FBML-specific tags are really the meat of the Facebook platform. The tag set isn’t overly complex, but it has already gone through two iterations with FBML 1.0 and FBML 1.1. This change actually raises a sometimes-frustrating aspect in how Facebook changes the platform. When FBML 1.1 was announced in August 2007, developers basically had ten days to make their code compliant to the new specification. It is imperative that if you’re developing an application for Facebook that you keep up with the changes to the platform so your application doesn’t stop working. If you haven’t already subscribed, add the Facebook News feed (http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1) to keep abreast of changes.

I’ll also take a moment here to talk briefly about some of the issues, err, enhancements that you will see when using FBML. One of the big things you’ll notice is that there are FBML tags that will act differently in different locations. As an example, you can use iframes on canvas pages, but you cannot use the same iframe on the code in the profile box. There is also a queue of requested tags that are being considered for inclusion with the next FBML tag set iteration. Although not all of these tags will make it into the official language, it’s interesting to see what the developer community is requesting to be included. You can view and add to these requests at http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Requested_FBML_Tags.

The developer’s wiki for the Facebook platform groups the tags by their function. I believe this is perhaps the most useful way to work with the FBML because of the sheer volume of tags (almost 100 as of version 1.1). Also, because of this volume, some tags will necessarily have more information about them than others. If you find some of these descriptions and examples insufficient, please refer to the official documentation for the tags.
FBML tags are set apart from other HTML tags with the fb prefix and follow the format .
<fb:tag_name>.

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