FMenu

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Screenshot of FMenu (high res version)

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Screenshot of FMenu prefs window (high res version)

FMenu is a program for Mac OS X and Facebook that sits in the menu bar (near the clock) and provides notifications about various events. In addition, it provides a menu to easily access common Facebook pages and keeps a count of your messages, pokes, events, friend requests, wall posts, and photo comments. Notifications are issued using Growl and can be customized to the user's liking (including turning on/off and customizing display style). They are:

• A friend updated his profile
• A friend changed his status
• A friend wrote a new note
• Someone wrote on your wall
• You have new messages
• You have new pokes
• You have new friend requests
• You have new photo comments

FMenu checks for updates by default every 5 seconds (or at whatever interval you set), but checks for each kind of notification (friend details, friend requests, wall, photo comments, messages, pokes, events) separately. Consequently each particular type of notification is refreshed once every 35 seconds.

Please note: this application will work with most of your friends. However, if you are not getting notifications for some friends, it probably means that they have opted out of releasing their info to applications using the Facebook API. Tell your friends to go to http://www.facebook.com/privacy.php?view=everyone and make sure that the box labeled My information may be used according to the restricted Terms of Service is checked. Otherwise, FMenu has absolutely no way of retrieving that user's profile.

Download

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The latest version is 1.5. It is a Universal Binary and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or better.

• FMenu for users who already have Growl installed on their system (.zip file)

FMenu is released under the GNU General Public License. Source code can be found inside the application package by going to FMenu.app/Contents/Resources/Source or checked out using SVN from SourceForge.

Older versions can be obtained below; however they are unsupported, are generally inferior, and only provided for archival purposes.

Installation

Simply download the appropriate file above, then double-click it. FMenu.app will appear in the same folder as the .zip file you just downloaded. Move FMenu.app to your Applications and double-click it to open. You might also want to add it to your startup items by going to System Preferences→Accounts, selecting your account on the left, then clicking on the Login items tab. Click the + button and choose FMenu from the window that appears.

Note that currently, FMenu requires a login every time it is opened. This is a limitation imposed by Facebook's API and is completely beyond my control. If you're not happy with that, please contact them and ask them to change this.

Acknowledgments

This application completely relies on MKAbeFook framework written by Mike Kinney to communicate with the Facebook API. In addition, the first version of the app was written by Logan Rockmore of Logan Design.

Known issues

• If you put your computer to sleep for an extended period of time, FMenu will obviously give a large number of notifications that happened during the time that your computer was turned off the first time it updates. Make sure that the number of "sticky" notifications is not very high, because otherwise you will spend a lot of time dismissing all of them.

Version history

1.5

released Feb 5, 2007 – current version download

• Instantly update menu bar counter when preferences are changed
• Names in the Quicklaunch box are now alphabetized and fill in immediately after login
• Better handling of bad internet connections
• (Hopefully) Elimination of "blank" (i.e. no-name and no-text) status update notifications
• "Growl preferences..." button now correctly detects presence of Growl prefpane
• Keyboard shortcuts added to common destinations (however, currently only work if some element (i.e. Quicklaunch) of the program is active)
• The Photos, Shares, Groups, and Notes menu items now have submenus (which can be turned off)
• Full update no longer performed upon Pref window close (as it's no longer necessary)

1.4

released Jan 18, 2007 – archived download

Note: due to the name change from FaceMenu to FMenu, you will need to recreate your Growl notification settings after installing 1.4. Application preferences will carry over, however.

• You can now hide the counter if it's 0 (i.e. only the icon is shown)
• A floating textbox can now be used to search and view friends' profiles. THe box stays on top of all windows. Begin typing, and matches for friends' names will appear. Press enter to open the friend's profile in your browser. If the text you type does not match any names, pressing enter will search facebook for the phrase you entered.
• Full update is now performed after preferences window is closed
• Update explanatory wall preference text due to facebook.com site changes
• FMenu no longer performs a last full update upon quit

1.3

released Jan 13, 2007 – archived download

• Wall can now be accessed either from your profile or from the wall posts page (with preference)
• Profile updated notifications now detect the gender of the person who updated his profile
• Update frequency pref is now observed correctly
• Growl preferences... button now correctly detects Growl installations outside the user's home directory
• FMenu now properly detects the lack of a network connection, eliminating repeated profile update notifications and other quirks

1.2

released Jan 1, 2007 – archived download

• Made dynamic menu items localizable
• Added pref to change update frequency (default is 7 seconds)
• Cosmetic/UI improvements & code cleanup
• Huge memory leak fixed thanks to an update from Mike Kinney to the MKAbeFook framework

1.1

released Dec 26, 2006 – archived download

• Split up updates to provide the ability to check for new info more frequently
• Added ability to logout and force manual updates
• Added tracking of friends' details (status, notes, and profile details)
• Added Growl notifications
• Universal Binary

1.0

• Initial release by Logan

CS projects
Production software	FMenu — WebGrabber
Class projects	CS 61b
Misc	MediaWiki Installation caveats – Sony Clie on Mac OS X – Black screensaver