This document provides an overview of Twitter APIs, including the REST API for accessing user timelines and posting tweets, the Search API for advanced search, and the Streaming API for following users and terms in real-time. It discusses how to make requests to the APIs using PHP code examples and gives resources for more documentation and support.

2. About MeMy Name is Joel StrellnerI go by @jstrellner on TwitterI’ve been developing things using the Twitter API’s since March, 2008.Twitturly ( http://twitturly.com )inView ( http://myinview.com )

3. What is an API?An API is a way for any service to allowany other service to programmaticallyaccess and interact with that services data.

4. What API’s does Twitter offer?Twitter currently offers 3 API’s:REST APIREST Search API (previously Summize)Streaming APIDepreciated API’sData Mining FeedXMPP Feed

5. REST APIThe REST API is the primary API.Used for:AuthenticationOAuthBasic Auth (depreciated, use OAuth)Posting TweetsGetting your timeline (Tweets from those you follow)Getting your Mentions

6. Search APISupports all of the same advanced search options that you can do on search.twitter.comGet trending topics by day, week or currentAllows you to consume it in atom and json formatsSupports fuzzy geolocation filteringUses *different* user ID’s than the REST APIWill be eventually the same (V2 of the API’s)

7. Streaming APIMethods for the Public Stream:Firehose (Not available to most)Gardenhose (large portion of Firehose)Spritzer (small portion of the Firehose)Following Specific Users/TermsBirddog / Shadow / Followmust start with @user or have “in_reply_to” for that userAllows you to follow 200k, 50k or 200 users, respectivelyTrackAllows you to get any tweet matching a keywordDoes not support phrases

8. What’s being built?Seesmic Desktop ( http://seesmic.com/ )Uses the REST APIUses the Search APITwitalizer ( http://twitalyzer.com )Uses the Search API (might use the REST API too)inView ( http://myinview.com )Uses the streaming APIYour App?

9. What’s Coming Next?Geolocation data in each TweetRetweeting (formally)

10. How do you actually talk to the API?PHP (getting a users timeline):<?php $ch = curl_init();curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_URL, ‘http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/jstrellner.xml’); curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Twitturly / v0.6'); curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS, 10);curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_FAILONERROR, 0);curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_NOSIGNAL, 1); curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 30); curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 60); curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, $username . ':' . $password); $result = curl_exec($ch);curl_close ($ch);?>$result now has your response.

11. ( XML Response )

12. How to send a tweet (Basic Auth)PHP:<?php$msg = ‘this is an example tweet.’; $curl_handle = curl_init();curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, "http:twitter.com/statuses/update.json");curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 30);curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "status=" . urlencode($msg));curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$twitter_username:$twitter_password"); $buffer = curl_exec($curl_handle);curl_close($curl_handle);?>$buffer now has your response.

13. Q&AAny questions, or comments?Feel free to tweet your question using the #tmeetuphashtag.

14. ResourcesTwitter API Documentationhttp://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-API-DocumentationTwitter Streaming API Documentationhttp://apiwiki.twitter.com/Streaming-API-DocumentationAsk any API Questionhttp://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk