There’s a few exciting blog posts coming up including "The AdventureWorks of Tweet-SQL" and "Twitter bots with Tweet-SQL". In the meantime checkout the following blog posts…

MULTIPLE TWITTER ACCOUNTS WITH TWEET-SQL

CONFIGURING OAUTH FOR TWEET-SQL

CREATING A SQLSERVERPEDIA LIST WITH TWEET-SQL

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Tweet-SQL 3.5 Released

Firstly, assuming you’ve already gone through the oAuth process for Tweet-SQL once we need to copy the current active account. Just run the below TSQL in SSMS against the database you have installed the software in.

EXEC dbo.tweet_cfg_copy_oauth_account;

This will copy the Twitter account details from the registry to a table called dbo.tweet_oauth_accounts. This account remains active for Tweet-SQL.

Next we need to authorise the additional account with the Tweet-SQL configuration program. Launch the tool, change the username field to the new account screen name, click File > Save Config.

Click oAuth > Get Access Token to begin the oAuth process. The following dialog will appear. Click ‘Yes’. Provided you have executed the dbo.tweet_cfg_copy_oauth_account procedure the old account details will be saved.

In a few moments your browser will launch and you will be prompted to login to Twitter. Login with the appropriate account, authorise Tweet-SQL and copy the pin.

Return to the Tweet-SQL configuration program and paste the pin into the dialog box.

Click ‘OK’ and a success dialog should appear.

Return to SSMS and run the below TSQL to add the new account to the dbo.tweet_oauth_accounts table

EXEC dbo.tweet_cfg_copy_oauth_account;

Now you should have two accounts available for Tweet-SQL.

SELECT twitter_username 
FROM dbo.tweet_oauth_accounts;

To select a particular twitter account we run….

EXEC dbo.tweet_cfg_change_oauth_account 'rhyscampbell';

Then we can post a status from this account;

EXEC dbo.tweet_sts_update 'Sending a test status...', null;

Then to change accounts…

EXEC dbo.tweet_cfg_change_oauth_account 'tweetsql';
EXEC dbo.tweet_sts_update 'Testing the new multiple account support for oAuth in Tweet-SQL.', null;

Change back once more…

EXEC dbo.tweet_cfg_change_oauth_account 'rhyscampbell';
EXEC dbo.tweet_sts_update 'Sending another test status...!', null;

That’s it! There’s no limits to the number of accounts this method will support, 2 or 2, 000! The next version of Tweet-SQL will be released in the coming weeks. In the meantime have some fun with the current version.

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Multiple Twitter accounts with Tweet-SQL

Here’s a quick walk-through of how we can get Twitter search results into a database table using Tweet-SQL. First create a table to hold the tweets.

CREATE TABLE dbo.TwitterSearchResults
(
	Id INTEGER NOT NULL IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED,
	twitter_id VARCHAR(100),
	published VARCHAR(30),
	title VARCHAR(160),
	content VARCHAR(160),
	updated VARCHAR(30),
	author_name VARCHAR(50),
	uri VARCHAR(100),
	keyword_searched VARCHAR(100)
);

Now we can run the below script to use Tweet-SQL to store twitter search results in the above table. Just change the value set for @keyword.

DECLARE @xml XML,
        @handle INT,
        @keyword VARCHAR(100);
 
-- Set keyword to search for
SET @keyword = 'Obama'
 
-- Turn off resultset from Tweet-SQL
EXEC dbo.tweet_cfg_resultset_send 0;
 
-- Peform a twitter search
EXEC dbo.tweet_src_search @keyword, null, @xml OUTPUT;
 
-- Prepare an xml document
EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument @handle OUTPUT, @xml, '<root xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" />';
 
