All you need to to create a project in your favourite IDE.. for ease of use. Add the twitter4j library to your build path. Compile and run. If you run into any problems shoot them into the comments and I’ll lend a hand. Happy hacking.

package com.auth;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import twitter4j.Status;
import twitter4j.Twitter;
import twitter4j.TwitterException;
import twitter4j.TwitterFactory;
import twitter4j.User;
import twitter4j.http.AccessToken;
import twitter4j.http.RequestToken;

public class Main {

    public static void main(String args[])
    {
        try
        {
            // The factory instance is re-useable and thread safe.
            Twitter twitter = new TwitterFactory().getInstance();
            twitter.setOAuthConsumer("pESR4xRk4glcGKMCryvdMQ", "ddu3r7IRp0I1luSFOW2iLwKP5pYTY03AZrAjJAVaj8");

            RequestToken requestToken = twitter.getOAuthRequestToken();
            AccessToken accessToken = null;
            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
            while (null == accessToken)
            {
                System.out.println("Open the following URL and grant access to your account:");
                System.out.println(requestToken.getAuthorizationURL());
                System.out.print("Enter the PIN(if aviailable) or just hit enter.[PIN]:");
                String pin = null;
                try
                {
                    pin = br.readLine();
                } catch (IOException ex)
                {
                    Logger.getLogger(Main.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
                }
                try
                {
                    if (pin.length() > 0)
                    {
                        accessToken = twitter.getOAuthAccessToken(requestToken, pin);
                    } else
                    {
                        accessToken = twitter.getOAuthAccessToken();
                    }
                } catch (TwitterException te)
                {
                    if (401 == te.getStatusCode())
                    {
                        System.out.println("Unable to get the access token.");
                    } else
                    {
                        te.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }
            }
            //persist to the accessToken for future reference.
            storeAccessToken(twitter.verifyCredentials(), accessToken);
            Status status = twitter.updateStatus(args[0]);
            System.out.println("Successfully updated the status to [" + status.getText() + "].");
            System.exit(0);
        } catch (TwitterException ex)
        {
            Logger.getLogger(Main.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        }
    }

    private static void storeAccessToken(User user, AccessToken accessToken)
    {
        System.out.println(user.getScreenName());
    }
}

Then, create a new java source file and call it main.java, and another called tweet.java. Two simple classes and you’ve got yourself a twitter client. The end result will look like this:

/*
 * Main.java
 *
 * Created on 23-Jul-2009, 11:57:04
 */
package org.me.owt;

import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;

/**
 *
 * @author Siriquelle
 */
public class Main extends javax.swing.JFrame {

    private JButton button;

    /** Creates new form Main*/
    public Main() {
        initComponents();
    }

    /** This method is called from within the constructor to
     * initialize the form.
     * WARNING: Do NOT modify this code. The content of this method is
     * always regenerated by the Form Editor.
     */
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    // 
    private void initComponents() {

        jPanel1 = new javax.swing.JPanel();
        usernamelabel = new java.awt.Label();
        username = new java.awt.TextField();
        passwordlabel = new java.awt.Label();
        password = new java.awt.TextField();
        status = new java.awt.TextArea();
        tweet = new java.awt.Button();

        setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setTitle("One Way Tweet");
        setBackground(new java.awt.Color(204, 255, 255));
        setBounds(new java.awt.Rectangle(0, 0, 0, 0));
        setCursor(new java.awt.Cursor(java.awt.Cursor.DEFAULT_CURSOR));
        setForeground(new java.awt.Color(204, 255, 255));
        setName("One Way Tweet"); // NOI18N
        setResizable(false);

        jPanel1.setBackground(new java.awt.Color(204, 255, 255));
        jPanel1.setBorder(new javax.swing.border.SoftBevelBorder(javax.swing.border.BevelBorder.RAISED));
        jPanel1.setAlignmentX(getWidth() / 2);
        jPanel1.setAlignmentY(getHeight() / 2);

        usernamelabel.setFont(new java.awt.Font("Dialog", 1, 14)); // NOI18N
        usernamelabel.setForeground(new java.awt.Color(0, 102, 102));
        usernamelabel.setName("usernameLabel"); // NOI18N
        usernamelabel.setText("Username");

