Here is the Facebook dashboard component for ACT! 2010.  Please extract the contents of this component to your Tools directory in your ACT! install folder (this is the folder called Tools where you installed ACT! typically --- C:\Program Files\ACT\Act for Windows

Now restart ACT!.

From there you should see this component in the Custom category of components in the Dashboard layout designer.  Drag and drop this component onto a dashboard.

Save and close dashboard designer and return to ACT! application.  A short note here - if you return to ACT! and see a blank container where you placed this component please let me know - you can overcome this by restarting ACT! but I'm interesting in tracking down this condition which seems difficult to reproduce.

Once in the ACT! client select the Login button - this will initially create a field in ACT! (a dialog will popup telling you a field is needed click OK and it will create it for you) then it will ask for your Facebook credentials.  Once successfully logged in close the browser dialog and select Get Friends button.

From there Add to ACT creates an ACT! contact and also updates all selected contacts with any additional info from Facebook.

Clear All clears selections within the control and Remove from ACT! deletes the associated contact record.

The update button refers to the method call of the Facebook API - rerun the get friends query - update info in cache.

Check out the Dashboard screenshot below for orientation of what the component will look like in Dashboard Designer if you are unfamiliar with dashboards. 

Have fun playing around with this and please let us know your usability suggestions. 

Allen Duet
Sr. Product Manager, ACT! | Sage CRM Solutions |

	ACT! Facebook dashboard component.zip (706 kb)
	Dashboard Designer - Facebook.JPG (91 kb)

Tried this at a client site and had problems.  After the files were extracted to the correct location, started ACT!.  Added the Facebook Component to a new dashboard.  Saved the Dashboard.  When I used the Dashboard the 1st time it said it needed to add the field FacebookFriendProfileID.  Clicked Yes to add the field.

When I went into the Fields, define fields, I saw the new field.

Went to use the dashboard, every time I clicked a contact and went to "Add to ACT", got a message that it needed to add the field FacebookFriendProfileID.

It gave an error message when adding the contact to ACT! (I didn't get a chance to record the exact error message) and then it said that the new contact had been added successfully.

Went into ACT, Refreshed, NO new contact was added.

I ended up restoring a previous backup of the database and deleting the files added to the Tools subdirectory.

This client is a sync user and we were working on the ACT server (Windows XP Professional with all of the latest updates).

It was embarassing to say the least.  This client attended the webinar which talked about the Facebook component and was anxious to try it.

It works okay on my personal computer but is a bit flacky.

PLEASE don't talk about features on webinars that may not be 100% tested and fully supported when you call ACT! Technical Support.

Wasted 2 hours with this client today.

David,

Thanks for the feedback.  This particular component has been through several months of testing and was available during the ACT! 2010 beta program for testing.  Even so, as with many features that rely on 3rd party components, environmental factors can play a role in feature stability and availability.  As such we provide the feature here in devnet to minimize the impact of any issues to people willing to try the feature as-is and remove the feature upon issue as you have.

Your point about tech support not being in the loop on this control being made available is well taken - we'll be communicating with support whenever we publicize any devnet component they might get calls on.

I've never seen the behavior you describe below, but I'll huddle with the team next week and review this and any other reported issues with this component and look at making a refresh of the component if necessary.  I'd love to know more about your experience with the control on your local computer and any anomalies or inconsistent behaviors you've seen with the control. 

One area I think we're interested in looking at is cleaning up the UI and buttons a bit.  Also we do not currently show which friends are already in ACT! from the control.  There are some feature areas like this we could look into improving, but I'd rather look at stabilizing any inconsistent behaviors first.

Allen Duet
Sr. Product Manager, ACT! | Sage CRM Solutions |

Hi Alan,

I just installed and it works pretty good!  I guess you have to know how many friends you have to put in a large enough number to capture them all in the Dashboard view.

Anyway this could be done for Linked In?

What would be really cool is if there was a button to add a contact from a Social Media site on the Web Info tab!

Pete

After viewing the recorded webinar on social media integration, I installed this and am having the same behavior as David Sunnarburg. When ACT starts, I receive the folowing message: 'Need to create a field "FacebokFriendProfileID" for proper operation of ACT! embedded Facebook Friends list.'

When I click a FB friend to "Add to Act" I get the following error:

'Invalid Column Name: FacebookFriendProfileID

Paramater name: realName  at FacebookControlLibrary.FacebookFriendsList.CreateNewContact(getInfo u)

  at FacebookControlLibrary.FacebookFriendsListControl.CreateNewContact(getInfo u)'

After clicking OK, I get the following:

'Added Facebook Friends. Refresh your database to see results.'

When I hit the refresh button on the dashboard, I get the following:

'Need to create a field "FacebokFriendProfileID" for proper operation of ACT! embedded Facebook Friends list.'

I click OK, go to contacts, hit F5 to refresh and there are no new contacts.

Can you shed any light on this matter? Thanks!

Oh, I did add web links for Same Point, Social Mention and Who's Talking, and they are working great. This is a great add to ACT and helps me gather information about my contacts!

Rick Ayres

Lakes Print

Spirit Lake, IA

PS. I also have an issue when usint the Twitter web link with the following:

Thanks for reporting your experience with this.

It looks like we might have some occasional issues with the field creation code in the control.  I suggest you try the following:

1.  Go into Define Fields... UI and try to locate the FacebookFriendProfileID field in the Contacts table

2.  If the field exists delete it if not skip to step 3

3.  Create a custom field named FacebookFriendProfileID - make this a character field of length 50

4.  Finish the wizard (complete the field creation)

5.  Close ACT!

6.  Reopen ACT! and navigate to your dashboard where the Facebook component is displayed

7.  Login to Facebook via the control and Get Friends

8.  Select a friend and click Add to ACT!

9.  DO NOT refresh your database - just search for that contact's name in ACT! --Note there is no problem with refreshing, but the the message box is misleading here ACT! doesn't in fact require refreshing to see the new contact

Please post any issues or success you have following this suggestion.

Thanks!

Allen Duet
Sr. Product Manager, ACT! | Sage CRM Solutions |

With the twitter link issue:

You might want to try going into Define Fields and relabeling a free field you have (Like one of the User Fields off of contacts).

Then change your URL to point to the User field for the Twitter name and see if that works. 

It seems there may be a defect where occasionally when a custom field is added to ACT! the meta data information is not updated so references to the field like this are ignored.  Usually database maintenance cleans this up, but it's easier to just check if you can see the right pages from an existing field as there are several things that could cause what you are seeing. 

I had this issue for a couple of days where I added 2 Twitter fields and put one on the layout, but referenced the other in the Web Info!

Thanks for providing feedback on your experience with these features - this is very helpful for us.

Allen Duet
Sr. Product Manager, ACT! | Sage CRM Solutions |

Pete:

We're working on both LinkedIn and extending Web info tab features.

Thanks for the suggestion - LinkedIn especially has been a pretty popular request from ACT! users.

Allen Duet
Sr. Product Manager, ACT! | Sage CRM Solutions |

Will the source code be available for this project?

I am looking to just publish a webpage in the dashboard, can you give me direction on how to do that?  I would want it to look very similar to what you have, just a tool within the dashboard.  

Thanks in advance!

Aimee (n00b)