kpitsimpl: December 2018

Real-time scrolling Tweets related to financial news alerts and updates. Just enter the Twitter handle you want to see a marquee of live streaming tweets from.

TL;DR - the working app is here: https://twickrtape.azurewebsites.net
..znd here on Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.cordova.twicktape

Use button in lower-left to toggle different Twitter handles

The code is a hodgepodge of various references and vestiges of past personal projects. My initial aim was to get something working end-to-end as I envisioned, and I was able to achieve that pretty easily through the Twitter API and .NET.

The process is standard API stuff- first you authenticate and receive a token which you can then subsequently pass to prove that your requests are valid. Then, using simple (REST API) HTTP GET, we get the content (Twitter Timeline information) that we are interested in.

The gist of the code is .NET C# (an ASP.NET Controller method) and listed below:

  public ActionResult GetTwickr(string handle = "business")  
     {  
       // Set your own keys and screen name  
       var oAuthConsumerKey = "XXXXXXXXXXXXX"; // "API key";  
       var oAuthConsumerSecret = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"; // "API secret key";  
       var oAuthUrl = "https://api.twitter.com/oauth2/token";  
       var screenname = "@" + handle; // default Twitter display current status  
       // Authenticate  
       var authHeaderFormat = "Basic {0}";  
       var authHeader = string.Format(authHeaderFormat,  
         Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(Uri.EscapeDataString(oAuthConsumerKey) + ":" +  
         Uri.EscapeDataString((oAuthConsumerSecret)))  
       ));  
       var postBody = "grant_type=client_credentials";  
       HttpWebRequest authRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(oAuthUrl);  
       authRequest.Headers.Add("Authorization", authHeader);  
       authRequest.Method = "POST";  
       authRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=UTF-8";  
       authRequest.AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip | DecompressionMethods.Deflate;  
       using (Stream stream = authRequest.GetRequestStream())  
       {  
         byte[] content = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(postBody);  
         stream.Write(content, 0, content.Length);  
       }  
       authRequest.Headers.Add("Accept-Encoding", "gzip");  
       WebResponse authResponse = authRequest.GetResponse();  
       // deserialize into an object  
       TwitAuthenticateResponse twitAuthResponse;  
       using (authResponse)  
       {  
         using (var reader = new StreamReader(authResponse.GetResponseStream()))  
         {  
           System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer js = new System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer();  
           var objectText = reader.ReadToEnd();  
           twitAuthResponse = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<TwitAuthenticateResponse>(objectText);  
         }  
       }  
       try  
       {  
         // Get timeline info  
         var timelineFormat = "https://api.twitter.com/1.1/statuses/user_timeline.json?screen_name={0}&include_rts=1&exclude_replies=1&count=5";  
         var timelineUrl = string.Format(timelineFormat, screenname);  
         HttpWebRequest timeLineRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(timelineUrl);  
         var timelineHeaderFormat = "{0} {1}";  
         timeLineRequest.Headers.Add("Authorization", string.Format(timelineHeaderFormat, twitAuthResponse.token_type, twitAuthResponse.access_token));  
         timeLineRequest.Method = "GET";  
         WebResponse timeLineResponse = timeLineRequest.GetResponse();  
         var timeLineJson = string.Empty;  
         string scrolltxt = string.Empty;  
         using (timeLineResponse)  
         {  
           using (var reader = new StreamReader(timeLineResponse.GetResponseStream()))  
           {  
             timeLineJson = reader.ReadToEnd();  
           }  
         }  
         // deserialize into an object  
         dynamic obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(timeLineJson);  
         foreach (var r in obj.Root)  
         {  
           scrolltxt += " ***** " + r.text;  
         }  
         var model = new LoggedInUserTimelineViewModel { TimelineContent = scrolltxt, Handle = handle };  
         return View("TwickrMain", model);  
       }  
       catch (Exception e) { }  
       return View("TwickrMain");  
     }

Next, using Newtonsoft,Json JsonConvert() function, we deserialize the JSON response and zero in on the 'text' property of each entity (tweet) in the array of JSON results (tweets).

And finally, using some basic Bootstrap HTML, JavaScript and CSS we are able to wire up a very simple, but effective app that interacts with the Twitter API in real-time.

Reference: https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/timelines/api-reference/get-statuses-user_timeline.html

TwickrTape