This blog is dedicated to ALL things social media and as I am a true sharer of posts and tweets as I have been converted over the past few years.I wanted to share my thoughts and feelings.There will also be freeware and special offers available. Would like to add your software, gadget or write-up and share your thoughts and feelings. Thank you, Ian {Editor}
I have a little yellow bar at the top of my blog that is supposed to show my latest Tweet. It's a nice unobtrusive way to show that I'm out there and I'm active, and maybe if the tweet is interesting to you, you'll stop by Twitter and follow me.
However, I noticed it stopped working recently. It was blank:
Weird. It'd worked great for years, plural. I searched around and found a few posts on GetSatisfaction asking about it, some recent, some not recent at all. Some people are having the code work on some accounts and not others.
Unfortunately, Twitter seems to have quietly deprecated the code I was using. It's still there but there are no pages on Twitter on how to add tweets to your blog in a low-level controlled way.
Twitter wants you to visit http://twitter.com/badges and use their existing Twitter Widgets. These are very typical of other sites, in that they are boxes with your tweets in them.
For example, here's a box of Tweets to the right, however, that's a little garish for my tastes.
Here's the code I was using to show just the very first tweet on the top of page. First at the top of the page I have a div that will hold my most recent tweet.
<div id="twitter_div">
<a href="http://twitter.com/shanselman" id="twitter-link" >Latest Tweet: </a>
<span id="twitter_update_list"></span>
</div>
Then later at the bottom I have these two scripts. These are what appear to be either not supported or not advertised by Twitter anymore.
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/javascripts/blogger.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/shanselman.json?callback=twitterCallback2&count=1"></script>
Now, don't use it just like that if you want to get only 1 original tweet as I do. Because it's this very code that stopped working recently. Except it stopped working sometimes. But did it?
To figure it out quickly, first I visited this URL in my browser. It returns JSON of all my tweets.
http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/shanselman.json?count=1
However sometimes I get this:
[]
Yes, really. An empty JSON array. But why? Well at this moment in time my "most recent tweet" is actually a native retweet. It's not a tweet from me, it's a retweet of a YouTube video. See below?
Perhaps this JSON Twitter API was created before the Native Retweet was invented. But, if I tweet something fresh, at hit http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/shanselman.json?count=1 again, I'll see this minimized JSON:
[{"in_reply_to_status_id":null,"text":"Testing for a blog post. Move along. This tweet never happened.","created_at":"Thu May 12 23:44:13 +0000 2011","favorited":false,"retweet_count":0,"source":"web","in_reply_to_screen_name":null,"in_reply_to_status_id_str":null,"id_str":"68823826439487488","contributors":null,"retweeted":false,"in_reply_to_user_id_str":null,"place":null,"coordinates":null,"geo":null,"in_reply_to_user_id":null,"truncated":false,"user":{"is_translator":false,"notifications":false,"created_at":"Tue May 01 05:55:26 +0000 2007","profile_sidebar_border_color":"b8aa9c","listed_count":3909,"following":true,"description":"Tech, Diabetes, Parenting, Race, Linguistics, Fashion, Podcasting, Media, Culture, Code, Ratchet.","show_all_inline_media":true,"geo_enabled":true,"profile_use_background_image":true,"profile_image_url":"http:\/\/a1.twimg.com\/profile_images\/1344567304\/image_normal.jpg","contributors_enabled":false,"verified":false,"profile_background_color":"d1cdc1","profile_background_image_url":"http:\/\/a0.twimg.com\/profile_background_images\/157325454\/twilk_background_4ca8e4832a970.jpg","screen_name":"shanselman","default_profile_image":false,"statuses_count":40900,"id_str":"5676102","default_profile":false,"friends_count":2616,"profile_text_color":"696969","lang":"en","profile_sidebar_fill_color":"b8aa9c","followers_count":36994,"protected":false,"location":"Portland, Oregon","follow_request_sent":false,"profile_background_tile":true,"favourites_count":2089,"name":"Scott Hanselman","url":"http:\/\/hanselman.com","id":5676102,"time_zone":"Pacific Time (US & Canada)","utc_offset":-28800,"profile_link_color":"72412c"},"id":68823826439487488}]I can run it by the http://jsbeautifier.org and it looks lovely...
