Posts tagged with: api

This morning marked the official deprecation of Twitter's basic authentication system. I had been working toward the changeover, and at about 8 am I switched iTweet.net over to OAuth-based authentication. Things went pretty smoothly, I hope. Most people seem to have been able to refresh, authenticate with Twitter, and start tweeting again right away. Even aside from the improved security, the nicest immediate benefit is the API rate limit of 350 calls per hour instead of the 150/hour available through basic authentication. This will allow me to do some fun stuff that wasn't possible before. The people who were most affected by this change were those who use iTweet because twitter.com is blocked due to a company firewall/filter or censorship. These folks are not able to sign in via OAuth, just due to the nature of what OAuth is. I'm bummed that this is the case, but don't immediately see a way around it - however I am open to ideas from any direction. For the time being I've put a basic-authentication version of iTweet up at: http://itweet.net/basic/- and you can use it at that address for the next two weeks. However, please note that Twitter is...

Ahh, it reminds of olden days when Twitter was down more than it was up.  ;-P



iTweet.net has been down since yesterday morning (with a few short reprieves) due to the DoS attacks that are happening.  I'm keeping an eye on it and will update this post when service is restored.



Adding to the confusion, I am not able to post any tweets from Twitter.com or even via SMS, so I am unable to respond to those of you who have asked me what is happening.  Sorry! I hope you've subscribed to my blog's RSS feed.



Twitter has confirmed that the downtime is only affecting some clients, also that SMS is unavailable for some users, and that they are working on the issue.  I guess I'm just lucky enough to fall into both categories!



Update: iTweet.net is back online, after some changes from Twitter and some refactoring on my end to accommodate those changes. Yippeee!

(August 7 2009, 4:30pm PST)

I just noticed in my web app iTweet that Twitter is reporting a maximum of 150 API requests per hour now! Hurray!  This is great news for Twitter clients, as the API limit is a constant challenge in user interaction.



Twitter had mentioned that this was in the works, but so far I haven't heard mention of them actually launching this upgrade.  I hope it is here to stay!



They have also recently fixed a long-standing bug that caused followers/following methods to report incorrect data. Along with this fix came some new API methods for managing follow relationships - I will be updating iTweet with a new follow/unfollow UI just as soon as I can get to it!



There are some really great improvements coming soon to iTweet.net - stay tuned for much much more.

Twitter made an alteration to their API for "in reply to" statuses this week that I felt required a change in the way that iTweet.net handles sending @replies.



One of my personal favorite iTweet features is the "in reply to" links that show what tweet a person was @replying to inline - so you can follow conversations without leaving the page you're on.



Previously if no particular status was specified, Twitter assigned the "in reply to" link to the last tweet of the person who was replied to.  As of this week, they are only assigning that link if a particular tweet was specified - otherwise there will be no "in reply to" tweet marked.  This will help make conversation threading much more clear, but it also required that Twitter API clients get on board with the new method to ensure that threads are clearly designated.



(In case you're wondering, @replies to you will still show up in your Replies tab if no tweet was specified - but there will not be a particular thread attached.)



Here's how I've decided to handle this change - when you click the @ button to send a reply, a small box above the...

Twitter made an alteration to their API for "in reply to" statuses this week that I felt required a change in the way that iTweet.net handles sending @replies.



One of my personal favorite iTweet features is the "in reply to" links that show what tweet a person was @replying to inline - so you can follow conversations without leaving the page you're on.



Previously if no particular status was specified, Twitter assigned the "in reply to" link to the last tweet of the person who was replied to.  As of this week, they are only assigning that link if a particular tweet was specified - otherwise there will be no "in reply to" tweet marked.  This will help make conversation threading much more clear, but it also required that Twitter API clients get on board with the new method to ensure that threads are clearly designated.



(In case you're wondering, @replies to you will still show up in your Replies tab if no tweet was specified - but there will not be a particular thread attached.)



Here's how I've decided to handle this change - when you click the @ button to send a reply, a small box above the...

I've made a couple additions and modifications to iTweet this week, they are lots of fun and add some great functionality!



