C# Lab: Write A Simple Twitter Client Using The Twitter API

C# Lab: Write a Simple Twitter Client
Using the Twitter API
Jennifer Lewis
Notes for Instructors:
You can use this as a project or lab assignment. If you are going to use this as a project
assignment, I suggest that you enhance the original lab assignment by doing one or a few of the
following things:
 Make the application more graphically appealing.
 Add more user-friendly functionality, such as keeping track of the number of characters
entered by the user.
 Refactor the code by moving the calls to the API to a separate class.
 Refactor the code for more flexibility, such as move the URLs to the settings file, and
change to code to get the URLs from the settings file.
Notes for Students:

If you are going to use this as a project for your programming class, you may want to enhance the
original lab assignment by doing one or a few of the following things:
 Make the application more graphically appealing.
 Add more user-friendly functionality, such as keeping track of the number of characters
entered by the user.
 Refactor the code by moving the calls to the API to a separate class.
 Refactor the code for more flexibility, such as move the URLs to the settings file, and
change to code to get the URLs from the settings file.
If you are going to use this as a project assignment, you should also have a strong understanding
of how this works. You should read the Twitter API documentation (mentioned in the lab) as well
as understand how the .NET classes used in this lab assignment works.
C# Lab: Write a Simple Twitter Client Using the Twitter API
Page 3
Skill Level
Students who are performing this lab should have an intermediate level knowledge of C#, as well
as a basic level knowledge of HTTP.
Overview
Twitter (http://www.twitter.com) is one of the fastest- Link to documentation about the
growing Internet applications being used by everyone from Twitter APIs:
technical experts to celebrities. Twitter is a way for people http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-
to send updates via the web, a mobile phone, or an API-Documentation
application on a PC or Mac.
Twitter also has a set of APIs that allow developers to create their own client applications to
interface with Twitter. A developer can write a simple application that will send Twitter messages,
or a developer can write a more elaborate “dashboard” application that not only will allow people
to send messages, but it will also allow them to manage their profile, who is following them and
who they are following.
This lab is going to demonstrate how to use the Twitter APIs to write a simple client that allows a
person to send Twitter messages. In this lab, we will have the user log in to Twitter. After logging
in, the user can then send a message through the application.
The Twitter APIs and the C# Libraries

The two Twitter APIs that will be used in this demonstration are:
 statuses/update
 account/verify_credentials
The statuses/update API is the API that sends messages to Twitter. The
account/verify_credentials API checks whether the user ID and password are valid, and if so, it
returns all the profile information about the user, including:
 description
 followers count
 following count
 last message added
The three C# libraries that will be used in the project are:

 System.Net
 System.IO
 System.Xml
The System.Net library contains the classes that we need to make a call to the APIs. The class
that we will be using to call the APIs is HttpWebRequest. The System.IO library contains the
classes that we need to capture the responses from the APIs. We will be using the Stream class
to capture the responses. The System.Xml library contains the classes that we need to allow us
to convert the responses to XML so we can navigate through the responses, since the responses
are actually in XML format.
What You Need

In order to perform this lab, you will need the following:
 The .NET SDK (2.0 or higher) or a .NET IDE, such as Visual Studio
o This lab will be using Visual Studio 2005 for the illustrations. If you are not using
Visual Studio 2005, please adjust the directions accordingly to your environment.
 Access to the Internet
 A Twitter account to use for practicing
Date Written: 9/7/2009

Page 4
o If you do not have a Twitter account, go to http://www.twitter.com and sign up for

a free account.
Special Notes
 This lab is a simple example for demonstration purposes only.
o It will not contain any elaborate user interface designs.
o While the code may be used “as-is”, you may want to refactor for your
environment or purposes.
Instructions
What we are going to do is have a simple design where we have two panels on our form: a login
panel and a message panel. When one panel is visible, the other panel is invisible. The
following two sketches below are a “blueprint” that can be used to illustrate what should be in the
panels.
Figure 1: A sketch of the log in screen
What we need for this

panel:
 1 panel
 2 text boxes (1
for ID, 1 for
password)
 3 buttons (one
for log in, one
for clear, one
for close app)
 1 label for the
status message
Figure 2: A sketch of the send message screen
What we need for this

panel:
 1 panel
 1 text box (for
the message)
 3 buttons (one
for send
message, one
for clear, one
for log out)
 1 label for the
status message

Page 5
To keep this simple, the lab will demonstrate the “log in” part first. Then, it will demonstrate how
to “send the message”.
Part 1: Logging Into Twitter

