Introduction
Twitter Status relies on the perl programming language and XML::XPath perl module. You may need to install these manually.
Details
Check if Pidgin is Perl enabled
In Pidgin, navigate to Help | About and find Perl: Enabled
Install XML::XPath from CPAN
From the command prompt
# perl -MCPAN -e shell
From the cpan shell
get XML::XPath
make XML::XPath
test XML::XPath
install XML::XPath
Or if you're feeling lucky, just
install XML::XPath
Install Twitter Status Feed
Windows
Copy twitter.pl to your pidgin plugins directory. Usually C:\Documents and Settings\
<your_user_name>
\Pidgin\plugins
Windows Vista
Copy twitter.pl to your pidgin plugins directory. Usually C:\Users\
<username>
\AppData?\Roaming\.purple
Linux
Copy twitter.pl to your pidgin plugins directory Usually ~/.purple/plugins/
Enable Twitter Status Feed
Using Pidgin, navigate to Tools | Plugins and find Twitter Status Feed. Enable it, and Click the Configure Plugin button to open the plugin configuration dialog. Enter your Twitter username and click Close.
Pidgin will periodically fetch your last tweet and set the saved status Twitter as it. To activate for the first time, pull up the saved statuses window and use Twitter.
Status Message Template
In the configuration, the template used to build the status message can be changed. %s will be replaced by your status and %% will display a literal %.
The per-user location for plugins in linux is ~/.purple/plugins/
I would point out I had to install nmake (on winxp) in the perl directory (e.g.: c:\perl\) to able to compile XML::XPath.
The per-user location for plugins on Windows Vista is C:\Users\<username>\AppData?\Roaming\.purple
In Ubuntu you can install libxml-xpath-perl package instead of getting XML::XPath from CPAN.
Pidgin locks up when I try to load this plugin. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Active Perl twice with no resolution of this issue.
The CPAN method is currently not working, it can't find one of the files. Here's a work around:
If you have a default installation of Pidgin on Windows and Perl is enabled you can also use PPM to install XML::XPATH.
From the command prompt -> Run -> type: cmd Type: ppm will see ppm> Type: install XML-XPath
Also: right now (06.18.2008) there seems a slight issue with startup... just edit the script and change line 30 from: my $twitterusername = Purple::Prefs::get_string("/plugins/core/gtk-aaron_ds-twitterstatus/twitterusername");
to: my $twitterusername = "YourTwitterUserName";
Currently, I would recommend using the code in subversion instead of the code from the download tab.
Lastly, great work guys... keep it up! Since Twitter IM is down, it would be great if the plugin could update twitter.
how do you enable perl if it isn't already?
ThomasGHenry you will have to compile pidgin from source with the --disable-perl switch off. There might be an --enable-perl switch but I think by default it is on.
If you are having problems I found it helpful to start pidgin from the commandline with debug information. pidgin -d. I had problems and thought that I might need to install the purple perl module. The purple module on cpan is not the same module as is being used here.
Great plugin !!!
It's not easy to install pidgin twitter-statuts for a newbye.
On Fedora:
http://www.dailygyan.com/2008/04/set-your-latest-twitter-tweet-as-pidgin.html
walkthrough :)
Thanks for the walk through, but make sure you put in there about using the OLDER version of PERL!
I got it working, but i'm still having trouble, it's not actually updating my status, its setting it and typing it in the little window at the bottom, but it wont actually S-E-T it to the AIM server...
I've wrote a guide as well, a bit more in-depth I think... I followed it a second time and everything worked perfectly.
http://www.coreydegrandchamp.com/2008/08/15/twitterpidgin-aimim-status-sync-guide/
leave me comments on it, and i'll reply and do my best to help you out if you can't get it working!!!
Can this be configured to only set the status for particular accounts and/or ignore some accounts?
nice, thanks.
the path for windows users is wrong. Plugins directory is under c:\Program Files\Pidgin\Plugins
I'm really tired of installing perl on every computer I use to get this to work. Now the Perl Package Manager is crashing on my new computer. Does anyone know of a "normal" plugin that does the same thing as this one?
I gave up on ActivePerl? and tried the guide here: http://www.coreydegrandchamp.com/2008/08/15/twitterpidgin-aimim-status-sync-guide/
Still says perl is disabled.
instead of the latest, how about a random status from twitter. similar to gmail random signature...
Hi there, trying to use this on finch. WHen I try to load it I get the message:
The selected file is not a valid plugin. Please open the debug window and try again to see the exact error message.
I enabled debug, but I see no useful information there. I have all the perl modules installed, system is centos 5.4
Any help appreciated. thanks!
pidgin's Perl modules Purple conflicts with existing CPAN module see: http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/5428 #use Purple; use lib qw(/usr/lib/purple-2/perl);#/usr/lib/purple-2/perl/Purple.pm # or BEGIN { unshift @INC, '/usr/lib/purple-2/perl'; }
Best instructions I've seen are here:
(They focus on Windows but there's where you'll get more difficulties anyway, as Perl is usually not available... Worked like a charm on Windows Vista!)