How To Connect With Twitter From Yii

Tutorials

twitter

First off, you must have the psYiiExtensions installed on your web server and Yii has to know about it. Please see the installation instructions for more information.

Secondly, you must have the PHP oauth extension loaded. Details for installing this are on the [psYiiExtensions wiki](http://code.google.com/p/ps-yii-extensions/wiki/PHPOAuthSupport).

OAuth
=====-----
The Twitter API uses OAuth as a method of remote authentication. I do not claim to be an OAuth expert, I just coded a wrapper for the excellent PHP oauth extension. However, in doing so I did learn a little which I will impart upon you now.Step 1: Create your Twitter application
=================================--------------------------------------- Before integrating with Twitter, you'll need to create an application on the Twitter web site. This is done by [going here](http://twitter.com/oauth_clients/new) (http://twitter.com/oauth_clients/new) and filling out the information. Most of the information asked of you is rudimentary. However, one item deserves attention. This is the <b>Callback URL</b>. ### Callback URL ------------
 
The Callback URL is the URL on <b>YOUR</b> web site to which Twitter will redirect <b>after</b> a user has authenticated against the Twitter system. In my implementation I used a callback url of http://www.mysite.com/site/twitter. ### Save and Create ---------------
 
Now, press the 'Save' button to create your application. ### Consumer Key & Secret ---------------------
 
The top two, the Consumer Key and Consumer Secret are the important ones here. These are your API keys. They allow your application to "talk" to Twitter's API. Copy these down for now, we'll need them in the next step. You can always revisit the link above to see them again, so no worries if you've already clicked-through. Step 2: Configure Yii =====================---------------------
Now that you've told Twitter about your application, we need to tell Yii to create the Twitter component. This is done in the main.php configuration file.
If you have not yet configured your main.php for the psYiiExtension library, do so now by following the installation instructions.```php
// Twitter API
'twitter' => array(     'class' => 'pogostick.components.twitter.CPSTwitterApi',     'apiKey' => '<b>your_consumer_key</b>',
 
',
 
    'apiSecretKey' => '<b>your_consumer_secret</b>',
 
',
 
    'apiBaseUrl' => 'http://twitter.com',     'callbackUrl' => '<b>your_callback_url</b>',
 
',
 
    'format' => 'array', ),
```Step 3: Integration
===================-------------------
There are basically two methods of integrating with Twitter:```php
<?php
$this->pageTitle=Yii::app()->name . ' - Attach to Twitter'; ?> <? if ( ! Yii::app()->twitter->isAuthorized ) { ?> <h1>Link your Twitter Account!</h1> <div class="yiiForm">     <?php echo CHtml::form(); ?>         <div class="simple">             Click the button below to be taken to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/" target=_blank>Twitter</a> to link your account. <br />
 
<br />
 
<br />
 
            <br />
 
            <br />
 
            <br />
 
            <a href="<?=Yii::app()->twitter->getAuthorizeUrl()?>"><img src="/images/twitter_sign.png" border="0" alt="Sign in with Twitter" /></a>         </div>     </form> </div><!-- yiiForm --> <? } else { ?> <h1>Linked with Twitter!</h1> <div class="yiiForm">     <?php echo CHtml::form(); ?>         <div class="simple">             Your account is currently linked to your Twitter account <b><?= Yii::app()->twitter->screenName ?>. <br />
 
<br />
 
<br />
 
            <br />
 
            <br />
 
            <br />
 
        </div>     </form> </div><!-- yiiForm --> <? } ?> ``` ### Capturing the Access Token --------------------------
 
After the user has authenticated with Twitter, your callback is called and the psYiiExtension library will pull out the new token and retrieve the permanent access token.
It is up to you to store this someplace. The library places the token in a user session state. You can retrieve the token via:```php
if ( Yii::app()->twitter->isAuthorized )
    $_arToken = Yii::app()->twitter-><b>getToken()</b>; else     echo 'User is not authorized';
```Save these off for later use. You can use a session variable or store them in your database.

### Authorization Event ### An alternate to this method is to use the <b>onUserAuthorized</b> event. This event is generated by the CPSOAuthComponent when authorization is complete. You must subclass CPSTwitterApi to capture this event and do with it what you please. Not a big deal, and kinda cool, no? ### Return trips to the site and reloading the token ##
 

After the session ends, the tokens are lost and you will need to load up your stored access tokens for the current user (or your site). This is done via the <b>CPSTwitterApi::loadData()</b> method.
It is up to you where you do this. Preferably, find a place where you actually need to use the Twitter API and load it there. Otherwise you'll end up loading it every time a page is loaded from your site and that's not very fast or Yii-like.class CPSWebUser extends CWebUser
{
//******************************************************************************** //* Member variables //********************************************************************************

/**protected $m_bLoaded = false;

//******************************************************************************** //* Private methods //********************************************************************************

/**}

//******************************************************************************** //* Yii Overrides //********************************************************************************

/**Once you make that call, you're all set to use the Twitter API!

# Step 4: Make Twitter API Calls! #
 
-------------------------------
Now you've got it all set up, all you need to do is make a call to the Twitter API. The CPSTwitterApi object handles all the nasty OAuth token passing and whatnot to let you concentrate and retrieving and using Twitter data.
Almost all of the Twitter API functions have been converted to single methods in the CPSTwitterApi class. Have a look-see through there and you'll see all the calls you can make.```php
$_arResults = Yii::app()->twitter->getMentions();
echo var_export( $_arResults, true );
``````

# Wrapping it up! #
 
--------------- So you should be well on your way to geeking with Twitter and Yii now. If I've left anything out or if you're confused or my writing sucks, please let me know. I love feedback! jablan 'at' pogostick.com or PM me here.