On this page

laminas-twitter

Introduction

Laminas\Twitter\Twitter provides a client for the Twitter API. Laminas\Twitter\Twitter allows you to query the public timeline. If you provide a username and OAuth details for Twitter, or your access token and secret, it will allow you to get and update your status, reply to friends, direct message friends, mark tweets as favorites, and much more.

Laminas\Twitter\Twitter wraps all web service operations, including OAuth, and all methods return an instance of Laminas\Twitter\Response.

Laminas\Twitter\Twitter is broken up into subsections so you can easily identify which type of call is being requested.

  • account allows you to check that your account credentials are valid
  • application allows you to check your API rate limits.
  • blocks blocks and unblocks users from following you.
  • directMessages retrieves the authenticated user's received direct messages, deletes direct messages, and sends new direct messages.
  • favorites lists, creates, and removes favorite tweets.
  • friendships creates and removes friendships for the authenticated user.
  • search allows you to search statuses for specific criteria.
  • statuses retrieves the public and user timelines and shows, updates, destroys, and retrieves replies for the authenticated user.
  • users retrieves friends and followers for the authenticated user and returns extended information about a passed user.

Installation

Use Composer to install this package:

$ composer require laminas/laminas-twitter

Quick Start

To get started, first you'll need to either create a new application with Twitter, or get the details of an existing one you control. To do this:

  • Go to https://developer.twitter.com/ and sign in.
  • Go to https://apps.twitter.com/
  • Either create a new application, or select an existing one.
  • On the application's settings page, grab the following information:
  • From the header "OAuth settings", grab the "Consumer key" and "Consumer secret" values.
  • From the header "Your access token", grab the "Access token" and "Access token secret" values.

Armed with this information, you can now configure and create your Laminas\Twitter\Twitter instance:

$config = [
    'access_token' => [
        'token'  => 'twitter-access-token-here',
        'secret' => 'twitter-access-secret-here',
    ],
    'oauth_options' => [
        'consumerKey' => 'twitter-consumer-key-here',
        'consumerSecret' => 'twitter-consumer-secret-here',
    ],
    'http_client_options' => [
        'adapter' => Laminas\Http\Client\Adapter\Curl::class,
        'curloptions' => [
            CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST => false,
            CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER => false,
        ],
    ],
];

$twitter = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($config);

Make sure you substitute the values you discovered earlier in the configuration before attempting to connect.

Note on SSL Certificate Verification

Twitter has a known issue with the SSL certificate for their API endpoints, which requires that you use insecure settings for the SSL certificate verification.

Once you have the client configured, you can start consuming it:

// Verify your credentials:
$response = $twitter->account->verifyCredentials();
if (!$response->isSuccess()) {
    die('Something is wrong with my credentials!');
}

// Search for something:
$response = $twitter->search->tweets('#zf2');
foreach ($response->toValue() as $tweet) {
    printf("%s\n- (%s)\n", $tweet->text, $tweet->user->name);
}

// Tweet something:
$twitter->statuses->update('Hello world!');

Every action you take returns a Laminas\Twitter\Response object. This object contains some general purpose methods for determining the status of the response (isSuccess(), isError()), and otherwise acts as a value object containing the data returned. Essentially, if the response returns an object, you will be able to access the members listed by the Twitter API documentation. In the case of responses that return arrays, such as the $twitter->search->tweets() example shown earlier, you should use the toValue() method of the response to retrieve the array.

If you wish to dive in more into how authentication works, and what methods are exposed, keep reading!

Authentication

With the exception of fetching the public timeline, Laminas\Twitter\Twitter requires authentication as a valid user. This is achieved using the OAuth authentication protocol. OAuth is the only supported authentication mode for Twitter as of August 2010. The OAuth implementation used by Laminas\Twitter\Twitter is laminas-oauth.

Creating the Twitter Class

Laminas\Twitter\Twitter must authorize itself, on behalf of a user, before use with the Twitter API (except for public timeline). This must be accomplished using OAuth since Twitter has disabled it's basic HTTP authentication as of August 2010.