[{
"in_reply_to_status_id": null,
"text": "Testing for a blog post. Move along. This tweet never happened.",
"created_at": "Thu May 12 23:44:13 +0000 2011",
"favorited": false,
"retweet_count": 0,
"source": "web",
"in_reply_to_screen_name": null,
"in_reply_to_status_id_str": null,
"id_str": "68823826439487488",
"contributors": null,
"retweeted": false,
"in_reply_to_user_id_str": null,
"place": null,
"coordinates": null,
"geo": null,
"in_reply_to_user_id": null,
"truncated": false,
"user": { ..... SNIP! .....
}
}]So, Twitter has a nice JSON API that is old and doesn't support Native Retweets but I want the most recent tweet, my way.
Bam. http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/shanselman.json?count=5
Of course, if my last five tweets are all Native Retweets then it all falls part, but you get the idea.
If I was really serious, I could even remove @replies, only showing original tweets, remembering that this JSON API doesn't include Native Retweets in its results.
I found some code on BarneyB's blog that is a modification of Twitter's original code. He mentions in the comments that he's removing replies in his code. I just took his code and stop the code as soon as a valid original non-replied tweet is found. In this case, I search the 5 tweets I requested that were returned from Twitter. If it turns out I reply a lot and get an empty payload, maybe I'll increase that number.
The conclusion here is that this code still "works," it just doesn't see Native Retweets:
<div id="twitter_div">
<a href="http://twitter.com/shanselman" id="twitter-link" >Latest Tweet: </a>
<span id="twitter_update_list"></span>
</div>
Then later...
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/javascripts/blogger.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/shanselman.json?callback=twitterCallback2&count=1"></script>
My issue was that I want a single tweet, specifically the first original, non-native-retweet, non-reply tweet. I solved it by taking BarneyB's @reply-filtering code and adding a check that breaks out of the loop. I ask Twitter for 5 tweets, but as soon as I find one from that lists of candidates, that's the one. Feel free to View Source if you like, or just be aware of the limitation of Twitter's (possibly deprecated) JSONP API.
It was a trivial but fun lunch hour, indeed.
UPDATE: Great comment below from Dave Ward. He points out that I could have my cake and eat it too by using the new API and a "include_rts" flag like this:
Thanks Dave!
Info: This is a review of a paid application (free during beta).
Source code management is a "must" for any developer team working on the same project to get updated on any changes made to the code and make sure every change is backed up.
Springloops, the popular source code management platform has released the V2 of their product which is more powerful with a new user interface, Git integration (besides Subversion) and ticketing support.
The files for a project can be imported from a repository or as a zipped file. Also, they can be set as private or public.
The platform is an all-in-one for managing development projects as it has the features of a project management application as well (with milestones and tickets that can be assigned to users). And, it can integrate tightly with Basecamp.
Springloops has a very detailed knowledgebase that not only helps you get the basics of version control (if you're not experienced with it) but also covers answers to any possible questions regarding the service.
The V2 of the platform is currently in beta status and free-to-use with unlimited projects until it is out of beta. Simply, a good chance to give the service a try.
Special Downloads:
Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
Free Admin Template For Web Applications
jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
ScheduledTweets
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Modular Grid Pattern is a website which enables you to create customizable grids in several ways.
The first one is a free Adobe Photoshop extension (CS5 compatible) provided which makes creating the grid directly inside the application possible.
Also, there is an online generator where you can mention baseline, gutter, module width/height, number of modules and the width of the layout where the application creates:
accordingly.
Special Downloads:
Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
Free Admin Template For Web Applications
jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
ScheduledTweets
Advertisements:
Professional XHTML Admin Template ($15 Discount With The Code: WRD.)
Psd to Xhtml
SSLmatic – Cheap SSL Certificates (from $19.99/year)
Social network ad spending is one again on the rise, argues a recent study by eMarketer, which predicts that US advertisers will spend nearly $1.7 billion on social sites this yea. This estimate is a noticeable increase from initial 2010 projection made by eMarketer, which forecasted $1.3B for this year, as well as a 20% increase from 2009 spending. Of this spending, Facebook is expected to receive about half of all social network ad spending, at least in the US, with Myspace losing ground to the now preeminent social networking site. These points, as well the study’s other most interesting facts and figures are featured in the below graphic.
We just released a new version of the Twitter widget to support OAuth. We did this because in the coming hours Twitter will no longer support the traditional method with login and password which was used until now.
The only thing that will change for you is that you’ll have to click on an “Connect” button in order to allow the widget to interact with your timeline. That’s all. Easy, isn’t it?
If you’re curious, you can read Twitter’s official announcement and if you want to have more information about OAuth I’d recommend you the following Wikipedia page. You can also check OAuth’s official website to have more information about the protocol.
Don’t hesitate to contact our support team in case you have any trouble with this migration.
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