How to Build a Twitter Robot in PHP
Web bots allow users to automate specific services to reduce human interaction. Twitter, the social networking site that connects users through a sleek API, provides users with a development center to create useful tools, such as bots for automated direct messages or updates. If you would like to create your own Twitter bot, you may do so in PHP. PHP is a scripting language designed to create dynamic web pages.
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Things You'll Need
- Twitter account
- RSS feed parser
- Command-line tool
- Web server with PHP5+
Instructions
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Navigate to the Twitter website and log in with your username. After logging in, navigate your Internet browser to the Twitter Applications page so that you may register a new application with the Twitter OAuth client. Click on "Create a New Application" and fill out all of the details of your app. Copy both the Consumer Key and the Consumer Secret and store in a readily available location, as you will need these for your Twitter bot.
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Have all of the tools set up for proper application development. Create an account on a link shortening site, such as Bit.ly or TinyURL. This allows you to maximize the characters when your bot posts links, as you are limited to only 140. Additionally, you will need a tool to help you parse, or analyze, RSS feeds. Download MagpieRSS or LastRSS to help you parse the RSS feeds, if necessary. Alternatively, you may wish to use a different web application, such as Dapper or Yahoo Pipes, to help you aggregate the necessary information for your Twitter robot. In other words, this will help you create files for your Twitter robot to publish data to its intended audience.
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Download a web server with PHP5+ capabilities. Common web servers for your projects include Apache HTTP Server, Microsoft Internet Information Server, Netscape Enterprise Server and Sun ONE Web Server. Likewise, obtain a command-line tool such as cURL, cygwin or Wget. These programs help you send and receive files to manipulate web services. This is home base, of sorts, for all of your robot data needs.
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Use the Twitter and OAuth libraries to help you use correct scripting language for the robot project. Since you using PHP to build this Twitter robot, browse the five main libraries under this scripting language for assistance. Navigate your Internet browser to the Twitter Libraries page to use these documents. These library tools are dependent to functioning within the command-line tool.
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Tips & Warnings
Determine what type of robot you wish to create. A retweet robot will allow you to set up a twitter account that specifically retweets users who mention a search keyword. Something like this may be useful during a convention or regional event where niche keyword use is active. Additionally, you may wish to create a robot that direct messages users who initiate contact with your account. Regardless of what type of robot you want to build, retrieve all necessary xml and json formats from the Twitter Development REST API Resources page. This address provides users access to all the information needed for the intended robot project.