In the Web interface I've added Statistics to your profile in the top right - so you can see at a glance your number of updates, favorites, following and followers. This updates itself as you tweet, fave and follow.  There is also an "Appearance" preference in the Settings menu - you can keep the default iTweet look OR import your Twitter profile's appearance - background image, font colors, sidebar color and everything!



If you are wondering "where did the nifty follow/notifications/block buttons go?", I have moved them all to the Profile pages to make better use of the API and make these methods more intuitive.  The old method assumed whether you were following a person or not based on the timeline they were found in; this was a little confusing and inconvenient, so I've moved it to the Profile page.  Here the page can tell (via the Twitter API call) whether you are following that person or not, and present the correct options depending on that status.



There's also an "is so-and-so following me?" button so you can see...

Twitter just made a great addition to their Search API: Twitter Trends!



This method allows you to see the hot topics of discussion across the entire Twitterverse.  This is a neat way to keep up on breaking news, technology trends, political sentiments, or the latest Internet meme that everyone's tweeting about.



When I hear about some fresh news or tech rumor, I do a quick Twitter search before I go to any news website; it's a great way to find a wealth of links to pertinent content across the Web.



I've added the Twitter Trends method to both the iPhone and the Web version of iTweet.net.  I think it will become a fun way to keep up on current events, and to entertain myself when I'm stuck in line at the bank.  ;)   Enjoy!

Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.

Technorati Tags: itweet, itweet.net, twitter, iphone, trends, api, colby palmer

Today I'm releasing a major upgrade to iTweet, an interface for Twitter that is one of my pet projects.  This is a double release: a hugely improved iPhone Web app, and an all-new interface for any Web browser.



Click here to give the new iTweet a try!



Beginning with the iPhone app, there are some key features to note:

• Tap user pictures to toggle bio information. This section allows you to see a user's location, bio, and URL.  There are quick links to send a DM, view extended profile, turn notifications on/off, block, and follow/unfollow.
• "In reply to" links allow you to see the tweet a person was replying to, without loading a new page.
  
  
• Built-in search and hashtags via the Twitter Search API.
  
  
• Monitor your remaining API requests using the number in the "refresh" button.
  
  
• Update (and check) your location from the Settings menu.
  
  
• Change your notifications device, get more detailed API usage info, set hashtags preferences, and more from the Settings menu.
  
  
• Vastly improved speed in loading all timelines.
  
  

As before, a basic rule of thumb with iTweet goes: tap the avatar to see a person's profile, tap the username to see a person's tweets.



There...

Twitter has decided to remove a certain call from their API that the iTweet 2 private beta relied on to create the "ticker" effect that kept it updating at nearly real-time speeds.  The rate limit for API calls also remains handicapped, cut to 30 per hour from the usual 70.  This makes using Twitter API tools extremely inconvenient, and developing them is also quite frustrating. For now I have removed the "ticker" feature and the friends timeline will refresh every 140 seconds, though this number may be adjusted slightly as I attempt to keep the page open and in use today.  (Big thanks to all my helpful beta testers for your excellent feedback on the last iTweet 2 development cycle!)  Further development on the beta will continue when the API rate limit returns to normal.  Until then, Twitter API development is a waste of time as most people seem to be ditching API apps for the non-limited Web site. This is actually a good thing for me, as I am working hard on developing some other tools for The Illusion Factorythat I will be posting more about soon. Apologies for the lack of updates recently, I've been...

Enough people have expressed interest in a desktop browser version of iTweet (examples: one, two, three) that I started putting one together tonight. Twitter's recent dropping of the hyperlinks in @replies is fixed by just a few lines of code in iTweet... so if you like using @replies, here you go. A lot of iTweet's functions are built around convenience for the iPhone, so expect this version to change a lot as I modify it for the desktop browser. Eliminating the constraints of bandwidth and Mobile Safari's funkiness, lots more is possible. On the other hand, without Safari's wonderful CSS3 support, this version doesn't have all the lovely rounded corners of the iPhone version. Anyways, it's a work in progress, but seeing how everyone misses the linked @replies I thought I'd just publish this early so people can use it. Enjoy. Click here to give it a try.So far I have only clicked around this version a bit in Firefox and Safari on the Mac before I blew through the API limit on both my accounts. I will test and debug it for other browsers soon. I welcome your opinions and feature requests for the desktop...