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vBulletin to Twitter, live tweets of new threads Details »»
vBulletin to Twitter, live tweets of new threads
Version: 1.00, by buro9 buro9 is offline
Developer Last Online: Jul 2012 Show Printable Version Email this Page

Category: Miscellaneous Hacks - Version: 4.0.x Rating:
Released: 01-26-2010 Last Update: Never Installs: 272
Uses Plugins
Re-useable Code Additional Files Translations  
No support by the author.

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;

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  • This modification may not be copied, reproduced or published elsewhere without author's permission.

Comments
  #212  
Old 02-15-2010, 10:29 AM
Videx's Avatar
Videx Videx is offline
 
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First, you could just disable bitly (change $useBitly= ; to false). In the above code I see the <> signs included in both your keys; they aren't supposed to be.
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  #213  
Old 02-15-2010, 11:16 AM
lhridley lhridley is offline
 
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ok, I've installed this per the instructions and it's working great for new threads; however, I tried to also install a duplicate using the hook "newreply_post_complete" to get thread replies tweeted as well, and that doesn't seem to be working.

I have a technical forum with a moderate amount of activity, and tweets when threads receive replies are important to my members. Any guidance on modifying this to tweet thread replies would be great!
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  #214  
Old 02-15-2010, 11:28 AM
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wolfyman wolfyman is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kall View Post
This might be a silly question, but.. do you maybe have your URLs set to something other than Standard URLs?
Holy crap someone answered me!!! WOOOT!!!!



Actually, yes I do.

URLs are set to: Basic Friendly URLs

Here is my Twitter plugin code:

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(33,32,6,14);

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

if (!
in_array($foruminfo[forumid], $excludedForums)) {
    
$shortUrl 'http://**********.com/forums/showthread.php?'.$newpost[threadid];

    if (
$useBitly) {
      
// http://classes.verkoyen.eu/bitly
      
require_once 'bitly.php';
      
$bitly = new Bitly('*********''*************************');
      
$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('***********','*********');
    
$twitter->updateStatus($tweet);

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  #215  
Old 02-15-2010, 12:16 PM
lhridley lhridley is offline
 
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OK, I was able to answer my own question.

The issue had to do with the context of the tweet; if the tweet appeared to be one that had already been sent through the API, then it did not post, which is why replies to posts weren't showing up when I hooked into newpost_complete.

The solution: add a date/timestamp to the tweet.

I modified the tweet contents to contain:

$tweet .= date("F j, Y, g:i:s a");

as part of the $tweet string, which generates a date/time stamp in the format of Month day, Year hour:min:sec am/pm. This differentiates the tweet context enough so that a new tweet is posted.

Then, attach the plugin to newpost_complete and newthread_post_complete and you get posts for new threads, and replies to new threads.

Cool!
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  #216  
Old 02-15-2010, 01:34 PM
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kall kall is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wolfyman View Post
Holy crap someone answered me!!! WOOOT!!!!



Actually, yes I do.

URLs are set to: Basic Friendly URLs

Here is my Twitter plugin code:

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(33,32,6,14);

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

if (!
in_array($foruminfo[forumid], $excludedForums)) {
    
$shortUrl 'http://**********.com/forums/showthread.php?'.$newpost[threadid];

    if (
$useBitly) {
      
// http://classes.verkoyen.eu/bitly
      
require_once 'bitly.php';
      
$bitly = new Bitly('*********''*************************');
      
$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('***********','*********');
    
$twitter->updateStatus($tweet);

I'd be quite surprised if this worked with anything other than Standard URLs.

Standard: showthread.php?t=threadid

Friendly: showthread.php?threadttitle

Plugin:
PHP Code:
       $shortUrl 'http://www.yourforumsdomain.com/showthread.php?t='.$newpost[threadid]; 
My guess would be that the URL format has to be set to Standard for this mod to work. You could try changing $newpost[threadid] to $newpost[title], not sure if that will work though.
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  #217  
Old 02-15-2010, 01:50 PM
eMike eMike is offline
 
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buro9

Fantastic mod, awesome support.
Managed to get it to work just fine by reading through all the posts.

5 stars!

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  #218  
Old 02-15-2010, 02:06 PM
Hateman Hateman is offline
 
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Hi girls,

i got this error by submitting a thread:

syntax error, unexpected $end .... like the other peoples here. Do you support this mod?
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  #219  
Old 02-15-2010, 02:30 PM
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kall kall is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hateman View Post
Hi girls,

i got this error by submitting a thread:

syntax error, unexpected $end .... like the other peoples here. Do you support this mod?
Hello Penelope,

What is the content of your plugin?

If you filled it in correctly, that error does not occur.
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  #220  
Old 02-15-2010, 03:10 PM
steeler7 steeler7 is offline
 
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2 Things are/aen't happening for me...

1. New threads aren't showing up in Twitter.
2. After I finish typing out a new thread and click "Submit new thread" it submits it but I get a blank screen and need to click the back arrow on my browser and then click on the forum and it shows the Thread that I had made.

Here's my code...

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(1,2,3,35,36,37,38,39,40,43);

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

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

    if (
$useBitly) {
      
// http://classes.verkoyen.eu/bitly
      
require_once 'bitly.php';
      
$bitly = new Bitly('kipper51''R_**************');
      
$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('pghsportstavern','********');
    
$twitter->updateStatus($tweet);

I put the 2 attached files in my "/forum" folder.

I triple checked my bitly and twitter information and it appears to be correct
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  #221  
Old 02-15-2010, 03:13 PM
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kall kall is offline
 
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Does it make it to Twitter?

Have you checked your error_log to see if that sheds light on the white page issue? I'd guess out of memory, but that is a total stab in the dark.
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Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.12 by vBS
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X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
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Hooks Called:
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