AutoTweet NG User Documentation (Pro and free version)
Version 9.2, Revision Date: 01.02.2012
This is the revised documentation for AutoTweet NG Free/Pro Pro 4.0 (Joomla 1.5) and Free/Pro 5.0 (Joomla 1.6/1.7/2.5) or newer. The documentation for earlier releases you will find here: Old Documentation
This document describes the basic functionality and key features of the 1stMovers AutoTweet NG (next generation) extensions. The AutoTweet product series posts title, text, images and url for new/edited Joomla articles, forum posts etc. automatically as status messages to Twitter, Facebook, E-Mail accounts and other social channels. All AutoTweet extensions are under GPLv2 or later.
Working process of AutoTweet: The AutoTweet Extension-Plugins stores the messages in the AutoTweet message queue. Messages in the queue are posted to the active channels by the AutoTweet Automator-Plugin. So the Automator-Plugin MUST be installed and enabled (and you need a little bit traffic on your site to trigger the plugin). After posting, the messages are stored in a message log and you can repost or approve them. Also messages with state error are stored in the log.
This documentation contains instructions for the free and the commercial (Pro) version of AutoTweet NG. The usage of both versions is similar. The free version is limited in some points (see chapter "Restrictions/Limitations of the free version" in this document). Also not all plugins are available for free.
The Pro version and all plugins are available on a subscription base. Additional information about the subscription and how you can get the Pro version you will find here.
Features
- All plugins are customizable: account, category/section to post for, link position, show section/category, post for modified articles, exclude sections/categories, use title or text for message, additional static text, hashtags, usage of metakey information and much more.
- Automatic support for short URLs. Supported short url service providers: is.gd, tinyurl.com, bit.ly (also with bit.ly Pro and custom short domain), Yourls (use your own url shortener).
- Works with most SEF extensions. Tested with: sh404sef, JoomSEF, AceSEF and - of course - Joomla! embedded SEF support.
- Automatic message resending: AutoTweet NG resends the status message automatically if there is an error on api/server side.
- AutoTweet NG posts also later published or republished articles.
- AutoTweet NG comes with a backend component. The component logs all posted messages and you can manage and resend the messages in the components backend.
- AutoTweet NG supports articles with present publish date. (This articles are posted automatically when published by Joomla.)
- Autopublish feature: AutoTweet has an autopublish feature. For each channel and plugin you can select if the messages should be autopublished or approved before sending.
- Multichannel architecture: You can add new channels and so you can post to multiple Twitter, Facebook, Mail accounts etc. Also you can post to a Facebook profile, page, group or event for the same account. With the rules engine you can select channels to post for by category, author or text terms (post article from cat 1/term 1 to twitter, cat 2/term 2 to facebook, ...).
- Use your own app/api key to show your own branding instead the AutoTweet logo/text: You can use your own app/api key instead the AutoTweet standard app (works for Twitter and Facebook).
- Support for cron jobs: Post your messages by a cronjob and avoid performance issues on your site (especially when you post to many channels or/and there is a high volume of posts).
- Support for multi language sites (AutoTweet can handle most situations with multi language sites).
- Support for direct messages: Enter a message manually in AutoTweet backend and post it directly to the selected channels.
AutoTweet NG works hand in hand with Feed Gator feed aggregator/article generator v 2.3+. See here for more information about the AutoTweet Feed Gator integration.
Restrictions/Limitations of the free version
- Channels are limited to 2 channels. So you can create 2 channles only.
- Only Twitter and Facebook are supported. No support for other channels.
- No support for "Use own App/API"-Feature.
- No support for Yourls.
- No cronjob support.
- No support for direct messages.
- Only the Content-Extension Pro plugin is available for free (All other plugins are included in the subscription for the Pro version).
Changes/Differences in new Joomla 1.6/1.7/2.5 release
- Full Joomla 1.6, 1.7 and 2.5 support. It is a real Joomla 1.7 application. It uses the new Joomla 1.6 MVC and forms capabilities.
