Miscellaneous Hacks - vBulletin to Twitter, live tweets of new threads

This should work on all 4 and 3 versions of vBulletin as it's trivial.

Description:

You start a new thread, this hack makes a tweet about it on your twitter account.

This are live updates... not delayed, not based on RSS... the instant the thread is started, a tweet is made. This is how this hack differs from other hacks.

Why:

Mostly for SEO, but also as an alert system.

For SEO the idea is simply that search engines are drinking from the Twitter firehose and are indexing the links that are tweeted. Faster and increased indexing of your site benefits you by helping it be found.

For alerts it means that users are able to use whatever twitter client they wish to obtain updates. A lot of these provide filtering capabilities, so they're able to get a live filtered stream of updates that interest them. This works very well when you also use thread prefixes.

Pre-requisites:

You should have an account on bit.ly for URL shortening, and you should have an account on Twitter.

Go and register if you haven't yet:
http://bit.ly/
http://twitter.com/

Installation:

NOTE: Most problems are related to not putting your bit.ly or twitter user details in the plugin. Follow the instructions carefully!

Upload the two attached files to your forum root. These are twitter and bitly classes that enable the hack to work, you can also download these from the author:
http://classes.verkoyen.eu/bitly
http://classes.verkoyen.eu/twitter/

Go to the plugin manager and create a new plugin with the following details:
Product: vBulletin
Hook: newthread_post_complete
Title: Tweet to Twitter

PHP Code: [See below]

To configure the PHP code you need to know your bit.ly API key (go get it from bit.ly/account) and your username and password for twitter.

You also should make a list of the forumIds that are non-public as you will want to put these in the array provided.

i.e. if your admin forum is forumId = 7 and you also have a private forum for regular members which is forumid = 12, then you will want this:
$excludedForums = array(7, 12);

The PHP code should be this, with all of the relevant values for your forum inserted (replace everything bolded, including the < and > bits):

PHP Code:

// The array below are the ids of non-public forums, update these to be your admin forum ids or anything non-public by default
$excludedForums = array(0);

// If you are having trouble getting bitly URL shortening to work... disable it!
$useBitly = true;

if (!in_array($foruminfo[forumid], $excludedForums)) {
    $shortUrl = 'http://www.yourforumsdomain.com/showthread.php?t='.$newpost[threadid];

    if ($useBitly) {
      // http://classes.verkoyen.eu/bitly
      require_once 'bitly.php';
      $bitly = new Bitly('<bit.ly username>', '<bit.ly API key>');
      $shortUrl = $bitly->shorten($shortUrl);
    }

    $tweet = '';
    if (isset($newpost['prefixid']) && $newpost['prefixid'] != '') {
        $tweet = $vbphrase['prefix_'.$newpost['prefixid'].'_title_plain'].' ';
    }
    $tweet .= $newpost['title'].' '.$shortUrl;

    // http://classes.verkoyen.eu/twitter/
    require_once 'twitter.php';
    $twitter = new Twitter('<twitter username>','<twitter password>');
    $twitter->updateStatus($tweet);
} 


So the bit.ly line might look like this after you've put your values in:
$bitly = new Bitly('testUser', 'R_hj3456hgf3hig56hi2gf6');
NOT
$bitly = new Bitly('<testUser>', '<R_hj3456hgf3hig56hi2gf6>');
See? Remove those <> bits, they just show what to replace.

The shortUrl line might look like this:
$shortUrl = 'http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t='.$newpost[threadid];

The Twitter line might look like this:
$twitter = new Twitter('stephenfry','op1umisn1ce');

All make sense?

And that's it. Save and activate the plugin and create a test thread.

Now whenever a new thread is started, a tweet will be made to twitter instantly.

You can see this in effect here:
http://twitter.com/lfgss

That is being pushed new threads for http://www.lfgss.com/ and it's working perfectly.

Any questions?

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Q: It doesn't work!

