PHPDesigner – A free PHP editor which you can use to put your app together

PHP Client Libraries – These are required to interact with Facebook Platform, in this page you can find several official, unofficial and third-party client libraries for various platforms.

Facebook’s API Test Console – Use this tool to experiment with functions and responses, and see what content Facebook Platform makes available.

The Facebook Developer Forums – This is probably THE most helpful tool you can find.  The Facebook Developer Forums are filled with helpful suggestions and thousands of other programmers.  You can post any question you have and you will usually get a reply, either directly from Facebook or other programmers.

Facebook’s FBML Test Console – With this you can experiment with FBML.

Facebook’s Feed Console – Use this tool to register a new template bundle on behalf of any one of the applications you own.

Application Demos – This section holds a variety of Facebook Application demos in various languages and platforms.

I will be updating this section constantly.  If you think I missed something feel free to post it in the comments.

Next (and this is the hard part) is to come up with an idea for that killer app.  If you have already have an idea, that’s great, you can start building the application.  If not, I suggest you look at the various application reviews and browsing the Facebook application directory. 

I understand that not everyone can build an application from scratch; after all it’s not easy if you don’t have a programming background.  However, I believe that with a bit of effort, and the will to learn, almost anyone can put together a simple application.  Although, if you don’t have the time to give it a shot, but you still want to have your own Facebook application, you’ll may want to visit our application outsourcing section.  Here, you’ll be able to find out about paying someone else to build your application for you.

You will also need to familiarize yourself with several key terms.

•    API – Stands for Application Programming Interface. The API defines is responsible for the methods through which you can interact with Facebook. If you are not familiar with the idea of an API, please read about it on Wikipedia or on Digital Web
•    FBML – Facebook Markup Language is a custom markup language based on good ol’ HTML. It’s  used to define the pages in your application.
•    FQL – Facebook Query Language is basically SQL for Facebook.  FQL is a query language for cases where there are no helper methods in the API, or FBML Tags to get your application to do what you want.
•    Canvas Page – This basically your applications page on Facebook.  Using canvas pages, you can embed pretty-much any functionality you want into Facebook.

There are a few things you will need to get before you can start as well.  First you will need to find somewhere to host your application.  The type of host you choose is really up to you but, I recommend JustHost.com for hosting Facebook applications.  JustHost provides excellent customer services and the most bang for your buck and you can now get 20% off your hosting package if you use coupon code JHSL20.

A more detailed walkthrough of how to build a Facebook application will be posted soon.  If you wish to contribute please let me know.