- Not all supported extensions are still available for Joomla 1.6/1.7/2.5 and so some AutoTweet NG plugins are available for Joomla 1.5 only.
- New Layout for Preferences window and backend views.
- Language support in backend: All texts/strings are extracted to language files. English, german and spanish are available and included in the package (Please contact me if you will do a translation for other languages).
Available AutoTweet NG channels
A (social) channel is an account (Twitter account, Facebook account, ...) you will post messages to. In the pro version there is no limit and you can create as many as you want (Of course each post needs time and you should also thinking about the site performance when you create new channels). At the moment, the following channel types are supported:
- Twitter: Post a status message (tweet) to a timeline.
- Facebook Post: Post to the wall/feed of a profile/user.
- Facebook Post to Page/Group/Event: Post to the wall of a Page, Group or Event.
- Facebook Events (EXPERIMENTAL): Create an Event on Facebook.
- Mail: Send an e-mail with the text of the generated message.
- Ping.fm (EXPERIMENTAL): Send your generated AutoTweet content to your PingFM account.
More channels will come in the future.
Available AutoTweet NG extensions
AutoTweet NG consists of a (main) component and several plugins and modules. With the component you can manage the posted messages, including error und pending messages. The component provides also the basic services for the plugins. The AutoTweet NG Extension-Plugins handles the message posting for the different extensions like Kunena, K2 etc. All Extension-Plugins needs the AutoTweet NG Component to work.
- AutoTweet NG Component: The main component. Message handling and basic services.
- AutoTweet NG Automator-Plugin (is also shipped as part of the component package): All messages are queued and posted later by the Automator-Plugin. So the Automator-Plugin MUST be installed and enabled (and you need a little bit traffic on your site to trigger the plugin)!
- AutoTweet NG Pro Content-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for Joomla core content articles. This plugin supports also extensions that use the Joomla core article table and article generators (Feed Gator, Article-Generator, pressetext4Joomla, RSS2Content, 4RSS, generally with all articles added via RSS or XML-RPC, ...). Works also with MyBlog, JReviews and FLEXIcontent. Please follow the instructions on the download page.
- AutoTweet NG New User-Extension: This plugin posts a message when a new user registers on your site.
- AutoTweet NG Agora-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for Agora forum posts.
- AutoTweet NG Kunena-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for Kunena forum posts.
- AutoTweet NG K2-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for K2 article manager.
- AutoTweet NG Phoca Download-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for Phoca Download and posts a message for new/changed downloads.
- AutoTweet NG Eventlist-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for Eventlist and posts a message for new/changed events.
- AutoTweet NG SimpleCalendar-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for SimpleCalendar and posts a message for new/changed events.
- AutoTweet NG Sobi2-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for Sobi2 article manager and posts a message for new/changed articles.
- AutoTweet NG Remository-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for Remository download manager and posts a message for new/updated downloads.
- AutoTweet NG VirtueMart-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for VirtueMart shop system and posts a message for new/updated products.
- AutoTweet NG QuickFAQ-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for QuickFAQ and posts a message for new/updated FAQ entrys.
- AutoTweet NG DOCman-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for DOCman and posts a message for new/updated document entrys. Works also with DOCman Populate batch imports.
- AutoTweet NG Community Builder-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for Community Builder and posts a message when a new user registers, login, update profile or has a new connection.
- AutoTweet NG ZOO-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for ZOO and posts a message for new/edited ZOO articles and new comments.
- AutoTweet NG JomSocial-Extension (Global Social Submit (NG)): Extends AutoTweet for JomSocial. This is a 3rd party extension by Prieco. For information see also here.
- AutoTweet NG redEVENT-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for redEVENT and posts a message for new/updated events. This is a 3rd party extension by redCOMPONENT. For information see here on JED.
- AutoTweet NG redBOOKING-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for redBOOKING and posts (tweet) a message every time a new accommodation is created (or updated) in redBOOKING. This is a 3rd party extension by redCOMPONENT. For information see here on JED.