There are two options to establishing authorization. The first is to implement the workflow of laminas-oauth via Laminas\Twitter\Twitter which proxies to an internal Laminas\OAuth\Consumer object. Please refer to the laminas-oauth documentation for a full example of this workflow - you can call all documented Laminas\OAuth\Consumer methods on Laminas\Twitter\Twitter including constructor options. You may also use laminas-oauth directly and only pass the resulting access token into Laminas\Twitter\Twitter. This is the normal workflow once you have established a reusable access token for a particular Twitter user. The resulting OAuth access token should be stored to a database for future use (otherwise you will need to authorize for every new instance of Laminas\Twitter\Twitter). Bear in mind that authorization via OAuth results in your user being redirected to Twitter to give their consent to the requested authorization (this is not repeated for stored access tokens). This will require additional work (i.e. redirecting users and hosting a callback URL) over the previous HTTP authentication mechanism where a user just needed to allow applications to store their username and password.

The following example demonstrates setting up Laminas\Twitter\Twitter which is given an already established OAuth access token. Please refer to the laminas-oauth documentation to understand the workflow involved. The access token is a serializable object, so you may store the serialized object to a database, and unserialize it at retrieval time before passing the objects into Laminas\Twitter\Twitter. The laminas-oauth documentation demonstrates the workflow and objects involved.

/**
 * We assume $serializedToken is the serialized token retrieved from a database
 * or even $_SESSION (if following the simple laminas-oauth documented example)
 */
$token = unserialize($serializedToken);

$twitter = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter([
    'accessToken' => $token,
    'oauth_options' => [
        'username' => 'johndoe',
    ],
]);

// verify user's credentials with Twitter
$response = $twitter->account->verifyCredentials();

Note on Twitter OAuth Authentication

In order to authenticate with Twitter, ALL applications MUST be registered with Twitter in order to receive a Consumer Key and Consumer Secret to be used when authenticating with OAuth. This can not be reused across multiple applications - you must register each new application separately. Twitter access tokens have no expiry date, so storing them to a database is advised (they can, of course, be refreshed simply be repeating the OAuth authorization process). This can only be done while interacting with the user associated with that access token.

The previous pre-OAuth version of Laminas\Twitter\Twitter allowed passing in a username as the first parameter rather than within an array. This is no longer supported.

If you have registered an application with Twitter, you can also use the access token and access token secret they provide you in order to setup the OAuth consumer. This can be done as follows:

$twitter = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter([
    'access_token' => [ // or use "accessToken" as the key; both work
        'token' => 'your-access-token',
        'secret' => 'your-access-token-secret',
    ],
    'oauth_options' => [ // or use "oauthOptions" as the key; both work
        'consumerKey' => 'your-consumer-key',
        'consumerSecret' => 'your-consumer-secret',
    ],
]);

If desired, you can also specify a specific HTTP client instance to use, or provide configuration for the HTTP client. To provide the HTTP client, use the http_client or httpClient key, and provide an instance. To provide HTTP client configuration for setting up an instance, use the key http_client_options or httpClientOptions. As a full example:

$twitter = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter([
    'access_token' => [ // or use "accessToken" as the key; both work
        'token' => 'your-access-token',
        'secret' => 'your-access-token-secret',
    ],
    'oauth_options' => [ // or use "oauthOptions" as the key; both work
        'consumerKey' => 'your-consumer-key',
        'consumerSecret' => 'your-consumer-secret',
    ],
    'http_client_options' => [
        'adapter' => Laminas\Http\Client\Adapter\Curl::class,
    ],
]);

Account Methods

Verifying credentials

verifyCredentials() tests if supplied user credentials are valid with minimal overhead.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->account->verifyCredentials();

Application Methods

Rating limit status

rateLimitStatus() returns the remaining number of API requests available to the authenticating user before the API limit is reached for the current hour.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->application->rateLimitStatus();
$userTimelineLimit = $response->resources->statuses->{'/statuses/user_timeline'}->remaining;

