Ruby Application to create twitter tweets - "Tweeter"

README.txt

Tweeter Application:

This application can be used to create tweet programmatically.

Pre-requisites:
==============
1. In order to use it, you need to have "twitter_oauth" gem installed.
   gem install twitter_auth

2. Register an application on http://dev.twitter.com/.  Select the "Application Type" as "client", as this program does is not a web-based application and hence, cannot have call back URL as needed for browser apps.
  
3. After you register an application, note down the values for "Consumer key" and "Consumer secret"

Usage:
=====
1. Download the "tweeter.rb" and "tweeter_example.rb".
2. Download the "twitter_app_info.yaml", and fill in the values of consumer key and secret.
3. Run the "twitter_example.rb"
    ruby twitter_example.rb

Trouble-shooting:
================
1. Line 26 of "tweeter.rb" launches a browser so twitter user (you if you are running the sample program) can go and authorize the app.   This code works only on Mac OS. Comment it if you have issues, and launch the browser and visit the URL printed in the console.

tweeter.rb

require 'rubygems'
require 'yaml'
require 'net/http'
require 'twitter_oauth'

APP_INFO_FILE = "twitter_app_info.yaml"

def get_user_authorization

  app_info = get_app_info
  
  # Create an OAuth client using your twitter app details
  client = TwitterOAuth::Client.new(
    :consumer_key => app_info[:consumer_key],
    :consumer_secret => app_info[:consumer_secret]
  )

  # Request a token for Out-of-band access (Desktop app mode, not browser mode)
  request_token = client.request_token(:oauth_rollback => "oob")

  puts "Visit #{request_token.authorize_url} and get hold of authorization PIN"
  puts " for Token: #{request_token.token}"
  #puts "Secret: #{request_token.secret}"

  # Launch a browser and let the user get a PIN from twitter.com
  system "open", request_token.authorize_url

  # User can now enter PIN here so that app can be authorized
  puts "Get the PIN number from the browser just launched, and enter here:"
  pin = gets

  # Authorize the client
  access_token = client.authorize( 
    request_token.token,
    request_token.secret,
    :oauth_verifier => pin.strip
  )

  # Check for success of authorization
  user_access_info = {}
  if client.authorized? then
    puts "User #{access_token.params[:screen_name]} has authorized this app"
    puts "Store Token #{access_token.token} and Secret #{access_token.secret} for the user."
  
    user_access_info = {
        :screen_name =>  access_token.params[:screen_name],
        :token => access_token.token,
        :secret => access_token.secret
    }
  
    user_file = "#{user_access_info[:screen_name]}.yaml"
    puts "Writing file #{user_file}"
    File.open(user_file, "w+") do |out|
      YAML.dump(user_access_info, out)
    end
  end
  
  user_access_info
  
end

def get_app_info
  app_info = {}
  begin
    app_info = YAML.load(File.open(APP_INFO_FILE, "r"))
  rescue
    puts "ERROR: #{APP_INFO_FILE} not found."
    exit
  end
  app_info
end


def read_user_access_info(user)
  info = nil
  begin
    info = YAML.load(File.open("#{user}.yaml", "r"))
  rescue
  ensure
    puts "#{user}.yaml not found" if info.nil?
    p info
  end
  info
end

def tweet(user, message)
  user_info = read_user_access_info(user) || get_user_authorization
  app_info = get_app_info
  
  client = TwitterOAuth::Client.new(
      :consumer_key => app_info[:consumer_key],
      :consumer_secret => app_info[:consumer_secret],
      :token => user_info[:token], 
      :secret => user_info[:secret]
  )

  if (client.authorized?)
    puts "Tweeting #{message}..."
    client.update(message)
    puts "Done, check the twitter page!"
  else 
    puts "CLient not authorized. Check tokens stored in user file."
    puts "If required, delete the user file and re-run this programs"
  end
end

tweeter_example.rb

require 'rubygems'
require 'net/http'
require 'twitter_oauth'

require 'tweeter'


puts "Enter Twitter ID#: "
twitter_id = gets
twitter_id.strip!

puts "User id is #{twitter_id}"

tweet(twitter_id, "Hello world!")

twitter_app_info.yaml

:consumer_key : 'YOUR_TWITTER_APPLICATION_CONSUMER_KEY_HERE'
:consumer_secret : 'YOUR_TWITTER_APPLICATION_CONSUMER_SECRET_HERE'