Hi Angus, Back in the day I was known to write some Perl so I took a crack at user_timeline. The following works fine for me:
use LWP::UserAgent; use HTTP::Request; my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new; my $req=HTTP::Request->new(GET => "http://twitter.com/statuses/ user_timeline.json"); $req->authorization_basic('username here', 'password here'); print $ua->request($req)->as_string Or, the exact command I used: perl -MLWP::UserAgent -e '$ua = LWP::UserAgent->new; $req=HTTP::Request->new(GET => "http://twitter.com/statuses/ user_timeline.json"); $req->authorization_basic($ARGV[0],$ARGV[1]); print $ua->request($req)->as_string' USERNAME PASSWORD Where USERNAME and PASSWORD are your user information. The LWP library is finicky about authentication. — Matt On Oct 22, 1:34 pm, angusmci <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thanks for your answer. > > I decided to bypass the Net::Twitter library altogether, and just talk > to Twitter directly using LWP (Perl's web programming library). > > I sent two requests to Twitter, one for "http://twitter.com/statuses/ > user_timeline.json", and one for "http://twitter.com/statuses/ > friends_timeline.json". In each case, I sent Twitter valid credentials > (i.e. the username and password that I use to log in to Twitter). I > set the LWP user agent up in exactly the same way each case. > > The request for 'user_timeline' returned 404 Not Found; the request > for 'friends_timeline' returned a list of updates from people I'm > following. > > If the authentication credentials I'm sending weren't valid, then the > request for 'friends_timeline' should return a 401 error. The fact > that it didn't suggests that the test script is authenticating it > successfully at least in some cases. > > I'm sorry to keep bothering you with this, but it really looks as if > some parts - but only some parts - of the Twitter API have a > mysterious prejudice against Perl ('curl' works fine). I'll try with > Ruby and Python test scripts and see if that makes any difference. > > Angus > > On Oct 21, 2:20 pm, "Alex Payne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Are there any headers or arguments that are mandatory for > > > 'user_timeline' that are not required for other, similar API > > > functions? > > > No, none. If you want the user timeline for the authenticating user, > > you need to provide authentication. If you want the user timeline for > > another user, you must specify it as part of the URL. That's all > > there is to it. > > > > Thanks, Angus > > > > On Oct 20, 9:10 pm, "Alex Payne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> Are you quite sure that you're making the request authenticated? It > > >> will return a 404 if it can't authenticate you, because that URL > > >> doesn't specify a user ID to retrieve a timeline for and thus assumes > > >> that you want the timeline for the requesting user. > > > >> On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 11:48 AM, angusmci <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >> > I don't have a way currently to monitor what's actually going out over > > >> > the wire, but I've scattered Data::Dumper calls through the > > >> > Net::Twitter code to inspect the data structures used by the libwww > > >> > user agent. According to that, Net::Twitter is requesting: > > > >> > http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline.json?count=1&; > > > >> > and it's sending the headers: > > > >> > 'user-agent' => 'Net::Twitter/1.17 (PERL)', > > >> > 'x-twitter-client-version:' => '1.17', > > >> > 'x-twitter-client:' => 'Perl Net::Twitter', > > >> > 'x-twitter-client-url:' => 'http://x4.net/twitter/meta.xml' > > > >> > The authentication information that it should be sending corresponds > > >> > to a valid Twitter account. It's supposedly using > > >> > 'basic_authentication' against 'twitter.com:80', with realm set to > > >> > 'Twitter API'. > > > >> > The response headers sent back by Twitter are: > > > >> > 'connection' => 'close', > > >> > 'client-response-num' => 1, > > >> > 'set-cookie' => '_twitter_sess=...; domain=.twitter.com; path=/', > > >> > 'cache-control' => 'no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, > > >> > post-check=0', > > >> > 'last-modified' => 'Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:17:52 GMT', > > >> > 'status' => '404 Not Found', > > >> > 'date' => 'Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:17:52 GMT', > > >> > 'client-peer' => '128.121.146.100:80', > > >> > 'content-length' => '73', > > >> > 'client-date' => 'Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:17:49 