Re-tweets and replies with JTwitter

Question

I have not used Twitter enough to become familiar with its terminology or the way it works, so please help me in understanding the problem I have at hand.

I am getting last 20 status updates posted by some Twitter user via RSS feed, the feed XML is parsed and the statuses are displayed in a ListView. Which means that I have the original tweet in a String variable(row of ListView). When I click a ListView item, I get the option of "Re-tweeting" and "post reply".

As, I understand it, when re-tweeting I will have to just update my *status* as:

RT @orig-poster <original tweet>

and when posting a reply I will have to just update my status as:

@orig-poster <my tweet>

I skimmed through the JavaDocs of the Jwitter library(Twitter class) and found a setStatus(String) method. I dont think I will have to make use of retweet() or reply() functions of the Twitter class in JTwitter library.

Is my understanding correct? Please correct me if I am wrong here or missing anything.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The terminology is correct (that's how Twitter users retweet/update their statuses) but I'm not sure about the library.

Replies and retweets can be linked back to the original tweet, so I assume this is why the API has a reply() and retweet() methods and that's why you should use those two functions.

Edit: By "linking back", I mean that, on twitter, if a tweet has been retweeted, it tells you who originally tweeted it. If a tweet has been replied to, you can view the tweet of which it is a reply.

Answer 2

Retweets and Replies are a bit more complex than simple syntax differences:

• A reply has an in_reply_to_status_id field that indicates what Tweet (given by Tweet id) the submitted tweet is replying to (see http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method:-statuses%C2%A0update).

• A retweet has two forms:

  • An 'old style' retweet which prepends an RT to an original tweet
  • A new sytle retweet, which calls a specific API endpoint with a Tweet id (see http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method:-statuses-retweet).

Answer 3

As others pointed out there are difference how the data is presented on Twitter. You have to use retweet() or reply() so get the full out of the API.

Answer 4

You're quite right that you can send retweets and replies just by setting your status.

If you can, use Twitter.reply() for replies, as this provides threading information to Twitter, which other clients may use to give conversational displays.

If you want new-style retweets use Twitter.retweet(). New-style v old-style is a matter of taste. New-style retweets will display as the original tweeter in the Twitter web client, and may be ignored by other clients as they're not included in the standard timeline for a user. Personally I prefer old-style, which is more reliable and allows you to add your own comment.