NAME App::Twirc::Manual - User guide and reference for Twirc DESCRIPTION "Twirc" is a twitter client. More precisely, it is an IRC/Twitter gateway that makes your favorite IRC client a twitter client. FEATURES Follow friends timelines Receive replies from friends and non-friends Post status updates Send and receive direct messages Follow, un-follow, block, unblock, and use most other twitter commands INSTALLATION You can install "twirc" just as you would any other CPAN distribution: cpan POE::Component::Server::Twirc Or, you can download and unpack "twirc", then run it from a directory of your choice without running "make install". That's the way the author runs it. If you choose this option, run "make" to install "twirc"'s dependencies. CONFIGURATION "Twirc" uses Config::Any, so you can configure "twirc" using XML, YAML, JSON, Apache-style configuration, Windows INI file format, or even Perl code. A configuration file is not necessary, but is recommended. Here's an example configuration in YAML: state_file: twirc.state log_level: INFO CONFIGURATION OPTIONS irc_server_name The name of the IRC server. Defaults to "twitter.irc". Every IRC server has a name. The IRC server included with "twirc" isn't intended to be accessed publicly. It is for your own personal use. So, the name is not significant. irc_server_port The port number the IRC server binds to. Defaults to 6667. irc_server_bindaddr The local address to bind to. Defaults to all interfaces. You probably want to set this option to 127.0.0.1. That will prevent others from attempting to connect to your "twirc" IRC server. irc_mask The IRC user/host mask used to restrict connecting users. Defaults to "*@127.0.0.1". If you run "twirc" on a different system than your IRC client, you will need to provide this configuration option with a suitable mask. irc_password Password used to authenticate to the IRC server. If you don't provide this option, no password will be required. It adds a bit of security. You may want to set this option if other users have access to your system. irc_botname The name of the channel operator bot. Defaults to "tweeter". Select a name that does not conflict with friends, followers, or your own IRC nick. When running "twirc", you interact with a bot in the channel. The bot carries out commands on your behalf and provides feedback, particularly when there are errors. irc_botircname Text to be used as the channel operator bot's IRC full name. Defaults to "Your Friendly Twitter Agent". This is the name that will appear in response to an IRC "/whois" command. irc_channel The name of the channel where your twitter friends' timelines appear. This is the channel where most of your interaction with "twirc" occurs. It defaults to &twitter. The IRC convention for channels names is channels local to a single server begin with "&". Network channels begin with "#". You can use either to name, however "&" is more appropriate. twitter_alias An alias to use for displaying incoming status updates from the owning user. This is necessary if the user's IRC nickname and Twitter screen name are the same. Defaults to "me". With the default value "me", when "twirc" reads a status message in your timeline from your Twitter screen name, it will use "me" in place of your Twitter screen name in the channel. selection_count How many status messages to display for selection when favoriting, replying, or retweeting. Defaults to 3. truncate_to When displaying a list tweets for selection, for example, in response to the "favorite" command, they will be truncated to this length to avoid cluttering the screen with long messages that wrap. Defaults to 60. log_channel If specified, twirc will post log messages to this channel. If you set this option to &log, then you can join the &log channel and see the copious debug messages that "twirc" generates. This may be useful for trouble shooting or problem reporting. log_level Twirc supports "log_level" values OFF, FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG, and TRACE. The default is WARN. state_file File used to store state information between sessions, including Twitter OAuth access tokens, friends, and followers_ids. USING To use "twirc" you first need to start the server: bin/twirc -b --state_file=twirc.state The "-b" option runs "twirc" in the background. Drop the "-b" to see log messages to STDERR. (The author runs twirc and his irc client in screen, , to monitor log messages to STDERR.) Next, connect to the server from your IRC client. I use "irssi" () and my examples will use "irssi" commands: /connect localhost On connection, "twirc" will automatically join you to the configured channel. The default &twitter will be assumed, here. Your