1. Create a new C# Windows Application. Call the project TwitterClientLab.
2. Change the following properties on the form:
(Name) frmMain
Text Twitter Client
Size 398, 227
3. Add a panel to the form. Drag the panel to the top-left corner of the form.
4. Change the following properties on the panel:
(Name) pnlLogin
Size 369,164
5. Add the following components to the panel and change the following properties of the
respective component. Use the Figure 1 sketch in this lab as a guide on where the
components should go.
Label
(Name) lblMessage
Font
Size 12
Bold True
ForeColor Blue (or another color of
your choice)
Text Please log in to
Twitter
Label
(name) lblID

Page 6
Text User ID
Textbox
(name) txtID
Label
(name) lblPasswd
Text Password
Textbox
(Name) txtPasswd
PasswordChar *
Button
(Name) btnLogin
Text Log In
Size 105, 23
Button
(Name) btnClear
Text Clear Screen
Size 105, 23
Button
(Name) btnClose
Text Close Application
Size 105, 23
Your form should look similar to this.

Page 7
Now we are ready to code! We are going to start by coding the events for the Close
Application and the Clear Screen buttons.
1. If you are working in an IDE, go to the Code view.
In Visual Studio: right-click on the form in the Solution Explorer and select View Code.
2. The first button that we will code for is the Coding Shortcut
Clear Screen (btnClear) button. When the user If you are working in an IDE, you can easily
get to the code window by double-clicking on
clicks on this button, the application should clear any of the buttons on your form. This will
the contents of the ID (txtID) and password automatically add the code block for the
(txtPasswd) fields, and then put the cursor back event that you have to code.
on the ID (txtID) field so the user can try again.
Add the following code within the public partial class Form1 : Form code block:
private void btnClear_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{
// Clear the information in the ID and Password fields
txtID.Text = "";
txtPasswd.Text = "";
// Reset the message

lblMessage.Text = "Please log in to Twitter";
// Put the focus back on the ID

txtID.Focus();
}
3. The next button that we will code for is the Close Application (btnClose) button. When the
user clicks on this button, the application should close. Add the following code within the
public partial class Form1 : Form code block:
private void btnClose_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{
// Closes the application
this.Close();
}
4. Save your work. At this stage, your code should look similar to this:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace TwitterClientLab
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}

{
txtID.Text = "";

Page 8


txtID.Focus();
}

{
this.Close();
}
}
}
Before you continue, it is a good idea to save your code and run your
application to test the code.
Now we are ready to add the logic to call the Twitter API to validate the ID and password.
This is the pseudocode for how the log in process should work:
If user id is blank
Display a message indicating that ID is required
Put cursor on user ID
Don’t continue
If password is blank
Display a message indicating that password is required
Put cursor on password
Don’t continue
Call the Twitter API to validate the ID and password
Analyze the response
If the results contain an error
If the error contains the word “Unauthorized”
Display an “Invalid ID/Password” message
Else if the error contains the word “Service Unavailable”
Display a “too many people tweeting” message
Else
Display the message text
Else
Get the Name from the results
Hide the login panel
Display the message panel
You should still be in the “code view” if you are working in an IDE.
5. At the top of the code, add the following lines:

using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
6. Add the following code within the public partial class Form1 : Form code
block:
private void btnLogin_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

Page 9
7. The first thing that we will do is add the validation logic (making sure that the user entered
an ID and password). Add the following code within the private void
btnLogin_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) code block:
// the trim function makes sure that all extraneous spaces are
// cleared before checking to see if a user entered a value
if (txtID.Text.Trim().Length == 0)
{
lblMessage.Text = "Please enter a User ID";
txtID.Focus();
return; // this exits from the function
}
if (txtPasswd.Text.Trim().Length == 0)
{
lblMessage.Text = "Please enter a Password";
txtPasswd.Focus();
}
Your code should look similar to this:

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
{
{
public Form1()
{
}

{
txtID.Text = "";


txtID.Focus();
}

{
this.Close();
}

{
{
txtID.Focus();

Page 10
{
txtPasswd.Focus();
}
}
}
}
8. Now we are going to set up the code to call the API. Add the following code within the
private void btnLogin_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) code block and
after the closing block of the if (txtPasswd.Text.Trim().Length == 0) block:
/*
* Call the API to make sure that the ID and password are valid in Twitter.
* You should put this is a try-catch loop since errors returned from the API
* will trigger an exception in the application.
*/
try
{
String personName = "";
// Set up the variables to get the information back

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
byte[] buf = new byte[8192];
// encode the username/password

string user = Convert.ToBase64String(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(txtID.Text
+ ":" + txtPasswd.Text));
// connect with the verify page

HttpWebRequest request =
(HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://twitter.com/account/verify_credentials.xml");
// set the method to GET - this API expects a GET method call
request.Method = "GET";
// set the authorization levels

request.Headers.Add("Authorization", "Basic " + user);
request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
// set the response from the GET command

HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
Stream resStream = response.GetResponseStream();
// Collect the information returned from the GET call

string tempStream = null;
int count = 0;
do
{
count = resStream.Read(buf, 0, buf.Length);
if (count != 0)
{
tempStream = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buf, 0, count);
sb.Append(tempStream);
}