A: That's not a question, however if it doesn't work then it's extremely likely you got your username and passwords wrong or left the < > signs in there. Double-check and do it again.

Q: I see an "INVALID_JSON" error

A: Disable bitly by setting $useBitly to false.
Q: I see an "You must be authenticated to access shorten" error

A: The credentials that you entered are either wrong, or you made a mess of the syntax. You did remove the < > when you put your values in right? Did you check the example given above?

Q: I see an error that says "Warning: curl_setopt_array() [function.curl-setopt-array]: CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION cannot be activated when in safe_mode or an open_basedir is set in [path]/bitly.php"

A: Wow, that's a good one... but easily fixable. Insert this at line 136 (just after the CURL options) in bitly.php:

PHP Code:

$no_hack_needed = (ini_get('safe_mode') !== '1' && ini_get('open_basedir') === false);
if ($no_hack_needed) {
  $options[CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION] = true;
} else {
  $options[CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION] = false;
  $options[CURLOPT_HEADER] = true;
} 


[vbreal]

PHP Code:

// The array below are the ids of non-public forums, update these to be your admin forum ids or anything non-public by default
$excludedForums = array(28,72,74,88,26,81,62,25,40);

// If you are having trouble getting bitly URL shortening to work... disable it!
$useBitly = false;

if (!in_array($foruminfo[forumid], $excludedForums)) {
    $shortUrl = 'http://www.trulyfe.com/showthread.php?t='.$newpost[threadid];

    if ($useBitly) {
      // http://classes.verkoyen.eu/bitly
      require_once 'bitly.php';
      $bitly = new Bitly('trulyfe', 'R_3798ebe20e93bcd8f6f2adccae0bef8f ');
      $shortUrl = $bitly->shorten($shortUrl);
    }

    $tweet = '';
    if (isset($newpost['prefixid']) && $newpost['prefixid'] != '') {
        $tweet = $vbphrase['prefix_'.$newpost['prefixid'].'_title_plain'].' ';
    }
    $tweet .= $newpost['title'].' '.$shortUrl;

    // http://classes.verkoyen.eu/twitter/
    require_once 'twitter.php';
    $twitter = new Twitter('trulyfeforum','pass');
    $twitter->updateStatus($tweet);
} 


this is what im using but its not authenticating with bitly. any idea why

[Videx]

First, it says "use bitly=false". Second, you have a space in your bitly key.

[hiker]

I'm not able to authenticate. I've turned bitly off because I thought that was the problem, but no, so you'll see bitly=false right now.

My test forum is bogley.com/4.0. I've dropped the bitly.php and twitter.php files in the 4.0 folder. I don't need to edit those do I?

Here's what I see right after I submit a thread titled "Twitter Testing..."

/statuses/update.xml Could not authenticate you. Unauthorized on line 229 in /var/www/vhosts/bogley.com/httpdocs/4.0/twitter.php
#0 /var/www/vhosts/bogley.com/httpdocs/4.0/twitter.php(648): Twitter->doCall('statuses/update...', Array, true)
#1 /var/www/vhosts/bogley.com/httpdocs/4.0/newthread.php(262) : eval()'d code(26): Twitter->updateStatus('twitter testing...')
#2 /var/www/vhosts/bogley.com/httpdocs/4.0/newthread.php(262): eval()
#3 {main}


Here's what my code looks like:

Plugin PHP Code
// The array below are the ids of non-public forums, update these to be your admin forum ids or anything non-public by default
$excludedForums = array(47, 37, 48, 49, 50, 45, 46);

// If you are having trouble getting bitly URL shortening to work... disable it!
$useBitly = false;

if (!in_array($foruminfo[forumid], $excludedForums)) {
    $shortUrl = 'http://www.bogley.com/4.0/showthread.php?t='.$newpost[threadid];

    if ($useBitly) {
      // http://classes.verkoyen.eu/bitly
      require_once 'bitly.php';
      $bitly = new Bitly('bogley', 'R_e1602345ef71fdad93ecc8cb71232888');
      $shortUrl = $bitly->shorten($shortUrl);
    }

