PHP - Moved: Twitter Help

Im trying to make a php program that will grab all the user's tweets they have ever done.. I'm using curl to request the twitter page and scrape the html.

It looks as though the maximum amount of tweets I can get is 20, which is the amount on the initial first page. There is some script that loads another 20 tweets once I scroll to the bottom of the page...

Does anyone know how to make the page automatically load a certain amount so I can scrape more than the first 20 at once.

Hello!

I have a twitter button. But I would like to have a form button's action to activate the "tweet/share" link. Why? Because I want to record in mySQL database the fact that someone has in fact clicked the link to tweet. How I was thinking about doing... But really have no idea is like so.

<form action="tweet.php" method="POST">
<input type="button" name="tweet" value="ip address" />
</form>

then in the tweet.php

I would have php insert the gathered IP address (ive got this part working with a geocoder class) into the database as confirmation. Then the php code would execute the hyperlink / java which is this:

<a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://mycontent.com" data-count="horizontal" data-via="person-to-tweet-at">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Activating the link as if someone where to click the link, but automatically.

Basically I am looking for a way to record who clicks the Twitter button. Any guidance on this topic would be much appreciated.

Does anyone know how to cache Tweets as to not reach the API rate limit? I am using the Twitter-provided widget to display multiple profiles on a website, but the API hits the limit of 150 per hour. Is there any way to cache the Tweets and still use this widget? Or does anyone know of a good widget that caches, or simple code?

If anyone knows, please explain in newbie terms.

Thanks a lot!

Does anybody have any recommendations for PHP scripts to pull in a Twitter feed? I've tried several but each seem to just give me error messages!

I basically just need a PHP alternative so that the tweets can be read by search engines.

Thanks.

By using twitter api, i'm trying to get latest trends.
I need to take trends name and creation time of the list.
Can you help me to obtain the values from the array?
Thank you

This code doesn't work.
Code: [Select]
<?php

$jsonurl = 'http://api.twitter.com/1/trends/44418.json';
$json = file_get_contents($jsonurl,0,null,null);
$json_output = json_decode($json);

foreach ( $json_output->trends as $trend )
{
    echo "{$trend->name}\n";
}


?>

Good day Campers!   Having spent the better part of my day trawling the internet for an answer I have gotten nowhere so have come to you lovely people for help.   I found a nice little tutorial on PHP gang that would allow me to update my twitter feed from my website using PHP and OAuth. I set up my twitter app with no issues and generated the API keys. Set the App to 'read/write' permissions and then regenerated the keys The app is marked to "Allow this application to be used to Sign in with Twitter"   The issue is that when I click the little button to sign in to twitter, the page redirects but displays the generic "Cannot connect to Twitter" error message that has been defined in the code. I do not get asked to "Allow" the script to connect to twitter like it seems to do in the demo.   The PHPGang solution has 4 bits of script so I'm wondering if it has something to do with this as I understand the Abrahams script has slightly more so I do wonder if something is missing. I'm not sure. One of the main problems I am facing is that I have never actually done this before so I don't know where I have gone wrong or what I am even looking for help wise......   I have the following scripts: callback.php

<?php
/**
 * Take the user when they return from Twitter. Get access tokens.
 * Verify credentials and redirect to based on response from Twitter.
 */
session_start();
require_once('oauth/twitteroauth.php');
require_once('config.php');

if (isset($_REQUEST['oauth_token']) && $_SESSION['oauth_token'] !== $_REQUEST['oauth_token']) {
  $_SESSION['oauth_status'] = 'oldtoken';
  header('Location: ./destroysessions.php');
}

$connection = new TwitterOAuth(CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET, $_SESSION['oauth_token'], $_SESSION['oauth_token_secret']);

