[twitter-dev] Re: Getting retweets in user timelines
I strongly agree with the OP. Problem: Unable to get the complete timeline for a user including retweets (without logging in)! There is an important limitation with the API regarding retweets. With the new retweets feature, in the current API, it is not possible to get a complete timeline for a user (unless you have the user's password). This is bad. Firstly, it means user timelines retrieved from the API will always be potentially incomplete, with retweets excluded. Yet retweets are considered part of a users timeline and always have been. Secondly, it means I can't retrieve my own complete timeline without logging in, which is surely an unnecessary extra step. The API functionality for retweets seems inconsistent with other API methods, notably statuses/user_timeline which does not require a log- in. It's also inconsistent with the RSS feed which does include retweets in a users' timeline. Solution: A new API method is required, to retrieve retweets for a user without logging in. DOCUMENTATION statuses/user_timeline Returns the 20 most recent statuses posted from the authenticating user. It's also possible to request another user's timeline via the id parameter. This is the equivalent of the Web /user page for your own user, or the profile page for a third party. Note: For backwards compatibility reasons, retweets are stripped out of the user_timeline when calling in XML or JSON (they appear with 'RT' in RSS and Atom). If you'd like them included, you can merge them in from statuses retweeted_by_me. http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-user_timeline
Re: [twitter-dev] Re: Getting retweets in user timelines
The backwards compatibility problem is SAX event based parsers that, without proper code in place to set the current context, will just blindly grab the screen_name and text attributes etc in potentially non-deterministic ways thus mixing up, potentially, the tweeter from the retweeter, and the tweet from the retweet. On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 1:36 AM, Rich rhyl...@gmail.com wrote: I don't see why we even need it to be backwards compatible as technically it already is surely? The home_timeline status's are the actual retweet, to make it new style retweet compatible you need to explicitly handle the retweeted status nodes. On Dec 15, 4:06 pm, Cameron Kaiser spec...@floodgap.com wrote: Not ideal but for any users whom you have authorized credentials for you can use: http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method:-statuses-retweete. .. Definitely not ideal. +1 for There are several threads looking for a way to get built-in retweets via teh user_timeline as was available before with organic (i.e., RT ...) tweets. Has there been any decision made on what will be done here? Built-in retweets are invisible to the user_timeline which is a loss of functionality. Simply including the option of retweets=true should solve the backwards compatibility option. -- personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/-- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems *www.floodgap.com* ckai...@floodgap.com -- MOVIE IDEA: From Russia with E-mail Signature -- -- Marcel Molina Twitter Platform Team http://twitter.com/noradio
Re: [twitter-dev] Re: Getting retweets in user timelines
As of today, I've noticed that retweets created via the new system are represented in user timelines as RT @username...--are others seeing this, and is this something new? Is this leftovers from the old to new retweeting transition, or is this going to be a permanent method for representing built-in tweets in the user timeline? I just checked it on a known newRT-crazy user, and I'm not seeing any newRTs in his user_timeline. -- personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckai...@floodgap.com -- People are weird. -- Law Order SVU ---
[twitter-dev] Re: Getting retweets in user timelines
I don't see why we even need it to be backwards compatible as technically it already is surely? The home_timeline status's are the actual retweet, to make it new style retweet compatible you need to explicitly handle the retweeted status nodes. On Dec 15, 4:06 pm, Cameron Kaiser spec...@floodgap.com wrote: Not ideal but for any users whom you have authorized credentials for you can use: http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method:-statuses-retweete... Definitely not ideal. +1 for There are several threads looking for a way to get built-in retweets via teh user_timeline as was available before with organic (i.e., RT ...) tweets. Has there been any decision made on what will be done here? Built-in retweets are invisible to the user_timeline which is a loss of functionality. Simply including the option of retweets=true should solve the backwards compatibility option. -- personal:http://www.cameronkaiser.com/-- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems *www.floodgap.com* ckai...@floodgap.com -- MOVIE IDEA: From Russia with E-mail Signature --