- AutoTweet NG redMEMBER-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for redMEMBER. This is a 3rd party extension by redCOMPONENT.
- AutoTweet NG JEvents-Extension: Extends AutoTweet for JEvents and allow updates of Twitter and Facebook when creating (and optionally updating) events. This is a 3rd party extension by JEvents. For information see also the JEvents forum.
- AutoTweet NG Control Panel Module: AutoTweet backend control panel. With this module you can toggle the autopublish modes for channels and change other options form the backend admin control panel.
- AutoTweet NG Latest Module: Shows the latest AutoTweet messages from log or the jobs in AutoTweet message queue in the admin control panel
More plugins will come in the future.
All AutoTweet NG extensions can be installed/updated by the standard Joomla installation procedure. Please install first the AutoTweet NG Component and then the needed plugins. The Content-Extension and the Automator-Plugin are packaged and installed/updated automatically with the main component (Joomla 1.5) or the installation package (Joomla 1.6/1.7). Also in most cases all installed plugins are upgraded automatically if needed. All other extensions (plugins, modules) must be downloaded and installed separately.
Requirements
All AutoTweet NG extensions have the following requirements:
- PHP 5 (PHP 5.2+ is recommended)
- PHP cURL support (with ssl extension for https)
- Joomla 1.5.4+, Joomla 1.6, Joomla 1.7, Joomla 2.5
- MySQL 4.1.2+ (MySQL 5 recommended)
- PHP JSON extension (bundled and compiled into PHP sine PHP 5.2)
- For AutoTweet Cron mode and Unicode-based encodings: PHP mbstring extension (non-default extension)
The AutoTweet NG extension plugins have special requirements:
- All plugins needs AutoTweet NG Component (free or pro) to work.
- Some plugins need other extensions to work (e. g. AutoTweet NG Kunena needs the Kunena forum extension). Check also the requirements listed on the download page of the component, plugin or module.
AutoTweet needs access to some domains/URLs to work:
- "twitter.com" (https://api.twitter.com/ AND https://twitter.com) for posting to twitter. Note: https is needed!!!
- "facebook.com" for posting to Facebook (pro version). Note: https is needed!!!
- "ping.fm" (http://api.ping.fm/) for posting to PingFM.
- "1st-movers.com" for automatic version checks (the component checks for new versions on the server).
- "bit.ly", "is.gd", "tinyurl.com" and/or to your Yourls instance for short url service.
- "1st-movers.com" for automatic version checks (the component checks for new versions on the server).
It is possible that your provider has restricted access to one or all of this URLs or that some firewall rules conflicts with the access to these URLs. If you have problems accessing these URLs please contact your admin and/or provider/host.
New installation
Note: With AutoTweet NG Pro 5.0+ for Joomla 1.6/1.7/2.5 you must simply install the package file with the Joomla installer!
You should make a backup of your files and database before you install/upgrade extensions!
Michael Zittel wrote a very good tutorial about AutoTweet installation and configuration (Many thanks to Michael!)
- Download newest version of AutoTweed NG Component package (free or pro).
- Install AutoTweed NG Component package with the Joomla! installer (File: com_autotweet.zip or pkg_autotweet.zip). The Content-Extension and the Automator-Plugin are installed automatically meanwhile component installation. The plugins are enabled automatically with default options.
- Open AutoTweet NG Component in the backend and configure the component in the parameters window.
- Check the plugin options and enable the Content-Extension (if needed).
- Donwload the other AutoTweet NG Extension-Plugins you needed and install them (File: plg_autotweet[extension].zip). Go to the plugin options and do the configuration. Don't forget to enable the plugins.
Upgrade
Note: With AutoTweet NG Pro 5.0+ for Joomla 1.6/1.7/2.5 you must simply use the the package file with the Joomla installer!
You should make a backup of your files and database before you install/upgrade extensions!
Information about new available versions you will find also in the information window of the AutoTweet NG component in Joomla backend.
It is not necessary to uninstall old versions of the component or plugins. You can just use the Joomla! installer to upgrade!