$access_token = $connection->getAccessToken($_REQUEST['oauth_verifier']);
//save new access tocken array in session
$_SESSION['access_token'] = $access_token;

unset($_SESSION['oauth_token']);
unset($_SESSION['oauth_token_secret']);

if (200 == $connection->http_code) {
  $_SESSION['status'] = 'verified';
  header('Location: ./index.php');
} else {
  header('Location: ./destroysessions.php');
}
?>

config.php

<?php
/**
 * @file
 * A single location to store configuration.
 */
define('CONSUMER_KEY', 'MY CONSUMER KEY');
define('CONSUMER_SECRET', 'MY SECRECT CONSUMER KEY');
define('OAUTH_CALLBACK', 'URL OF WHERE I AM REDIRECTING TO');
?>

destroysessions.php

<?php
/**
 * @file
 * Clears PHP sessions and redirects to the connect page.
 */

/* Load and clear sessions */
session_start();
session_destroy();

/* Redirect to page with the connect to Twitter option. */
header('Location: ../index.php');
?>

index.php

	<?php
	require_once('oauth/twitteroauth.php');
	require_once('config.php');
		if(isset($_POST["status"]))
			{
				$status = $_POST["status"];
				if(strlen($status)>=130)
				{
					$status = substr($status,0,130);
				}
				$access_token = $_SESSION['access_token'];
				$connection = new TwitterOAuth(CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET, $access_token['oauth_token'], $access_token['oauth_token_secret']);

				$connection->post('statuses/update', array('status' => "$status"));
				$message = "Tweeted Sucessfully!!";
			}
		if(isset($_GET["redirect"]))
			{
				$connection = new TwitterOAuth(CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET);

				$request_token = $connection->getRequestToken(OAUTH_CALLBACK);

				$_SESSION['oauth_token'] = $token = $request_token['oauth_token'];
				$_SESSION['oauth_token_secret'] = $request_token['oauth_token_secret'];

				switch ($connection->http_code) {
					case 200:
						$url = $connection->getAuthorizeURL($token);
						header('Location: ' . $url);
						break;
					default:
						echo '<div class="par">Could not connect to Twitter. Refresh the page or try again later.</div>';
				}
		exit;
			}
		if (empty($_SESSION['access_token']) || empty($_SESSION['access_token']['oauth_token']) || empty($_SESSION['access_token']['oauth_token_secret'])) {

				echo '<a href="./index.php?redirect=true"><img src="./images/lighter.png" alt="Sign in with Twitter"/></a>';
			}
		else
			{
				echo "<a href='destroysessions.php'>Logout</a><br>";
				echo '<div class="par">'.$message.'<div>
				<form action="index.php" method="post">
				    <input type="text" name="status" id="status" placeholder="Write a comment....">
				    <input type="submit" value="Post On My Wall!" style="padding: 5px;">
				</form>';
			}
	?>

Now, I am unsure if there is anything wrong with the API keys I have generated or if there is something missing. Is there anyone who can point me in the right direction or offer some advice on where to turn?   Thanks!
Edited by lauren_etherington, 04 September 2014 - 10:36 AM.

Hi all,
Since twitter changed the way they allow people to post, my simple php script to grab the $_POST data from an input and post it to my twitter profile has broken.

I've been reading up on Oauth, but none of the documentation is clear at all. It's quite complex, in fact - they assume you are creating a full app, which I am not - I just want to flick some text to twitter.

I just want to pass a simple string variable to my account - can anyone help me with how to do this?

All help appreciated.
WoolyG

I've been looking for a way to do this for a long time. I have a simple(ish) login system, and I want to allow users to login with Twitter or Facebook; How can I do this? I'm pretty experienced at PHP and MySQL, but I really don't understand the API of either of the social networking sites. If you only know how the API for one of the sites, that'd be great too.

If you look at the botton of http://getminecraft.net/ you see my latest tweets. The problem is that it shows http://getminecraft.net/%22http://twitter.com/PC_Gamer%22 instead of the original twitter url, that results to a wrong url and wrong site. How can I fix it? so it shows the original twitter url. Here is the script:

<?php

$username = "getminecraft";

$prefix = "";

$suffix = "";

$feed = "http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=from:" . $username . "&rpp=1";

function parse_feed($feed) {

$stepOne = explode("<content type=\"html\">", $feed);
$stepTwo = explode("</content>", $stepOne[1]);

$tweet = $stepTwo[0];
$tweet = str_replace("&lt;", "<", $tweet);
$tweet = str_replace("&gt;", ">", $tweet);

return $tweet;

