How to Post Twitter Status from Android

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While developing one of my Android application, i found it was hard to find a good and simple tutorial on how to integrate Twitter into Android app.  There are some external java libraries over the net that can be used to integrate Twitter into Android app, but they lack of good documentation and tutorial on how to use it on Android. So i  made my own implementation using  Twitter4j and oauth-signpost library. In this tutorial, i create one sample Android project to show how to connect to Twitter, save it’s token and username on shared preferences so it can be used later to post status to Twitter.

I. Register Twitter Application

To enable user to post status to Twitter, first you have to create one Twitter application. Simply go to Twitter Apps page and register your application. Fill the ‘Application Name‘ with your desired name, it has to be unique. If you use a name that already exist (taken by someone), you’ll get a warning message.  On ‘Application Type’ option, choose ‘Browser’ , and because its a browser type application but used in mobile application, you can set it’s callback url on ‘Callback URL‘ field  with any url you want. On ‘Default Access type’, choose ‘Read and Write‘ to enable access to post status. Click save and if all things going well, you’ll get a page showing your consumer key and secret key. Copy these two keys for later use in Android app.

II. Android Integration

To integrate Twitter into Android app, you need four external jar files from two different libraries, Twitter4j and oauth-signpost. You can download latest version from Twitter4j download page or use the one included in my sample project (twitter4j-core-2.1.6.jar) and oauth-signpost from oauth-signpost download page (signpost-core-1.2.1.1.jar, signpost-commonshttp4-1.2.1.1.jar, signpost-jetty6-1.2.1.1.jar). Add the four external jars into your Android project (on Eclipse, right click on your project->properties then on Java Build Path click Add External JARs button to select files)

In my sample project, i create three helper classes (TwitterApp.java,  TwitterDialog.java, and TwitterSession.java) to handle authentication using Webview Dialog and session handler to save token and username on Shared Preferences.

Code implementation

1. Twitter Connection (TestConnection.java)

This example shows how to connect to Twitter, display webview dialog to authorize user then save user’s token and username on shared preference for later use.

public class TestConnect extends Activity {
	private TwitterApp mTwitter;
	private CheckBox mTwitterBtn;

	private static final String twitter_consumer_key = "xxx";
	private static final String twitter_secret_key = "xxx";

	@Override
	public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

		setContentView(R.layout.main);

		mTwitterBtn	= (CheckBox) findViewById(R.id.twitterCheck);

		mTwitterBtn.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
			@Override
			public void onClick(View v) {
				onTwitterClick();
			}
		});

		mTwitter 	= new TwitterApp(this, twitter_consumer_key,twitter_secret_key);

		mTwitter.setListener(mTwLoginDialogListener);

		if (mTwitter.hasAccessToken()) {
			mTwitterBtn.setChecked(true);

			String username = mTwitter.getUsername();
			username		= (username.equals("")) ? "Unknown" : username;

			mTwitterBtn.setText("  Twitter (" + username + ")");
			mTwitterBtn.setTextColor(Color.WHITE);
		}

		Button goBtn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button1);

		goBtn.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
			@Override
			public void onClick(View v) {
				startActivity(new Intent(TestConnect.this, TestPost.class));
			}
		});
	}

	private void onTwitterClick() {
		if (mTwitter.hasAccessToken()) {
			final AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);

			builder.setMessage("Delete current Twitter connection?")
			       .setCancelable(false)
			       .setPositiveButton("Yes", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
			           public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
			        	   mTwitter.resetAccessToken();

			        	   mTwitterBtn.setChecked(false);
			        	   mTwitterBtn.setText("  Twitter (Not connected)");
			        	   mTwitterBtn.setTextColor(Color.GRAY);
			           }
			       })
			       .setNegativeButton("No", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
			           public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
			                dialog.cancel();

			                mTwitterBtn.setChecked(true);
			           }
			       });
			final AlertDialog alert = builder.create();

			alert.show();
		} else {
			mTwitterBtn.setChecked(false);

			mTwitter.authorize();
		}
	}

	private final TwDialogListener mTwLoginDialogListener = new TwDialogListener() {
		@Override
		public void onComplete(String value) {
			String username = mTwitter.getUsername();
			username		= (username.equals("")) ? "No Name" : username;

			mTwitterBtn.setText("  Twitter  (" + username + ")");
			mTwitterBtn.setChecked(true);
			mTwitterBtn.setTextColor(Color.WHITE);

