Problem: Unable to get the complete timeline for a user including
retweets (without logging in)!
There is an important limitation with the API regarding retweets. With
the new retweets feature, in the current API, it is not possible to
get a complete timeline for a user (unless you have the user's
password). This is bad. Firstly, it means user timelines retrieved
from the API will always be potentially incomplete, with retweets
excluded. Yet retweets are considered part of a users timeline and
always have been. Secondly, it means I can't retrieve my own complete
timeline without logging in, which is surely an unnecessary extra
step.
The API functionality for retweets seems inconsistent with other API
methods, notably statuses/user_timeline which does not require a log-
in. It's also inconsistent with the RSS feed which does include
retweets in a users' timeline.
Solution: A new API method is required, to retrieve retweets for a
user without logging in.
DOCUMENTATION
statuses/user_timeline
Returns the 20 most recent statuses posted from the authenticating
user. It's also possible to request another user's timeline via the id
parameter. This is the equivalent of the Web /<user> page for your own
user, or the profile page for a third party.
Note: For backwards compatibility reasons, retweets are stripped out
of the user_timeline when calling in XML or JSON (they appear with
'RT' in RSS and Atom). If you'd like them included, you can merge them
in from statuses retweeted_by_me.
http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-user_timeline
> http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-user_t...
go code something interesting, and we will be here to support you. (of course, if we missed something, as we are arguing about in the RT case, we will work with you all to get it to be what the community needs).
if developers would like the equivalent of a user_timeline that has
retweets in it, then they could easily fetch the following two
timelines:
http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-user_timeline
http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-statuses-retweeted_by_me
and merge them together to form a "virtual timeline".