Blocking Methods

Blocking a user

create() blocks the user specified in the id parameter as the authenticating user and destroys a friendship to the blocked user if one exists. Returns the blocked user in the requested format when successful.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->blocks->create('usertoblock');

Removing a block

destroy() un-blocks the user specified in the id parameter for the authenticating user. Returns the un-blocked user in the requested format when successful.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->blocks->destroy('blockeduser');

Who are you blocking (identifiers only)

ids() returns an array of user identifiers that the authenticating user is blocking.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->blocks->ids();

Who are you blocking

list() returns an array of user objects that the authenticating user is blocking.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->blocks->list();

Direct Message Methods

Retrieving recent direct messages received

messages() returns a list of the 20 most recent direct messages sent to the authenticating user.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->directMessages->messages();

The message() method accepts an array of optional parameters to modify the query.

  • since_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses after the specified identifier (up to 24 hours old).
  • max_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses earlier than the specified identifier.
  • count specifies the number of statuses to return, up to 200.
  • skip_status, when set to boolean true, "t", or 1 will skip including a user's most recent status in the results.
  • include_entities controls whether or not entities, which includes URLs, mentioned users, and hashtags, will be returned.

Retrieving recent direct messages sent

sent() returns a list of the 20 most recent direct messages sent by the authenticating user.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->directMessages->sent();

The sent() method accepts an array of optional parameters to modify the query.

  • count specifies the number of statuses to return, up to 20.
  • page specifies the page of results to return, based on the count provided.
  • since_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses after the specified identifier (up to 24 hours old).
  • max_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses earlier than the specified identifier.
  • include_entities controls whether or not entities, which includes URLs, mentioned users, and hashtags, will be returned.

Sending a direct message

new() sends a new direct message to the specified user from the authenticating user. Requires both the user and text parameters below.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->directMessages->new('myfriend', 'mymessage');

Deleting a direct message

destroy() destroys the direct message specified in the required id parameter. The authenticating user must be the recipient of the specified direct message.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->directMessages->destroy(123548);

Favorites Methods

Retrieving favorites

list() returns the 20 most recent favorite statuses for the authenticating user or user specified by the id parameter.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->favorites->list();

The list() method accepts an array of optional parameters to modify the query.

  • user_id specifies the ID of the user for whom to return the timeline.
  • screen_name specifies the screen name of the user for whom to return the timeline.
  • since_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses after the specified identifier (up to 24 hours old).
  • max_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses earlier than the specified identifier.
  • count specifies the number of statuses to return, up to 200.
  • include_entities controls whether or not entities, which includes URLs, mentioned users, and hashtags, will be returned.

Creating favorites

create() favorites the status specified in the id parameter as the authenticating user.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->favorites->create(12351);

Deleting a favorite

destroy() un-favorites the status specified in the id parameter as the authenticating user.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->favorites->destroy(12351);

Friendship Methods

Creating a friend

create() befriends the user specified in the id parameter with the authenticating user.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->friendships->create('mynewfriend');

Deleting a friend

destroy() discontinues friendship with the user specified in the id parameter and the authenticating user.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->friendships->destroy('myoldfriend');

Search Methods

Searching for tweets

tweets() returns a list of tweets matching the criteria specified in $query. By default, 15 will be returned, but this value may be changed using the count option.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->search->tweets('#zendframework');

The tweets() method accepts an optional second argument, array of optional parameters to modify the query.

  • since_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses after the specified identifier (up to 24 hours old).
  • max_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses earlier than the specified identifier.
  • count specifies the number of statuses to return, up to 200.
  • include_entities controls whether or not entities, which includes URLs, mentioned users, and hashtags, will be returned.
  • lang indicates which two-letter language code to restrict results to.
  • locale indicates which two-letter language code is being used in the query.
  • geocode can be used to indicate the geographical radius in which tweets should originate; the string should be in the form "latitude,longitude,radius", with "radius" being a unit followed by one of "mi" or "km".
  • result_type indicates what type of results to retrieve, and should be one of "mixed," "recent," or "popular."
  • until can be used to specify a the latest date for which to return tweets.