GMT', > > >> > 'pragma' => 'no-cache', > > >> > 'content-type' => 'application/json; charset=utf-8', > > >> > 'server' => 'hi', > > >> > 'expires' => 'Tue, 31 Mar 1981 05:00:00 GMT' > > > >> > (I've elided the Twitter session cookie just in case it contains > > >> > anything sensitive). > > > >> > Some more data points: > > > >> > - the same request submitted to the corresponding API endpoint on > > >> > identi.ca works correctly. > > >> > - if I add an id parameter to my call to Net::Twitter's > > >> > user_timeline() method, Twitter returns a valid result. > > >> > - if I substitute 'friends' for 'user_timeline', I get the same > > >> > behavior: 404 with no 'id' parameter, 200 if I supply an 'id' > > >> > parameter. > > >> > - if I substitute 'friends_timeline' for 'user_timeline', it works > > >> > without problems: I get a 200 response, and appropriate JSON data > > >> > - the code implementing 'friends_timeline' and 'user_timeline' in > > >> > Net::Twitter seems to be effectively identical. > > >> > - if I send friends_timeline the wrong password, it replies '401 Not > > >> > authorized'. > > >> > - if I send user_timeline the wrong password, it replies '404 Not > > >> > Found'. > > >> > - testing from a different host/network produces the same results > > >> > - requesting 'http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline.json?count=1&;' > > >> > using curl and the proper authentication credentials works > > >> > - this worked successfully at least as recently as September 22nd > > > >> > The fact that sending an 'id' parameter (which asks Twitter to return > > >> > information for the user identified by 'id', and which may not depend > > >> > on authentication) made me think that it was an authentication issue > > >> > and that Net::Twitter was somehow fumbling authentication (although > > >> > since Net::Twitter is using Perl LWP, I don't know how that could > > >> > happen). However, 'friends_timeline' works as expected. > > > >> > Thanks again for your help, > > > >> > Angus > > > >> > On Oct 20, 1:51 pm, "Alex Payne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> >> Certain headers like If-Modified-Since will effect the responses we > > >> >> return. Can you please provide full header output? > > > >> >> On Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 11:44 AM, angusmci <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >> >> > The problem was reported by one of our users, but when I tested our > > >> >> > software with my own Twitter account - which is alive and in good > > >> >> > standing - I got the same 404 message. > > > >> >> > If I use 'curl', i.e. > > > >> >> > curl -u user:passhttp://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline.json > > > >> >> > It works fine. However, if I use the Perl Net::Twitter equivalent, > > >> >> > i.e. > > > >> >> > use Net::Twitter; > > >> >> > my $twitter = Net::Twitter->new(username => "user", password => > > >> >> > "pass"); > > >> >> > my $timeline = $twitter->user_timeline({ count => 1 }); > > >> >> > print $twitter->http_code, " ", $twitter->http_message(); > > > >> >> > I get the 404 Not Found error. > > > >> >> > Both my simple Net::Twitter test case and our actual application > > >> >> > have > > >> >> > worked well in the past, and our Net::Twitter module is up-to-date. > > > >> >> > Is it possible that Twitter's behavior depends in some way on other > > >> >> > headers sent by the client? > > > >> >> > Thanks for your help, > > > >> >> > Angus > > > >> >> > On Oct 17, 9:44 pm, "Alex Payne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> >> >> Nope, hasn't changed. Is it possible that the user you're > > >> >> >> requesting > > >> >> >> was deleted or marked as a spammer? > > > >> >> >> On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 3:48 PM, angusmci <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > >> >> >> wrote: > > > >> >> >> > A part of our app that made use of the '/statuses/ > > >> >> >> > user_timeline.format' endpoint has broken, and tests show that > > >> >> >> > we're > > >> >> >> > now getting a 404 result from that (using 'curl', or the Perl > > >> >> >> > Net::Twitter module). > > > >> >> >> > Has the API changed recently? > > > >> >> >> > Angus > > > >> >> >> -- > > >> >> >> Alex Payne - API Lead, Twitter, Inc.http://twitter.com/al3x > > > >> >> -- > > >> >> Alex Payne - API Lead, Twitter, Inc.http://twitter.com/al3x > > > >> -- > > >> Alex Payne - API Lead, Twitter, Inc.http://twitter.com/al3x > > > -- > > Alex Payne - API Lead, Twitter, Inc.http://twitter.com/al3x
