Beginner question warning

I'm building a shelf unit. It's pretty simple, basically a 5' wide x
13" high x 12" D box that I'll be hanging over a desk. Besides the two
"end" upright pieces, there are two other "dividers", so it's roughly
this shape:

________
| | | |
--------------

(imagine that the top and bottom touch the four upright pieces).

It's all made of oak 3/4" ply, dado joints, glued and screwed. Now
I've made a face frame for it from 1x2 oak. It is made of six pieces,
the same shape as the front of the unit, except that it extends
outward 3/4" in all directions. I used a router to make "half-lap"
joints (is that the right term?) between the uprights and the
horizontal pieces. I haven't fastened the frame pieces to each other,
nor to the main unit yet.

I'm thinking of gluing up the face frame first, while it is dry
clamped to the main unit to ensure that it will fit the "shape"
correctly. My first question is this: Do I need some sort of fastener
(nails, dowels, whatever) at the vertices of the face frame, or will
glue alone hold it together adequately? If I do need a fastener, can I
use tiny brads from the back?

Next, how do I fasten the face frame to the main unit? I don't have a
biscuit joiner, and I don't think I'll be buying one. I do have at
least 10 clamps that are long enough to hold the face frame on while
gluing. So I could use glue and finish nails, then fill the holes
with... well, what would you use?

I considered using metal angle and screws to attach the frame, since
the frame overlaps the main unit on all sides. It would allow me not
to have any holes in the front of the frame. That would work, of
course and wouldn't be seen except by very curious people , but it
feels wrong somehow.

If I was a much more precise guy I suppose I could use dowels or pins
of some kind between the back of the frame and the main unit, which
wouldn't come through the front of the frame. Lining that up seems a
little iffy though.

So now that I've demonstrated my ignorance, any suggestions?

Greg Guarino