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Little known @Twitter and @TwitterAPI tips and tricks

Be sure to comeback as new tips and tricks get added. If you know of anything I missed be sure to let me know.

Static URL for profile images based on screen_name:

https://api.twitter.com/1/users/profile_image/abraham

* This performs a http redirect to the actual profile image URL. Currently https redirects to http. You can also add "?size={mini | bigger | normal}" to get specific sizes.

Redirect to profile based on user_id:

https://twitter.com/account/redirect_by_id?id=9436992

In_reply_to_status_id mentions:

https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/update.json?status=reply+to+@abraham&in_reply_to_status_id=12410413197

* In the web interface new mentions are only replies if they start with @screen_name. By pushing @screen_name further along in the string your followers who do not follow @screen_name will still see the status.

Profile image sizes:

http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/54160223/chart-black-small.png

* By default you get the original image size you can add _mini, _normal, and _bigger just before the image extension to change the size returned.

Block account link:

https://twitter.com/blocks/confirm/twitterapi

Follow account link:

https://twitter.com/friendships/add/abraham

*This URL stopped working sometime in 2009.

Logged out profile view:

https://twitter.com/loggedout/profile/abraham

Whitelisted IP:

Whitelisted IPs provide 20,000 GET request per authenticated user per hour, not a cumulative limit of 20,000 GET requests per hour.

SMS commands work through the API:

http://help.twitter.com/forums/59008/entries/14020-the-official-twitter-text-commands

Link to Twitter pages using the @screen_name syntax:

https://twitter.com/abraham/status/12413206301

View geotagged statuses on Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://api.twitter.com/1/twitter/lists/team/statuses.atom

Consistant @screen_name, #hashtag, and @screen_name/list linking and extraction:

http://github.com/mzsanford/twitter-text-rb

*Currently there are Ruby, Java, and PHP libraries.

Consistant character counting for statuses:

http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Counting-Characters

Twitter string translations:

http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-String-Translations

Security@twitter.com's PGP key

http://apiwiki.twitter.com/SecurityPublicKey

Map of a Twitter status object:

http://mehack.com/map-of-a-twitter-status-object

Search by app sources with spaces:

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=the+source%3Atwitterforandroid

Mobile friendly page to enable Geo:

https://twitter.com/account/geo

Check if your current visitor is authenticated with Twitter:

https://twitter.com/sessions/present
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Comments

  1. Travis EstellFriday, November 19, 2010

    Very cool. What I'd like to see (it's apparently not yet possible) is a link to a page that lets you natively retweet a particular tweet. Something like:

    http://twitter.com/taestell/status/4913549205839872/retweet
    or
    http://twitter.com/retweet/4913549205839872

    ReplyDelete
  2. Abraham WilliamsFriday, November 19, 2010

    @taestell: That could be useful. I don't recall anyone ever requesting it as a feature: http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSaturday, February 12, 2011

    Nice list. I believe Twitter has constraints on the use of the Static URL for profile images. In fact, I don't believe you can utilize that method to display the twitter profile image on your site. Can't find the docs for this right now to confirm.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Abraham WilliamsSaturday, February 12, 2011

    @wiscodude: the status URL for profile images is rate limited and while it works Twitter specifically recommends against using it in HTML. http://dev.twitter.com/doc/get/users/profile_image/:screen_name

    I do cover a good way to avoid broken profile images in another blog post though: http://blog.abrah.am/2010/11/say-no-to-broken-twitter-avatars.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. abrahamSaturday, May 14, 2011

    @wiscodude: the status URL for profile images is rate limited and while it works Twitter specifically recommends against using it in HTML. http://dev.twitter.com/doc/get/users/profile_image/:screen_name

    I do cover a good way to avoid broken profile images in another blog post though: http://blog.abrah.am/2010/11/say-no-to-broken-twitter-avatars.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Travis EstellSaturday, May 14, 2011

    Very cool. What I'd like to see (it's apparently not yet possible) is a link to a page that lets you natively retweet a particular tweet. Something like:

    http://twitter.com/taestell/status/4913549205839872/retweet
    or
    http://twitter.com/retweet/4913549205839872

    ReplyDelete

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