Good old Twitter Feed Widget is a free plugin for WordPress, developed by the Whiletrue.it staff to simplify publishing posts from a Twitter account.
This plugin, once given a Twitter account and the correct Twitter Authentication data (used to access Twitter API 1.1), shows the most recent tweets inside a Sidebar Widget.
The following options are customizable:
- Widget title
- Twitter Username
- Number of tweets shown
- Show/hide date
- Optional “Read more” link, using custom text
- Show/hide links
- Show/hide replies links (@user)
- Skip tweets containing certain text
- UTF-8 coding
Twitter Feed Widget Configuration
The plugin is based on the Twitter API version 1.1. In order to use it, you have to create a personal Twitter Application on the dev.twitter.com website. Within your Application, Twitter provides two strings: the Consumer Key and the Consumer Secret. You also need two other strings, the Access Token and the Access Token Secret, that you can get following this guide. Finally, enter all the Authorization string in the widget options box, along with your favorite display settings: your Twitter Widget is now ready and active!
You can use the same Authorization strings for several widgets and multiple website. Just remember to store them in a safe place!
You also need CURL and OPENSSL extensions enabled in your PHP environment.
Download Twitter Feed Widget for WordPress
Download the plugin from the official WordPress repository:
Credits
- Some plugin code is based on work by Max Steel (Web Design Company, Pro Web Design Studios), Frank Gregor and Jim Durand.
- Translators: Branco, Slovak (WebHostingGeeks.com), Inspirats – French (rysk-x.com)
Reference
This plugin gives you the features of the former 2.5.16 release of the “Really simple Twitter Feed Widget” plugin.
Hi there,
I recently updated your ‘Really Simple Twitter’ Plugin for WordPress and now it is giving me the error ‘Twitter Authentication Data is incomplete’. I navigated to the Widget setting and at the top it has four blank labels that weren’t there before the update, these being; Consumer Key, Consumer Secret, Access Token and Access Token Secret. It says above these fields ‘Get them creating your Twitter Application here’ but when I click that it takes me to the dev.twitter page where you go to create applications for Twitter.
Help please! 🙂
Thanks in advance!
Hi Alastair,
it’s correct. As stated in the Upgrade notice, due to the recent changes in the Twitter API 1.1, our new plugin release requires you to create a personal Twitter Application on the dev.twitter.com website. Within your Application, Twitter provides two strings: the Consumer Key and the Consumer Secret. You also need two other strings, the Access Token and the Access Token Secret, that you can get following this guide. Finally, enter all the Authorization string in the widget options box, along with your favorite display settings: your Twitter Widget is now ready and active!
You can use the same Authorization strings for several widgets and multiple website. Just remember to store them in a safe place!
You also need to enable the CURL and OPENSSL extensions in your PHP environment.
Please note that the new plugin requirements are forced by the new Twitter API 1.1, so you can roll back to the plugin previous version, but expect it to stop working on March 5, 2013.
WordPress started out as something everyone could manipulate now it’s become a developer’s playground. Sorry but what the hell is CURL and OPENSSL extensions – where are they located and how do I enable them? All of this extra stuff really makes me want to find another plugin but I like this one!!! Besides, I have the feeling they’re going to make me go through the same thing anyway.
Hi JXL, in most cases these extensions are already enabled, otherwhise you should enable them through your hosting Control Panel. Please note that the new plugin requirements are forced by the new Twitter API 1.1, so you can roll back to the plugin previous version (available here) or use another plugin but expect them to stop working on March 5, 2013!!
I created a personal twitter application, and after putting in that info, I don’t get any tweets listed, but only the following:
#, 1970/01/01
I do not know if this is due to the above mentioned CURL/OPENSSL issues. I am not familiar at all with CURL and OPENSSL, nor do I see options involving them in my hosting control panel. The twitter feed worked fine before, so is the changes involving CURL and OPENSSL now mandated by Twitter’s API 1.1?
Hi, your issue is not caused by CURL/OPENSSL support: the plugin raises an error when these libraries are missing. Probably in your case the plugin cached corrupted data and keeps showing it; your Twitter account shows fine when configured in our test environments. Please update the plugin (2.0.3 release is out today), enable the new “Erase cached data” option and load your website again.
