It’s been a while since Facebook has posted a meaty Operation Developer Love post, but salvation came this week. The social network has announced a number of new updates for the app dashboard that developers will surely appreciate.
Facebook announced that Sponsored Result creation is now available through the App Dashboard. Canvas app developers now have access to a Promote tab that contains all the tools needed to create ads. While the some developers may appreciate the convenience of the new ad creation tools, Facebook recommends that developers still use the API and Power Editor for greater targeting functionality.
Beyond the updates to ads, Facebook now offers support for transparent icons. The social network says that icons uploaded in PNG format now supports alpha transparency. It’s not retroactive so developers will have to upload new icons to take advantage of the feature.
The process of entering a company’s information has also been simplified. The process has been reduced to five steps where developers can set up all the information Facebook needs to start paying out what they earn off of their games. The update will be rolling out over the next few weeks.
As an aside, Facebook announced that keyword search will soon be rolling out to App Center. Developers will not have to change anything, but it should help improve discoverability for some apps.
As for the weekly bug report, 245 bugs were reported and 22 were fixed. Twenty-one bugs were accepted for further investigation. You can check out the full bug fix list at the blog post.