Inside Facebook

While Facebook has long been saying the profile redesign would launch by the end of July, the company confirmed today that users will be able to migrate to the new version starting next week. Facebook did not specifically indicate when all users would be forced to start using the new version.

Users will be able to start exploring Facebook in the new layout starting the week of July 14. Unlike the developer sandbox, which has been restricted to only allow access to the new profile page, starting next week all pages will be available to users in the new layout, including the home page, News Feed, and app invitations and notifications.

Developers should have their apps ready for the redesign by the beginning of next week. (Detailed notes on the new profile integration points and links to the appropriate pages in the Developer Wiki can be found here.) Specifically, Facebook reminds developers to remember 3 important changes:

• You should start using require_login instead of require_add.
• You should start accounting for the changes to user sessions.
• If you plan to specify new profile boxes for the main profile section (the Wall and Info tabs), start using the profile_main attribute when you call profile.setFBML.

Developers can report bugs to Facebook on the redesign using Bugzilla, with the category “New Profile.”