I updated the plugin, enabled the “erase cached data” option, and no longer see the “#, 1970/01/01”
Unfortunately I don’t see anything at all aside from the title I gave the feed, even after manually clearing the cache and reloading the webpage.
Hi, this is weird! Can you mail me a screenshot of your widget settings?
The latest update seemed to fix the problem.
Thank you!
Last question. I’d like to title link to open a new window. Tried to do it myself but got fatal error. Thanks for the help!
Hi JXL, to to that enable the “Create links on new window / tab” option.
Updated to v2 and it broke my really simple twitter feed. Don’t want to create a fake application ID. Bogus!
Hi felix, I’m totally with you, but I have to be practical! Please note that the new plugin requirements are forced by the new Twitter API 1.1, so you can roll back to the plugin previous version (available here) or use another plugin but expect them to stop working on March 5, 2013!!
Hi,
First of all, thank you for your work 🙂
On my website, I use to hard modify the code to include the retweets. Do you plan to include the option in a future version ?
Absolutely!
Hi, I recently upgraded your plugin and now I get a message that says my Twitter Authentication data is incomplete. I followed the steps, but I’m not sure what you mean by “entering all the Authorization string in the widget options box”. Where exactly do the 4 strings go in the code?
Also, how do I enable the CURL and OPENSSL extensions in my PHP environment?
Sorry, I’m pretty new to this and I’d love some help. Thanks!
Hi Rachel,
the plugin now asks you to enter 4 strings in the widget: Consumer Key, Consumer Secret, Access Token and Access Token Secret.
Once you create your Twitter Application here, you get the first two strings. After that, you can get the other two (Token) strings following this guide.
As for CURL and OPENSSL, don’t mind about it, the plugin stops working if they’re missing; in most cases (like yours) they’re enabled by default.
Hey thanks for the quick reply! So I’ve got the code for Consumer Key as follows. Exactly where do I input the Consumer Key token string, and do I need to type in anything else?
‘name’ => ‘consumer_key’, ‘label’ => ‘Consumer Key’,
‘type’ => ‘text’, ‘default’ => ” ),
Hi Rachel, you can do it right inside the WordPress backend manager. After creating the widget in the “Appearance->Widget” menu, enter the Keys inside the first four “Authentication” form fields.
Hi,
I have updated “Really Simple Twitter Feed Widget” and my Twitter feed doesn’t show anymore.
Message is: “Twitter Authentication data is incomplete”.
I have contacted OptimizePress, they advise me to contact you.
Can you help?
Thank you
VM.
Hi Veronique,
as stated on the plugin page, the old Twitter API version 1 will be deleted on March 2013.
Our plugin, starting from the 2.0 release, is based on the new Twitter API version 1.1, and requires you to create a personal Twitter Application on the dev.twitter.com website. Within your Application, Twitter provides two strings: the Consumer Key and the Consumer Secret. You also need two other strings, the Access Token and the Access Token Secret, that you can get following this guide. Finally, enter all the Authorization string in the widget options box, along with your favorite display settings: your Twitter Widget is now ready and active!
You can use the same Authorization strings for several widgets and multiple website. Just remember to store them in a safe place!
I’d like to place the call for this widget directly into my sidebar.php. Is it
Thanks
Great plugin! Thanks for sharing it. I set it up and it works great. However, in the last ten minutes or so I’ve posted two or three tweets on Twitter and none of them are showing up on my website feed. It still shows the same old tweets from earlier in the day, not the new ones. Any ideas what’s going on? Thanks.
I waited a while and now it looks like the feed is refreshing after all. Apparently it just lags behind a bit?
Hi, the plugin caches the Twitter data for better performance on your site (avoids fetching from Twitter everytime) and to respect Twitter API rate limit.
Hi, I’m testing the plug-in on a local dev website. Looks good (your instructions helped greatly, thanks), but caching appears to be affecting the Twitter feed and the only way I’ve been able to get it to refresh is to change and save Widget options. (Refreshing the browser page, opening another page and even opening the dev site in another browser didn’t refresh the feed.) How often should it refresh and is there a way to tweak the caching?
