round 2

1. Using ’s API with PHP
Katherine Lee | Internet Applications

2. beta
Concept: using Twitter’s API and a PHP site to
retrieve and store mobile location and message in a
database
On my way to the
library, where my
wildest dreams are
going to come true
today

3. • OAuth is an authentication protocol through which a
user may allow an application to perform some
action on their behalf without sharing their password
• The important thing is that it’s a standardized way of
granting secure API access to user accounts

4. cURL: How the API
communicates with PHP
function http($url, $post_data = null) {/*{{{*/
$ch = curl_init();
if (defined(quot;CURL_CA_BUNDLE_PATHquot;)) curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CAINFO, CURL_CA_BUNDLE_PATH);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 30);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 30);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
//////////////////////////////////////////////////
///// Set to 1 to verify Twitter's SSL Cert //////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
if (isset($post_data)) {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post_data);
}
$response = curl_exec($ch);
$this->http_status = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
$this->last_api_call = $url;
curl_close ($ch);
return $response;

5. How Twitter OAuth works
• You register your application with Twitter, specifying a callback URL
• Twitter gives you:
1. Consumer key
2. Consumer secret
3. Request token URL
4. Access token URL
5. Authorize URL
• Consumer key+secret initiate a conversation with Twitter
• If the key+secret are validated by Twitter, Twitter’s request token
allows you to send the user to an authorize URL
• If the user grants your application permission, Twitter sends the
user to your callback URL

6. Info I can pull on the User
• Full name
• Twitter username
• Location (longitude/latitude only for GPS or iPhone
enabled devices)
• Photo icon
• Date joined Twitter network
• Date/Time/Message in last tweet
Locovore demo

7. Issues
• Lack of standardization in mobile location capability in
devices
• Twitterific (and apps like it) are only for iPhone or GPS-
supporting devices
• Google Latitude only supported by:
– Android-powered devices
– Most color Blackberry devices
– Most Windows Mobile 5.0+ devices
– Most Symbian S60 devices
• Too bad if you don’t have GPS – your Google MyLocation
will be inaccurate and is only supported on some Motorola
and Sony Erickson devices outside of those devices
supported by Google Latitude

8. Future
• Better, more universal location standards for
mobile use
• See only local tweets within a very small
radius of wherever you happen to be

9. Thanks
Code based on William Abraham’s:
• Fire Eagle code -
http://github.com/myelin/fireeagle-php-lib
• twitterlibphp -
http://github.com/poseurtech/twitterlibphp