Twitter - Get followers

Declaration

Description

Retrieves a list of followers and populates a dataset with the results.

IMPORTANT: Automate's Twitter activities are performed using the Twitter REST API, therefore, launching and managing Twitter through Automate requires a valid Twitter account.

Practical Usage

See Description

Parameters

General

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
Create and populate dataset with user information	Text	Yes	(Empty)	RESULTDATASET="theDataset"	The name of the dataset to create and populate with specific information about the followers that should be retrieved. More on the dataset that this activity creates can be found under Notes below.

Authentication

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
Default Keys					If enabled, specifies that the default consumer/secret key combination used to authorize Automate access to Twitter API will be used. This also determines the text status that appears by way of Twitter application. Selecting this option would show Automate as the default application used to perform status updates. This is a visual mode parameter used only during design time, therefore, contains no markup. If this parameter is enabled, the Custom Keys parameter is ignored. It is enabled by default.
Custom Keys					If enabled, specifies that a custom consumer/secret key combination should be entered. This also determines the text status that appears by way of Twitter application. Selecting this option would show the specified application name as the one used to perform status updates. This is a visual mode parameter used only during design time, therefore, contains no markup. If this parameter is enabled, the Default Keys parameter is ignored.
Consumer Key	Text	No	(Empty)	CONSUMERKEY="text"	The consumer key to authenticate with. To use the Twitter API, each client application you register will be provisioned a consumer key and secret. This parameter is available only if the Custom Keys parameter is enabled. More information about OAuth authentication can be found below under Notes.
Consumer Secret	Text	No	(Empty)	CONSUMERSECRET="encrypted"	The consumer key secret to authenticate with. To use the Twitter API, each client application you register will be provisioned a consumer key and secret. This parameter is available only if the Custom Keys parameter is enabled. More information about OAuth authentication can be found below under Notes.
Get PIN					You must initially register Automate (or the desired application) to allow it to use the Twitter API. If you have not done so already, click the Get Pin button. This will open your Twitter account site. Follow the instructions and copy the provided pin. Thereafter, return to the Automate Twitter authentication properties dialog and paste it in the Pin text box. Click the Authenticate Pin button to produce a consumer key and secret, thus, completing the token exchange. This is a visual mode parameter used only during design time, therefore, contains no markup. NOTE: This is a one-time process. Once authenticated, the information will be stored on your system. More information about OAuth authentication can be found below under Notes.
Pin					The pin in which to authorize Automate to allow it to use the Twitter API. This is a visual mode parameter used only during design time, therefore, contains no markup.
Authenticate Pin					Click this button to authenticate the provided PIN. This is a visual mode parameter used only during design time, therefore, contains no markup. NOTE: This is a one-time process. Once authenticated, the information will be stored on your system.
Screen Name	Text	Yes	(Empty)	SCREENNAME="Catwoman"	The screen name of the authenticating user. This is a visual mode parameter used only during design time, therefore, contains no markup.
Enable SSL	Yes/No	No	(Empty)	ENABLESSL="yes"	If selected, SSL is enabled. This parameter is disabled by default.
Access Token	Text	No	(Empty)	SECRETTOKEN= "pL1IdTedxHU6JFd6HHRlknM"	The Oauth Access Token. This allows OAuth applications to directly exchange Twitter user names and passwords for OAuth access tokens and secrets. More information can be found below under Notes.
Access Token Secret	Text	No	(Empty)	SECRETTOKEN="text"	The Oauth Token Secret. This allows OAuth applications to directly exchange Twitter user names and passwords for OAuth access tokens and secrets. More information can be found below under Notes.

Parameters

This activity allows you to set name/value parameters to filter results. The parameter names that this activity allows are listed below under Notes.

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
Name	Text	No	(Empty)	Name="page"	The parameter name.
Value	Number	No	(Empty)	Value="3"	The value.

Proxy

NOTE: Only HTTP proxy os supported.

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
Proxy Host	Text	No	(Empty)	PROXYSERVER="host.domain.com"	The host name (i.e. server.domain.com) or IP address (i.e. xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) of the proxy server.
Proxy Port	Number	No	(Empty)	PROXYPORT="300"	The port that should be used to connect.
Proxy Username	Text	No	(Empty)	PROXYUSERNAME="user"	The user name that should be used to authenticate when connecting through the proxy server.
Proxy Password	Text	No	(Empty)	PROXYPASSWORD="encrypted"	The password that should be used to authenticate when connecting through the proxy server.

Description

Error Causes

On Error

Additional Notes

OAuth Consumer Key/Secret Authentication

To use the Twitter API, the first thing you have to do is register a client application. Each client application you register will be provisioned a consumer key and secret. This key and secret scheme is similar to the public and private keys used in protocols such as SSH for those who are familiar. This key and secret will be used, in conjunction with an OAuth library in your programming language of choice, to sign every request you make to the API. It is through this signing process that Twitter trusts that the traffic that identifies itself is in fact you.