- Check for dependencies: Sometimes you have to update also the component when updating an extension plugin (and vice versa). Information about version dependencies you can find in the change logs (download area) on 1st-movers.com. Do not forget to check your 3rd party AutoTweet plugins for compatibilty!
- Download the newest version of AutoTweed NG Component package (free or pro).
- Upgrade AutoTweed NG Component package with the Joomla! installer (File: com_autotweet.zip or pkg_autotweet.zip). This is same as installing AutoTweet (Upgrade is detected and done automatically!). The Content-Extension and the Automator-Plugin are updated automatically meanwhile component installation. Also in most cases all installed plugins are upgraded automatically if needed. The plugins are enabled automatically.
- Open AutoTweet NG Component in the backend and check the configuration in the parameters window. (Sometimes there are new or changed options.)
- Do the same procedure for other plugins when upgrade is needed and not done automatically with the component. Sometimes plugins are disabled after the upgrade to prevent accidental posts. So you have to enable it manually!
- Check the options of all upgraded plugin.
- Open AutoTweet NG Component in the backend and check the version information in the information tab.
This procedure works also when you upgrade from free to Pro version!
Sometimes you will have problems/error message with file permissions. In this case contact your admin or uninstall the old version before installing the new. When you do this, it is NOT necessary to remove the AutoTweet database tables (manually)!
Uninstallation
Why uninstalling this amazing component? ;-)
If you uninstall the AutoTweet component (Joomla 1.5) or the AutoTweet installation package (Joomla 1.6/.1.7/2.5) with the Joomla! installer, all parts of AutoTweet (component, plugins, modules, files, database tables) are removed automatically from your system.
For all configuration options you will get some help if you move the mouse pointer over the field title.
AutoTweet NG Component
Select (in admin backend) the AutoTweet NG Component (Components/AutoTweet) and open the parameters window.
- Automatic resend attempts: AutoTweet resends the status message automatically if there is an error on api site. Here you can change the number of resend attempts. Change this parameter only if you have problems sending to Twitter/Facebook (increase attempts) or with the performance of your site (decrease attempts). This parameter is also used for the number of attempts to get an short url.
- Message/Database cleanup: The automatic cleanup function removes all messages older than the specified number of days. If you will archive your messages, you can disable this function!
- Default image: This image is used when you post to a channel in media mode if there is no image returned by the AutoTweet extension plugin.
- Short URLs: Disable this service ONLY, if you have problems with the short URLs (broken links, problems accessing the article from message link...) If you will use the service from bit.ly you need an account there (Note: You must enter your API Key in the second field, NOT your password!). To use Yourls (Pro version only) you need your own Yourls instance and you must enter the URL (http://youryourlssite.com) and signature token. The signature token you will find in the admin section of your Yourls installation. You can also set 'Use always short URLs' to yes. If you do so, short URLs are used also when not needed for message lenght. This makes sense when you use bit.ly or Yourls and you will have complete statistics there.
- Version checks: If you have problems or warnings on AutoTweet NG Information site (in backend), you can disable version checking and the file autotweet.ini will no longer loaded from the 1st-movers.com server (Of course you will not get information about new versions if this option is disabled).
- Overwrite base url: If set to Yes, the entered base url overwrites the url returned by Joomla for the links in all posted messages. (In some cases Joomla does not return the correct base url to AutoTweet or the IP address is returned, or https instead http. In this cases you can specify the correct base url here.) Be carefully with this and do not forget to change this when you change your site url
- Logging and debugging (use this only for test purposes): If logging is enabled, you will get reports about warnings, erros and notification/success messages depending on the selected log level. Normally you should log to the logfile only. If you need also some short information displayed on the top of your site, you can switch the logging mode. The logfile is named autotweet.log and located in the folder logs in your Joomla root path.
- Cronjob mode: Use this option to post the messages with a cron job (Pro version only). You must also add a cron job to your server to get this work (see documentation below).
- Duplicate post detection: Checks message log for identical message in given time intervall. When enabled, the message log is checked for the post and the post is send only if not posted before.
