Integration with vBulletin - vBulletin Tweet Poster!

Brought to you by Milad's vBulletin Services!

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Introduction & Description
It's amazing how twitter drives traffic to various websites around the web, so I thought it would be a very good idea to get advantage of it, because Twitter will bring us more traffic and more valuable registrations.

This add-on runs as a scheduled task every ten minutes, and posts the newly posted threads to twitter in the form:
Thread title - preview (if possible) - tiny or full URL.

Threads must be in forums viewable by guests, not private forums.

Features

• 1.0.0
  • Post to twitter using OAuth authentication.
  • You have your own application at twitter, so the tweets will be appeared from your website name. tweet.jpg
  • Only guest-accessible stuff is posted at Twitter.
  • Integrated with bit.ly to shorten the thread URL, giving more space for title and preview.
  • Set it up once, and forget it. twitter's access token doesn't expire, unless you revoke the access permission.
• 1.0.2
  • You can set from which forums the threads will be tweeted. (See the page where you edit the forum info and settings forum_option.jpg)
  • vBSEO compatible (if available), so the URLs are rewritten before they get shortened. This will help to reduce the number of redirects as few as possible.
  • The task prints valuable information when you run it manually, to help you diagnose problems when they happen! healthy_task_messages.jpg
• 1.0.3
  • Non-Unicode forums can use the built-in conversion (to UTF-8) to abide by the requirement of twitter. settings.jpg
  • You can disable the automatic tweeting function, and tweet threads manually right from the first postbit. with user group over which user group can tweet manually postbit_button.jpg Attachment 100845
  • You can set threads from which user group will be tweeted. Attachment 100845
• 1.0.5
  • Scheduled task: Post Hot threads.
  • Check port 443 on installation / upgrade.
  • The product can't be installed if cURL isn't complied into PHP.
  • Update forums / usergroups / permissions cache on successful authorization, to avoid problems with some admins, where caches don't get updated on upgrade!
  • strip_html from the preview text, for forums that enable HTML in posts.
  • Delete tweet if the thread is deleted.
  • Status Message Prefix. settings.jpg
• 1.0.6
  • Option: to remove URLs from preview text (enabled by default).
  • Option: to have only the thread title as a tweet without any part of the message.
  • Added form (in the footer) to allow admins to tweet from any page, right in their forums, with an option to disable it, also it's enabled only for super admins. Attachment 102934

How different is this from twitterfeed.com?

• This hack is not intended to be an alternative to twitterfeed.com, however:
• It may be safer than giving your Twitter-Login to twitterfeed.com (by redlabour)
• Later, this hack will include more options so you have better control over what is posted at twitter. (like post only hot threads, or threads by certain usergroup, etc.)
• You have your own application at twitter, so the tweets will be appeared from your website name, instead of any other service. tweet.jpg

Happy Users of This Product! contact me to add your twitter account.

• @syrianmeds
• @Bullshido
• @Cause4Chaos
• @Hatvertise
• @BatM_AU
• @TalkBritain

Requirements

• Mandatory:
  • vBulletin 3.8.0
  • PHP 5.2.3
  • cURL & OpenSSL compiled to your PHP installation.
  • Twitter account (I've created a dedicated account for my website @syrianmeds)
• Optional (but recommended):
  • bit.ly account to shorten URLs.
  • Your forum's character set must be UTF-8 (required by twitter) or latin with no non-English characters. Alternatively, you can use the iconv built-in function to convert the encoding.

Installation

1. Upload the files to their respective locations.
2. Import the XML product file: product-twitterposter.xml
3. *Optional* go to http://bit.ly/ and register an account there, you need it to shorten the URLs!
   There are two important values here: the login username and the apiKey (you can obtain it from http://bit.ly/account/)
   settings.jpg
4. Register your application at twitter. (You must be already registered as a regular member)
   https://twitter.com/oauth_clients/new
   screenshot1.jpg
   Pay attention to the Callback URL, it must point to the file twitterposter.php in your admincp, ex: http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/admincp/twitterposter.php
5. After registering your application, twitter will provide two values to you (Consumer Key and Consumer Secret), keep them for use in the authorization later.
   screenshot2.jpg
6. Go to vBulletin Tweet Poster -> Authorize.
7. Enter the two values in there appropriate fields and submit (screenshot3.jpg). You will be given a link to twitter.com to authorize this hack (screenshot4.jpg) to post on your behave.
8. You will be redirected to your admincp, and a "Hello World!" message will be posted to your twitter account.

