Twitter Action

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Although Twitter was originally intended for communication among individuals, a number of organizations have begun to actively participate on the platform. Twitter allows customers the ability to get instant access pertaining to products, services, competitors, brands or real-time information about the organization itself. Twitter can be used to share important information, statistics, updates or ideas with others within a particular department, organization, business or industry. AWE's Twitter action can perform automated status message updates on a valid Twitter account. This action can update a status message on a schedule or when a certain event occurs. For example, the Twitter action can be used to perform internal updates on network issues for IT staff or external Twitter communications on new products or other subjects for marketing purposes. This action can also be used to perform a variety of other Twitter operations, such as Get Status, Delete Status, Send Direct Message, Get Friends, Get Followers and much more.

Use of this action requires a valid Twitter account.

Example

This example code gets the current Twitter status:

See Also: Send Email, HTTP, MSMQ, FTP, Get Email

General Tab

In the Activity box, select an activity, then configure the properties for that activity. The available properties depend on the activity selected.

To set properties

In the Available Actions pane, open the Network folder and double-click the action or drag it into the Steps pane.
On the General tab, select an Activity.
Specify the properties that appear, depending on the activity selected.
On the Authentication tab, specify the parameters as described below.
On the Parameters tab, specify the parameters as described below.
On the Proxy tab, specify the parameters as described below.
To set the Description tab properties, refer to Description Tab Options.
To set the Error Causes and On Error tab properties, refer to Step Error Handling.
When finished, click OK to save settings and close the properties dialog box.

Available Activities

The following table briefly describes the available activities for this action as specified in the Activity to perform box.