AutoTweet NG Automator-Plugin
All messages are queued and posted by this plugin. The Automator-Plugin MUST be installed and enabled (and you need a little bit traffic on your site to trigger the plugin)!
- Max. nr of posts: Max. number of pending posts sendet by the Automator-Plugin in one time/call. (Max. 5 posts for performance reasons.)
- Interval in seconds: Interval for the post attempts of the Automator-Plugin. This means the plugin checks all X seconds for new pending posts. Min. is 120 seconds for performance reasons.
AutoTweet NG Extension-Plugins
The Extension-Plugins has similar configuration options (not each option is available for each plugin):
- Autopublish: If autobublish is disabled, messages generated by this plugin must be approved in AutoTweet backend message log before they are posted.
- Show URL: The article URL can be showed at the beginning or end of the twitter status message.
- Sections/Categories to post for: Select Sections/Categories which will be source of articles. The field conditions are connected by OR! (If nothing is set, all articles will be posted!).
- Excluded Sections/Categories: Specify exclusions for article posting. Exclusions has priority over all other settings! (If fields are empty, nothing is excluded).
- Post modified: You can post also modified (edited) articles.
- Show section/category: You can show the section and/or category at the beginning of the message and you can select, if you will add a '#' for hashtag support in front of category/section name. Hashtags are not supported for all channels.
- Use title or text: If your titles are not good for posting as message, you can also use the first X chars from the article text. Enter the number of chars (from title or text) for use with message.
- Additional text/hashtags: AutoTweet can insert metakey data automatically as hashtags in the message (If no metakey data is available, AutoTweet uses also the static text if entered). Also you can use only a static text. Hashtags are not supported by all channels (e.g. Facebook ignores hashtags).
- Post replys: If this option is set to Yes also replys to articles/posts are posted.
- Post only for usertype: Send only articles posted by a specific type of user (registered users, admis/moderators).
Some plugins may have more, less or different options. Move the mouse pointer over the field title in the plugin options to get more information about options.
AutoTweet NG Community Builder-Plugin
To upgrade/install use the Community Builder Plugin installer (Do NOT use the Joomla installer...).
- In the plugin options you can choose for what actions a post is done. Also there are other parameters well known from the other AutoTweet plugins and there is an option to enable/disable posting of the user thumbnails.
- After installing you will also find a tab "AutoTweet" and a (user specific) field "atActivity".
- atActivity is checked by the plugin before a post is done. The field is handled by the tab "AutoTweet". With this, users can choose if posts for there account is done or not. If you will not give this choice to your users you can disable this tab. The default is to post for each user.
- Rules Engine: In the rules engine you can use the IDs 1 to 4 in the conditions field (as "categories") to post for specific types only: 1 = new users, 2 = profile updates, 3 = new friendships/connections, 4 = logins.
3rd party Extension-Plugins
3rd party extensions are NOT supported by 1st-movers.com. You have to ask the extension developer for support or documentation.
Some more information about 3rd party extensions and 3rd party extension development you will find in this FAQ entry and this forum post.
With the rules engine you can select channels to post for by category, text terms, author and more (post article from cat 1/term 1 to twitter, cat 2/term 2 to facebook, ...). Adding/Editing of rules is done in the AutoTweet backend. The rules engine is available in the Pro version only. The rules engine is only needed when you will do selective posts. If you will post messages to all channels there is no need to add rules!
When you add a rule, enter the categorie IDs (lowest level), terms, author usernames etc. (depends on rule type) as comma separated list ("1,2,3,4,5" or "car,bike") or enter a catch all rule. For terms there are 2 typs of rules: "terms" and "word terms". With a "term" you can check for a text fragment (e. g. "live" does match with "This is live" and "I am alive"). With a "word term" you can check for a word (e. g. "live" does match with "This is live" and NOT match with "I am alive"). All text checks are done case insensitive. With the author rule you can select posts by the authors username (Do not use the users id or something else. Only the username does work). As for the other rule types you can enter a list of authors as a comma separated list. The author rules are not working with the Phoca Download and the VirtueMart plugin.