friends will be automatically joined to the channel. Friends who are also followers are given voice as a visual clue. In "irssi" they appear with plus sign (+) in front of their names. To post a new status update, use the "post" command: post My first tweet from twirc! In general, you enter a command followed by its arguments, if any, as a public message in the channel. There's a handy exception to that rule for sending replies. An entry that begins with a nick name, followed by a colon is treated as a reply. E.g.: twirc: you make twitter usable! Is a shortcut for: post @twirc you make twitter usable! "twirc" uses the Twitter User Streams API to receive updates in real-time. Use IRC private messaging to send direct messages. In "irssi": /msg friend Watch out, I'm right behind you! The "twirc" server stops when you disconnect. This isn't normal IRC behavior, but "twirc" isn't a normal IRC server. Its only purpose is to interface with Twitter on your behalf and server no useful purpose when you're not connected. COMMAND REFERENCE post status Post a status update. E.g., post Now cooking tweets with twirc! follow twitter_screen_name Follow a new Twitter user. This creates a friend relationship and adds the friend to the channel. unfollow twitter_screen_name Stop following a Twitter friend. This destroys the friend relationship and removes the friend from the channel. block twitter_screen_name Blocks the Twitter user from receiving your Twitter feed. unblock twitter_screen_name Stop blocking a Twitter user. whois twitter_user Displays information about Twitter user. "twitter_user" can be either a screen name or email address. notify on|off twitter_screen_name... Turns device notifications on or off for the list of one or more Twitter friends. The list is space separated. favorite friend [ count ] Mark a friend's tweet as a favorite. Optionally, specify the number of tweets to display for selection with "count". ("count" defaults to 3. The default can be changed with the "favorites_count" option.) rate_limit_status Displays information about the remaining number of API requests available in the current hour. The "rate_limit_status" command does not count against the limit, itself. help Display a simple help message listing the available command names. TIPS AND TRICKS Ignoring If you're following a particularly noisy friend, you can of course "unfollow" her. Alternatively, you can use your IRC client's features to ignore the user. In "irssi": /ignore LoudMouth ALL /ignore -except -pattern @YourName LoudMouth ALL Now, you won't hear from LoudMouth unless she @replies you, and she won't know you're ignoring her (unless she reads this tip!). Multiple accounts Although "twirc" doesn't currently support multiple accounts, there's nothing stopping you from running multiple instances of "twirc", one for each account. Here's how I do it for accounts "semifor" (my personal account) and "twirc" ("twirc"'s feed for update notices, etc.). First, the pertinent sections of the configuration files (in YAML format). # File: semifor.yml irc_server_port: 6667 irc_password: secret irc_channel: '&twitter' # File: twirc.yml irc_server_port: 6668 irc_password: secret irc_channel: '&twirc' Next, start an instance for each account: bin/twirc -c semifor.yml -b bin/twirc -c twirc.yml -b In your IRC client, connect to both instances ("irssi" here): /connect localhost 6667 secret semifor /connect localhost 6668 secret twirc Now you've got 2 channels, one for each account---in my case, &twitter for "semifor" and &twirc for "twirc". PLUGINS Plugins are modules that are optionally included by specifying them in user configuration file in the "plugins" section. Some of the plugins included in the distribution are: SquashWhiteSpace Squashes whitespace in tweets to a single space. See App::Twirc::Plugin::SquashWhiteSpace. BangCommands Commands are prefixed with a bang (i.e., exclamation point "!"). Text entered without a bang prefix is posted as a status update. See App::Twirc::Plugin::BangCommands. SecondaryAccount Cross-posts status updates to one or more secondary Twitter (or Twitter API compatible, like Identi.ca) accounts. See App::Twirc::Plugin::SecondaryAccount. SUPPORT "Twirc" is free open source software with no warranty of any kind. That said, it's used by some competent perl coders who may be able to help if you have trouble. Try the "#net-twitter" channel at "irc.perl.org". The code repository with the development branch is located at . New features, and bug fixes appear there before they hit CPAN, so check the commit log there to see if a problem you've found has been addressed. And feel free to use the development branch. AUTHOR Marc Mims I'm "semifor" on twitter and IRC.