Activity	Description	Declaration	Examples
Delete Status	Deletes a status. The returned status will have the complete status details.	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="delete_status" ID="number" RESULTVARIABLE="text" RESULTDATASET="text" CONSUMERKEY="text" CONSUMERSECRET="text (encrypted)" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text" ENABLESSL="yes/no" PROXYSERVER="text" PROXYPORT="300" PROXYUSERNAME="text" PROXYPASSWORD="text (encrypted)" />	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="delete_status" RESULTVARIABLE="theVar" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="TweetyBird" ACCESSTOKEN="138893066-pcQPBQlFnI8exepSZPaQcnljQJNg4tB6mUfGAywz" SECRETTOKEN="pL1IdTedxHU6JFd6HHRlkncy98R5PQLwKyrESGGM" />
Follow User	Follow a specific user.	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="follow_user" USER="text" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text" ENABLESSL="yes" PROXYSERVER="text" PROXYPORT="number" PROXYUSERNAME="text" PROXYPASSWORD="text (encrypted)" />	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="follow_user" USER="tweetybird" SCREENNAME="Tarzan" ACCESSTOKEN="138893066-pcQPBQlFnI8exepSZPaQcnljQJNg4tB6mUfGAywz" SECRETTOKEN="pL1IdTedxHU6JFd6HHRlkncy98R5PQLwKyrESGGM" />
Get Direct Messages	Get direct messages sent/received by user.	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_directmessages" TYPE="text (options)" RESULTDATASET="text" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text" PROXYSERVER="text" PROXYPORT="text" PROXYUSERNAME="text" PROXYPASSWORD="text"><Parameter Name="since_id" Value="number" /><Parameter Name="max_id" Value="number" /><Parameter Name="count" Value="number" /><Parameter Name="page" Value="number" /></AMTWITTER>	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_directmessages" TYPE="received" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="BatmanandRobin" ACCESSTOKEN="138893066-pcQPBQlFnI8exepSZPaQcnljQJNg4tB6mUfGAywz" SECRETTOKEN="pL1IdTedxHU6JFd6HHRlkncy98R5PQLwKyrESGGM" />
Get Followers	Gets a list of followers (accepts parameters).	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_followers" RESULTDATASET="text" CONSUMERKEY="text" CONSUMERSECRET="text" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text" PROXYSERVER="text" PROXYPORT="number" PROXYUSERNAME="text" PROXYPASSWORD="text"><Parameter Name="text (options)" Value="text" /></AMTWITTER>	Sample 1 - Get information about follower with screen name "Superman". Store user information into AutoMate dataset "myDataset. <AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_followers" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="138893066-pcQPBQlFnI8exepSZPaQcnljQJNg4tB6mUfGAywz" SECRETTOKEN="pL1IdTedxHU6JFd6HHRlkncy98R5PQLwKyrESGGM"><Parameter Name="screen_name" Value="Superman" /></AMTWITTER>
Get Friends	Gets a list of friends (accepts parameters).	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_friends" RESULTDATASET="text" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text"><Parameter Name="text (options)" Value="text" /></AMTWITTER>	Sample 1 - Get information about friend with screen name "Superman". Store user information into a dataset "myDataset. <AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_friends" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="ankurkumarpatel" ACCESSTOKEN="138893066-pcQPBQlFnI8exepSZPaQcnljQJNg4tB6mUfGAywz" SECRETTOKEN="pL1IdTedxHU6JFd6HHRlkncy98R5PQLwKyrESGGM"><Parameter Name="screen_name" Value="Superman" /></AMTWITTER>
Get Mentions	Returns a list of the most recent statuses that mention the authenticated user (accepts parameters).	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_mentions" RESULTDATASET="text" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text" PROXYSERVER="text" PROXYPORT="number" PROXYUSERNAME="text" PROXYPASSWORD="text"><Parameter Name="text" Value="text" /></AMTWITTER>	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_mentions" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="ronneylovely" ACCESSTOKEN="133348295-PORXRI8G89z6oQBklBYE8JN98VffugsRPAsnEKtw" SECRETTOKEN="DtemBbytOZERrkUBYFagHV1e5jju1APQ5cMo1GZMU"><Parameter Name="page" Value="2" /></AMTWITTER>
