Error - Using Echofon with Waterfox - "Failed to get OAuth token. Try this later."

[etachyon]

Tweets stopped loading few days back. I tried to remove and add account but I get an error message saying "Failed to get OAuth token. Try this later."
Thanks for your support.

[potamgsf]

Me too... Probably this is it?

[Kyleri]

Well ... crap. Anyone know if a fix is possible? Or has Twitter just locked our butts out permanent-like?

[tetsujin1979]

I've tried looking at this. Debugging the plugin is tricky.
I think the address is ok, it might be a change on twitter itself.
I tried registering a new application with the twitter API, but getting this result - "401 Unable to authenticate you"
If I had to guess the problem is in either the TwitterClient.requestToken or TwitterClient.buildOAuthHeader functions, or in the OAuth.js file

That "Failed to get OAuth token" error message is triggered on line 32 of OAuth.js so maybe we can work back from there?

[tetsujin1979]

I've opened a question on stackoverflow here - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59953187/how-to-authenticate-with-twitter-from-a-firefox-plugin - to ask for help on fixing the authentication issue

[Kyleri]

Oh good -- thank you! This is WAY beyond my clue, but I can sit on the sidelines & cheer you on. \o/

[tetsujin1979]

hasn't been any responses. If any of you have a stack overflow account, can you click the upvote arrow?

[potamgsf]

tetsujin1979
done.

I tried to find if there was any changes about the authentication recently but I found nothing. I can't even find the cause of this problem... :(

[YoruNoHikage]

Hello guys, I think the official Echofon keys have been revoked or disabled. In the past, I made a specific version with custom keys (see #46) I never published because there were no UI for this.

I got some time to look for it and it still works in Waterfox (even though some API endpoints have been removed). So if you have custom keys (you can ask for on developer.twitter.com), you can use it. echofon_unofficial-2.6.4-custom-keys.zip.

Steps to install:

1. Rename zip extension to xpi
2. Load the add-on onto Waterfox
3. Go to about:config et replace extensions.twitternotifier.customKey and extensions.twitternotifier.customSecret with the consumer key and secret from developer.twitter.com

You should be able then to add your accounts and complete the auth process (and you have to remove/re-add the existing ones).

EDIT: Do not check "Sign-in with Twitter" and leave callback blank when creating the app. See below #85 (comment)

[potamgsf]

It's shame... :(

[tetsujin1979]

Not quite working for me. I've set the two key values in about:config, and I can log in through the "Add Account" link, but when I complete the login to twitter, it redirects back to the github page, there's no PIN code, so the account is not added successfully

I think the problem is that I've set the callback url for the new app I registered on dev.twitter.com to https://github.com/echofox-team/echofon-firefox-unofficial

[YoruNoHikage]

There's no callback assigned on my app, are you able to leave it blank?

[tetsujin1979]

I had the "Sign in with Twitter" option selected, once I cleared that I could leave a blank callback url, and everything is working now!
Thank you so much, I really appreciate the effort you've put in to get the add on working again

[tetsujin1979]

These are the steps that I followed

Register as a developer at developer.twitter.com
Login at developer.twitter.com
Under your username in the top right, click "Apps"
Click "Create an app"
Enter any name - there are some restrictions, it can't have "Twitter" in it, and it must not be the same as an existing app, so it might take a few tries before you enter a name that's available
Enter a short description, this can be anything
Enter a website URL, I used the repository address, that should be ok
Leave "Enable Sign in with Twitter" clear
Leave all following fields blank, except for "App usage". This needs a short description of how the app will be used, so something like "To access twitter via a browser plugin"
Click create
Wait for the application to be created
If you can't see the "Keys and tokens" tab, click the "Details" link next to the app name
Under "keys and tokens" note the API key and API secret key
Download the zip file from the link above
Rename the ".zip" extension to ".xpi"
Drag the xpi file into Waterfox and install
Restart to complete installation
When waterfox restarts, open a new tab and enter "about:config" in the address bar
Click "I accept the risk"
Enter extensions.twitternotifier.customKey in the search box
If the preference is not found, right click on "Preference Name" and select "New -> String" and enter extensions.twitternotifier.customKey as the preference name and the value of the API key from your new twitter application as the value
If it does exists, edit it and enter the value of the API key from your new twitter application as the value

Enter extensions.twitternotifier.customSecret in the search box
If the preference is not found, right click on "Preference Name" and select "New -> String" and enter extensions.twitternotifier.customSecret as the preference name and the value of the API secret key from your new twitter application as the value
If it does exists, edit it and enter the value of the API secret key from your new twitter application as the value

Close the tab

You should be able to register accounts with echofon, and use the add on as before

[YoruNoHikage]

@tetsujin1979 glad it worked!

[potamgsf]

I tried to newly register, and create an app...
NOW IT WORKS COMPLETELY FINE AGAIN!
Thank you so much!

[us66mo]

@tetsujin1979 Works great, also on Palemoon! Thanks for the help! Although I requested DM to work as well (with tweeting and retweeting), it doesn't seem to work yet, but that's no big deal.

[Kyleri]

IT WORKS

Many thanks to @YoruNoHikage for fixing the code & to @tetsujin1979 for posting the delightfully detailed howto -- y'all rock!

[RichDG]

A real shame this no longer works in firefox. Thanks for all the work over thre years maintaining this app, I am going to miss it (to such an extent my twitter usage will drop to next to notihng I imagine).

[tetsujin1979]

A real shame this no longer works in firefox. Thanks for all the work over thre years maintaining this app, I am going to miss it (to such an extent my twitter usage will drop to next to notihng I imagine).

There's a fork of Firefox called Waterfox that still supports the older style add-ons, that's what I use to run echofon, plus a few other add-ons that no longer run in firefox

[tetsujin1979]

@tetsujin1979 Works great, also on Palemoon! Thanks for the help! Although I requested DM to work as well (with tweeting and retweeting), it doesn't seem to work yet, but that's no big deal.

That was a change introduced by Twitter about a year ago, you can't access DMs using the API anymore. It's not a massive issue for me either, I can still use the app for that.

[RichDG]

Thanks, I am aware of both Waterfox and Pale Moon working with the changes made as per your suggestion. Unfortunately I need echofon to work on my main browser (firefox) and not on a back up browser. Thankfully since posting earlier I thought I would try the tweaks for Waterffox etc on my version of Firefox (I use version 47.0.2 due to other add ons no longer working with later versions of ff). I did the regsitering, app creation etc and installed the file after changing it from a zip to an xpi file. I then did the changes to the config (adding both entries as neitehr were there). It didn't seem to work so then I tried tweeting from echofon and once that appeared it suddenly kicked into life so it does seem to work on older versions of ff (albeit very old !!). Thanks for putting such full instructions up, I know I never would have managed it without such a comprehensive guide.

[us66mo]

As an addendum, it is working fine except for the fact that is seems to revert to an earlier date when I restart the browser, giving me a false number of new twitter messages.