 
INSERT INTO dbo.TwitterSearchResults
(
	twitter_id,
	published,
	title,
	content,
	updated,
	author_name,
	uri,
	keyword_searched
)
SELECT [a:id],
	   [a:published],
	   [a:title],
	   [a:content],
	   [a:updated],
	   [author_name],
	   [uri],
	   @keyword -- Store the keyword associated with this search
FROM OPENXML (@handle, '//a:feed/a:entry', 2) -- Path to tweets in the xml docs
WITH
(
	[a:id] VARCHAR(160),
	[a:published] VARCHAR(160),
	[a:title] VARCHAR(160),
	[a:content] VARCHAR(160),
	[a:updated] VARCHAR(160),
	author_name VARCHAR(100) 'a:author/a:name', -- Query further down the xml doc to get author info
	uri VARCHAR(100) 'a:author/a:uri'
 );
 
-- Clean up            
EXECUTE sp_xml_removedocument @handle;
 
-- Turn on resultset from Tweet-SQL
EXEC dbo.tweet_cfg_resultset_send 1;

Now the TwitterSearchResults table should contain and bunch of tweets.

SELECT * 
FROM dbo.TwitterSearchResults;

Get yourself a copy of Tweet-SQL and try this out now!

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Tweet-SQL: Storing searches in a table

• Full 64 bit OS Support. (Previously the installer would fail to created the required registry keys on 64 bit Operating Systems).
• Full support for oAuth authentication.
• Support for the new Twitter List methods. See sqlserverpedia list with Tweet-SQL for this in action.
• Support for geo-tagging of status updates.
• Support for the Twitter reweet methods.
• Support for the saved search API methods.
• Support for the suggested users API methods.
• Support for TinyURL, TweetShrink and TwitterCounter.

I’ll be following up with a few cool blog posts showing what you can do with these new features. In the meantime checkout the Tweet-SQL User Documentation for more details and download Tweet-SQL Version 3 now!

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Tweet-SQL Version 3 released

After installing Tweet-SQL launch the configuration program by clicking Start > All Programs > Tweet-SQL > Tweet-SQL Config.

Ensure the Authentication drop down is set to OAuth. Enter your username in the box labelled username. Tweet-SQL needs your username for some api calls to work. Click File > Save Config to save this information.

Next click oAuth > Get Access Token. Tweet-SQL will launch your default web browser to contact Twitter. Enter your login details into twitter and click Allow.

Once you have granted Tweet-SQL access you will be provided with a PIN. Copy this PIN to your clipboard.

Return to the Tweet-SQL configuration program and enter the PIN in the dialog box.

Tweet-SQL will then verify the PIN with Twitter to complete the process. After a few moments a confirmation will be displayed.

You are now ready to start using Tweet-SQL!

EXEC dbo.tweet_sts_update 'Dinner on the river tonight!', null;

You can continue using basic authentication with Twitter until August 16th 2010. The new version of Tweet-SQL supporting oAuth will be released within the next few weeks. Find out more about oAuth and download Tweet-SQL now!

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Configuring oAuth for Tweet-SQL

DECLARE @username VARCHAR(30);
-- Set Twitter username
SET @username = 'rhyscampbell';
-- Execute the procedure
EXEC dbo.tweet_util_twitterCounter @username, null, null;

Here’s the raw xml that is accessible by using OUTPUT parameters.

<twittercounter>
  <user_id>297689</user_id>
  <user_name>rhyscampbell</user_name>
  <followers_current>255</followers_current>
  <date_updated>2009-06-06</date_updated>
  <url>http://www.youdidwhatwithtsql.com</url>
  <avatar>70800065/n571986135_2362730_9166_normal.jpg</avatar>
  <follow_days>253</follow_days>
  <started_followers>18</started_followers>
  <growth_since>237</growth_since>
  <average_growth>1</average_growth>
  <tomorrow>256</tomorrow>
  <next_month>285</next_month>
  <followers_yesterday>258</followers_yesterday>
  <rank>90877</rank>
  <followers_2w_ago>18</followers_2w_ago>
  <growth_since_2w>237</growth_since_2w>
  <average_growth_2w>17</average_growth_2w>
  <tomorrow_2w>272</tomorrow_2w>
  <next_month_2w>765</next_month_2w>
  <followersperdate>
    <date2009-05-11>227</date2009-05-11>
    <date2009-05-12>227</date2009-05-12>
    <date2009-05-15>230</date2009-05-15>
    <date2009-05-17>230</date2009-05-17>
    <date2009-05-20>232</date2009-05-20>
    <date2009-05-22>239</date2009-05-22>
    <date2009-05-24>241</date2009-05-24>
    <date2009-05-26>249</date2009-05-26>
    <date2009-05-29>248</date2009-05-29>
    <date2009-05-31>250</date2009-05-31>
    <date2009-06-02>248</date2009-06-02>
    <date2009-06-04>258</date2009-06-04>
    <date2009-06-06>255</date2009-06-06>
  </followersperdate>
</twittercounter>