Also there is a special rule to check for regular expressions. The rules are working on the job queue (So rule processing is done based on the artciles in the queue when they are posted to the channels).
How it works:
- Plugin restrictions: The section/category filter in the plugins is working as before. So you can use this as a general filter before articles are insterted in the job queue and before rule processing is done.
- If no rule for a plugin is specified in the rules engine, everything is posted to each active channel. (Of course, the restrictions in the plugin parameters are checked before inserting an article in the queue!).
- If a rule is specified for a plugin, only articles that are fit to the rule(s) are posted to the specified channel(s).
- If there is a "catch all not fits" rule for a plugin, all articles not fit under an rule are posted to the specified channel (If there is no catch all, these articles are not posted).
- If there is a "catch all" rule for a plugin, all articles are posted to the specified channel.
- If there are multiple rules for the same plugin and channel, the first fitting rule is used.
- With the autopublish and url option you can override the plugin and channel parameters. Also you can add a static text to the message.
- Advanced feature "Text replacement by regular expression": With this feature you can enter a regular expression to remove or replace text parts from/in the message text. You can do everything what is possible with regular expressions (PHP preg_replace function is used).
Summary of rule types:
- category: IN - Publish article when category is included in the list.
- category: NOT IN - Publish article when category is not included in the list.
- term: OR - Publish article when ONE of the terms from the list are included in message text.
- term: AND - Publish article when ALL of the terms from the list are included in message text.
- term: NOT IN - Publish article when NONE of the terms from the list are included in message text.
- word term: OR - Publish article when ONE of the word terms from the list are included in message text.
- word term: AND - Publish article when ALL of the word terms from the list are included in message text.
- word term: NOT IN - Publish article when NONE of the word terms from the list are included in message text.
- author: IN - Publish article when author is included in the list.
- author: NOT IN - Publish article when author is not included in the list.
- regular expression match - Publish article when a match to the given regular expression is found in message text.
- catch all not fits - This catch all rule catches all articles with no matching rule for the plugin. The rules field should be empty.
- catch all - This catch all rule catches all articles for the plugin. Also when the article fits another rule for the same plugin.
In the pro version you can post your messages by a cronjob and avoid performance issues on your site (especially when you post to many channels or/and high volume of posts). The recommended way to call the AutoTweet cronjob from crontab is PHP CLI (PHP command line interface, see here for information).
Here are some instructions to get this work:
- First: Do not disable the Automator-Plugin or something else when you enable the cronjob mode. All plugins are working as before (of course automatically in a different way) with the same configuration parameters.
- Enable and configure cronjob mode in AutoTweet backend parameters.
- To start the job, call the file: /[PATH_TO_JOOMLA_ROOT]/administrator/components/com_autotweet/cronjob/autotweetstartcronjob.php.
- Example: To execute the job every 25 minutes, the crontab statement is "*/25 * * * * php /[PATH_TO_JOOMLA_ROOT]/administrator/components/com_autotweet/cronjob/autotweetstartcronjob.php".
- The folder "cronjob" is secured by an htaccess file to avoid external access.
- An alternate way to execute the job is wget ("wget "http://${WEBSERVERNAME}/administrator/components/com_autotweet/cronjob/autotweetstartcronjob.php" -O /dev/null"). But this is not recommended because this generates load on the webserver. Also you have to change the htaccess file to allow external access for the IP of your server.
Here you will find a tutorial about cron jobs.
Note: With AutoTweet NG for Joomla 1.6/1.7 the channel dialog has a new layout but the functions and labels are same!
General: Add new channels
A channel is an account (Twitter account, Facebook account, ...) you will post messages to. In the pro version there is no limit and you can create as many as you want (Of course each post needs time and you should also thinking about the site performance when you create new channels). At the moment Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Event and Mail is supported as channel types.
Creating a new channel:
- Go to the tab 'Channels' in AutoTweet backend and push the 'New' button.
- Channel type: Select the channel type.