Upgrade

1. Upload the files to their respective locations.
2. Import (Allow Overwrite: Yes!) the XML product file: product-twitterposter.xml
3. Re-authorize the hack, to make sure everything works for you.

Troubleshooting

• Q: I'm not seeing any updates after the one "#vBulletin Tweet Poster by http://services.milado.net/ Hello World! #testoauth".
  A: Please make sure that you have new threads in forums available to guests, otherwise the hack won't post anything.
  After that go to Admincp -> Scheduled Tasks -> Scheduled Task Manager, then find the task "vBulletin Tweet Poster" click run and see if there is any error displayed.
  
• Q: I'm getting the error "Fatal error: Call to undefined function curl_init() in /home/investme/forums/includes/twitterposter/twitteroauth/twitterOAuth.php on line 126"
  A: That error says that you don't have cURL installed on your server. If you have a dedicated server/vps, install and compile curl, if you're on shared/reseller hosting, contact your host and ask if they can install cURL support. (thanks stapler2025 for answering on my behave)
  
• Q: I receive the following error:
  

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <hash>
  <request>/statuses/update.xml</request>
  <error>Read-only application cannot POST</error>
  </hash>

  A: You have to enable write & read for your application at twitter, so go here, edit your application access setting and request new consumer key and token. If it didn't work, please delete the application, add a new one and use my settings from the screen shots.

Credits
I've used the Twitter's OAuth library, by Abraham Williams | http://abrah.am | @abraham

Change log

• 1.0.0 first public release (beta) Jun, 17th 2009
• 1.0.1 (beta) Jun, 17th 2009
  • New feature: The ability to exclude certain forums (forum_option.jpg), posts: #1831293 and #1831305
  • Diagnostic Information are printed in task manager for you to help diagnosing why the hack doesn't work for some admins! posts: #1831263, #1831443 and #1831460
• 1.0.2 (beta) Jun, 18th 2009
  • Bug fixed, posts: #1831301, #1831311, #1831349, #1831579 and #1831607
  • vBSEO Integration.
  • Improvement done to the task diagnostic messages. healthy_task_messages.jpg
• 1.0.3 (beta) Jun, 21th 2009
  • Implementation of iconv conversion for non-unicode forums.
  • Control threads by which usergroups will be posted to twitter.
  • Tweet threads in forums manually instead of it being automatic. postbit_button.jpg
• 1.0.4 (beta) Jun, 22th 2009
  • Bug fixed: Manual tweeting doesn't show thread preview!
  • Bug fixed: Plugin overwrites the hook: $template_hook['postbit_controls']
• 1.0.5 (beta) Jul, 23th 2009
  • Renamed function_twitterposter.php to functions_twitterposter.php
  • Moved some functions from functions_twitterposter.php to a new class in class_twitterposter.php (New PHP class is created, first step to move to OOP).
  • Canceled the redirection to twitter (on authorization), and replaced with a link opening in a new tab / window.
  • New scheduled task: Post Hot threads.
  • New: Check port 443 on installation / upgrade.
  • New: The product can't be installed if cURL isn't complied into PHP.
  • New: Update forums / usergroups / permissions cache on successful authorization, to avoid problems with some admins, where caches don't get updated on upgrade!
  • New feature: strip_html from the preview text, for forums that enable HTML in posts.
  • New feature: Delete tweet if the thread is deleted.
  • New feature: Status Message Prefix.
• 1.0.6 (RC1) Aug, 6th 2009
  • Add phrase 'HOT:'.
  • Improve bit.ly class a bit.
  • Push the plug-in at hook (postbit_display_complete) to run lastly, to put the tweet button at the last.
  • Include an option to remove URLs from preview text.
  • Option: to have only the thread title as a tweet without any part of the message.
  • Added form (in the footer) to allow admins to tweet from any page, right in their forums, with an option to disable it, also it's enabled only for super admins. Attachment 102934
• 1.0.7 (RC2) to be released.
  • Bug fixed: improperly cached template.
  • Bug fixed: Hot Threads Look up Time Span.
  • New feature: Include thread prefix in the tweet.

