November 4, 2017

Tinkering with Twitter: Post a Tweet Using Twitter4J to interact the Twitter REST API endpoint

This is Part Four of a multi-part blog series on putting together a basic API test framework for the Twitter Search API. Care to go back to the beginning? 

 Now that we have been introduced to Twitter4J, a Java library built to interacts with Twitter's API, set up credentials that authorized Twitter4J to use our test Twitter account, and installed the Twitter4J library in a Java project, we can start writing code that can do three things:

  • Connects to the REST endpoint of the Twitter API.
  • Posts a Tweet to the Twitter account we set up. 
  • Examine how Twitter4J interacts with the Twitter API
To figure out how everything works, we can view:




To truly know how a Java library truly works, don't expect to go to any official site to have everything spelled out. Dive into the JavaDocs. Feeling more advanced? Dive right into the source code and start swimming.

Post a Tweet To Your Twitter Account: Creating Sample Code

What if we wanted to create a post that:

  • Announces in a Twitter post that we are testing Twitter4J, posting to Twitter programmatically. 
  • Tags the official Twitter4J account, @t4j_news
  • Includes the link to Twitter4J documentation.

Let's create a Java class to hold our tests:

  • Go to the File menu in IntelliJ, and go to File -> New -> Java class.
  • Name it TwitterPostsAndSearchTest, and hit OK. 
  • Copy and paste the sample code I created, below, into the new class we created:
The sample code I created based off of Twitter4J's code examples.

 import org.testng.annotations.Test;  
 import twitter4j.*;  

 public class TwitterPostsAndSearchTest {  
   @Test  
   public void test_postToTwitterUsingTwitter4J() throws TwitterException {  
     Twitter twitter = TwitterFactory.getSingleton();  
     String message="Testing Twitter4J, posting to Twitter programatically."  
                + " @t4j_news http://twitter4j.org/en/";  
     Status status = twitter.updateStatus(message);  
     System.out.println("Successfully updated the status to [" + status.getText() + "].");  
   }  
 }

Feel free to review the code for this test in my project, tinkeringWithTwitter, published on GitHub.

Deciphering the Java Code:



Step 1:
  • Import into this Java class the @Test annotation supplied by TestNG, a framework that kicks off individual tests. We are also importing Twitter4J.
  • Go to TestNG's documentation to read more information.
Step 2:
Step 3:
  • Create a new public test method, annotating it with the @Test annotation, signifying that this will be a test. 
  • Does something go wrong? We want to be able to see any errors returned to us by Twitter4J's special TwitterException class.
... If you review the TwitterException class listed in Twitter4J's Javadocs, you can see that it tests for:
  • Rate limit errors: Twitter sets a rate limit on just how many tweets can be automatically sent in a certain period of time. If the rate limit is exceeded, the Twitter API will return a digit representing how many seconds you need to wait to retry the action again. 
  • Network issues.
  • If the REST API we are looking for is not found. 
Step 4: 
  • Declare a new instance of Twitter4J's Twitter class, setting up one single instance using Twitter4J's Twitter Factory class.
  • Advanced Reading: The Singleton design pattern at Design Patterns Explained Simply.
Step 5:
  • Set up the message we wish to send, storing it in a Java String we are calling "message".
Step 6:
  • Use Twitter4J's pre-defined method "updateStatus", passing in the message string we set up. Grab the status message that updateStatus returns.
Step 7: 
  • Finally, print out what was was received back to us.


How to Run The Test


  • In the code block for the test, right click.
  • Select 'Run test_postToTwitterUsingTwitter4J'
  • Review the debug messages for errors. Check if there is a success message printed.
  • Go to http://twitter.com/, logging into your account, to see if the message is posted. 

If everything is successful, you should see an image like the one below:

We just posted a tweet using the Twitter API!

... Where did that cute icon come from?

That is what is called a "Twitter Card". View the Twitter documentation for the "Card Display" at https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/optimize-with-cards/guides/getting-started

This summary card is created right off of the meta keywords the website developer uses to describe the site, using whatever images are set up. Read the article "Must-Have Social Meta Tags for Twitter, Google+, Facebook and More".

What Do The Log Files Mean?

Because we have in our Twitter4J.Properties file the debug flag set to "true", we see the below output:

 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]serialVersionUID: 6175546394599249696  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]debug: true  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]user: null  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]password: null  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]httpConf: MyHttpClientConfiguration{httpProxyHost='null', httpProxyUser='null', httpProxyPassword='null', httpProxyPort=-1, httpConnectionTimeout=20000, httpReadTimeout=120000, prettyDebug=false, gzipEnabled=true}  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]httpStreamingReadTimeout: 40000  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]httpRetryCount: 0  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]httpRetryIntervalSeconds: 5  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuthConsumerKey: {HIDDEN}  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuthConsumerSecret: **************************************************  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuthAccessToken: {HIDDEN}  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuthAccessTokenSecret: *********************************************  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuth2TokenType: null  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuth2AccessToken: null  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuth2Scope: null  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuthRequestTokenURL: https://api.twitter.com/oauth/request_token  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuthAuthorizationURL: https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authorize  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuthAccessTokenURL: https://api.twitter.com/oauth/access_token  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuthAuthenticationURL: https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authenticate  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuth2TokenURL: https://api.twitter.com/oauth2/token  
 [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]oAuth2InvalidateTokenURL: https://api.twitter.com/oauth2/invalidate_token

But what does it all mean?

