Is it possible to limit the total number of user installs of a Facebook application using Facebook API or configuration?
Obviously the beauty of Facebook's platform is the virality. However, the greater the number of installations the more server demands grow etc.
So when building applications for clients with fixed budgets (think marketing activity / capping adverts per day based on spend) - is there a way to restrict the total number of users that Facebook allows to install an application?
Specifically talking here about building Facebook Games.
No, there is no build-in mechanism for that – because usually developers are happy about an ever-growing user base.
A canvas app is not really “installed”, users just connect to it. And this is the only point where you could try to handle this – once a user has connected to your app, you can recognize that (via the
signed_requestparameter or using the JS SDK) when he visits your app next time. So from a certain point on you could just not ask users for login any more (FB.login, redirecting them to the Auth dialog, …).Obviously your initial app page will still be called, but any stuff you do afterwards with connected users and their data (if that’s what strains your little server most) you could just stop for users that are not already connected. Big downside of this is of course, if a user removes your app (willingly or by accident), they will find no way to re-connect with your app again.
Maybe you should consider hosting your app on a platform like Heroku – it’s free, and I think they will provide you with enough server power to handle your app growing larger than initially planned/expected.