Facebook Instant Games Samples

To use these examples, ensure you have Node.js and Yarn installed. Follow these steps to configure the environment:

1. Clone or download this repository.
2. Run yarn install in the root folder.
3. Create a config.json file by copying or renaming config.template.json.
4. Populate config.json with your Facebook App credentials:
   • FB_appId: Found on your app's dashboard landing page.
   • FB_uploadAccessToken: Found in the Instant Games -> Web Hosting tab of your app's dashboard.

Ensure your Instant Game app is already set up in the Facebook developer portal before proceeding.

{
	"FB_appId":"<YOUR_APP_ID_HERE>",
	"FB_uploadAccessToken": "<YOUR_UPLOAD_TOKEN_HERE>"
}

Server-side examples are located in the servers-examples/ directory. These are used to support client-side features like secure data validation or bot communication.

1. Navigate to the specific server directory (e.g., servers-examples/nodejs-backend).
2. Create a .env file by copying or renaming template.env and providing the required environment variables.
3. Run yarn install within that directory.
4. Start the server using node index.

Note for nodejs-bot: This specific demo requires the backend to be hosted on an external server (like Glitch or Heroku) rather than just running on localhost to function correctly with the bot setup.

$ cd servers-examples/nodejs-backend
$ yarn install
$ node index

The Node.js backend example is an Express-based server that integrates with a database and match management logic. It uses body-parser for JSON parsing and cors for cross-origin resource sharing. The server listens on a port defined by the PORT environment variable, defaulting to 5000.

// The server listens on the PORT env var or 5000
// Ensure you have required dependencies installed:
// express, body-parser, cors, dotenv

// To run with a specific port:
// PORT=3000 node server-examples/nodejs-backend/index.js

The Node.js bot example uses an Express server to facilitate communication between the bot and the client. The server listens on a port defined by the PORT environment variable, defaulting to 5000 if not specified. It uses body-parser to handle JSON payloads and cors to allow cross-origin requests from the game client.

To run the server, ensure you have a .env file configured (via dotenv) and execute the entrypoint script.

# Ensure PORT is set if you want to use a custom port
export PORT=5000
node server-examples/nodejs-bot/index.js

The following modules are available in the examples/ folder:

• ads: Displays Rewarded Videos and Interstitial Ads.
• bots: Demonstrates sending/receiving data between the game client and a bot.
• cross-promo: Prompts players to switch to another of your Instant Games.
• hello-world: A boilerplate project for quick starts.
• in-app-purchases: Demonstrates in-game payments.
• leaderboards: Shows global and context-specific leaderboards.
• secure-backend: Demonstrates backend validation of client-signed calls to prevent cheating.
• sending-messages: Shows how to send messages to the current conversation context.
• shortcuts: Demonstrates creating mobile home shortcuts to the game.

The following modules are available in the servers-examples/ folder:

• nodejs-backend: A backend for the secure-backend client demo, used for server-side validation of client-signed calls.
• nodejs-bot: A backend for the bots client demo, used for sending and receiving structured data from a game client.