}

$twitterFeed = file_get_contents($feed);

echo stripslashes($prefix) . parse_feed($twitterFeed) . stripslashes($suffix);

?>

For some reason the time is always staying the same throughout the listing tweets even when there's posts with different times. What am I doing wrong?

function getTwitterStatus($userid, $x) {
   $url = "http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/$userid.xml?count=$x";

   $xml = simplexml_load_file($url) or die("could not connect");

   foreach ($xml->status as $status) {
      $text .= "<tr>";
      $text .= "<th>" . date("m/d/Y - g:ia", strtotime($xml -> status[0] -> created_at));
      "</th>";
      $text .= "<td class=\"full\">" . $status -> text . "</td>";
      $text .= "<td><img src=\"images/ball_grey_16.png\" class=\"block cr-help\" alt=\"\" title=\"Twitter Message\"/></td>";
   }

   echo $text;
}

i get a message saying i cannot be authorised - i have keys, tokens, passwords, users etc but do not know how to implement them or update this script.

any help for a super novice would be great!

Code: [Select]
<html><head><title>Title</title>
<?php
if (!isset($_POST['submit'])) { // if page is not submitted to itself
                                //echo the form
} else {

$username = $_POST["username"];
$password = $_POST["password"];
$image = $_POST["image"];

////// 
//////
////// If you are using file uploads from your form, use the following block
////// NOTE: this particular example code uses file uploads from the input form
//////
//////

$filename = $_FILES["image"]['name'];
$tmpfilename = $_FILES["image"]['tmp_name'];

$fileparts = explode(".", $filename);
/* get file extension */
$ext = $fileparts[count($fileparts) - 1];
$newfilename = substr($tmpfilename, 0, strlen($tmpfilename) - strlen($ext))  . "." .$ext;
//echo $newfilename;
/*
 *  this next line creates a "corrected" file ending in .gif/.png/.jpg so 
 *  the post headers are correct when CURL makes the request
 */
copy($tmpfilename, $newfilename);

////// 
//////
////// Else If you are using canned files local to your server,  use the following block
////// NOTE: you MUST use full path to image!
//////

//
// /* windows, notice FORWARD SLASHES */
// $newfilename = "c:/www/path/to/image.jpg";
//
//
// /* *nix */
// $newfilename = "/www/path/to/image.jpg";
//




// The twitter API address
$url = 'http://twitter.com/account/update_profile_image.xml';
$curl_handle = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, "$url");
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Expect:'));
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, array("image" => "@$newfilename"));
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$username:$password");
$buffer = curl_exec($curl_handle);

curl_close($curl_handle);
       echo $buffer;


// if you want to delete the local temp image from uploading, uncomment this next line:
// unlink($newfilename);


}
?>



</head>
<body>

<form enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF;?>">
Username:<input type="text" size="12" maxlength="12"
name="username"><br />
Password:<input type="password" size="12" maxlength="36"
name="password"><br />
<input type="file" name="image">
<input type="submit" value="submit" name="submit"><br />
</form><br />

</body>
</html>

im trying to link a profile if it is prefixed with an @ symbol. I have tried this but it doesnt work as i thought it wouldnt.

Code: [Select]
$content = preg_replace('|@(.*?)|', profile_link('$1'), $content);

I have built a small database which use the Twitter API to extract data from the listed members XML files (http://twitter.com/users/show.xml?screen_name=username) and it works well, but since the database makes several calls everytime a page loads I get kicked out very quickly, even with a small memberbase. So I wonder what solution would help with this problem?

I have considered dropping the XML data into the database and saving each XML file on the server, but I am not sure what solution would be best?

