that happening:

Of course, at this stage, you're probably more concerned with just getting the application working—so let's continue looking at the Platform, but just bear that point in mind.