        username.setForeground(new java.awt.Color(51, 51, 51));
        username.setName("username"); // NOI18N
        username.addFocusListener(new java.awt.event.FocusAdapter() {

            public void focusGained(java.awt.event.FocusEvent evt) {
                Main.this.focusGained(evt);
            }

            public void focusLost(java.awt.event.FocusEvent evt) {
                Main.this.focusLost(evt);
            }
        });

        passwordlabel.setFont(new java.awt.Font("Dialog", 1, 14)); // NOI18N
        passwordlabel.setForeground(new java.awt.Color(0, 102, 102));
        passwordlabel.setName("passwordLabel"); // NOI18N
        passwordlabel.setText("Password");

        password.setEchoChar('*');
        password.setForeground(new java.awt.Color(51, 51, 51));
        password.setName("password"); // NOI18N
        password.addFocusListener(new java.awt.event.FocusAdapter() {

            public void focusGained(java.awt.event.FocusEvent evt) {
                Main.this.focusGained(evt);
            }

            public void focusLost(java.awt.event.FocusEvent evt) {
                Main.this.focusLost(evt);
            }
        });

        status.setForeground(new java.awt.Color(51, 51, 51));
        status.setName("status"); // NOI18N
        status.addFocusListener(new java.awt.event.FocusAdapter() {

            @Override
            public void focusGained(java.awt.event.FocusEvent evt) {
                Main.this.focusGained(evt);
            }

            @Override
            public void focusLost(java.awt.event.FocusEvent evt) {
                Main.this.focusLost(evt);
            }
        });

        tweet.setActionCommand("tweet");
        tweet.setBackground(new java.awt.Color(153, 255, 255));
        tweet.setFont(new java.awt.Font("Impact", 1, 48)); // NOI18N
        tweet.setForeground(new java.awt.Color(0, 102, 102));
        tweet.setLabel("tweet");
        tweet.setName("tweet"); // NOI18N
        tweet.addMouseListener(new java.awt.event.MouseAdapter() {

            public void mouseClicked(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {
                tweetMouseClicked(evt);
            }
        });

        javax.swing.GroupLayout jPanel1Layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(jPanel1);
        jPanel1.setLayout(jPanel1Layout);
        jPanel1Layout.setHorizontalGroup(
                jPanel1Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING).addGroup(jPanel1Layout.createSequentialGroup().addContainerGap().addGroup(jPanel1Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING).addComponent(status, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, 266, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE).addGroup(jPanel1Layout.createSequentialGroup().addGroup(jPanel1Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING, false).addComponent(passwordlabel, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE).addComponent(usernamelabel, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, 83, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)).addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED).addGroup(jPanel1Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING).addComponent(username, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, 173, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE).addComponent(password, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, 173, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE))).addComponent(tweet, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, 266, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)).addContainerGap()));
        jPanel1Layout.setVerticalGroup(
                jPanel1Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING).addGroup(jPanel1Layout.createSequentialGroup().addContainerGap().addGroup(jPanel1Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.TRAILING).addComponent(usernamelabel, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE).addComponent(username, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, 20, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)).addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED).addGroup(jPanel1Layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING).addComponent(passwordlabel, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE).addComponent(password, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)).addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED).addComponent(status, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, 91, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE).addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED).addComponent(tweet, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, 79, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE).addContainerGap()));

        usernamelabel.getAccessibleContext().setAccessibleName("usernameLabel");
        username.getAccessibleContext().setAccessibleName("username");
        password.getAccessibleContext().setAccessibleName("password");
        status.getAccessibleContext().setAccessibleName("status");
        tweet.getAccessibleContext().setAccessibleName("tweet");

        javax.swing.GroupLayout layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(getContentPane());
        getContentPane().setLayout(layout);
        layout.setHorizontalGroup(
                layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING).addComponent(jPanel1, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE));
        layout.setVerticalGroup(
                layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING).addComponent(jPanel1, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE));

        getAccessibleContext().setAccessibleName("One Way Tweet");
        getAccessibleContext().setAccessibleDescription("One Way Tweet");

