Using our RSS Channel feature, you're able to syndicate the majority of content from your Online Business via RSS feed. You can syndicate blog posts, web pages, literature items, announcements, FAQs, Web App items, bookings and new products you've added to your online store.

In this article, we'll show you in just 3 easy steps how to sync your Online Business with Facebook using RSS feeds, helping you better promote your business and keep loyal customers in the loop.

Step 1. Set up your RSS Channels

Before getting started, you need make sure you've created an RSS Channel and added items to it.

Creating a new channel is easy - simply click Website > RSS Channels, then select "Create a new RSS Channel" from the Action Box to the right.

If you're syndicating a blog, make sure the "Syndicate this blog" checkbox is ticked under the Website > Blogs, then the individual blog you'd like to stream via RSS.

Once ticked, the Blog will automatically have it's own RSS Channel created and appear in the list under Website > RSS Channels.

Step 2. Locate your RSS feed URL

Once your feed is set up, you'll need its unique URL in order to add it to Facebook. To locate the URL, click through to the individual feed...

...and select "Preview in new browser" from the Action Box to the right.

Your feed will open up in a new browser tab or window and you should be able to see your unstyled items displayed. Go to the address bar, highlight the feed URL and Copy (CTRL+C) it to the clipboard - we'll need this later.

You can also use this URL with a variety of third-party feed readers such as Google Reader or Feed Burner, to keep track of what's being added to your feed.

Step 3. Import the feed to Facebook

The next step is to import the feed into Facebook, so it adds your new RSS items as "Notes". Once you're logged in to Facebook, click the "Account" drop down menu from the upper-right of the interface and select "Application Settings".

Scroll down the list of applications until you find the "Notes" app. This application should already be present in every Facebook account. Click "Notes".

To the right of the page, you'll see a "Notes Settings" box. If you're not currently importing any blogs, then it will give you the option to. Select "Import a blog".

You'll be taken through to the "Import an external blog" tool. While this option is primarily used to import blogs, it will accept any standard RSS feed.

In the "Web URL" input field, Paste (CTRL+V) in the feed URL you copied earlier, then click "Start Importing".

You'll be taken to a confirmation screen with a preview of the items in your feed it will import initially. Click "Confirm Import" to finish the process.

Check the results

Your existing RSS items should be automatically imported as notes and appear on your wall as updates.

Every time you add a new blog post, announcement, online store product, or update the content you have syndicated as part of your RSS feed, Facebook will automatically post the new item as a note on your wall for others to view, like, or comment on.

Using our customer submitted Web App feature is a great way to build database driven, interactive websites. If you want visitors to be able to format their text before it's submitted however, you'll require something more powerful than the default HTML text area.

In this article, we'll show you in just 4 easy steps how to implement a fully-featured WYSIWYG editor that submits text as formatted HTML instead!

Step 1. Set up your Web App

Firstly, you need to make sure your Web App allows customers to create new Web App items.

Go Admin > Build Web Apps and select your Web App

To enable this feature, tick the "Add New Items" checkbox under "Can Customers Create Web Apps?". If you'd also like customers to be able to edit and delete their existing Web App items, tick the appropriate checkboxes.Read more about customer submitted Web App items at the Online Business Wiki.

For this example, we've kept our Web App basic by collecting only the standard Name / Description system fields.

Step 2. Upload the jHtmlArea files to your site

A WYSIWYG editor that plays nice with BC is jHtmlArea. You can download it here.

Once you've downloaded the file, extract its contents and locate the following files:

• jHtmlArea.css
• jHtmlArea.png
• jHtmlArea-0.7.0.min.js
• jquery-1.3.2.min.js

Upload these files to your site using either FTP or our built-in File Manager. For this example, we'll upload all 4 files to the root directory of our site.

Step 3. Place the submission form on a page

Now we need to create a page to place the customer submission form on. We'll go Websites > Web Pages and click "Create A New Page"

Give the page a name and URL. For this example, we'll call it "Submit", with a friendly URL of /submit.

Using the Module Manager, select Web Apps then "Web Apps Input Form for Customers".

Choose your Web App from the drop down menu then insert it on the page.

The form will be inserted in HTML format for easy editing.

Step 4. Insert the script

Switch over to HTML view and insert the following code at the top of the page.

Click here for a version you can quickly Copy and Paste.

If you uploaded the files to a directory other than the root, make sure you change the code to reference their correct paths.

Save and Publish the page.

Check the results

Switching over to the live page, our description field's text area has been converted to a friendly WYSIWYG editor and even includes a handy HTML view.

Once the customer enters their text, formats it using the editor and hits the submit button, it will be submitted as formatted HTML.