Filipino firm develops new feature for Facebook applications

FILIPINO software-as-a-service (SaaS) specialist firm Morph Labs has developed a new capability for its Morph AppSpace virtual application environment that will allow developers to deploy and run highly-scalable Facebook applications in as little as five minutes.

AppSpace will run on "Ruby on Rails", a popular open source framework for developing database-backed web applications. Based on the Ruby programming language, Ruby on Rails helps developers make web development faster, simpler and more efficient.

The new feature is designed for developers who want to offer applications to the Facebook user community, which now numbers more than 70 million worldwide. At this number, developers need to ensure that their application can scale appropriately.

According to Morph Labs' material on the software, Ruby on Rails "provides a much-needed safety net for Facebook developers, many of whom find that their applications spread virally across the social networking site. It is estimated that a quarter of Facebook applications support more than 100,000 daily users and a third of application developers report up to $500,000 in monthly revenues."

The capability is a new feature of Morph AppSpace - virtual software application environment that allows developers to deploy, host and manage their applications without requiring system administration.

"Once a developer has built your Rails application for Facebook, it's a quick and simple procedure to deploy it to the world," Morph Labs chief technology officer Guy Naor, said. "If your application goes viral, it only takes a click to expand your Morph AppSpace environment."

Morph Labs has also created a guide for developers who want to understand how to build and deploy Facebook applications from scratch. It has provided a free developer version of the Morph AppSpace to allow testing and validation of the Rails applications. Once a developer is ready to launch a Facebook application, credits can be bought to upgrade the free software at the click of a button and, within minutes, the application is available to the world.

Source: Business Mirror, May 29, 2008
By Alma Anonas-Carpio