Prepared by: paul gallagher - tardate.com Repository: github.com/tardate/rails-twitter-oauth-sample/tree/master Demonstration site: rails-twitter-oauth-sample.heroku.com Related blog post: tardate.blogspot.com/2009/06/using-twitter-oauth-with-rails-sample.html
Demonstrates the use of rails with the Twitter RESTful API with OAuth 1.0a. Uses the oauth ruby gem.
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Twitter API documentation - apiwiki.twitter.com/
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OAuth gem github.com/pelle/oauth/tree/master
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Twitter OAuth gem (another REST API client library for Ruby - not used in this example) github.com/moomerman/twitter_oauth/tree/master
These need to be installed in addition to all standard gems required by rails:
json (1.1.6 at time of writing) oauth (0.3.5 at time of writing)
NB: for heroku deployment, these are specified in the .gems file in the root of the project
gem install oauth
rails rails-twitter-oauth-sample cd rails-twitter-oauth-sample rake db:create
ruby script/generate scaffold member twitter_id:integer screen_name:string token:string secret:string profile_image_url:string
Member model updated to use screen_name as the key:
def to_param screen_name end
rake db:migrate
twitter_oauth.rb
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Implements TwitterOauth class, which is a wrapper around the oauth gem, providing specific support for twitter.
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As a design principle, the TwitterOauth class logs and re-raises any errors that occur; some custom error classes are defined to suit.
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It includes implementations for many of the twitter api methods (but not all at this point)
oauth_system.rb
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A controller mixin module to provide twitter oauth support in an application.
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Uses the TwitterOauth class for oauth functionality.
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Works specifically with the Member ActiveRecord class to update/verify user details.
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It includes wrappers for many of the twitter api methods, basically to reroute errors into the flash hash.
# include the oauth_system mixin include OauthSystem # specify oauth to be on all user-specific actions before_filter :oauth_login_required, :except => [ :callback, :signout, :index ]
Map members resources Hook /members/callback method to module OauthSystem.callback map.resources :members, :collection => { :callback => :get }
Hook /signout method to module OauthSystem.signout: map.signout ‘/signout’, :controller => ‘members’, :action => ‘signout’
For the sample app, use MembersController.index as the landing page: map.root :controller => “members”
MembersController actions
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index - a basic landing page
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show - main page for logged-in user
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partialfriends - xhr responder to render friends list
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partialfollowers - xhr responder to render followers list
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partialmentions - xhr responder to render mentions list
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partialdms - xhr responder to render direct messages list
See lib/tasks/test.rake: demo_proxy_login task connects as the last member and exercises the API a bit
To execute:
rake demo_proxy_login
Register your application at twitter.com/oauth_clients
Be sure to select the following settings in the registration:
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Application Type = Browser
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Callback URL = the fully qualified callback to your app e.g. rails-twitter-oauth-sample.heroku.com/members/callback
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Default Access type = Read & Write (if you want to be able to do things like post status updates)
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Use Twitter for login = yes
Note the “application key” and “consumer secret” numbers that twitter generates - these are unique for your application and are required to complete the configuration.
Add the twitter application key and consumer secret as operating system environment variables (TWOAUTH_KEY and TWOAUTH_SECRET respectively).
Set your callback URL as operating system environment variable (TWOAUTH_CALLBACK).
Alternatively, you can edit config/environment.rb to set these directly.
If you are using heroku, add the environment keys using the heroky utility (gem):
heroku config:add TWOAUTH_KEY=8N029N81 TWOAUTH_SECRET=9s83109d3+583493190 TWOAUTH_CALLBACK=rails-twitter-oauth-sample.heroku.com/members/callback
When you register the application at twitter, you will specify a fully qualified callback URL e.g. rails-twitter-oauth-sample.heroku.com/members/callback
This is the address that twitter sends users back to after the twitter authentication step.
To test on a local development machine (not known on the web/in DNS as the domain name in the callback), you can simply add the registered domain to your hosts file (aliasing localhost) e.g.
127.0.0.1 rails-twitter-oauth-sample.heroku.com
NB: most browsers will need to be restarted each time you change this, as the resolved name will have been cached if you have already used the address.