I'm running a site where people can post confessions, there's an option to share confession to twitter but it doesn't work properly. When you click on twitter icon there is a window opening, you need to log in to twitter and then you have your tweet you want to share which looks like this:   Confessions.ie - Irish Anonymous Confessions Confession: I did it!  http://www.confessio...e.php?page=view   problem is that url, "http://www.confessio...e.php?page=view" - it doesn't correspond to actual post, then when clicked it shows "-1" and that's it.   normal post url's would be something like this:   http://www.confessio...w&confession=18   http://www.confessio...w&confession=15   http://www.confessio...w&confession=12   Website is: confessions dot ie   and here's the code that I think contains error somewhe  

<?php
$confId = $_GET['confession'];
$viewIp = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];


// Get the Full Page URL
$pageURL = (isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) ? "https" : "http")."//".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];


$count = 0;
$hasViewed = '';
$msgBox = '';


// Get the File Uploads Folder from the Site Settings
$uploadsDir = $set['uploadPath'];


// Check if Moderation is On
$moderated = $set['moderation'];


// Check if Profanity Filter is On
$filterProfanity = $set['useFilter'];


$chkViews = mysqli_query($mysqli,"SELECT 'X' FROM views WHERE confessId = ".$confId." AND viewIp = '".$viewIp."' LIMIT 1");
$hasView = mysqli_num_rows($chkViews);
if ($hasView == 0) { $hasViewed = '0'; }
$viewDate = date("Y-m-d H:i:s");


if ($hasViewed == '0') {
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("
INSERT INTO
views(
confessId,
viewIp,
viewDate
) VALUES (
?,
?,
?
)
");
$stmt->bind_param('sss',
$confId,
$viewIp,
$viewDate
);
$stmt->execute();
}


// Add New Comment
    if (isset($_POST['submit']) && $_POST['submit'] == 'addComment') {
        // Validation
if($_POST['commentText'] == "") {
            $msgBox = alertBox($commentsReq, "<i class='fa fa-times-circle'></i>", "danger");
        } else if($_POST['answer'] == "") {
            $msgBox = alertBox($captchaCodeReq, "<i class='fa fa-times-circle'></i>", "danger");
        } else if ($_POST['hole'] != '') {
$msgBox = alertBox($commentsErrorMsg, "<i class='fa fa-times-circle'></i>", "danger");
$_POST['firstName'] = $_POST['commentText'] = $_POST['answer'] = '';
} else {
$commentText = htmlentities($_POST['commentText']);
$usersId = $mysqli->real_escape_string($_POST['usersId']);
if ($_POST['firstName'] == '') {
$firstName = null;
} else {
$firstName = $mysqli->real_escape_string($_POST['firstName']);
}
$commentDate = date("Y-m-d H:i:s");


// Moderation Check
if ($moderated == '1') { $isActive = '0'; } else { $isActive = '1'; }


// Check if the poster is a logged in user
if (isset($_SESSION['userId'])) {
$user = $_SESSION['userId'];
} else {
$user = '0';
}


if(strtolower($_POST['answer']) == $_SESSION['thecode']) {
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("
INSERT INTO
comments(
confessId,
userId,
firstName,
comments,
commentDate,
isActive,
commentIp
) VALUES (
?,
?,
?,
?,
?,
?,
?
)
");
$stmt->bind_param('sssssss',
$confId,
$user,
$firstName,
$commentText,
$commentDate,
$isActive,
$viewIp
);
$stmt->execute();


if ($moderated == '1') {
$msgBox = alertBox($commentsSavedMsg1, "<i class='fa fa-check-square'></i>", "success");
} else {
$msgBox = alertBox($commentsSavedMsg2, "<i class='fa fa-check-square'></i>", "success");
}
// Clear the Form of values
$_POST['firstName'] = $_POST['commentText'] = $_POST['answer'] = '';
$stmt->close();
} else {
$msgBox = alertBox($captchaErrorMsg, "<i class='fa fa-warning'></i>", "warning");
}


// If the confession is posted by a user
if ($usersId != '0') {
$uemail = "SELECT userEmail, recEmails FROM users WHERE userId = ".$usersId;
$remail = mysqli_query($mysqli, $uemail) or die('-1' . mysqli_error());
$e = mysqli_fetch_assoc($remail);
$userEmail = $e['userEmail'];
$recEmails = $e['recEmails'];


// If the users has opted in to receive notifications
if ($recEmails == '1') {
// Send out the email in HTML
$installUrl = $set['installUrl'];
$siteName = $set['siteName'];
$siteEmail = $set['siteEmail'];