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Using TwitterCounter with Tweet-SQL

DECLARE @shrunk VARCHAR(140),
		@shaved INT;
 
EXEC dbo.tweet_util_tweetShrink 'For some strange reason I have developed a tendency to think every new version of Windows is more of a resource pig.', @shrunk OUTPUT, @shaved OUTPUT;
 
-- The shortened Tweet
SELECT @shrunk AS shrunkTweet;
-- How may characters have been shaved off?
SELECT @shaved AS shaved;

A future version of Tweet-SQL will include this functionality along with a few more cool surprises.

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Shrinking Tweets with Tweet-SQL

• tweet_sog_followers – Returns the ids of the authenticating users followers or, if a non-null value is supplied for @user_id_or_nick, the ids of the specified user’s followers.
• tweet_sog_friends – Returns the ids of the authenticating users friends or, if a non-null value is supplied for @user_id_or_nick, the ids of the specified user’s friends.
• tweet_sog_followersTable – Returns the same data from tweet_sog_followers but saves it to a table in the SQL Server database Tweet-SQL is hosted in. The table created is called tweet_followersIds. Any existing table with this name is dropped at the start of the procedure execution.
• tweet_sog_friendsTable – Returns the same data from tweet_sog_friends but saves it to a table in the SQL Server database Tweet-SQL is hosted in. The table created is called tweet_friendsIds. Any existing table with this name is dropped at the start of the procedure execution.

Twitter added these new methods to help out application developers that were finding the API limits too restrictive.

Executing the below T-SQL will fetch all the ids of the people you follow;

-- The ids of who you follow
EXEC dbo.tweet_sog_friendsTable null;

A new table will be created in the same database.

SELECT * FROM tweet_friendsIds;

Getting the list of ids for the Twitter users is just as easy;

-- The ids of all your followers
EXEC dbo.tweet_sog_followersTable null;

This data can be found in a table called tweet_followersTable

SELECT * FROM tweet_followersIds;

Now we have this data it’s easy to find out the users we’re not following back.

-- People you're not following back
SELECT *
FROM dbo.tweet_followersIds
EXCEPT
SELECT *
FROM dbo.tweet_friendsIds;

People you follow and who follow you back.

-- Twitter buddies! You guys should have a beer!
SELECT *
FROM dbo.tweet_followersIds
INTERSECT 
SELECT *
FROM dbo.tweet_friendsIds

and people who don’t follow you back…

-- Who's not following you back?
SELECT *
FROM dbo.tweet_friendsIds
EXCEPT
SELECT *
FROM dbo.tweet_followersIds;

If you really must know the names, of the people who aren’t following back, then run this T-SQL script. Just don’t react like Mark Corrigan would.

-- Really need to know the names of the 
-- people who aren't following you back?
 
-- Insert the people who aren't following
-- you into a new table called NoFollows
SELECT *
INTO NoFollows
FROM dbo.tweet_friendsIds
EXCEPT
SELECT *
FROM dbo.tweet_followersIds;
 
-- Add PK
ALTER TABLE NoFollows ADD CONSTRAINT 
	pk_id PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
	(
		Id
	)
	ON [PRIMARY];
 
-- Add a column to hold Twitter name & screen name
ALTER TABLE NoFollows ADD name VARCHAR(50), screen_name VARCHAR(50);
 
-- Create a cursor to cycle through the users
DECLARE twitterCursor CURSOR STATIC FOR SELECT Id
					FROM dbo.NoFollows
					WHERE name IS NULL;
 
DECLARE @id INT, @name VARCHAR(50), @screen_name VARCHAR(50),
	@xml XML, @handle INT;
 