Regards, Robertf
Hi Robert, the cache timeout is set to 30 minutes (for better performance and to respect Twitter API rate limit) but we plan to lower it to 10 in the next plugin update.
Thanks for the response. Perhaps the cache timeout should be configurable in the next plugin update? Otherwise, very happy with it.
v2.0.3 was working for me. Upgrading to v2.0.4 gives me this error:
Fatal error: Cannot use object of type stdClass as array in /home/videobat/public_html/airtightinteractive.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/really-simple-twitter-feed-widget/really_simple_twitter_widget.php on line 267
Hi Felix, it’s a cache issue. To solve it, enable the “Erase cached data” option, then load the frontend site. If everything is good, disable the “Erase cached data” option and reload the frontend.
that fixed it. thanks!
Also – it would be nice to be able to filter out @replies. Usually if you are displaying tweets on a website, you dont want to display tweets that are directed at a single person. Thanks for the plugin!
Hi Felix, this is coming in the next plugin update, stay tuned!
Hi Felix – thanks for updating this plugin for Twitter API 1.1! It’s a big help to site designers everywhere…
One thing I would love to add is just a simple horizontal rule between tweets in the list. Without any divider, the list can sometimes be difficult to read and tell where one tweet ends and the next begins, especially when one ends with a hyperlink and the next starts with a hyperlinked Twitter user’s handle.
Hi Darrin, you may do it with some CSS, like this:
.really_simple_twitter_widget li:first-child { border-top:0; }
.really_simple_twitter_widget li { border-top:1px solid gray; margin-top:5px; padding-top:5px; }
Of course – I don’t know why I was thinking of putting the into the PHP loop of the plugin. Duh. Thanks!
Hello Giuliano! How are you?
I have been using your great WordPress plugin Really Simple Twitter Widget for a while now, and I really like it for its simplicity and because it just works. Thank you very much for it.
I’d like to send you my Brazilian Portuguese translation for it, if you’d like it. How can I do that? I’ve just done it for version 2.1.
Thank you again and regards from Brazil!
Hi Alexandre, you can email me your Twitter widget translation (I just wrote to you my email address), I’ll include it in the next plugin release.
Thanks for your support!
Hello,
Can you tell me the shortcode for this widget? I can’t seem to find it anywhere.
Thanks!
Hi Anthony,
[really_simple_twitter] shortcode (experimental) support is now available with the new 2.4.1 plugin release, out today. Look on the WP plugin page for more info.
Cool – thanks for adding ‘ Skip replies’!
Hi, I just activated your twitter feed. All went well with the codes etc. but now it shows up in the sidebar with the title and underneath says “Unable to Get Tweets”. Any thoughts?.
Thanks,
Susan
I also had this same issue. You may be able to fix it by logging into your Twitter account, click on “Settings” and then copy your “Username” and paste into the “Twitter Username” field under “Twitter Data” in the “Really Simple Twitter Feed” widget, then click “save”.
Hello,
I’ve done all the required steps, but all it shows me is ” Unable to get tweets”. Can somebody help?
Thanks.
I also had this same issue. You may be able to fix it by logging into your Twitter account, click on “Settings” and then copy your “Username” and paste into the “Twitter Username” field under “Twitter Data” in the “Really Simple Twitter Feed” widget, then click “save”.
I downloaded your widget, created the keys and tokens–and then as instructed input the values in the widget form. Instead of seeing the feed on my webpage, I see “unable to get tweets.” I also followed the only response to the other tweeters with the same issue, that is to sign into twitter and copy our username and then paste it into the widget form. I’ve cleared the cache. I’ve deactivated and reactivated the cache. NOTHING WORKS to resolve this issue. Please advise. Thank you!
I hope you can help. I want to be able to make the Title biger and also adjust the font and size of the Tweets
which code would i need to edit
Hi roger, you can insert in your template style.css file some lines like that:
.widget_reallysimpletwitterwidget .widget-title { font-size: 20px; }
.widget_reallysimpletwitterwidget li { font-size: 13px; font-family: verdana; }
Hi, Have read all the bits about how twitter has forced the use of 1.1, so no need to go over that again.
