I'm using twidge to send twitter messages to me from my server - mainly status notifications for things I want to know about sooner rather than later. Vodafone was kindly forwarding the tweets to my cellphone when I set this up, but they don't seem to do that here in NZ anymore.

Update 2015-06-20: Vodafone are not forwarding tweets to my cellphone, so I have changed to using xmpp instead. Not quite as good, because I can't easily have unread-txt reminders for xmpp like I can for txts.

Setting up twidge

Twidge is installed on my server. First time I tried it, I needed a newer version than what was in Debian Stable, so installed from Sid (Update 2015-06-20: I think the version in Stable is good enough now).

Warning: If you are logged in to twitter in your browser before running config, then that account is the one you will authorize twidge for. If you're not logged in, then using the auth URL will get you to login to the acct you want to authorize.

The setup went something like this:

user@host:~$ mkdir .twidge
user@host:~$ twidge --config=/home/user/.twidge/twidgerc.user setup

Welcome to twidge.  We will now configure twidge for your
use with Twitter (or a similar service).  This will be quick and easy!

Please wait a moment while I query the server...

OK, next I need you to authorize Twidge to access your account.
Please cut and paste this URL and open it in a web browser:
https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authorize?oauth_token=7MtjTGweHGWtsxF28KILhJHnTtzWS7bjQQj26IjtjwZ

Click Allow when prompted.  You will be given a numeric
key in your browser window.  Copy and paste it here.
(NOTE: some non-Twitter services supply no key; just leave this blank
if you don't get one.)

Authorization key: 7146299
Successfully authenticated!
Twidge has now been configured for you and is ready to use.

Test receive

user@host:~$ twidge --config=/home/user/.twidge/twidgerc.user lsrecent
<user>               test 23:07
<user>               test 23:03

Test send

user@host:~$ twidge --config=/home/user/.twidge/twidgerc.user update testing_from_twidge_2012-04-09

Notes

  • it's not necessary to create a directory just for twidge, but I wanted to keep various other things there (and have more than one account). Default is for twidge to have a single config file called ~/.twidgerc
  • the twidge rc file /home/user/.twidge/twidgerc.user can be named however you like, although it seemed not to like a trailing underscore on the filename.

  • when I tried this, with underscore:

    user@host:~$ twidge --config=~/.twidge/twidgerc.SomeName_ setup

  • I went through the auth process and got an error after entering the auth key into twidge:

    twidge: ~/.twidge/twidgerc.SomeName_.write.tmp: openFile: does not exist (No such file or directory)

References