Deploying an app with Facebook Login in 5 minutes

30 January 2015

People like to think of certain features as if they're a big deal. Things like "realtime," "native Cordova app" or "Facebook Login."

Frameworks like Meteor can trivialize their implementation. You sacrifice some flexibility, and hide the complexity behind a curtain of "magic." It's not the correct solution for every use case, but boy can it blow people away.

Here's how to build an app with Facebook OAuth-backed user accounts. I've even included the step that installs the whole framework.

$ curl https://install.meteor.com/ | sh
$ meteor create fb
$ cd fb
$ meteor add accounts-ui accounts-facebook
$ meteor

Now just chuck {{> loginButtons}} anywhere in your <body> template in fb.html, and open http://localhost:3000.

The only thing that's left now is just standard Facebook App creation. Thankfully, Meteor holds your hand throughout the entire process: the first time you open the app, it'll open a modal and tell you what to do.

And after that, you're set. Later, you can deploy it to the internet with just one command:

$ meteor deploy myapp

If you haven't already, give Meteor a go.