Re: [twitter-dev] Re: Getting retweets in user timelines
There are several threads looking for a way to get built-in retweets via teh user_timeline as was available before with organic (i.e., RT ...) _tweets. Has there been any decision made on what will be done here? _ Built-in retweets are invisible to the user_timeline which is a loss of functionality. Simply including the option of retweets=true should solve the backwards compatibility option. I don't see why we even need it to be backwards compatible as technically it already is surely? The home_timeline status's are the actual retweet, to make it new style retweet compatible you need to explicitly handle the retweeted status nodes. Quite right, if people were all using proper JSON parsers. However, I am personally aware of some applications that simply hand-grep through the status list, which is horribly kludgey but does work. I am also sure that Twitter is also aware of them, and unexpected fields probably would break them, so I can see the logic in not doing this by default. I do of course strongly believe it should be offered to apps that want them, naturally. -- personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckai...@floodgap.com -- Happiness is having a scratch for every itch. -- Ogden Nash
[twitter-dev] Re: Getting retweets in user timelines
Perhaps we should now have a 1.5 version under api.twitter.com ;) Then those of us that want them can use them without breaking apps that don't parse XML or JSON correctly. On Dec 16, 2:04 pm, Cameron Kaiser spec...@floodgap.com wrote: There are several threads looking for a way to get built-in retweets via teh user_timeline as was available before with organic (i.e., RT ...) _tweets. Has there been any decision made on what will be done here? _ Built-in retweets are invisible to the user_timeline which is a loss of functionality. Simply including the option of retweets=true should solve the backwards compatibility option. I don't see why we even need it to be backwards compatible as technically it already is surely? The home_timeline status's are the actual retweet, to make it new style retweet compatible you need to explicitly handle the retweeted status nodes. Quite right, if people were all using proper JSON parsers. However, I am personally aware of some applications that simply hand-grep through the status list, which is horribly kludgey but does work. I am also sure that Twitter is also aware of them, and unexpected fields probably would break them, so I can see the logic in not doing this by default. I do of course strongly believe it should be offered to apps that want them, naturally. -- personal:http://www.cameronkaiser.com/-- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems *www.floodgap.com* ckai...@floodgap.com -- Happiness is having a scratch for every itch. -- Ogden Nash
[twitter-dev] Re: Getting retweets in user timelines
+1 There are several threads looking for a way to get built-in retweets via teh user_timeline as was available before with organic (i.e., RT ...) tweets. Has there been any decision made on what will be done here? Built-in retweets are invisible to the user_timeline which is a loss of functionality.
Re: [twitter-dev] Re: Getting retweets in user timelines
Not ideal but for any users whom you have authorized credentials for you can use: http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method:-statuses-retweeted_by_me On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 07:19, Jeffrey jeffreywin...@gmail.com wrote: +1 There are several threads looking for a way to get built-in retweets via teh user_timeline as was available before with organic (i.e., RT ...) tweets. Has there been any decision made on what will be done here? Built-in retweets are invisible to the user_timeline which is a loss of functionality. -- Abraham Williams | Awesome Lists | http://bit.ly/sprout608 Project | Intersect | http://intersect.labs.poseurtech.com Hacker | http://abrah.am | http://twitter.com/abraham This email is: [ ] shareable [x] ask first [ ] private. Sent from Madison, WI, United States
Re: [twitter-dev] Re: Getting retweets in user timelines
Not ideal but for any users whom you have authorized credentials for you can use: http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method:-statuses-retweeted_by_me Definitely not ideal. +1 for There are several threads looking for a way to get built-in retweets via teh user_timeline as was available before with organic (i.e., RT ...) tweets. Has there been any decision made on what will be done here? Built-in retweets are invisible to the user_timeline which is a loss of functionality. Simply including the option of retweets=true should solve the backwards compatibility option. -- personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckai...@floodgap.com -- MOVIE IDEA: From Russia with E-mail Signature --