$subject = $newCommentEmailSubject;
$message = '<html><body>';
$message .= '<h3>'.$subject.'</h3>';
$message .= '<hr>';
$message .= '<p>'.nl2br($commentText).'</p>';
$message .= '<hr>';
$message .= '<p>'.$newCommentEmail1.' '.$pageURL.'</p>';
$message .= '<p>'.$subscribeEmail3.'<br>'.$siteName.'</p>';
$message .= '</body></html>';
$headers = "From: ".$siteName." <".$siteEmail.">\r\n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: ".$siteEmail."\r\n";
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1\r\n";


mail($userEmail, $subject, $message, $headers);
}
}
}
}


// Get Confession
$select = "SELECT
confessId,
userId,
(IFNULL(firstName, '')) AS firstName,
confessText,
DATE_FORMAT(postDate,'%b %d %Y %h:%i %p') AS postDate,
hasImage,
isActive,
(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM views WHERE views.confessId = confessions.confessId ) as totalViews,
(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM likes WHERE likes.confessId = confessions.confessId ) as totalLikes,
(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM dislikes WHERE dislikes.confessId = confessions.confessId ) as totalDislikes
FROM
confessions
WHERE confessId = ".$confId;
$res = mysqli_query($mysqli, $select) or die('-1' . mysqli_error());
$row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($res);


if ($row['totalViews'] == '1') { $viewText = $singleViewText; } else { $viewText = $multipleViewsText; }
$shareURL = $set['installUrl'].'page.php?page=view&confession='.$row['confessId'];
$googleURL = $set['installUrl'];


// Get Comments
$qry = "SELECT
commentId,
confessId,
(IFNULL(firstName, '')) AS fName,
comments,
DATE_FORMAT(commentDate,'%b %d %Y %h:%i %p') AS commentDate,
isActive
FROM
comments
WHERE
confessId = ".$confId." AND
isActive = 1
ORDER BY commentId DESC";
$results = mysqli_query($mysqli, $qry) or die('-2'.mysqli_error());


include('includes/header.php');
?>
<section id="main-container">
<div class="container">
<?php if ($msgBox) { echo $msgBox; } ?>


<div class="confessbox">
<div class="confession">
<?php
if ($row['hasImage'] == '1') {
// Get Image
$sqlStmt = "SELECT uploadId, confessId, uploadUrl FROM uploads WHERE confessId = ".$confId;
$sqlres = mysqli_query($mysqli, $sqlStmt) or die('-2'.mysqli_error());
$col = mysqli_fetch_assoc($sqlres);


//Get File Extension
$ext = substr(strrchr($col['uploadUrl'],'.'), 1);
$imgExts = array('gif', 'GIF', 'jpg', 'JPG', 'jpeg', 'JPEG', 'png', 'PNG', 'tiff', 'TIFF', 'tif', 'TIF', 'bmp', 'BMP');


if (in_array($ext, $imgExts)) {
echo '<p class="mb-20"><img alt="'.$confImageAlt.'" src="'.$uploadsDir.$col['uploadUrl'].'" class="img-responsive" /></p>';
}
}
?>
<p>
<i class="fa fa-quote-left"></i>
<?php
if ($filterProfanity == '1') {
echo nl2br(clean(filterwords($row['confessText'])));
} else {
echo nl2br(clean($row['confessText']));
}
?>
<i class="fa fa-quote-right"></i>
</p>
<input type="hidden" id="confessId" name="confessId_<?php echo $count; ?>" value="<?php echo $row['confessId']; ?>" />
<div class="confession-footer">
<div class="likes">
<span class="label label-confess first liked">
<a href="" id="likeIt<?php echo $row['confessId']; ?>" class="likeIt_<?php echo $count; ?> text-success">
<i class="fa fa-smile-o"></i> <span id="likesVal_<?php echo $count; ?>"><?php echo $row['totalLikes']; ?></span>
</a>
</span>
</div>
<div class="dislikes">
<span class="label label-confess disliked">
<a href="" id="dislikeIt<?php echo $row['confessId']; ?>" class="dislike_<?php echo $count; ?> text-danger">
<span id="dislikesVal_<?php echo $count; ?>"><?php echo $row['totalDislikes']; ?></span> <i class="fa fa-frown-o"></i>
</a>
</span>
</div>
<span class="label label-confess"><?php echo timeago($row['postDate']); ?></span>
<span class="label label-confess last"><?php echo $row['totalViews'].' '.$viewText; ?></span>
<a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=<?php echo $set['siteName']; ?>%20Confession:%20<?php echo ellipsis($row['confessText'],65); ?>%20&url=<?php echo $shareURL; ?>" class="btn btn-tw btn-sm" target="_blank" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="top" title="<?php echo $twitterShareTooltip; ?>">
<i class="fa fa-twitter"></i>
</a>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/share?url=<?php echo $googleURL; ?>" class="btn btn-gp btn-sm" target="_blank" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="top" title="<?php echo $googleShareTooltip; ?>">
<i class="fa fa-google-plus"></i>
</a>
<span class="label label-confess last hasVoted text-danger"><strong><?php echo $onlyVoteOnceText; ?></strong></span>
<div class="comments">
<?php if ($row['firstName'] != '') { ?>
<span class="label label-confess last"><?php echo $postedByText.' '.clean($row['firstName']); ?></span>
<?php } else { ?>
<span class="label label-confess last"><?php echo $postedByAnon; ?></span>
<?php } ?>
</div>
</div>
<div class="clearfix"></div>
</div>
</div>


