Quicksilver Twitter Plugin

Published on December 13, 2007 in default. Comments Tags: , , , .

Update (2008.3/5) : More Information is in Trac. Please check and see the latest version there. Text below is about version 1.0, and current version is 1.4 including more features.

I wrote a small Quicksilver plugin to send messages to Twitter directly.

Advantages

  • Easy to install. No additional software required to be installed
  • Configurable via Quicksilver Preference
  • You can send messages containing non-ASCII characters

Download

QSTwitter.zip (1.2) (2008.01.23)

Environment

Tested under Leopard 10.5.1, Quicksilver B53 3814.

Install

Unzip the downloaded file and double-click it. that’s all !

Configuration

You will find “Twitter option” in the Quicksilver preference pane. Enter your screen name and password there.

Usage

  1. Activate Quicksilver (by Ctrl-SPACE or so)
  2. type . (period/dot) key to enter text input mode
  3. type a message
  4. hit TAB to move into Action
  5. type “Twitter”
  6. return !

The more familar you are with it, the faster you can send messages than ever.

Screencast

Seeing is Believing, as you know :) I don’t know why the video is collapsing for first 15 seconds. Sorry for inconvinience.

Code

You can see the code in CodeRepos.

License

Considering…

Restriction

  • I could not post messages throught HTTP proxy. Let me know if anyone succeeded to make it.

ChangeLog

  • 1.2 (2008.01.23) : fixes the bug that ‘+’ is not shown in status, uses pretty girl icon .
  • 1.1 (2007.12.22) : now it shows “QSTwitter” in your post on “from …” .
  • 1.0 (2007.12.13) : initial release.

There seems no comprehensive documents to develop Quicksilver plugin as far as I searched. In order to share my experience to avoid falling into pitfalls, I will write an tutorial developing a Quicksilver plugin under up-to-date environment later.

  • pendolino
    great little plugin. thank you. any chance of getting multiple account support in twitter? google quick search box's twitter plugin offers this.
  • I think multiple Twitter accounts support makes it complicated to use quickly. Do you have any idea to post quickly by using multiple accounts? What the UI should look like?
  • pendolino
    hey thanks for getting back on this suggestion. i was using just the feature i am describing with google's QSB (quick search box) that is designed by alcor formerly of QS fame. unfortunately i found that i could not stick with it and found a way to make QS start working in QS again and i was quite happy to find your twitter plugin.

    to get to the point you were mentioning, i had in fact seen this in QSB and here are the screenshots of how it works. this one is where you set up the Twitter accounts with no limit that i can see:

    http://grab.by/l7F

    and this is where you actually use the tweet action by first entering the text than tabbing to the 'action' field and picking the relevant action for the account you want:

    http://grab.by/l7x

    so i was thinking that something like this could work.

    also thank you for including the useful growl confirmations since there are instances where a tweet does not get posted for whatever connectivity or system reasons. very smooth.
  • andy

    Awesome. Thanks! Really simple, works just like it should.

  • Your Plugin works fine. Thanks. But is there a possibilty to add growl support like in:
    http://www.sauria.com/blog/2007/01/18/growlifie...>

  • Hello rainyrhy and everyone,


    I re-wrore QSTwitter only using Objective-C, indepent from json.rb. I guess this increases stability of QSTwitter and Quicksilver.


    I put beta test version here. Hope you feel better.

  • sorry, wrong page.

  • Hi, at first try it works fine, i don't know since when, my quicksilver crashes at startup due to plugin.
    I removed the twitter plugin then quicksilver is back to normal.


    Now, when i install back the plugin and tries to twit in QS, this error shows up in console:


    9/10/08 7:43:28 AM [0x0-0x13013].com.blacktree.Quicksilver[332] /System/Library/Frameworks/RubyCocoa.framework/Resources/ruby/osx/objc/oc_import.rb:191: [BUG] Bus Error
    9/10/08 7:43:28 AM [0x0-0x13013].com.blacktree.Quicksilver[332] ruby 1.8.6 (2008-03-03) [universal-darwin9.0]
    9/10/08 7:43:35 AM ReportCrash[890] Formulating crash report for process Quicksilver[332]
    9/10/08 7:43:36 AM com.apple.launchd[287] ([0x0-0x13013].com.blacktree.Quicksilver[332]) Exited abnormally: Abort trap
    9/10/08 7:43:39 AM ReportCrash[890] Saved crashreport to /Users/rainyrhy/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Quicksilver_2008-09-10-074328_sparkledust.crash using uid: 501 gid: 20, euid: 501 egid: 20


    I don't know what kind of error is this.
    Hope this may be of help.

  • Dev

    Brilliant! thanks so much!

  • ikem_staR

    i am loving this. twitter disappears into the interface now. genius! my messages come back as growl notifications through adium! i am in love. wd buy you a mercedes-benz if i cd download 1.4, as your trac has 404'd ;-) cheers.

  • james

    Ah that works! Fantastic app :) love it! love it! love it!

  • James:


    Thank you for your attention!


    QSTwitter was updated to version 1.4, see this instruction.
    Maybe it crashes because:


    <ul>
    <li>json library not found (to fix this, type following in command line: sudo /usr/bin/gem install json)</li>
    <li>it would crash at Quicksilver's startup time sometimes...</li>
    </ul>

    I could help you if you sent a log.
    Open /Application/Utilities/Console.app and filter log as "twitter", save it, and please mail it to me.

  • James Doc

    Hey!


    Great app, really love the idea, I might actually start using Twitter properly because of this! However I have found that the app causes QS to crash under 10.5.2... any ideas of how to fix this?


    Thanks,


    james

  • kondrat:


    Thank you for using QSTwitter, and sorry for your inconvenience.
    Please refer to this Trac page to setup it.

  • kondrat Kielar

    It crashes :( first time while i write messege it is ok, second time design of qs freezes :( Leo 10.5.2 Imac G5 no isight B54 3815... :( pls help

  • angie:


    Thank you for your interest in QSTwitter :)


    I tested QSTwitter only on Leopard, not Tiger.
    As the recent version of QSTwitter is built with RubyCocoa, if you install RubyCocoa to your Tiger environment, it may work (I have not tried it yet).

  • angie

    Hello.
    Great work!
    I love the idea, but it's not working for me :S
    I've installed the plugin correctly (I see it in the plugin directory, 46k), and typed in the text, and selected twitter in the action pane, then enter. Nothing happens!


    I'm using Tiger. Could that cause a problem?

  • jethro:


    glad to hear you are enjoying it !

  • Great job. I have been waiting to find something like this, since I use both twitter and QS all the time. And, it works in tiger, as well.

  • Aaron V:


    Thank you for using QSTwitter, and sorry for you convinience.
    I'll fix it in the next release.

  • Aaron V.

    Hi, I noticed that if my text contains a plus sign "+", the plus does not show up on twitter. I'm guessing this is because the plus is not getting escaped in the HTTP query string and thus is being interpreted as a space?


    Thanks for your work, btw-- other than this problem, the plugin works great for me!

  • Shaun:


    please mail me the crash log (mail address is in the left sidebar of this blog).

  • I've got a crashlog for you. I am running B51 3800, on Tiger, not Leopard.


    Therein lies the problem, somehow? Where can I send the crash log?

  • Shaun:


    Thanks for using QSTwitter, and sorry for your inconvenience.


    What does it mean "it works, but it crashes QS"?
    I guess updating to Twitter works well, but after that, QS crashes. Is that right?


    If you send me a crash report of QS in that case, I will check it.

  • I just tried it a couple times, and every time it runs, it works, but it crashes QS!


    I am running leopard, though.

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