Get Status	Returns a single status with all the useful information.	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_status" RESULTVARIABLE="theVar" RESULTDATASET="text" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text" />	Sample 1 - Get specific status by status ID 1047468972. Store status into AutoMate variable "theVar". Store status information into AutoMate dataset "theDataset". <AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_status" ID="1047468972" RESULTVARIABLE="theVar" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="ronneylovely" ACCESSTOKEN="133348295-Eg6hurc2YWpqdZrgbzsoXpWoQtT5D0vSn3UnhpME" SECRETTOKEN="lqNo7BuRHBeDfWAvSTsZg4B3UqQGXNAN9hynYCC5M" /> Sample 2 - Get current status. Store status into AutoMate variable "theVar". Store status information into AutoMate dataset "theDataset". <AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_status" RESULTVARIABLE="theVar" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="ronneylovely" ACCESSTOKEN="133348295-Eg6hurc2YWpqdZrgbzsoXpWoQtT5D0vSn3UnhpME" SECRETTOKEN="lqNo7BuRHBeDfWAvSTsZg4B3UqQGXNAN9hynYCC5M" />
Get Timeline	Gets Friends, Users or Public timeline. Returns a list of most recent statuses from a user, friend or by any non-protected user (Public timelines accept parameters).	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_timeline" TYPE="text (options)" RESULTDATASET="text" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text" PROXYSERVER="text" PROXYPORT="number" PROXYUSERNAME="text" PROXYPASSWORD="text" />	Sample 1 - A simple step that gets the timeline of type "user" and stores status information into a dataset named "theDataset". <AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_timeline" TYPE="user" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="ronneylovely" ACCESSTOKEN="133348295-PORXRI8G89z6oQBklBYE8JN98VffugsPPAsnEKtw" SECRETTOKEN="BtemBbytOZERrkUBYFagHV1e5jju1APQ5cMo1GZMU" /> Sample 2 - Get timeline of type "public". Store status information into AutoMate dataset named "theDataset". Loop through the dataset named "theDataset" . Dataset is sorted in ascending alphabetical order on the "TwitterUser" column. Within each iteration, display the following information: Twitter User Name User Creation Date User ID <AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_timeline" TYPE="public" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="ronneylovely" ACCESSTOKEN="133348295-Eg6hurc2YWpqdZrgbzsoXpWoQtT5D0vSn3UnhpME" SECRETTOKEN="lqNo7BuRHBeDfWAvSTsZg4B3UqQGXNAN9hynYCC5M" /> <AMLOOP TYPE="DATASET" DATASET="theDataset" SORT="ascending" SORTEDCOLUMN="TwitterUser"> <AMSHOWDIALOG>Twitter User Name = %theDataset.TwitterUser% User Creation Date = %theDataset.Created% User ID = %theDataset.ID%</AMSHOWDIALOG> </AMLOOP>
Search	Search a Twitter feed.	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="search" RESULTDATASET="text" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text">text<Parameter Name="until" Value="date" /></AMTWITTER>	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="search" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="ronneylovely" ACCESSTOKEN="133348295-PORXRI8G89z6oQBklBYE8JN98VffugsRPAsnEKtw" SECRETTOKEN="DtemBbytOZERrkUBYFagHV1e5jju1APQ5cMo1GCMU">love OR hate<Parameter Name="until" Value="2010-01-01" /></AMTWITTER>
Send Direct Message	Sends a direct message.	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="send_directmessage" USER="text" RESULTDATASET="text" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text">text</AMTWITTER>	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="get_directmessages" TYPE="received" RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="BatmanandRobin" ACCESSTOKEN="138893066-pcQPBQlFnI8exepSZPaQcnljQJNg4tB6mUfGAywz" SECRETTOKEN="pL1IdTedxHU6JFd6HHRlkncy98R5PQLwKyrESGGM" />
Stop Following User	Stop following a specific user.	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="stop_following_user" USER="text" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text" PROXYSERVER="text" PROXYPORT="text" PROXYUSERNAME="text" PROXYPASSWORD="text (encrypted)" /></AMTWITTER>	<AMTWITTER ACTIVITY="stop_following_user" USER="Superman" SCREENNAME="Batman" ACCESSTOKEN="138893066-pcQPBQlFnI8exepSZPaQcnljQJNg4tB6mUfGAywz" SECRETTOKEN="pL1IdTedxHU6JFd6HHRlkncy98R5PQLwKyrESGGM" />
Update Status	Posts the Status string as the body of a tweet on behalf of the authenticated user.	<AMTWITTER RESULTDATASET="text" SCREENNAME="text" ACCESSTOKEN="text" SECRETTOKEN="text">text</AMTWITTER>	<AMTWITTER RESULTDATASET="theDataset" SCREENNAME="theScreenName" ACCESSTOKEN="theToken" SECRETTOKEN="theTokenSecret">The status to update</AMTWITTER>

