Home arrow Programming arrow Unique website for your Twitter updates Reloaded
Unique website for your Twitter updates Reloaded

Recently, I started "Tweeting" on Twitter. I was really skeptical first, but now that I'm getting the hang of it, I really start to like it.

I saw an article on Tutorialblog on how to create a unique website for Twitter updates. Actually a really good post, but when I looked at the Twitter API, I thought there were much more possibilities. That's when I started diggin' in the code and created an extended version of the Twitter website. Your own profile information is added, tweets from friends and a couple of random followers. Just check out the demonstration.

Twitter Page

I'm not going into the PHP details this time (only some explanation on the configuration - Comments are added if you really need to know), but you can download the page from the download section.

Demo Twitter Website   Download Twitter Website

Remember: Almost everything on that page is dynamically loaded from Twitter. When updates are made (by you or your friends), the page automatically changes too (after reload). Oh, and while you're at it: Follow me on Twitter for more updates!

Unique website for Twitter updates

Configuration
  1. Open up "twitter.php" with any text editor (Notepad, Dreamweaver, Smultron etc.)
  2. Find $username and $password on line 10 and 11
  3. Change the value between the quotes in your username (not email!) and password
  4. Make some additional changes (like changing $nrtweets, $nrfriends and $nrfollowers)
  5. Save the file and upload everything to your webserver
  6. Check out your own Twitter page!
Feautures
  • Set the number of tweets
  • Set the number of friendly tweets
  • Set the number of random followers
  • Show username and avatar of friendly tweets, with link to Twitter account
  • Detect if message is a reply; If so, add "reply" icons
  • Based on the template made by Chris Coyier
  • Page is fully xHTML valid
  • And more! (Check out demo page)
Troubleshooting

There is a possibility the page doesn't show and gives the following error: Unable to load XML from Twitter. Please try again. This happens when too much requests (70+ in one hour) are made to Twitter and you must try again later.

Conclusion, Download, Demo

This script works exactly as expected; Too bad the Twitter service doesn't allow more than 70 requests per hour. You could think about caching the page, loading it with AJAX etc. to improve the flow.

Demo Twitter Website   Download Twitter Website

Hope you like it! If you have uploaded this page and configured it at your will, please share it in the comments. Really wondering how pages from other people will look like!



Tags:  twitter webdesign website

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Comments
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Max | Design Shard - Good Work   | 84.69.47.xxx | 2008-09-20 21:39:58
Gravatar image I might try something like this, thanks for setting it up ready to use.
Rachel - Great blog   | 71.224.104.xxx | 2008-09-21 18:58:39
Gravatar image This a really good idea, Marco!! Stumbled.
Marco - Thanks!   | 62.194.186.xxx | 2008-09-21 21:17:10
Gravatar image Thanks for the feedback guys - Appreciate it :) . I hope you'll find good use in this script, enjoy!
Razvan Pavel   | 85.9.55.xxx | 2008-09-22 10:53:58
Gravatar image no ofence mate, but the code is very poorly written (same ID used more than once and other newbish mistakes)
Marco - Refactor it   | 92.67.255.xxx | 2008-09-22 11:11:48
Gravatar image Hi Razvan,

Where do you see the same ID used more than once and what other mistakes are you talking about?

Feel free to refactor the code and try to make it better ;) . You'd be helping everyone out.

Greetings,,
Razvan Pavel   | 85.9.55.xxx | 2008-10-20 10:58:45
Gravatar image http://i35.tinypic.com/2w1vcis.jpg

dont know if that's from the tweet script but i'm pretty sure it can be fixed
Marco - Thanks!   | 62.194.186.xxx | 2008-10-20 16:32:54
Gravatar image A thanks, I see. Should be a "class" instead of an ID, my mistake. Thanks for noticing - I'll update the script ASAP.

Any more "newbish mistakes" I should take care of?
Jason   | 75.61.112.xxx | 2008-10-21 01:44:25
Gravatar image What kind of font did you use for the TWEET! word?
Marco - Chris Coyier   | 62.194.186.xxx | 2008-10-21 07:49:41
Gravatar image Check out the template from Chris Coyier; He has the original PSD with the name of the font.
Jason   | 76.252.141.xxx | 2008-10-24 02:27:16
Gravatar image Thanks!
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