Status Methods

Retrieving the public timeline

sample() returns the 20 most recent statuses from non-protected users with a custom user icon. The public timeline is cached by Twitter for 60 seconds.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->statuses->sample();

Retrieving the home timeline

homeTimeline() returns the 20 most recent statuses posted by the authenticating user and that user's friends.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->statuses->homeTimeline();

The homeTimeline() method accepts an array of optional parameters to modify the query.

  • since_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses after the specified identifier (up to 24 hours old).
  • max_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses earlier than the specified identifier.
  • count specifies the number of statuses to return, up to 200.
  • trim_user, when set to boolean true, "t", or 1, will list the author identifier only in embedded user objects in the statuses returned.
  • contributor_details, when set to boolean true, will return the screen name of any contributors to a status (instead of only the contributor identifier).
  • include_entities controls whether or not entities, which includes URLs, mentioned users, and hashtags, will be returned.
  • exclude_replies controls whether or not status updates that are in reply to other statuses will be returned.

Retrieving the user timeline

userTimeline() returns the 20 most recent statuses posted from the authenticating user.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->statuses->userTimeline();

The userTimeline() method accepts an array of optional parameters to modify the query.

  • user_id specifies the ID of the user for whom to return the timeline.
  • screen_name specifies the screen name of the user for whom to return the timeline.
  • since_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses after the specified identifier (up to 24 hours old).
  • max_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses earlier than the specified identifier.
  • count specifies the number of statuses to return, up to 200.
  • trim_user, when set to boolean true, "t", or 1, will list the author identifier only in embedded user objects in the statuses returned.
  • contributor_details, when set to boolean true, will return the screen name of any contributors to a status (instead of only the contributor identifier).
  • include_rts controls whether or not to include native retweets in the returned list.
  • exclude_replies controls whether or not status updates that are in reply to other statuses will be returned.

Showing user status

show() returns a single status, specified by the id parameter below. The status' author will be returned inline.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->statuses->show(1234);

Updating user status

update() updates the authenticating user's status. This method requires that you pass in the status update that you want to post to Twitter.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->statuses->update('My Great Tweet');

The update() method accepts a second additional parameter.

inReplyTo_StatusId specifies the ID of an existing status that the status to be posted is in reply to.

Showing user replies

mentionsTimeline() returns the 20 most recent @replies (status updates prefixed with @username) for the authenticating user.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->statuses->mentionsTimeline();

The mentionsTimeline() method accepts an array of optional parameters to modify the query.

  • since_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses after the specified identifier (up to 24 hours old).
  • max_id narrows the returned results to just those statuses earlier than the specified identifier.
  • count specifies the number of statuses to return, up to 200.
  • trim_user, when set to boolean true, "t", or 1, will list the author identifier only in embedded user objects in the statuses returned.
  • contributor_details, when set to boolean true, will return the screen name of any contributors to a status (instead of only the contributor identifier).
  • include_entities controls whether or not entities, which includes URLs, mentioned users, and hashtags, will be returned.

Deleting user status

destroy() destroys the status specified by the required id parameter.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->statuses->destroy(12345);

User Methods

Showing user information

show() returns extended information of a given user, specified by ID or screen name as per the required id parameter below.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->users->show('myfriend');

Searching for users

search() will search for users matching the query provided.

$twitter  = new Laminas\Twitter\Twitter($options);
$response = $twitter->users->search('Laminas');

The search() method accepts an array of optional parameters to modify the query.

  • count specifies the number of statuses to return, up to 20.
  • page specifies the page of results to return, based on the count provided.
  • include_entities controls whether or not entities, which includes URLs, mentioned users, and hashtags, will be returned.