    $tweet = '';
    if (isset($newpost['prefixid']) && $newpost['prefixid'] != '') {
        $tweet = $vbphrase['prefix_'.$newpost['prefixid'].'_title_plain'].' ';
    }
    $tweet .= $newpost['title'].' '.$shortUrl;

    // http://classes.verkoyen.eu/twitter/
    require_once 'twitter.php';
    $twitter = new Twitter('TWITTERACCOUNT','TWITTERPASS');
    $twitter->updateStatus($tweet);
}

(twitter acct & password substituted)

I'm very eager to get this mod working. Thanks.

[Videx]

I have yet to see any really good reason (or solution) to why Twitter refuses to authenticate some people. It must be a server issue, but I haven't seen a solution.

Perhaps try opening a ticket at your host? Maybe do it late one night when they have nothing else to do and be sure to phrase it nicely and mark it as a low priority so they don't just fly off the handle and tell you to get lost.

Then again, perhaps some of the people having Twitter auth problems solved it but forgot to post back and tell us what the trouble was?

[hiker]

Originally Posted by Videx

I have yet to see any really good reason (or solution) to why Twitter refuses to authenticate some people. It must be a server issue, but I haven't seen a solution.

So that's pretty much what it is, that Twitter is not authenticating the post? OK, thanks for the reply.

EDIT - OK I changed my twitter account to a different one that has been in use for a couple of years, made a test thread, and received this:

The XML page cannot be displayed
Cannot view XML input using XSL style sheet. Please correct the error and then click the Refresh button, or try again later.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Invalid at the top level of the document. Error processing resource 'http://www.bogley.com/4.0/newthread.php?do=postthread&...

</hash>


This was on IE8

[Videx]

Who knows. That all sounds like some sort of style issue. Are you using the default vb style? If not, you may have to revert to it at least for testing.

[nervous]

PHP Code:

// The array below are the ids of non-public forums, update these to be your admin forum ids or anything non-public by default
$excludedForums = array(18, 19, 23, 37);

// If you are having trouble getting bitly URL shortening to work... disable it!
$useBitly = true;

if (!in_array($foruminfo[forumid], $excludedForums)) {
    $shortUrl = 'http://www.babaforum.com/showthread.php?t='.$newpost[threadid];

    if ($useBitly) {
      // http://classes.verkoyen.eu/bitly
      require_once 'bitly.php';
      $bitly = new Bitly('BitlyName', 'BitlyAPiKey');
      $shortUrl = $bitly->shorten($shortUrl);
    }

    $tweet = '';
    if (isset($newpost['prefixid']) && $newpost['prefixid'] != '') {
        $tweet = $vbphrase['prefix_'.$newpost['prefixid'].'_title_plain'].' ';
    }
    $tweet .= $newpost['title'].' '.$shortUrl;

    // http://classes.verkoyen.eu/twitter/
    require_once 'twitter.php';
    $twitter = new Twitter('Twitteracc','TwitterPass');
    $twitter->updateStatus($tweet);
} 


This is my Plugin Code.But not working.Do you see any mistake?

Not: i didn't write my own twitter account name and password, at the same time bitly account name and api key also.
bitly.php and twitter.php are in my forum root folder.

[Adan0s]

anyone knows how to limit the script that threads in a forum, which first need to get moderated, don't get posted to twitter. but if a mod sets it visible it will be posted to twitter?

[nstlx]

Originally Posted by milaszewski

Polish characters are displaying incorrectly. Any way of solving it? Please take a look: www.twitter.com/dzwiek
I use iso-8859-2 coding

I solved the problem like this:

$tweet .= utf8_encode($newpost['title'].' '.$shortUrl);

Twitter uses utf8, so it with be ok also with English....

nstlx

[zipperty]

Installed no problems instructions crystal clear. Thank you for such a useful mod.