I have follwed the guides, I have the key, both consumers keys and the access tokens.
I just have no idea where to put them.
I do not do wordpress much, but am forced to get into it now.
Completely frustrated ATM.
Please help me.
Hi Mark, in your Admin screen go to Appearance->Widgets, create a new widget dragging the “Really Simple Twitter” button inside one widget area on the right, then a widget config screen will appear asking for the authentication data and other settings.
Alright, I got it !!!!.
Seems there was a problem with the webhost, and everytime I tried to access the widgets it crashed. Walked away for a hour and when I was able to get in I could easily see what I needed to edit.
Thanks very much
Does the plugin work with Twitter list URLs as well as individual accounts?
Hi. I have uploaded your plugin, copy pasted all the keys and tokens requiered. However, no twits are displayed on my website. I just have information Follow me on Twitter (according to my settings). Why is that?
Hi,
Seems the wigdet does not work anymore. All twitter sercrets and tokens are okay but have no displayed tweets. It just suddenly stopped. Will there be an update to fix that? else i have to look for another widget.
I’ve just installed this and entered all the keys but it just says “Unable to get tweets”
Is this a problem with the plugin? Are you working on resolving it?
I also had this same issue. You may be able to fix it by logging into your Twitter account, click on “Settings” and then copy your “Username” and paste into the “Twitter Username” field under “Twitter Data” in the “Really Simple Twitter Feed” widget, then click “save”.
I am having problems with the Really Simple Twitter feed not updating – it is currently stuck on tweets posted 2 days ago and there have been several since. If I am logged in it shows the latest tweets, but to those not logged in (i.e. my client’s 300 or so visitors a day) they are old tweets. Any suggestions?
Really great Pluggin! I have tried three of them! Did not work! This one! Really Simple Twitter Feed! 😉 Congrats!
I’d rather insert this into my template manually as opposed having the plugin automatically add it to each post. What is the code for doing that?
It would be helpful if the contents of “.twitter-timestamp” would be linked to the permalink of that specific tweet. That’s how most other plugins used to handle it and I miss this features in this widget.
(I also just realized that my previous comment was meant for the Really simple Facebook Twitter share buttons for WordPress, sorry about that!)
how to make the links in each post twitter appears, the text are currently no links. Thank you.
Hi Rodrigo, to do this enable the “Find and show hyperlinks” widget option.
This is really turning into a headache for my company! We use twitter in alot of different ways and also use it as our clients main update platform. It looks like a good bit of work for us to update all our sites and may have to find another option. In my back this is a bad move for twitter!
Hi, I’m not a developer (layman!), just trying to figure this app thing out as well. I’m up to the point of creating an app. What’s the purpose of the website URL (or placeholder) and the callback URL? I’m not sure what to use for this. Can you please provide guidance on this. I love your plugin and would like to continue using.
-BH
Is there a shortcode, which I can use in a page?
[really_simple_twitter username=”” consumer_key=”” consumer_secret=”” access_token=”” access_token_secret=”” num=”” skip_replies=”true” skip_retweets=”false”]
I’m still waiting on WhileTrue to list all the available options that can be used in a shortcode, but this should get your started… if you’re still waiting for an answer.
Hi,
I encountered the same problem as SUSAN and FX back in March (though I couldnt find an answer here). I recreated the app and went through the authentication process (got the token, secrets and key on the widget). BUT, I get an “unable to get tweets” message. I deleted the cache and followed all the instructions listed above for other problems. I also made sure i have the latest version of the plugin. Checked my twitter apps and the app exists there.
What am I missing?
Hi there!
I recently installed the new version of your plugin and for some reason the not all of the links are active/navigable. Can you help? I am using your plugin for the ICEBranding feed on the bottom of the home page.
thanks!
I love the ease of the plugin – but is there anything around that is availble for static HTML sites, not wordpress?
Hi Gene, did you try the official Twitter widgets for websites?