Page 11
}
while (count > 0);
// Convert the results to XML

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(sb.ToString());
// Go through the XML to get the name of the person

XmlNodeList nodeList = doc.SelectNodes("/user/name");
foreach (XmlNode node in nodeList)
{
personName = node.InnerText;
}
lblMessage.Text = "Welcome, " + personName + "!";

}
catch (Exception ex)
{
// Check the message to find out which error to display
if (ex.Message.Contains("Unauthorized"))
{
lblMessage.Text = "Invalid User ID and/or Password.";
}
else if (ex.Message.Contains("Service Unavailable"))
{
lblMessage.Text = "Too many people tweeting. Try again later.";
}
else
{
lblMessage.Text = ex.Message;
}
}
Your code should now look like this:

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
{
{
public Form1()
{
}

{
txtID.Text = "";


txtID.Focus();
}

{

Page 12

this.Close();
}

{
{
txtID.Focus();
}
{
txtPasswd.Focus();
}
/*
*/
try
{


string user =
Convert.ToBase64String(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(txtID.Text + ":" +
txtPasswd.Text));




int count = 0;
do
{
if (count != 0)
{
}
}
while (count > 0);

Page 13


{
}

}
{
{
}
{
}
else
{
}
}
}
}
}
9. Save and test your code. Test by entering an invalid user ID and password combination.
Then, test with a valid user ID and password combination.
Example: Testing with an invalid user ID and password
Example: Testing with a valid user ID and password

Page 14

Page 15
Part 2: Posting a Message to Twitter

Remember from our pseudocode that if we have a successful login, the program is supposed
to do the following:
Hide the login panel
Display the message panel
In this part, we are going to code for posting a message to Twitter.
1. If you are working in an IDE, return to design view.

2. For easier coding, expand the size of the form by clicking on the lower right hand corner
of the form and dragging until your desired size.
Before you begin, note the location of the top left corner of pnlLogin. The value of the
Location property should be 12, 12. You will need this value a little bit later.
3. Add a panel to the form.

Page 16
4. Change the following properties on the panel:
(Name) pnlMessage
Size 369,164
Visible False
5. Add the following components to the panel and change the following properties of the
respective component. Use the Figure 2 sketch in this lab as a guide on where the
components should go.
Label
(Name) lblMessage2
Font
Size 12
Bold True
ForeColor Blue (or another
color of your
choice)
Text Enter your message
(140 characters
max)
Textbox
(Name) txtTweet
MaxLength 140
Multiline True
Size 329, 37
Button
(Name) btnSend
Size 105, 23

Page 17
Text Send Message
Button
(Name) btnClearTweet
Size 105, 23
Text Clear Tweet
Button
(Name) btnLogout
Size 105, 23
Text Log Out
6. If you are working in an IDE, return to code view.

7. Add the following code within the private void btnLogin_Click(object
sender, EventArgs e) code block:
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Set the size of the form at load
this.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(398, 227);
}
8. Add the following code within the private void btnLogin_Click(object

sender, EventArgs e) code block after the lblMessage.Text = "Welcome, "
+ personName + "!"; statement:
// hide the login panel and show the message panel. Also change
// the location of the message panel.
pnlLogin.Visible = false;
pnlMessage.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 12);
pnlMessage.Visible = true;
// Put the cursor on the tweet box

txtTweet.Focus();
Your code should look like this:

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
{
{
public Form1()
{
}

{
txtID.Text = "";

Page 18

txtID.Focus();
}

{
this.Close();
}

{
{
txtID.Focus();
}
{
txtPasswd.Focus();
}
/*
*/
try
{


string user =
txtPasswd.Text));




int count = 0;
do
{

Page 19
if (count != 0)
{
}
}
while (count > 0);


{
}

txtTweet.Focus();
}
{
{
}
{
}
else
{
}
}

{
}
}
}
We are going to start by coding the events for the Log Out (btnLogout) and the Clear Tweet
(btnClearTweet) buttons.