-- Turn of resultsets from Tweet-SQL
EXEC dbo.tweet_cfg_resultset_send 0;
 
-- Open the cursor and get the first result
OPEN twitterCursor;
FETCH NEXT FROM twitterCursor INTO @Id;
 
-- Loop!
WHILE (@@FETCH_STATUS = 0)
BEGIN
 
	-- Get the user information
	EXEC dbo.tweet_usr_show @Id, null, @xml OUTPUT;
	-- Prepare an xml document
	EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument @handle OUTPUT, @xml;
 
	SELECT @name = name, 
		   @screen_name = screen_name
	FROM OPENXML (@handle, '/user', 2)
	WITH
	(
		name VARCHAR(50),
		screen_name VARCHAR(50)
	);
 
	-- Update the table with the retrieved details
	UPDATE dbo.NoFollows
	SET name = @name,
	screen_name = @screen_name
	WHERE Id = @id;
 
	-- destroy the xml document
	EXEC sp_xml_removedocument @handle;
 
	-- Get the next row
	FETCH NEXT FROM twitterCursor INTO @Id;
 
	-- Be nice to Twitter Servers!
	WAITFOR DELAY '00:00:05';
 
END -- EOF While Loop
 
-- Clean up!
CLOSE twitterCursor;
DEALLOCATE twitterCursor;
-- Turn resultsets from Tweet-SQL back on as appropriate
EXEC dbo.tweet_cfg_resultset_send 1;

SELECT *
FROM dbo.NoFollows;

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Know who your friends are with Tweet-SQL

EXEC dbo.tweet_src_search 'MC Frontalot', null, null;

Data from Twitter can be dealt with as an xml resultset, regular resultsets and with output parameters.

The procedure supports the full range of optional parameters offered by the api. Here’s a few examples;

lang – Restricts tweets to the given language, given by an ISO 639-1 code.

Search for Tweets containing ‘Paris’ in the French language only.

EXEC dbo.tweet_src_search 'Paris', 'lang=fr', null;

rpp – The number of tweets to return per page, up to a max of 100.

Search for Tweets mentioning “Swine Flu” and return up to 100 results.

EXEC dbo.tweet_src_search 'swine flu', 'rpp=100', null;

geocode  – Returns tweets by users located within a given radius of the given latitude/longitude, where the user’s location is taken.

Search for my favourite pub in Farringdon by users within 10 miles of EC1N 8FH.

DECLARE @geocode VARCHAR(100) = 'geocode=51.521935,-0.106859,10mi';
-- Need to url encode the geocode
SET @geocode = dbo.tweet_fnc_urlEncode(@geocode);
 
EXEC dbo.tweet_src_search 'Castle EC1', @geocode, null;

These, of course, can be chained together to procedure powerful Twitter searches. The example below will search for tweets containing ‘Fabric’, within 1 mile of EC1N 8FH, returning up to 100 results.

DECLARE @optional VARCHAR(100),
		@geocode VARCHAR(50) = 'geocode=51.521935,-0.106859,1mi';
-- Need to url encode the geocode
SET @geocode = dbo.tweet_fnc_urlEncode(@geocode);
-- Combine the rpp and geocode parameters in the optional variable
SET @optional = 'rpp=100&' + @geocode;
 
EXEC dbo.tweet_src_search 'Fabric', @optional, null;

Using Tweet-SQL you could;

• Archive Tweets containing certain terms and perform analytics.
• Monitor Twitter for mentions of certain terms.
• Auto-follow people mentioning specific subjects.

Detailed examples to follow soon.

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Using the Twitter Search API with Tweet-SQL

DECLARE @long_url NVARCHAR(1000),
	@short_url NVARCHAR(100);  
 
SET @long_url = 'http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?type=3&campid=5336224516&toolid=10001&customid=tiny-hp&ext=unicycle&satitle=unicycle';  
 
-- Make the long url short! 
EXEC dbo.tweet_util_shortenUrl @long_url, @short_url OUTPUT;
 
SELECT @short_url AS TinyURL;

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Using TinyURL with Tweet-SQL