			Toast.makeText(TestConnect.this, "Connected to Twitter as " + username, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
		}

		@Override
		public void onError(String value) {
			mTwitterBtn.setChecked(false);

			Toast.makeText(TestConnect.this, "Twitter connection failed", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
		}
	};
}

First, create an instance of  TwiterApp class with context, consumer key and secret key as constructor’s parameters. Use hasAccessToken() method to check if there is previously saved session. If there is no saved session, call authorize() to open authorization dialog. If user allows the connection, his access token and user name will be saved on shared preferences. You can setup listener to handle on success and on error event by creating an instance of TwDialogListener and pass it to setListener() method.

2. Post Status (TestPost.java)

This example shows how to post Twitter status. If there is no previously saved session, display authorization dialog to allow user authorize the connection then post status using different thread.

public class TestPost extends Activity {
	private TwitterApp mTwitter;
	private CheckBox mTwitterBtn;
	private String username = "";
	private boolean postToTwitter = false;

	private static final String twitter_consumer_key = "xxxx";
	private static final String twitter_secret_key = "xxxx";

	@Override
	protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

		setContentView(R.layout.post);

		Button postBtn 				= (Button) findViewById(R.id.button1);
		final EditText reviewEdit   = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.revieew);

		postBtn.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
			@Override
			public void onClick(View v) {
				String review = reviewEdit.getText().toString();

				if (review.equals("")) return;

				postReview(review);

				if (postToTwitter) postToTwitter(review);
			}
		});

		mTwitter = new TwitterApp(this, twitter_consumer_key,twitter_secret_key);

		mTwitter.setListener(mTwLoginDialogListener);

		mTwitterBtn	= (CheckBox) findViewById(R.id.twitterCheck);

		mTwitterBtn.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
			@Override
			public void onClick(View v) {
				if (mTwitter.hasAccessToken()) {
					postToTwitter = mTwitterBtn.isChecked();
				} else {
					mTwitterBtn.setChecked(false);
					mTwitter.authorize();
				}
			}
		});

		if (mTwitter.hasAccessToken()) {
			username 	= mTwitter.getUsername();
			username	= (username.equals("")) ? "No Name" : username;

			mTwitterBtn.setText("  Twitter  (" + username + ")");
		}
	}

	private void postReview(String review) {
		//post to server

		Toast.makeText(this, "Review posted", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
	}

	private void postToTwitter(final String review) {
		new Thread() {
			@Override
			public void run() {
				int what = 0;

				try {
					mTwitter.updateStatus(review);
				} catch (Exception e) {
					what = 1;
				}

				mHandler.sendMessage(mHandler.obtainMessage(what));
			}
		}.start();
	}

	private Handler mHandler = new Handler() {
		@Override
		public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
			String text = (msg.what == 0) ? "Posted to Twitter" : "Post to Twitter failed";

			Toast.makeText(TestPost.this, text, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
		}
	};
	private final TwDialogListener mTwLoginDialogListener = new TwDialogListener() {
		@Override
		public void onComplete(String value) {
			username 	= mTwitter.getUsername();
			username	= (username.equals("")) ? "No Name" : username;

			mTwitterBtn.setText("  Twitter  (" + username + ")");
			mTwitterBtn.setChecked(true);

			postToTwitter = true;

			Toast.makeText(TestPost.this, "Connected to Twitter as " + username, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
		}

		@Override
		public void onError(String value) {
			mTwitterBtn.setChecked(false);

			Toast.makeText(TestPost.this, "Twitter connection failed", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
		}
	};
}

Update 2011-10-01

- Fix authorization failed bug when attempt to authorize after logging out. This was caused by an exception (java.lang.IllegalStateException: consumer key/secret pair already set) was thrown by setOauthConsumer(consumerKey,secretKey) method of Twitter class. This method should be called once.

You can download  the source code here (with external jars) or via github here

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