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Sharing Images on Twitter from Phimpme Android App Using twitter4j

As sharing an image to the social media platform is an important feature in Phimpme android. In my previous blog, I have explained how to authenticate the Android application with Twitter. In this blog, I will discuss how to upload an image directly on Twitter from the application after successfully logging to Twitter.

To check if the application is authenticated to Twitter or not.

When the application is successfully authenticated Twitter issues a Token which tells the application if it is connected to Twitter or not. In LoginActivity.java the function isActive returns a boolean value. True if the Twitter token is successfully issued or else false.  

public static boolean isActive(Context ctx) {
        SharedPreferences sharedPrefs = ctx.getSharedPreferences(AppConstant.SHARED_PREF_NAME, Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
        return sharedPrefs.getString(AppConstant.SHARED_PREF_KEY_TOKEN, null) != null;
    }

We call isActive function from LoginActive class to check if the application is authenticated to Twitter or not. We call it before using the share function in sharingActivity:

if (LoginActivity.isActive(context)) {
                try {
                    // Send Image function
} catch (Exception ex) {
                    Toast.makeText(context, "ERROR", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
 }

We have saved the image in the internal storage of the device and use saveFilePath to use the path of the saved image. In Phimpme we used HelperMethod class where our share function resides, and while the image is being shared an alert dialog box with spinner pops on the screen.

Sending the image to HelperMethod class

First,

We need to get the image and convert it into Bitmaps. Since, the image captured by the phone camera is usually large to upload and it will take a lot of time we need to compress the Bitmap first. BitmapFactory.decodeFile(specify name of the file) is used to fetch the file and convert it into bitmap.

To send the data we used FileOutStream to the set the path of the file or image in this case. Bitmap.compress method is used to compress the image to desired value and format. In Phimpme we are converting it into PNG.  

Bitmap bmp = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(saveFilePath);
                    String filename = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().toString() + File.separator + "1.png";
                    Log.d("BITMAP", filename);
                    FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(saveFilePath);
                    bmp.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 90, out);

                    HelperMethods.postToTwitterWithImage(context, ((Activity) context), saveFilePath, caption, new HelperMethods.TwitterCallback() {

                        @Override
                        public void onFinsihed(Boolean response) {
                            mAlertBuilder.dismiss();
                            Snackbar.make(parent, R.string.tweet_posted_on_twitter, Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                        }

Post image function

To post the image on Twitter we will use ConfigurationBuilder class. We will create a new object of the class and then attach Twitter consumer key, consumer secret key, Twitter access token, and twitter token secret.

  • setOAuthConsumerKey() function is used to set the consumer key which is generated by the Twitter when creating the application in the Twitter development environment.
  • Similarly, setOAuthConsumerSecret() function is used to set the consumer secret key.
  • Specify the token key which generated after successfully connecting to twitter in setOAuthAcessToken() fuction and Token secret in setOAuthAcessTokenSecret() function.  
ConfigurationBuilder configurationBuilder = new ConfigurationBuilder();       configurationBuilder.setOAuthConsumerKey(context.getResources().getString(R.string.twitter_consumer_key));
configurationBuilder.setOAuthConsumerSecret(context.getResources().getString(R.string.twitter_consumer_secret));
configurationBuilder.setOAuthAccessToken(LoginActivity.getAccessToken((context)));
configurationBuilder.setOAuthAccessTokenSecret(LoginActivity.getAccessTokenSecret(context));
        Configuration configuration = configurationBuilder.build();
final Twitter twitter = new TwitterFactory(configuration).getInstance();

Sending Image to twitter:

  • The image is uploaded to twitter using statusUpdate class specified in Twitter4j API.
  • Pass the image file name in status.setMedia(file).
  • Pass the caption in status.updateStatus(caption).
  • updateStatus is used to finally upload the image with the caption.
final File file = new File(imageUrl);

        new Thread(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                boolean success = true;
                try {
                    if (file.exists()) {
                        StatusUpdate status = new StatusUpdate(message);
                        status.setMedia(file);
                        twitter.updateStatus(status);
                    }else{
                        Log.d(TAG, "----- Invalid File ----------");
                        success = false;
                    }
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                    success = false;
                }

 Conclusion:                                                                                                                      Using Twitter4j API allows sharing image on Twitter without leaving the  application and opening any additional view.

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