Could you please help me figure out why I get this message for my Twitter feed using this plugin in WordPress: “Last TweetsTwitter username is not configured”
I have been using this plugin for all the Twitter feeds and this is the first time I cant get it working… Please please help
Hi Roman, check your widget configuration and set a working Twitter username. If it’s not solved, try to create a new widget from scratch and apply to it the same configuration of the broken widget.
Hi Guys,
Have just installed the widget and it’s working brilliantly. I’d love to be able to style it so the follow button I’ve turned on is aligned to the right rather than the left, however using text-align:right; isn’t doing anything. What would you suggest?
best
Chris
Hi,
After the recent update the dates fot tweets on my web site are showing like “Oct 02”, however I prefer as it was before: 02.10.2013 – where do I change this?
Thanks, works great.
I discovered this plugin coincidentally, and am enjoying it for its simplicity (:
thanks so much, keep developing!
Is there a guide for all the shortcode values available? There are a ton of options in the widget and I know they are also available through the shortcode, but there’s nowhere that explains what the variables or values need to be. Like timestamp for instance… how do I tell the shortcode to show the timestamp? Or all the “items and links” stuff from the widget… is that available through the shortcode too? Thanks in advance for you help!
Hi Jason,
Technically every option is usable, with the same values you’d put inside the widget option screen; the boolean options can be set writing “true” or “false” as values. This is the complete option list:
Hello. I’d like to use your plugin Really Simple Twitter on the WordPress site mentioned with this mail, but can you help me with setting up the Twitter Authentication please?
I created the Consumer Key, Consumer Secret, Access Token, and Access Secret Token ok and the widget is feeding the tweet data to the page ok, but the Tweets are not active links. I think this has something to do with the callback url(?) What exactly am I supposed to put in the callback field? I don’t understand what it means by “Where should we return after successfully authenticating?”.
Any help here would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Grant
Hi, to customize links try different options inside the “ITEMS AND LINKS” widget settings screen.
Awesome! Thank you so much!
Grant
In case anybody else has the same problem, I needed to tick the check box for this option “Find and show hyperlinks”.
Hi Giuliano,
I’m having a very bizarre problem with this plugin.
It works fine, until I set it to show more than 4 posts. Then I get an error ‘Unable to get tweets’
Do you know this problem?
Thanks,
Barry
Hi once again,
I installed WordPress locally and I had the problem I described above, now I’ve uploaded the site to my web host and I keep getting the same error: Unable to get tweets
I tried uninstalling, reinstalling, (both the plugin and the Twitter App), re-inserted the keys countless time to no avail.
Can someone help me on this?
Many thanks,
Barry
Sorry, this was me being an idiot.
Note to others having this problem.. If you have setup multiple Twitter feed widgets on the same site, make sure you are fiddling with the settings of the correct one!
Hi,
why the share count is always equal to likes count?
thanks
It’s the Facebook way; likes and shares (inside and outside the Facebook site) are added and stored together for every url.
Hello,
I’ve done all the required steps, but all it shows me is “Unable to get tweets”. The repeated solution from Lee isn’t working for me. Can somebody help?
Is there an update available to go along with the recent WordPress update? Since the auto update, my twitter feed has dropped.
Thanks
Hi Will, do you still see the issue? Enabling the plugin debug mode, can you report any error string?
Hello!
Love the plug in! Been using it for nearly a year.
Noticed that recently though it doesn’t display tweets anymore, instead it says “No public tweets to display”. I was wondering if there was an update that changed something, and what I need to change on either side to get it back to showing my last 5 or 6 tweets?
Thanks! address is: http://www.tysworldtrek.com
Hi, you can enable the “erase cached data” option and reload your home page. When it’s fixed remember to uncheck the “erase cached data” option.
Hello! I love your plug-in, it’s the best Twitter plug-in available.
Today, it has stopped working on my site. There is no error, it just doesn’t display any tweets. I treied the “erase cached data” solution suggested above, but it hasn’t worked. Can you please help?
I am using WordPress 4.0, and plug-in version 2.5.5.
Thanks!
Hi, can you please enable the widget “debug mode” option and report the debug strings shown?
Thank you for your reply. I have enabled “Show Debug Info,” but there is no error string shown.
