Facebook Custom Tabs – Moving from FBML to iFrames

With the recent update to Fan pages, Facebook has moved away from supporting FBML & Static FBML to using iFrames for custom tab development. If you currently have custom tabs using Static FBML, you are okay for now but you will not be able to add new tabs using this method (and who knows when it might be phased out completely).

The good news is there are many new solutions to creating custom tabs, from building your own iFrame app to using one of the many new free or paid apps that are becoming available.  One important factor in determining which app to use will be if you can host the content on your own server.  If not, you’ll want to use an app that will host your content for you.

Here are few I’ve checked out recently:

• Involver’s Static HTML – I like that this one is easy to use (assuming you have HTML knowledge) and offers a “fan gate” (visitor must “Like” the page before they can view content) but when I tried to use the script tag within my HTML it gave an error message this was not allowed.  Since I was trying to add embed code from another website, I had to keep looking.
• Wildfire’s iFrames for Pages – Again another easy one to use with a “fan gate” but restricted by the following:  “Please note: Scripts, Forms, iFrames, and external CSS are not allowed.”
• Build your own iFrame app at Facebook – I did this thanks to a great tutorial but still pretty complicated.
• I finally landed on the iFrameWrappper app.  This allowed both the use of a “fan gate” with different content delivered to fans & non-fans and let me use the script tag.  A paypal donation removes the “Powered by” message at the bottom of the custom tab page (it’s very unobtrusive to begin with).

Another thing I like about the iFrameWrapper is the number of icons they have available that you can choose for your custom tab.  Here is a sample and they are adding more all the time:

In my case, I was hosting a voting poll so this icon worked out perfectly:

Have you found any great apps or solutions for the switch to iFrames for custom tabs?  Tell me about it in the comments.

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