Twivent

Tweet reminders from Google Calendar events.

Built using

• Playframework 2.1 Scala

How to configure it using a configuration file

Google Calendar API

The Google Calendar API is used to get the incoming events which will be tweeted.

First, you need a Google account and a Google Calendar API access.

Then, you'll get a P12 file containing your private key. In order to use this key through the config file, you have to extract it from the file using the following command line from your terminal/

$> openssl pkcs12 -in YOUR_P12_FILE -nodes -nocerts |  openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -nocrypt

The password to use is notasecret.

You'll get your private key which is something like:

-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx==
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----

Then copy and paste it in the conf/twivent.conf file, in the privateKey property.

From the Google API Console, you also have to get your accountId, it looks like:

[email protected]

Copy and paste it in the conf/twivent.conf file, in the accountId property.

Also, make sure to share your calendar with this account (allowing "Make changes to events").

Setting up your Google Calendar

You can get a list of your calendars using the following doc https://developers.google.com/google-apps/calendar/v3/reference/calendarList/list by clicking the "Execute button".

Look for the id of your calendar, and then copy and paste it in the conf/twivent.conf file, in the calendarId property.

Twitter API

The Twitter API is used to send tweets on your account.

To do so, you first have to get some credentials from the Twitter Dev site by creating a new app with "Read & Write access" using the twitter account that will be used to tweet your events.

Then, create access token and you'll get:

• a consumerKey
• a consumerSecret
• an accessToken
• an accessTokenSecret

Copy and paste these infos in the conf/twivent.conf file, in the according properties.

To sum up

Your conf/twivent.conf file shoud look like:

google-calendar {
	accountId = "[email protected]"
	privateKey ="""
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx==
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
	"""
	calendarId = "[email protected]"
	applicationName = "YOUR_APP_NAME-YOUR_ORGANISATION_NAME/1.0"
}

twitter {
	consumerKey = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
    consumerSecret = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
    accessToken = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
    accessTokenSecret = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
}

How to configure it for running under Heroku

Since you probably do not want your private data (private key, accountId etc.) to be store in your Git repo (I strongly discourage you to do so), and since you cannot upload files on Heroku without using a Git repo, the only way to configure your private data on Heroku is to use environment variables.

To do this, you have to use the heroku config:addcommand with the several env variables (take a look at the previous paragraph how to get them):

• google-calendar.accountId
• google-calendar.privateKey
• google-calendar.calendarId
• google-calendar.applicationName
• twitter.consumerKey
• twitter.consumerSecret
• twitter.accessToken
• twitter.accessTokenSecret

For example:

$> heroku config:add google-calendar.accountId="[email protected]"

BEWARE: the private key must be on one line
$> heroku config:add google-calendar.privateKey="-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx..xxxx==-----END PRIVATE KEY-----"

$> heroku config:add google-calendar.calendarId="[email protected]"

$> heroku config:add google-calendar.applicationName="YOUR_APP_NAME-YOUR_ORGANISATION_NAME/1.0"

$> heroku config:add twitter.consumerKey="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

$> heroku config:add twitter.consumerSecret="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

$> heroku config:add twitter.accessToken="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

$> heroku config:add twitter.accessTokenSecret="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.