        pack();
    }// 

    private void tweetMouseClicked(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {
        Tweet tw = new Tweet(username.getText(), password.getText(), status.getText());
        if (tw.sendTweet())
        {
            this.ShowMessageDialog("Tweet Win");
        } else
        {
            this.ShowMessageDialog("Tweet Fail");
        }
    }

    private void focusGained(java.awt.event.FocusEvent evt) {
        evt.getComponent().setBackground(new java.awt.Color(255, 255, 215));
    }

    private void focusLost(java.awt.event.FocusEvent evt) {
        evt.getComponent().setBackground(new java.awt.Color(255, 255, 255));
    }

    public void ShowMessageDialog(String msg) {
        final JFrame frame = new JFrame(msg);
        button = new JButton("OK");
        button.addMouseListener(new java.awt.event.MouseAdapter() {

            public void mouseClicked(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {
                frame.dispose();
            }
        });

        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        panel.add(button);
        panel.add(button);
        frame.add(panel);
        frame.setSize(220, 80);
        frame.setLocation(220, 80);
        frame.setVisible(true);
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
    }

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

            public void run() {
                new Main().setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }

    // Variables declaration - do not modify
    private javax.swing.JPanel jPanel1;
    private java.awt.TextField password;
    private java.awt.Label passwordlabel;
    private java.awt.TextArea status;
    private java.awt.Button tweet;
    private java.awt.TextField username;
    private java.awt.Label usernamelabel;
    // End of variables declaration
}

The following code is a class that handles the tweet. create a new java source file in the org.me.owt package and call it tweet.java. It’s methods are used to create and send the tweet and handle the response from the twitter api:

/*
 * To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
 * and open the template in the editor.
 */
package org.me.owt;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLConnection;
import java.net.URLEncoder;

/**
 *
 * @author Siriquelle
 */
public class Tweet {

    private String twitteruser;
    private String twitterpass;
    private String status;
    private String response;

    public Tweet(String u, String p, String s) {
        twitteruser = u;
        twitterpass = p;
        status = s;
    }

    public boolean sendTweet() {
        try
        {
            String encodedData = URLEncoder.encode(status, "UTF-8");

            String credentials = twitteruser + ":" + twitterpass;
            String encodecredentials = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(credentials.getBytes());

            URLConnection connection = null;
            URL url = new URL("http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml");
            connection = url.openConnection();
            connection.setRequestProperty("Authorization", "Basic " + encodecredentials);
            connection.setDoOutput(true);

            OutputStreamWriter output = new OutputStreamWriter(connection.getOutputStream());
            output.write("status=" + encodedData);
            output.close();

            BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(connection.getInputStream()));
            String decodedString;
            while ((decodedString = in.readLine()) != null)
            {
                response = decodedString;
            }
            in.close();
            return true;
        } catch (Exception e)
        {
            response = e.toString();
            return false;
        }
    }
}

And thats the code, right click your project and choose run. After you examine this code you’ll discover how, with a little parsing you can turn this application into a fully fledged thwirl competitor. :) If you’ve any questions I’d love a go at answering.

This application was created in netbeans using the swing UI builder. In a future post I will describe the process to building an application using the NetBeans IDE and it’s UI builders in design view.

As you type your tweet the the JavaScript will analyze your keystrokes and check for when a space is entered assuming you are done typing a word, at this point the text is passed to Google for translation. When your done typing hit tweet and it’s off to twitter with your tweet.

This is what your app will look like when it’s finished:

Source

The Folder structure you will need is similar to all other projects. You can download the source folder for this project and open it in NetBeans to get a better idea of how the end result will look. There are no special libraries you need to get this going just java.io.* and java.net.* .

This is the HTML you will need, (/index.html):

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
        <link rel="Stylesheet" media="screen" href="assets/css/style.css" >
        <title>Twitter Universal Translate</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id="content">
            <div class="head">Twitter Multilanguage</div>

            <form>
                <label class="textlabel" for="username">Username</label>
                <input class="textinput" type="text" id="username" name="username" value="">

                <label class="textlabel" for="password">Password</label>
                <input class="textinput" type="password" id="password" name="password" value="">

                <label class="textlabel" for="lang">Translate To</label>
                <select class="select" id="lang" name="lang" onclick="translateTwo()" >
                    <option value="en">English</option>
                    <option value="fr">French</option>
                    <option value="it">Italian</option>
                    <option value="de">German</option>
                </select>