<?php if(mysqli_num_rows($results) > 0) { ?>
<hr />
<div class="commentbox">
<?php while ($rows = mysqli_fetch_assoc($results)) { ?>
<div class="comment">
<p>
<?php
if ($filterProfanity == '1') {
echo nl2br(clean(filterwords($rows['comments'])));
} else {
echo nl2br(clean($rows['comments']));
}
?>
</p>
<?php if ($rows['fName'] != '') { ?>
<span class="label label-comments"><?php echo clean($rows['fName']).' '.$commentedText.' '.timeago($rows['commentDate']); ?></span>
<?php } else { ?>
<span class="label label-comments"><?php echo $anonCommented.' '.timeago($rows['commentDate']); ?></span>
<?php } ?>
</div>
<?php } ?>
</div>
<?php } ?>


<hr />


<form action="" method="post" class="comment-form mt-30">
<div class="form-group">
<textarea class="form-control" name="commentText" id="commentText" rows="4" required="" placeholder="<?php echo $addCommentsField; ?>"><?php echo isset($_POST['commentText']) ? $_POST['commentText'] : ''; ?></textarea>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-4">
<div class="form-group">
<input type="text" class="form-control" name="firstName" placeholder="<?php echo $firstNamePlaceholder; ?>" value="<?php echo isset($_POST['firstName']) ? $_POST['firstName'] : ''; ?>">
</div>
</div>
<div class="col-md-4"></div>
<div class="col-md-4">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-4">
<img src="includes/captcha.php" id="captcha" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="left" class="pull-right" title="<?php echo $captchaCodeTooltip; ?>" />
</div>
<div class="col-md-8">
<div class="form-group">
<input type="text" class="form-control" name="answer" required="" maxlength="6" placeholder="<?php echo $captchaCodeTooltip; ?>">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-8">
<p><?php echo $commentsQuip1; ?><strong><?php echo $isOn; ?></strong>. <?php echo $commentsQuip2; ?> <strong><?php echo $filtered; ?></strong>.</p>
</div>
<div class="col-md-4">
<input type="hidden" name="hole" id="hole" />
<input type="hidden" name="usersId" value="<?php echo $row['userId']; ?>" />
<button type="input" name="submit" value="addComment" class="btn btn-fessup btn-lg pull-right btn-icon"><i class="fa fa-check-square-o"></i> <?php echo $saveCommentsBtn; ?></button>
</div>
</div>
</form>


</div>
</section>

I have a form which lets the user put in the URL to their twitter account.  When the enter their URL I am trying to create a screen scraping script that scrapes that page to get basic information like their twitter name and number of tweets. 

I'm not sure how I am going to do this, I don't think there is a twitter API for this so I may have to use something like cURL.  I was just wondering if anyone has done this and could give me any advice about the best method? 

Thanks for any help