Get the last tweet from any user

jquery.last_tweet.js

/**
 * jQuery.lastTweet
 * ----------------
 * 
 * Fetch the last tweet from the specified user
 *
 * Usage:
 *
 *     $('#container').lastTweet('username');
 * 
 * This will parse URLs and mentions and write them into the `#container` node.
 */
;(function($) {
  "use strict";

  /* Cached Regexp for extracting URLs and usernames */
  var LINK_REGEXP = /(\b(https?|ftp|file):\/\/[\-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[\-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|])/ig;
  var USER_REGEXP = /@([_a-z0-9]+)/ig;

  /**
   * Fetches the last tweet and gets the text
   * @return {jqXHR}
   */
  function fetchLastTweet(username) {
    return $.getJSON('http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.json?callback=?', {
      screen_name: username,
      count: 1,
      exclude_replies: true
    }).pipe(function(data) {
      // We're only interested in the text
      return data[0].text;
    });
  }

  /**
   * Parse a tweet to add links to usernames and urls
   * @param  {String} tweet
   * @return {String} Parsed tweet
   */
  function parseTweet(tweet) {
    tweet = tweet.replace(LINK_REGEXP, function(url) {
        return '<a href="'+url+'">'+url+'</a>';
    }).replace(USER_REGEXP, function(reply) {
        return reply.charAt(0)+'<a href="http://twitter.com/'+reply.substring(1)+'">'+reply.substring(1)+'</a>';
    });

    return tweet;
  }

  /**
   * The plugin itself. Magic goes here
   * @param {String} username
   */
  $.fn.lastTweet = function(username) {

    fetchLastTweet(username).done(function(tweet) {
      this.html(parseTweet(tweet));
    }.bind(this));

    return this;

  };


})(jQuery);