Experimental Twitter Support
Hello,
Mycrocosm now supports data entry via twitter. We are still testing this feature (hence calling it experimental), and you may try it but there may be a few kinks. To do so go to your profile page on mycrocosm and update your profile to include your twitter screen name (user name). Then follow this user -> mycro, after 5 minutes or so mycro should follow you back after which you can send direct messages to that user and have them update your mycrocosm stats. For example you can do “d mycro stuff more”, everything coming after the “d mycro” part should follow standard mycrocosm syntax.
Caveat: My experiments with the twitter api suggests that updates from twitter may not always be timely. The API occasionally lags behind the information visible on the sire (for example it may take way longer than 5 minutes for the twitter api to let me know that you have followed the mycro user). I will be keeping an eye on it over the next little while but it is something that you should be aware of (and my guess is that you probably already are).
So there it is, try it and let me know if it works. These instructions will also be moving to the main mycrocosm help in a few days once i am sure its all working.
this should be fun. expect hordes of twitter fanatics to clobber your server as soon as word gets out tough.
clickykbd
September 21, 2008 at 3:00 am
FYI I tried this a couple times, and either the twitter API lag is causing 12+ hour delay or something not working? direct msg status ID=36760650. I used a shorthand for a dataset, maybe that is causing probs?
clickykbd
September 21, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Hi clickykbd, thanks for reporting this. I am not entirely sure where the problem is though. Strangely i can only see 1 direct message in the mycro account on twitter even though my logs at mycrocosm show 2 messages submitted via twitter (so for some reason i cannot see some of the direct messages you sent). There was a “nom 3:00am” entry and a “coffee. now” entry submitted to mycrocosm, yet i can only see a single “nom 3:00am” direct message in twitter. Could you let me know the specific entry that is not showing up in your dataset (you can email me at mycrocosm@media.mit.edu if you prefer to keep it private). By the way, using a short code for a dataset is not a problem.
Anyway i will keep and eye on this and add some more logging and do some testing. Thanks again and sorry if you lost any data.
Yannick
September 21, 2008 at 11:44 pm
FYI my issue was resolved when Yannick pointed out I neglected to do the step on the mycro side, putting my twitter username in the prefs. An easy enough mistake. Thanks!
clickykbd
September 24, 2008 at 1:30 am
I works just fine. If Twitter’s health is ok there is no problem with the interface.
Nice job!
ApoloDuvalis
October 1, 2008 at 10:34 am
Nice website. Loved the concept. Would like it if there were additional publishing options. Maybe you could publish an open REST style API for publishing updates so jobless developers like me could come up with some (potentially) cool ideas to use your website.
Navjot
October 4, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Hey Navjot, thanks for the suggestion. It’s actually something i have already begun working on. But one question i have for you (and anyone else) is, what would you want out of an API for mycrocosm? What i have already is a simple API that uses get requests to let people add data to they site programmatically provided they can generate ‘mycrocosm syntax’ (basically an app would generate what would be typed into the data entry box). Are there other kinds of operations that i should be thinking about?
Yannick
October 9, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Hi, I tried it and it works. amazing
))). gr8 work Yannick
Atif Musaddaq
September 12, 2009 at 11:56 am