Delete Status:

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
Current Status					If enabled, specifies that the current status of the authenticated user will be deleted. This is a visual mode parameter used only during design time, therefore, contains no markup. It is enabled by default. If this parameter is enabled, the Specific Status by ID parameter is ignored.
Specific Status by ID	Number	No	(Empty)	ID="123456789"	If enabled, specifies the status ID to delete. If this parameter is enabled, the Current Status parameter is ignored.
Populate variable with status	Text	Yes	(Empty)	RESULTVARIABLE="theVar"	The name of an existing variable to populate with the status that should be deleted.
Create and populate dataset with status information	Text	No	(Empty)	RESULTDATASET="myStatus"	The name of the dataset to create and populate with specific information about the status that should be deleted.

Follow User:

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
User (Screen Name)	Text	Yes	(Empty)	USER="tweetybird	The screen name of the user you want to follow.

Get Direct Messages:

Property

Type

Required

Default

Markup

Description

Type

Text (options)

Yes

Sent

TYPE="received"

The type of Twitter direct messages to retrieve. The following options are:

Sent - Direct messages sent by the authenticating user.
Received - Direct messages received by the authenticating user.

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 messages that should be retrieved. More on the dataset that this activity creates can be found under Notes below.

Get Followers:

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 below.

Get Friends:

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.

Get Mentions:

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. More on the dataset that this activity creates can be found under Notes below.

Get Status:

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
Current status					If enabled, specifies that the current status will be retrieved. This is a visual mode parameter used only during design time, therefore, contains no markup. If this parameter is enabled, the Specific status by ID parameter is ignored.
Specific status by ID	Number	No	(Empty)	ID="1047468972"	If enabled, specifies that the current status will be retrieved. This is a visual mode parameter used only during design time, therefore, contains no markup. If this parameter is enabled, the Specific status by ID parameter is ignored.
Populate variable with status	Text	Yes	(Empty)	RESUTLVARIABLE="theVarName"	The name of an existing variable in which to populate with the retrieved status.
Create and populate dataset with user information	Text	No	(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.

Get Timeline:

Property

Type

Required

Default

Markup

Description

Type

Text (options)

Friends

TYPE="public"

The type of timeline in which to retrieve. The available options are:

Friends (default) - Returns the 20 most recent statuses posted by the authenticating user. The timeline returned is the equivalent of the one seen when you view a user's profile on twitter.com.
Public - Returns the 20 most recent statuses, including retweets if they exist, from non-protected users.
Home - Returns the 20 most recent statuses, including retweets if they exist, posted by the authenticating user and the users they follow. This is the same timeline seen by a user when they login to twitter.com.
User - Returns the 20 most recent statuses posted by the authenticating user.

Create and populate dataset with user information

Text

(Empty)

RESULTDATASET="theDataset"

The name of the dataset to create and populate with specific information about the timeline that should be retrieved. More on the dataset that this activity creates can be found under Notes below.

Search:

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
Query	Text	Yes	(Empty)	SearchText</AMTWITTER>	The search query to execute. This parameter supports most search operators which can be typed directly into the search box. Valid search operators are listed below under Notes.
Create and populate dataset with user information	Text	Yes	(Empty)	RESULTDATASET="theDataset"	The name of the dataset to create and populate with information resulting from the specified query. More on the dataset that this activity creates can be found under Notes below.

Send Direct Messages:

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
Status message	Text	Yes	(Empty)	textMessage</AMTWITTER>	The direct message to send.
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 messages that should be retrieved. More on the dataset that this activity creates can be found under Notes below.

Stop Following User:

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
User (Screen Name)	Text	Yes	(Empty)	USER="tweetybird	The screen name of the user you want to stop following.

Update Status:

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
User (Screen Name)	Text	Yes	(Empty)	USER="tweetybird	The screen name of the user you want to stop following.

Authentication Tab

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
Default Keys					If enabled, specifies that the default consumer/secret key combination used to authorize AWE access to Twitter API will be used. This also determines the text status that appears via Twitter application. Selecting this option would show AWE 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 via 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.
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 .
Get PIN					You must initially register AWE (or the desired application) to allow it to use the Twitter API. If you have not done so already, click Get Pin. This will open your Twitter account site. Follow the instructions and copy the provided pin. Thereafter, return to the AWE Twitter authentication properties dialog and paste it in the Pin text box. Click Authenticate Pin 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.
Pin					The pin in which to authorize AWE 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 Authentication Pin 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 set to YES, SSL is enabled. This parameter is set to NO 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.
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.

Proxy Tab

NOTE: Only the HTTP proxy is 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 Tab

This action includes the Description tab for entering a custom step description.

Standard Error Handling Options

This action also includes the standard Error Causes and On Error failure handling options/tabs.

Variables and Expressions

All text fields allow the use of expressions, which can be entered by surrounding the expression in percentage signs (example: %MYVARIABLE%, % Left('Text',2)%). To help construct these expressions, you can open Expression Builder from these fields by pressing F2.