- Publish: You can publish the channel or you can do this later.
- Autopublish: If you set this to 'No', you must approve all messages for this channel before they are posting.
- Media mode (works not with all channels; only supported with Facebook at the moment): You can post the message as status message only, as full media attachment with images, more text, links etc. or both. The data of the media attachment depends on the AutoTweet extension plugin. Not all plugins does support the same kind of data. For example, the VirtueMart-Plugin supports product images, the Content-Plugin does not support images...
- Name: Enter a name for the channel.
- Description: If you will, you can enter a description for the channel.
- Channel specific account data: Some needed data is specific for each type of channel (account name, password, token, key, ...). See the next chapters for information about this.
AutoTweet NG Pro uses OAuth authentication method for Twitter access. Here is an example for the channel dialog:
Authorize application and grant permissions
To activate AutoTweet for Twitter, you must authorize the AutoTweet Connector application and grant read/write permission:
- Click on the button Authorize application and grant permissions in the channel dialog.
- Click the link Authorize application and grant read/write permission for AutoTweet on the AutoTweet NG Connector site.
- Enter your Twitter account data in the Twitter dialog and press the Allow button.
- Now you are redirected to the AutoTweet NG Connector site where some additional information (token data) is displayed.
- Enter (copy/paste) the displayed token and token secret data in the corresponding fields in the channel dialog.
It is strongly recommended to use your own app with Facebook as described in this documenation. The AutoTweet standard app is for your first attempts only. (Facebook does check for spam and other things and - sometimes - they will drop/disable the apps if traffic increases. Also your posts are looking more professional with the branding of your own app...)
You can post to your Facebook profile or page, group, events wall. You must add the AutoTweet Facebook application and grant the needed permissions for your personal profile or/and the Facebook page, group, event. For events wall, media attachments are not supported, do not choose this option!
With the "Facebook Event" channel you can create an Event on Facebook for your profile, page or group based on the data of your event management component. This channel works only with plugins that supports event data (Eventlist, SimpleCalendar, ...). Media mode is not used for this channel. The Facebook Events channel is EXPERIMENTAL at the moment, because there are some bugs on Facebook side in the API.
Here is an example for the channel dialog:
To activate AutoTweet for Facebook, you have to add the AutoTweet Connector application to your Facebook account.
Authorize application and grant the needed permissions
When you will use the Facebook support (only available in the Pro version) then you must authorize the AutoTweet application on Facebook and grant the permission publish_stream, offline_access, user_groups, manage_pages, user_events and create_event to the application:
- Click on the button Authorize application and grant permissions in the channel dialog.
- Login to Facebook, authorize the application and grant the requested permissions.
- Read and check the information/instructions on the AutoTweet Facebook canvas site.
- Enter (copy/paste) the displayed Facebook id and token data for the profile user, page, group or event in the corresponding fields in the channel dialog (Note: The Facebook id is numeric!).
Sometimes Facebook/Twitter needs time to synchronize the servers. If you get errors after authorizing, wait a little bit (maybe 1 hour) and try again.
Sends your generated AutoTweet content as E-Mail to a group, mailing list or somnething else.
This channel is simple to setup: Enter your mail account data - that's all. The media mode option is not used for this channel. The E-Mail channel is not avalaible in the free version of AutoTweet.
Send your generated AutoTweet content to your PingFM account. The media mode option is not used for this channel.
This channel is EXPERIMENTAL: You have to use your own API Key and Application Key(s) with this channel. You can get your Application Desktop/Web Key at http://ping.fm/key/. If you have allready an (Developer) API Key (PingFM does no longer approve new keys at the moment), you will find the key at http://ping.fm/developers/. If you have no API Key, leave the field blank and it will also work at the moment.
Also it is not clear at the moment if and how long ping.fm will continue to support this service and there are some bugs on ping.fm side at the moment. Please report your Feedback back in the forum on 1st-movers.com.
