Twitter Tools (AKA Test Post)
TinyURL went down for any hour today, which it’s done before, and makes me wonder if it’s going to be able to step up to the increased demand for it services – TinyURL takes big website addresses and files it away on a database, where they give it a much smaller, handier 5 character string (or some handy words of your choosing.)
So, like;
becomes;
http://tinyurl.com/4cdhdo
or, if I’d wanted;
http://tinyurl.com/bobanddoug
Handy. When it works.
There are other, similar services, some of which, TinyURL included are used in blogging tools – I have Twitter Update plugged into all of my blogs, which takes a new post, crunches the link in TinyURL and posts it on Twitter – HANDY! Except, only when TinyURL works. So, I thought I’d look around. In this case, I’m trying Twitter Tools, which will crunch links a link smoosher of your choice, PLUS, it has options, like turning Twitter posts into blog posts (yawn) or digesting them on a daily basis – this, I like.
However, it had a hiccup where dates were being used wrong, and thus the digests suck. But I found a patch and I’m waiting for midnight tonight to see how the tweet archive works. I’ll let you know how it goes.
If you’re interested, you can get Twitter Tools here, and the code fixes (which you’ll have to do yourself – don’t panic) are here.
Before you freak out, assuming you’re not super PHP studly (like myself) the guy with the fixes is very helpful, in that he shows the code before and after the bit you want to change, and clearly marks what it should be and what it need to be changed to – so, crack open the Twitter Tools php file in a text editor, and search for the bits that need to be changed. Drop in the new code over the old code – just like cutting and pasting – and save. Replace that file for the old file in your WP plugins directory, and you’re done. Or at least, for me, nothing exploded. Time will tell, right?
Oh, and this is a test post why?
To make sure the post is sent to Twitter as well, but of course.