[ghostpt]

Originally Posted by Milad

You can post in any language, but you have to use UTF-8 character set.

Thanks Milad,
My forum is set by default with ISO-8859-1, is there other way to tweet thread with UTF-8 without changing the forum charset?

[38modify]

When I try to authorize, I am getting this error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function curl_init() in /home/investme/forums/includes/twitterposter/twitteroauth/twitterOAuth.php on line 126

Any help please... ty

[stapler2025]

Originally Posted by 38modify

When I try to authorize, I am getting this error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function curl_init() in /home/investme/forums/includes/twitterposter/twitteroauth/twitterOAuth.php on line 126

Any help please... ty

That error says that you don't have cURL installed on your server. If you have a dedicated server/vps, install and compile curl, if you're on shared/reseller hosting, contact your host and ask if they can install cURL support

On that note: I'll be installing this soon!

[txspaderz]

Originally Posted by Milad

The error is clear, there is wrong in your application setting, it's read only, you want read and write access, see the screen shot Attachment 100688

Milad,

I am having the same issue. My Application setting on twitter is set for Read & Write access, and it's still throwing the error:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<hash>
<request>/statuses/update.xml</request>
<error>Read-only application cannot POST</error>
</hash>

[valdet]

Milado, that is a fantastic hack.

I've got a slight issue though. When I first installed the hack I also entered my bit.ly username and API key to shorten the URL's which were working just fine.

But later I decided to remove bit.ly shortening in Twitter and use my forum URL's instead. Even though I removed my bit.ly username and API key from vB settings, the URL's in Twitter are still being rewritten through bit.ly. I've made sure that I also removed the settings in bit.ly Admin Panel too.

I also uninstalled/reinstalled the hack and reuploaded all files, but URL's are still going through bit.ly on my Twitter updates.

Maybe the cause of this is that I had to tweak the dependencies on your hack to allow me to install the hack. I have vB 3.6.12 and PHP 5.1.6 (your requirements were vB 3.8.x and PHP 5.2.3).

Sorry for long text, but I hope you can guide me how to solve this thing.

Thanks for your time.

[Milad]

Originally Posted by txspaderz

Milad,

I am having the same issue. My Application setting on twitter is set for Read & Write access, and it's still throwing the error:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<hash>
<request>/statuses/update.xml</request>
<error>Read-only application cannot POST</error>
</hash>

Delete the application from twitter and add a new one. I think after you change the write & read access you have to request a new consumer key and token.

[Milad]

Originally Posted by valdet

I've got a slight issue though. When I first installed the hack I also entered my bit.ly username and API key to shorten the URL's which were working just fine.

But later I decided to remove bit.ly shortening in Twitter and use my forum URL's instead. Even though I removed my bit.ly username and API key from vB settings, the URL's in Twitter are still being rewritten through bit.ly. I've made sure that I also removed the settings in bit.ly Admin Panel too.

Sometimes, twitter shortens the URL by itself, try to run the task manually. you will see the returned message by twitter, it indicates whether twitter has shotened the URL or not.

[Milad]

Originally Posted by ghostpt

Thanks Milad,
My forum is set by default with ISO-8859-1, is there other way to tweet thread with UTF-8 without changing the forum charset?

I can do something, but I don't promise you anything right now.

[Milad]

Originally Posted by ghostpt

Thanks Milad,
My forum is set by default with ISO-8859-1, is there other way to tweet thread with UTF-8 without changing the forum charset?

I've implemented iconv for you and other non-unicode forums!

[SBlueman]

I went to go enter my Customer key and customer secret from twitter and got this error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function hash_hmac() in /home/sblueman/public_html/forums/includes/twitterposter/twitteroauth/OAuth.php on line 77