                <label class="textlabel" for="textarea">Tweet</label>
                <textarea id="textarea" class="textarea" name="textarea" cols="5" rows="5" onblur="translateTwo()" onkeydown="translate(event)"></textarea>

                <input class="textinput" type="button" value="Tweet" onclick="callLoad()"/>
            </form>
            <div class="infobar">“Translate your tweet into a chosen language as you type.”</div>
            <span id="status"></span>
        </div>

        <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
        <script type="text/javascript" src="assets/js/jscript.js"></script>
    </body>
</html>

This is the CSS you will need, (/assets/css/style.css):

* {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}

/*///////////////////////////////////////////////////*/

#content{
    color:#333;
    width:350px;
    margin:100px auto;
    border:15px inset #66ffff;
    padding:10px;
    font-family:sans-serif;
    -moz-border-radius:10px;
}

.textlabel,textinput{
    display:block;
}

.textlabel{
    font-weight:bold;
}

.textlabel,.textinput, .textarea,.select{
    width:200px;
}

.textinput, .textarea,.select{
    padding:1px;
    margin-bottom:5px;
}

.textinput:focus, .textarea:focus{
    background-color:#ffffcc;
}

.head{
    font-size:32px;
    font-family:sans-serif;
    font-weight:bold;
    margin-bottom:5px;
}

.infobar{
    width:120px;
    float:right;
    position:relative;
    top:-140px;
    left:0px;
    padding: 3px;
    border:5px #ffff99 solid;
    background-color:#ffffcc;
    color:#003333;
    font-size:14px;
    font-style:oblique;
    text-align:center;
}

This is the JavaScript you will need, (/assets/js/jscript.js):

google.load("language", "1");

function translate(event){
    var textarea = document.getElementById("textarea");
    var lang = document.getElementById("lang");

    if(event.keyCode == 32){
        google.language.translate(textarea.value, "", lang.value, function(result) {
            if (!result.error) {
                var container = document.getElementById("textarea");
                container.value = result.translation + " ";
            }
        });
    }
}

function translateTwo(){
    var textarea = document.getElementById("textarea");
    var lang = document.getElementById("lang");
    google.language.translate(textarea.value, "", lang.value, function(result) {
        if (!result.error) {
            var container = document.getElementById("textarea");
            container.value = result.translation + " ";
        }
    });
}

function load(url, callback) {
    var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();

    var username = document.getElementById("username").value;
    var password = document.getElementById("password").value;
    var status = document.getElementById("textarea").value;
    var auth = "tweet.jsp?username="+username+"&password="+password+"&status="+status;

    xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
        if((xhr.readyState < 4) || xhr.status !== 200) return;
        callback(xhr);
    };
    try{
        xhr.open('GET', auth, true);
        xhr.send();
    }catch(e){
        document.write(e);
    }
}

function callLoad(){
    load('tweet.jsp', function(xhr) {
        var joke = document.getElementById("status");
        var textarea = document.getElementById("textarea");
        joke.innerHTML = 'OK';
        textarea.value = '';
    });
}

This is the Java you will need, (/tweet.jsp):

<%@page import="java.net.*, java.io.*"%>
<%
        String username = request.getParameter("username");
        String password = request.getParameter("password");
        String status = request.getParameter("status");
        try {
            String twitteruser = username;
            String twitterpass = password;
            String encodedData = URLEncoder.encode(status, "UTF-8");

            String credentials = twitteruser + ":" + twitterpass;
            String encodecredentials = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(credentials.getBytes());

            URLConnection connection = null;
            URL url = new URL("http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml");
            connection = url.openConnection();
            connection.setRequestProperty("Authorization", "Basic " + encodecredentials);
            connection.setDoOutput(true);

            OutputStreamWriter output = new OutputStreamWriter(connection.getOutputStream());
            output.write("status=" + encodedData);
            output.close();

            BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(connection.getInputStream()));
            String decodedString;
            while ((decodedString = in.readLine()) != null) {
                out.println(decodedString);
            }
            in.close();

        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println(e.toString());
        }

%>

Ideally a Servlet would be best suited to processing the response from twitter but for this project it’s OK. And there you go you can now tweet in multiple languages like James Bond might. yay!