In the pro version there is also an option to use your own app to show your own branding instead the AutoTweet logo/text (not available for all channels). If you will use this feature I suggest that you know what you do. How to create an app on Facebook or Twitter is not part of this document! You must enable the option 'Use own app/api' and enter the needed data (key and secret). After entering the data you can use the normal AutoTweet activation/authorization process by clicking on the button Authorize application and grant read/write permission for AutoTweet.
If you will use your own Twitter or Facebook app you must pay attention to some special requirements when creating the app:
Use AutoTweet with your own Twitter App
Create your own app on Twitter: Login to your account, go to Settings/Applications, click on "Developers can edit the registration settings for their applications here", click on "Create a new application", upload your image and enter the data. More information about Twitter Apps you will find on the Twitter developers site.
When creating your own Twitter App, please set the following parameters as described:
- Callback URL: http://www.1st-movers.com/twitter/autotweet/autotweet_twitter.php
- Default Access type: Read & Write
After creating the App do not forget to enable the option 'Use own app/api' and enter the api key (Consumer key) and secret (Consumer secret) in the AutoTweet channel dialog. You will find this data on the information site of your App on Twitter. Finally use the normal AutoTweet activation/authorization process by clicking on the button Authorize application and grant read/write permission for AutoTweet.
Use AutoTweet with your own Facebook App
Create your own app on Facebook: Login to your account and visit the Developer App as showed in the Facebook Canvas Tutorial. After adding the Developer App click on "Create New App", enter a name for the app and accept the terms and conditions, upload your image and enter the general data . More information about Facebook Apps you will find in the Developer Guide.
When creating your own Facebook App, please set the parameters as described in this FAQ entry .
After creating the App do not forget to enable the option 'Use own app/api' and enter the app id and secret in the AutoTweet channel dialog. For Facebook you must also enter the complete Canvas Page. You will find this data on the General tab of your App options on Facebook. Finally use the normal AutoTweet activation/authorization process by clicking on the button Authorize application and grant read/write permission for AutoTweet.
If you will use a secure connection (https) please read also this FAQ entry
The Extension-Plugins works quietly in the background. For the usage of the backend component I will give you some hints:
Tabs
There are 6 tabs in the AutoTweet backend:
- Message Log: All logged messages are showed in this tab. For each message and posted channel there is an entry. A message is logged when a posting attempt for the queued message is done. A logged message can have the states 'error','success', 'approve' or 'cronjob'. A message has state 'approve' when autopublishing for the source plugin or the channel is disabled. You can approve/resend messages with state 'approve' or 'error' by clicking on the state or by selecting the messages and use the 'publish' button. You can also resend messages with state 'success' by selecting the messages and use the 'publish' button and there is a function to 'approve all' messages in one step. You can delete messages the same way by using the 'delete' button. You can sort the table by clicking on the field names in the head of the table. In the row 'URL' you can see the unshorted URL for the post. The state 'cronjob' indicates that you have enabled the cronjob mode and the message is waiting for the next execution of the cronjob.
- Job Queue: All queued messages are showed in this tab. The Automator-Plugin takes the messages form this list and posts them. Also here are listed the pending messages (maybe for a longer time). This messages are waiting for posting. In most cases they has a present/future publish date.
- Channels: All created channels are listed in this tab. You can edit, delete, publish or unpublish them (Messages are send to published channels only). Also you can create new channels. In the row 'State' you will find the result of an (actual) check of the account state.
- Publishing rules (Pro version only): Here you can enter the rules for the rules engine. With the rules engine you can select channels to post for by category or text. See the chapter about the rules engine in this documentation for more information.
- Direct Message (Pro version only): Enter a message manually. The message is posted directly to the selected channels (The queue is not used). Some parts (Title, Image, Hashtags, ...) are not avalaible for all channels or posted in media mode only. There is no need to use all fields. You can simply enter a message text and select the channels.
- About AutoTweet: Here you will find some information about installed and available new versions.
- Facebook and Twitter uses rate limiting to avoid denial of service attacks and spam. So AutoTweet sometimes is affected by the api rate limits. See this FAQ entry for information.
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