Twitter - Get mention(s)
Declaration
<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_mentions" CONSUMERKEY="text" CONSUMERSECRET="text (encrypted)" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text (encrypted)" ENABLESSL="YES/NO" PROXYTYPE="text (options)" PROXYSERVER="text" PROXYPORT="number" PROXYUSERNAME="text" PROXYPASSWORD="text (encrypted)"RESULTDATASET="text" ><Parameter Name="text (options)" Value="text" /></AMTWITTER>
Description
Retrieves the 20 most recent mentions (status containing @username) for the authenticating user and populates a dataset with the results. A mention is any Twitter update that contains @username in the body of the tweet.
Practical usage
See Description.
Parameters
Authentication
Property | Type | Required | Default | Markup | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type | --- | --- | --- | --- | Specifies
the type of authentication that should be used to establish a
Twitter connection. The available
options are:
NOTE: This parameter does not contain markup and is only displayed in visual mode for task construction and configuration purposes. |
Consumer key | Text | Yes, if Type is set to Custom keys | (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. |
Consumer secret | Text | Yes, if Type is set to Custom keys | (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. |
Get PIN | --- | --- | --- | --- | You
must initially register Automate Desktop (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 Desktop
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.
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 OAuth
Consumer Key/Secret Authentication. |
Pin | --- | --- | --- | --- | The
pin in which to authorize Automate Desktop to allow it to use the Twitter
API. NOTE: This parameter does not contain markup and is only displayed in visual mode for task construction and configuration purposes. |
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. NOTE: This parameter does not contain markup and is only displayed in visual mode for task construction and configuration purposes. |
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 OAuth Consumer Key/Secret Authentication. |
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 OAuth Consumer Key/Secret Authentication. |
Proxy
Property | Type | Required | Default | Markup | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Proxy type | Text (options) | Yes | Default |
|
The
type of proxy required for connections that pass through
a proxy server. The available options are:
|
Use authentication | --- | No | --- | --- | If
enabled, specifies proxy authentication is required,
enabling authentication-based parameters (disabled by default).
It is active only if Proxy
type is set to HTTP. NOTE: This parameter does not contain markup and is only displayed in visual mode for task construction and configuration purposes. |
Proxy server | Text | No | (Empty) | PROXYSERVER="proxy.host.com" | The hostname (server.domain.com) or IP address (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) of the proxy server. This parameter is available only if Proxy type is set to HTTP. |
Proxy username | Text | No | (Empty) | PROXYUSERNAME="username" | The proxy username to authenticate with. This parameter is available only if Use authentication is enabled. |
Proxy port | Number | No | 808 | PROXYPORT="8080" | The port number to use to connect to the proxy server. This parameter is available only if Proxy type is set to HTTP. The default value is 808. |
Proxy password | Text | No | (Empty) | PROXYPASSWORD="encrypted" | The proxy password to authenticate with. This parameter is available only if Use Authentication is enabled. |
General
Property | Type | Required | Default | Markup | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Create and populate dataset with status information | Text | Yes | (Empty) | RESULTDATASET="theDataset" | The name of the dataset to create and populate with specific information about the mentions that should be retrieved. For more information, see Datasets. |
Parameters
This activity allows you to set name/value parameters to filter results. The parameter names that this activity allows are listed below under Parameters.
Property | Type | Required | Default | Markup | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Text | No | (Empty) | NAME="page" | The parameter name. |
Value | Number | No | (Empty) | VALUE="3" | The parameter value. |
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.Created | Date | The user name of the user. |
theDataset.ID | Number | A permanent unique id referencing an object, such as user or status. (Example: 1145445329 (status), 14198354 (user)) |
theDataset.InReplyToStatusID | Number | The unique id for the status a status replies to. (Examples: empty, 1047468972) |
theDataset.InReplyToUserID | Number | 160 characters or less of text that describes a user. |
theDataset.InReplyToScreenName | True/False | Number of users a user is following. (Examples: 0, 221) |
theDataset.IsFavorited | True/False | The number of followers a user has. (Examples: 0, 4510) |
theDataset.IsTruncated | True/False | Boolean indicating if a status required shortening. |
theDataset.Source | Number | The number of statuses a user has marked as favorite. (Examples: 0, 4510) |
theDataset.RetweetedStatus | 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.Text | Date | The timestamp of element creation, either status or user. (Example: Sat Jan 24 22:14:29 +0000 2009) |
theDataset.TwitterUser | Text | Whether an individual user has enabled geotagging support on his or her account (Examples: true, false) |
Parameters
Name | Type | Description | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
since_id | Number | Returns tweets with status IDs greater than the given ID. | |||
max_id | Text | Returns tweets with status IDs less than the given ID. | |||
count | Number | The page number (starting at 1) to return, up to a max of roughly 1500 results. | |||
page | Number | Returns tweets starting from the page number. |
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
Examples
- Copy and paste the sample AML code below directly into the Task Builder Steps Panel.
- To successfully run the sample code, update parameters containing user credentials, files, file paths, or other information specific to the task to match your environment.
Description
This sample task gets mentions starting on page 2, and then creates and populates a dataset with the results.
<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_mentions" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="ronneylovely" ACCESSTOKEN="133348295-PORXRI8G89z6oQBklBYE8JN98VffugsRPAsnEKtw" SECRETTOKEN="DtemBbytOZERrkUBYFagHV1e5jju1APQ5cMo1GZMU"><Parameter Name="page" Value="2" /></AMTWITTER>