Red Hot Chilli Project

arc_twitter :: Feb 23, 08:28 PM

arc_twitter provides access to your Twitter account through both the admin interface and the public side of your site. Update Twitter when you post a new article (with article-by-article opt out option), update and view your Twitter feed through the admin Twitter tab, and display Twitter feeds on your site.

Requirements:-

• Textpattern 4.2+
• PHP 5 and cURL

Installation

To install go to the ‘plugins’ tab under ‘admin’ and paste the plugin code into the ‘Install plugin’ box, ‘upload’ and then ‘install’. Finally activate the plugin.

Before you start using arc_twitter you will need to make sure that the cache directory is writable. See the ‘Caching’ subsection below for further information.

arc_twitter should now be ready for use on the public-side of your site.

To unlock the admin features of this plugin you will need to set the plugins preferences using your Twitter account login. You will find these under the advanced ‘preferences’ under ‘admin’. Without providing a valid username and corresponding password you will not be able to update Twitter through Textpattern’s admin area.

Uninstall

To uninstall arc_twitter simply delete the plugin from the ‘Plugins’ tab. This will remove the plugin code, delete related preferences and drop the arc_twitter table from your Textpattern database.

The arc_twitter tag

Syntax

<txp:arc_twitter user="drmonkeyninja" />

Usage

Attribute	Description	Default	Example
user	Twitter user name	unset	user="drmonkeyninja"
password	Your Twitter password (not required for public updates)	unset
limit	Maximum number of tweets to display (max. 200)	10	limit="25"
dateformat	Format that update dates will appear as	Archive date format	dateformat="%b %Oe, %I:%M %p"
label	Label for the top of the list	no label	label="My Twitter timeline"
labeltag	Independent wraptag for label	unset	labeltag="h3"
break	HTML tag (without brackets), or string, used to separate the updates	li	break="br"
wraptag	HTML tag to be used as the wraptag, without brackets	unset	wraptag="ul"
class	CSS class attribute for wraptag	arc_twitter	class="twitter"

The arc_twitter_search tag

Syntax

<txp:arc_twitter_search hashtags="txp" />

Usage

Attribute	Description	Default	Example
search	Comma separated list of search words	unset	search="txp,textpattern"
hashtags	Comma separated list of hashtags to search for (not including the hash)	unset	hashtags="txp,textpattern"
reply	Username of tweets in reply to	unset	reply="twitter"
mention	Username of user mentioned in tweets (i.e. tweets containing @username)	unset	mention="twitter"
limit	Maximum number of tweets to display (max. 200)	10	limit="25"
dateformat	Format that update dates will appear as	Archive date format	dateformat="%b %Oe, %I:%M %p"
label	Label for the top of the list	no label
labeltag	Independent wraptag for label	unset
break	HTML tag (without brackets), or string, used to separate the updates	li
wraptag	HTML tag to be used as the wraptag, without brackets	unset
class	CSS class attribute for wraptag	arc_twitter_search

Example usage

<txp:arc_twitter_search search="plugin" hashtags="txp,textpattern" limit="25" />

Produces a list of tweets containing the word ‘plugin’ and the hashtags ‘#txp’ and ‘#textpattern’. The tag will return a maximum of 25 tweets.

Caching

In order to prevent excessive repeatitive calls to the Twitter website it is recommended to cache results. Twitter limits the number of calls through the API, and continuous calls will result in Twitter closing to further requests. By default, arc_twitter caches for 30 minute intervals.

Attribute	Description	Default	Example
caching	‘1’ to cache feed, ‘0’ to turn caching off (not recommended)	1	caching="1"
cache_dir	Absolute path to the cache directory (must be writable)
cache_time	Time in minutes that the cache files are stored before being refreshed	5	cache_time="30"

The admin side of this plugin enforces caching, apart from when it is posting to Twitter (e.g. when posting or deleting an update).

Preferences

You can access the plugins core preferences from either the Preferences or Plugins tabs in admin. Setup your Twitter account login details (i.e. your username and password) and change the cache directory using arc_twitter’s preferences. Without providing your account login details the admin area features of this plugin will be inactive.

Tweeting articles

If you set your Twitter account username and password you will see the option to update Twitter everytime you create a new article. By default arc_twitter will post an update to Twitter including a shortened URL to your article. Only live and active articles will be sent to Twitter, i.e. articles posted in the future or as sticky articles will not be sent. If your article is successfully submitted to Twitter the update will appear in place of the Twitter option on the right-hand-side of the article edit screen.

Tweets are sent in the following format: Tweet prefix Article title Shortened URL Tweet suffix. You can change the prefix and suffix on an article-by-article basis by changing the tweet options under ‘Update Twitter’ on the article editor screen. The default Tweet prefix can be set under the arc_twitter preferences screen (the default on installation is “Just posted:”).

Please note that once an article has been tweeted the tweet cannot be edited.

The Twitter tab

Under the Extensions tab a new Twitter tab should appear once a Twitter username has been provided. From here you will be able to submit new Twitter updates, view basic account statistics, and check out your recent updates (including the option to delete your tweets). If no password has been set in preferences (see above) you will need to provide the valid password each time you update Twitter.

Change-log

• v0.2.2
  • important fix to storage of Twitter IDs in database
• v0.2.1
  • non-object bug fix
• v0.2
  • Prefix and suffix article tweets using the “Twitter Update” options
  • arc_twitter_search tag – outputs results for specific keywords, hashtags, mentions, etc.
  • Improved mentions and hashtag linking when updates are rendered
  • The preference page will now properly update when the cache directory is changed
• v0.1.2
  • Article tweet bug fixed – articles should now be able to be tweeted after publication
  • Twitter account verification on the plugin preferences page
  • Documentation corrected to include limit attribute for arc_twitter tag

Plugin details

Initial release: 28 November 2009
Current version: 0.2.2 [ download ]

Please feel free to leave your comments and questions about this plugin below. Alternatively you can post them on the forum thread.

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