Also, the behavior is inconsistent. I have the widget in two places on my website. In the first widget, no data is displayed at all. In the second widget, the tweet dates are shown, but nothing else.
Hi, the new 2.5.8 plugin release is out, featuring improved Debug info. Please update, enable the “Debug info” advanced widget option and load again your site. You should see some “RSTW” lines printed inside the widget area: copy&paste them here to get help.
I installed the app into WordPress. If I try to edit the widget, it appears to be empty.
The screenshots state, “Options available in the Settings menu.” What settings menu??? The Settings menu in WordPress has every plugin I have installed except Really Simple Twitter Feed!
How do I access the “widget options box???”
It’s like every other widget. Just login into your WordPress Admin area, go to the Appearance -> Widget section, drag&drop the widget to a widget area of your choice (on the right), then click on the widget (on the right) to see its options.
Hi, I’m getting this debug info
[…]
RSTW Fetching 8 items, 0 of 0 calls left, reset in -1415451865s
RSTW Twitter error [32]: Could not authenticate you
[…]
double checked everything..? Any idea?
Thanks
Hi, the new 2.5.9 plugin release is out, improving Debug Info a bit more; please load it again. I realized that sometimes the issue is about expired/invalid API access tokens, so now Debug Info tells you to “try to regenerate your API access token”. If it doesn’t tell, try to regenerate them as well: I’ve seen a lot of people in trouble (on different plugins and platforms) due to broken Twitter API tokens. Also, the new release should be more robust, trying to use valid cached data whenever the API communication is down.
Hi WhileTrue. For me, the widget stopped fetching data in about the last week, though I can’t pinpoint the exact time. When turning on debug in the 2.5.9 plugin I get the following
[…]
RSTW Fetching 20 items, 0 of 0 calls left, reset in -1415648189s
RSTW Twitter error [135] Timestamp out of bounds
[…]
Any idea what the problem is? Also, is the widget compatible with WordPress 4.0. Thanks!
Hi Justin, the widget is compatible with WP 4.0; your issue (Twitter API error 135) is a timestamp error: ensure that your hosting server system clock is accurate and not running behind or ahead.
That was exactly the problem, the server time was running behind and an update fixed it. Also updated to WordPress 4.0 and widget is working fine. Thanks!
Installed at http://www.theghosthuntingco.co.uk and when logged into WordPress it show fine. (Footer Widget) When I log out and see it as joe public it says Twitter username is not configured.
Any advice ? cheers
Do you use any cache? If so, clear it.
I added this on my both sites but apart from a link to my tweeter it doesn’t do anything. I have wordpress 4.0.1 and activated the default theme, then switched back to the one I am using. Still nothing. If there is any way you guys can help it would be great. Thanks
I’m using multiple instances of this plugin on a page, to show multiple Twitter streams.
The third one shows fine. The second and first instance gives me these errors (both the same):
RSTW Debug info enabled
RSTW Retrieving API rate limit
RSTW Fetching 2 items from Twitter
RSTW Invalid data: wait 5 minutes before trying again
RSTW Twitter API error [32] Could not authenticate you
RSTW Twitter API authentication error: try to regenerate your API access token
RSTW Twitter data is empty, retrieving Safe Cache
RSTW Safe Cache is also empty
Unable to get tweets
I’m using the same Consumer and API access info for all three. Do they all need to be different? (On my test site, it was working just fine, displaying multiple instances of the plugin, pulling different Twitter streams, and all using the same API and Consumer Key. But not on the production site…)
Hi, the API access info don’t need to be all different, although using the same keys in different places could take you beyond the rate limit.
This plugin dont work. Pls see footer of my site (http://servo.by/).
Please empty the plugin cache (enable the widget option “erase cached data” for some minutes) and try again.
The proxy support on Codebird is now on the release 2.7.0 : https://github.com/jublonet/codebird-php/tree/2.7.0
Hi WhileTrue,
Question: Is the plugin download above a replacement for Really Simple Twitter Feed Widget Version 3.0?
Also is refactoring for php 8.1 on the roadmap?
Hi Tim! Yes, the plugin is a replacement and PHP8.1 is already supported.