Page 20
block:
private void btnClearTweet_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
txtTweet.Text = "";
txtTweet.Focus();
}
block:
private void btnLogout_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Close the message panel
pnlMessage.Visible = false;
pnlLogin.Visible = true;
lblStatus.Text = "Please Log In to Twitter";
}
Your code should look like this:

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
{
{
public Form1()
{
}

{
txtID.Text = "";


txtID.Focus();
}

{
this.Close();
}

{
{
txtID.Focus();
}

Page 21
{
txtPasswd.Focus();
}
/*
*/
try
{


string user =
txtPasswd.Text));




int count = 0;
do
{
if (count != 0)
{
}
}
while (count > 0);


{
}

Page 22

txtTweet.Focus();
}
{
{
}
{
}
else
{
}
}

{
}

{
txtTweet.Text = "";
txtTweet.Focus();
}

{
lblMessage.Text = "Please Log In to Twitter";
}
}
}
We are now going to write the code to send the message.
block:
private void btnSend_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
string user =
txtPasswd.Text));
// determine what we want to upload as a status

byte[] bytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("status=" +
txtTweet.Text);
// connect with the update page

Page 23
(HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml");
// set the method to POST

request.Method = "POST";
request.ServicePoint.Expect100Continue = false; // thanks to argodev for this
recent change!
// set the authorisation levels

// set the length of the content

request.ContentLength = bytes.Length;
// set up the stream

Stream reqStream = request.GetRequestStream();
// write to the stream

reqStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
// close the stream

reqStream.Close();
// Set up the status message

lblMessage2.Text = "Tweet Sent. Enter another tweet or log out.";
txtTweet.Text = "";
txtTweet.Focus();
}
{
// Display the error in the status
lblMessage2.Text = "The following error has occurred:" + ex.Message;
}
}
}
Finally, save and test the code.

Figure: Testing the Code – Initial Log-In Screen
Figure: Testing the Code – Logging in to Twitter

Page 24
Figure: Testing the Code – Sending the Message

Page 25
Appendix: The Source Code (Code-Behind)

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
{
{
public Form1()
{
}

{
txtID.Text = "";


txtID.Focus();
}

{
this.Close();
}

{
{
txtID.Focus();
}
{
txtPasswd.Focus();
}
/*
*/
try
{


Page 26

string user =
txtPasswd.Text));




int count = 0;
do
{
if (count != 0)
{
}
}
while (count > 0);


{
}

txtTweet.Focus();
}
{
{
}
{

Page 27

}
else
{
}
}

{
}

{
txtTweet.Text = "";
txtTweet.Focus();
}

{
lblMessage.Text = "Please Log In to Twitter";
}
private void btnSend_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{
try
{
string user =
txtPasswd.Text));
// determine what we want to upload as a status

byte[] bytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("status=" +
txtTweet.Text);
// connect with the update page

(HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml");
// set the method to POST

request.Method = "POST";
request.ServicePoint.Expect100Continue = false; // thanks to argodev for
this recent change!
// set the authorisation levels

// set the length of the content

request.ContentLength = bytes.Length;
// set up the stream

Stream reqStream = request.GetRequestStream();
// write to the stream

reqStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
// close the stream

reqStream.Close();
// Set up the status message

lblMessage2.Text = "Tweet Sent. Enter another tweet or log out.";

Page 28
txtTweet.Text = "";
txtTweet.Focus();
}
{
// Display the error in the status
lblMessage2.Text = "The following error has occurred:" + ex.Message;
}
}
}
}

C# Lab: Write A Simple Twitter Client Using The Twitter API

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C# Lab: Write A Simple Twitter Client Using The Twitter API

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C# Lab: Write a Simple Twitter Client

Using the Twitter API

Notes for Students:

The Twitter APIs and the C# Libraries

The three C# libraries that will be used in the project are:

What You Need

Date Written: 9/7/2009

o If you do not have a Twitter account, go to http://www.twitter.com and sign up for

Figure 1: A sketch of the log in screen

What we need for this

Figure 2: A sketch of the send message screen

What we need for this

Date Written: 9/7/2009

Part 1: Logging Into Twitter

4. Change the following properties on the panel:

Date Written: 9/7/2009

Your form should look similar to this.

Date Written: 9/7/2009

1. If you are working in an IDE, go to the Code view.

private void btnClear_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

// Reset the message

// Put the focus back on the ID

private void btnClose_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

private void btnClear_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

Date Written: 9/7/2009

// Reset the message

// Put the focus back on the ID

private void btnClose_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

5. At the top of the code, add the following lines:

Date Written: 9/7/2009

Your code should look similar to this:

private void btnClear_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

// Reset the message

// Put the focus back on the ID

private void btnClose_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

private void btnLogin_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

Date Written: 9/7/2009

// Set up the variables to get the information back

// encode the username/password

// connect with the verify page

// set the authorization levels

// set the response from the GET command

// Collect the information returned from the GET call

Date Written: 9/7/2009

// Convert the results to XML

// Go through the XML to get the name of the person

lblMessage.Text = "Welcome, " + personName + "!";

Your code should now look like this:

private void btnClear_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

// Reset the message

// Put the focus back on the ID

private void btnClose_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

Date Written: 9/7/2009

// Closes the application

private void btnLogin_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

// Set up the variables to get the information back

// encode the username/password

// connect with the verify page

// set the authorization levels

// set the response from the GET command

// Collect the information returned from the GET call

Date Written: 9/7/2009

// Convert the results to XML