OAuth authentication is the process in which Users grant access to their Protected Resources without sharing their credentials with the Consumer. OAuth uses Tokens generated by the Service Provider instead of the User’s credentials in Protected Resources requests. The process uses two Token types:

Request Token:

Used by the Consumer to ask the User to authorize access to the Protected Resources. The User-authorized Request Token is exchanged for an Access Token, MUST only be used once, and MUST NOT be used for any other purpose. It is RECOMMENDED that Request Tokens have a limited lifetime.

Access Token:

Used by the Consumer to access the Protected Resources on behalf of the User. Access Tokens MAY limit access to certain Protected Resources, and MAY have a limited lifetime. Service Providers SHOULD allow Users to revoke Access Tokens. Only the Access Token SHALL be used to access the Protect Resources.

OAuth Authentication is done in three steps:

The Consumer obtains an unauthorized Request Token.
The User authorizes the Request Token.
The Consumer exchanges the Request Token for an Access Token.

Datasets

A dataset is a multiple column, multiple row container object. This activity creates and populates a dataset containing a specific set of fields. The table below describes these fields (assuming the dataset name assigned was theDataset).

Name	Type	Return Value
theDataset.UserName	Text	The user name of the user.
theDataset.ScreenName	Text	Display name for the user. (Examples: tweetybird, dougw)
theDataset.ID	Number	The user's unique ID. (Examples: 1145445329 (status), 14198354 (user))
theDataset.Status	Text	Escaped and HTML encoded status body. (Examples: I am eating oatmeal, The first tag is always <html>)
theDataset.Description	Text	160 characters or less of text that describes a user.
theDataset.Friends	Number	Number of users a user is following. (Examples: 0, 221)
theDataset.Followers	Number	The number of followers a user has. (Examples: 0, 4510)
theDataset.Statuses	Number	The total number of status updates performed by a user, excluding direct messages sent. (Examples: 0, 9423)
theDataset.Favorites	Number	The number of statuses a user has marked as favorite. (Examples: 0, 4510)
theDataset.Location	Text	The user specified string representing where they are from. (Examples: empty (Default), California OR New York, NY, In The Woods, 27.893621,-82.243706 )
theDataset.IsProtected	Date	The timestamp of element creation, either status or user. (Example: Sat Jan 24 22:14:29 +0000 2009)
theDataset.IsGeoEnabled	True/False	Whether an individual user has enabled geotagging support on his or her account (Examples: true, false)
theDataset.ReceiveNotifications	True/False	Boolean indicating if a user is receiving device updates for a given user. (Examples: empty (Default), true, false)
theDataset.Language	Text	The language a user has chosen on Twitter.com for his or her account (Examples: en, fr)
theDataset.TimeZone	Text	The user's time zone (Examples: Central Time (US & Canada) (Default), Sydney)
theDataset.Website	Text	The user's homepage (Examples: empty, http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com)
theDataset.ProfileImageLocation	Text	The location to a user's avatar file. (Examples: http://static.twitter.com/images/default_profile_normal.png)

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
user-id	Number	The user's unique ID.
screen-name	Text	Display name for the user.

Variables and Expressions

All text fields allow the use of expressions, which can be entered by surrounding the expression in percentage signs (Example: %myVariable% or %Left('Text',2)%). To help construct these expressions, you can open Expression Builder from these fields by clicking theInsert expression/variablebutton or pressingF2.

More on variables
More on expressions
More on the Expression Builder

Example

NOTE:

The sample AML code below can be copied and pasted directly into the Steps Panel of the Task Builder.
Parameters containing user credentials, files, file paths, and/or other information specific to the task must be customized before the sample code can run successfully.

Example 1

Get information about follower with screen name "Superman". Store user information into Automate dataset "myDataset.

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<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_followers" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="138893066-pcQPBQlFnI8exepSZPaQcnljQJNg4tB6mUfGAywz" SECRETTOKEN="pL1IdTedxHU6JFd6HHRlkncy98R5PQLwKyrESGGM"><Parameter Name="screen_name" Value="Superman" /></AMTWITTER>

Example 2

Get information about all followers. Store user information into Automate dataset "myDataset. Loop dataset and display the following information about each user in a message dialog:

ID
Language
Time Zone

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<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_followers" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="138893066-pcQPBQlFnI8exepSZPaQcnljQJNg4tB6mUfGAywz" SECRETTOKEN="pL1IdTedxHU6JFd6HHRlkncy98R5PQLwKyrESGGM" />
<AMLOOP ACTIVITY="dataset" DATASET="theDataset" />
<AMSHOWDIALOG>ID = %theDataset.ID%
Language = %theDataset.Language%
Time Zone = %theDataset.TimeZone%</AMSHOWDIALOG>
<AMLOOP ACTIVITY="end" />

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Twitter - Get followers

Declaration

Related Topics

Description

Practical Usage

Parameters

General

Authentication

Parameters

Proxy

Additional Notes

OAuth Consumer Key/Secret Authentication

Datasets

Parameters

Variables and Expressions

Example

Example 1

Example 2