Comparing iFrame and FBML Flash Facebook applications

The following table
summarizes the differences when creating your Flash Platform application as an
iFrame or FBML Facebook application. The two most significant differences are
the ability to control the embedding of a Flash object and the ability to
access scripts.

Feature	iFrame	FBML
Flash Player version and detection code	You control the embedding. You write (or include) the JavaScript detection code and the selection of the required Flash Player version. Typically, SWFObject is used.	You have no control over the embedding. Currently, the <FB:swf> tag requires Flash Player version 9.0.115 and there is no way to specify any other version.
Script access	Can be denied by setting allow_script_access=never. This means no full screen, no JavaScript, etc.	Use fb:fbjs-bridge for limited JavaScript access on FBML pages.
Fullscreen mode	Supported.	Not supported.
Simple integration of FBML tags	Supported through use of XFBML.	Supported. This allows you to simply integrate Facebook components and dialog boxes. You can also embed Flash objects in the fb:iframe tag.
Application server	Not required. Your SWF container page could just be an HTML page that uses JavaScript to parse and pass the GET URL session variables passed with the page request to the SWF by setting the flashvars property of the SWFObject.	Not required. Your SWF can be a static HTML or FBML page.
Making Facebook API calls from Flash	Supported.	Supported.
Controlling URL history	Supported through iFrame URL.	Supported by browser.

References

• Facebook
  Developer Documentation - SWF
• Facebook:
  Choosing between an FBML or IFrame Application
• Blog:
  Facebook - IFrame vs FBML

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About the author

This content was authored by Facebook.