 Collect the Properties We Need to Pass to the API:
1) We start collecting the properties we need to before interacting with Twitter's REST endpoint, such as the OAUTH tokens we are attempting to use to become authorized to use the endpoint:

  • serialVersionUID: 6175546394599249696
  • debug: true
  • httpConf: MyHttpClientConfiguration{httpProxyHost='null', httpProxyUser='null', httpProxyPassword='null', httpProxyPort=-1, httpConnectionTimeout=20000, httpReadTimeout=120000, prettyDebug=false, gzipEnabled=true}
  • httpStreamingReadTimeout: 40000
  • httpRetryCount: 0
  • httpRetryIntervalSeconds: 5
  • oAuthConsumerKey: {HIDDEN}
  • oAuthConsumerSecret: **************************************************
  • oAuthAccessToken: {HIDDEN}
  • oAuthAccessTokenSecret: *********************************************
  • oAuth2TokenType: null
  • oAuth2AccessToken: null
  • oAuth2Scope: null


2) It creates a list of Twitter endpoints we can interact with using Twitter4J:

  • oAuthRequestTokenURL: https://api.twitter.com/oauth/request_token
  • oAuthAuthorizationURL: https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authorize
  • oAuthAccessTokenURL: https://api.twitter.com/oauth/access_token
  • oAuthAuthenticationURL: https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authenticate
  • oAuth2TokenURL: https://api.twitter.com/oauth2/token
  • oAuth2InvalidateTokenURL: https://api.twitter.com/oauth2/invalidate_token
  • restBaseURL: https://api.twitter.com/1.1/
  • streamBaseURL: https://stream.twitter.com/1.1/
  • userStreamBaseURL: https://userstream.twitter.com/1.1/
  • siteStreamBaseURL: https://sitestream.twitter.com/1.1/
  • uploadBaseURL: https://upload.twitter.com/1.1/
  • dispatcherImpl: twitter4j.DispatcherImpl


3) How many tests do we want to run at once? Do we want to include how many people retweeted a post?

  • asyncNumThreads: 1
  • loggerFactory: null
  • contributingTo: -1
  • includeMyRetweetEnabled: true
  • includeEntitiesEnabled: true
  • trimUserEnabled: false
  • includeExtAltTextEnabled: true
  • tweetModeExtended: false
  • includeEmailEnabled: false
  • jsonStoreEnabled: false
  • mbeanEnabled: false
  • userStreamRepliesAllEnabled: false
  • userStreamWithFollowingsEnabled: true


4) It then catalogs all the various configurations:

  • instances: [ConfigurationBase{debug=true, user='null', password='null', httpConf=MyHttpClientConfiguration{httpProxyHost='null', httpProxyUser='null', httpProxyPassword='null', httpProxyPort=-1, httpConnectionTimeout=20000, httpReadTimeout=120000, prettyDebug=false, gzipEnabled=true}, httpStreamingReadTimeout=40000, httpRetryCount=0, httpRetryIntervalSeconds=5 [...]


5) Since we are using the updateStatus method, The REST API Endpoint that Twitter4J will hit for us using /statuses/update.json

  • Request: 
  • POST https://api.twitter.com/1.1/statuses/update.json
  • [Sat Nov 04 11:07:19 EDT 2017]OAuth base string: POST&https%3A%2F%2Fapi.twitter.com%2F1.1%2Fstatuses%2Fupdate.json&include_entities%3Dtrue%26include_ext_alt_text%3Dtrue%26oauth_consumer_key....


6) Everything is sent in as a big long URL: Properties, the message, everything:

  • %3DBGI2N94oM0r8ceJ7MW3ippBGT%26oauth_nonce%%26oauth_signature_method%3%26oauth_timestamp%%26oauth_token%%26oauth_version%3D1.0%26status%3DTesting%2520Twitter4J%252C%2520posting%2520to%2520Twitter%2520programatically.%2520%2540t4j_news%2520http%253A%252F%252Ftwitter4j.org%252Fen%252F

7) Twitter4J announces itself as the Twitter client you are using:

  • X-Twitter-Client-Version: 4.0.6
  • X-Twitter-Client-URL: http://twitter4j.org/en/twitter4j-4.0.6.xml
  • X-Twitter-Client: Twitter4J
  • User-Agent: twitter4j http://twitter4j.org/ /4.0.6
  • Accept-Encoding: gzip
  • Post Params: status=Testing%20Twitter4J%2C%20posting%20to%20Twitter%20programatically.%20%40t4j_news%20http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter4j.org%2Fen%2F&include_entities=true&include_ext_alt_text=true

8) The information is sent to the Twitter API, and we received an OK - Success message back!

  • HTTP/1.1 200 OK


Then, the message we have been looking for prints out:

Successfully updated the status to [Testing Twitter4J, posting to Twitter programatically. @t4j_news https://t.co/yH9nCIPnfu].


While you are on Twitter, drop me a line and say hello! I am @tjmaher1.

With our next entry, we will be talking about how to use the Twitter Search API.

Until then, Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Twitter | LinkedIn | GitHub

// Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test, Software Tester since 1996.
// Contributing Writer for TechBeacon.
// "Looking to move away from manual QA? Follow Adventures in Automation on Facebook!"
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