I used to use TwitterFeed; but recently it’s been a real pain in the ass and not updating so I looked for an alternative.
Roll on TweetMyBlog.
TweetMyBlog is great for the simple fact that it is a WordPress plugin. It’s also a small download, and you can install it very easily. However, TweetMyBlog is hard-coded to use TinyURL and the URL it “makes tiny” is an affiliate link taking the user to a framed page. This is a bit of a bummer for me because I like to use bit.ly and I don’t really want my users going to some 3rd party site.
Roll on TweetMyBlog Hack
I took at a look @ the files and realise we can very easily change the Plugin to use bit.ly instead of TinyURL using the bit.ly API.
If you have installed TweetMyBlog you would have uploaded the “tweetmyblog” directory which had 3 files in it. Go and find, “twitter_api.php”:
and at the very bottom of the file you will see:
”
function get_tiny_url($url)
{
$this->snoopy->fetch('http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php?url='.$url);
return $this->snoopy->results;
}
”
As you can see, it uses TinyURL.
I’ve only hacked it to use bit.ly, but this is what I changed it to first (don’t copy it yet, there’s a better version further down):
”
function get_tiny_url($url)
{
$this->snoopy->fetch('http://api.bit.ly/shorten?version=2.0.1&login=bobbyjason&apiKey=MYLONG_BIT_LY_API_KEY&format=text&longUrl='.$url);
return $this->snoopy->results;
}
”
I gave it a shot, and sure enough it worked, I was using bit.ly instead of tinyurl, result! However, it was still using the silly Affiliate link with a frame & 3rd party site.
Okay, open “tweetmyblog.php” at around line 36 you will see:
$tweet = trim($tweetPrefix).' '.$blogPost->post_title.' '.$t->get_tiny_url('http://www.tweetmyblog.com/bpredir.php?r='.$tmb_affid.'&bp='. urlencode(get_permalink($postID)));
The problem is the tweetmyblog.com redirection, so I replaced it with this:
$tweet = trim($tweetPrefix).' '.$blogPost->post_title.' '.$t->get_tiny_url(urlencode(get_permalink($postID)));
Easy, right?
Well, this works great.
I do not need to use TwitterFeed ever again because WordPress automatically Tweets my blog post! I don’t have to wait 30 minutes, 1 hour, 5 hours for TwitterFeed to notice my blog post.
There was one last change that I made; after using the code above (using the bit.ly api) I realised that the URL wasn’t showing up in my bit.ly history. I checked this out and realised I needed to use the history=1 parameter. After I added this I’ve not had a single problem at all.
For the final code of “twitter_api.php”, see below:
function get_tiny_url($url)
{
$this->snoopy->fetch('http://api.bit.ly/shorten?version=2.0.1&history=1&login=bobbyjason&apiKey=MYLONG_BIT_LY_API_KEY&format=text&longUrl='.$url);
return $this->snoopy->results;
}
I must say though; TweetMyBlog is a great plugin by John Merrick and Sean Jordansen and you should install it.
If you wish to monetise your tweets from your blog, then the above edits are silly. It’s just personally I would rather not have the user taken to a 3rd party site.
TweetMyBlog also provides a feed of your Tweets as a Widget, so it really is great!
Download TweetMyBlog now!
