Twitter widgets

On March 30, 2023, Twitter announced their new Twitter API access tiers and started to deprecate the access to the previous tiers. We regret to inform our users that due to these changes, our widgets will no longer support Twitter content and they will be removed from Elementi.

Applies to Elementi 2016 and later.

Introduction

These widgets can be used to display data provided by Twitter - an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short messages called "tweets". Twitter is a platform to share, and stay informed in a super timely manner. And turning any Twitter content into digital signage is one of the easiest way for you to power your screen with fully automated and dynamic content.

Registered users can post tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them. Users can access Twitter through its website interface, through SMS or mobile-device app.

Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but on November 7, 2017, this limit was doubled for all languages except Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.

Getting started

Getting started is easy; download Elementi software, launch it and create away! Just follow the 4 quick steps below:

1. Get Elementi.
2. Open Elementi and on the main window, click on the "Widgets" tab.
3. Scroll down and open the "Twitter" folder. Pick a widget.
4. Include that widget into your content and configure it.

Twitter widgets

Elementi software comes with several Twitter widgets accessible from "Widgets" tab within the Browse panel.

Twitter feed widgets

• Single Tweet

  Displays a single tweet using pre-formatted design. The tweets are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist.

• Multi Tweet

  Displays a one or more tweet on the same page using pre-formatted design. The tweets are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist.

• Text Bar

  Displays text content using a fixed number of lines and applying a bottom-to-top & line-by-line scrolling effect whenever the entire text doesn't fit into the widget area.

• Text Ticker

  Displays text content using a continuous horizontal scrolling effect. The font size is adjusted automatically for the text to fit into the widget area.

• Text Roll

  Displays text content using a continuous vertical scrolling effect. The font size is adjusted automatically for the selected number of lines to fit into the predefined area.

• Slideshow

  Displays slides composed of tweet & media layers, which are automatically filled out with data retrieved from Twitter. The slides are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist.

• Horizontal Table, Vertical Table, and Table

  Displays slides composed of multiple cells of text & media layers, which are automatically filled out with data retrieved from Twitter. The slides are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist.

Notes:

• Each of the widgets above can be customized using the options provided under "Properties" tab - for more details go to the dedicated page of each widget type, linked above.
• These widgets can only be used on a single screen when creating a multiscreen project; for multiple screens, a data feed widget must be used instead.
• Any formatting present within the tweet is discarded - you can customize how the text appears on the screen within Elementi.

Single Tweet

This widget displays one tweet at the time using a pre-formatted design. The tweets are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist. Note that only text content is displayed by this widget, no media.

Single Tweet properties

The following properties, found under "Properties" tab, can be used to customize the widget:

• Data

  Click the button to open the Data Properties dialog and set up the data source.

• Slide duration

  Enter the number of seconds each tweet is displayed on the screen.

• Transition

  Click on the button to open the "Transition Properties" dialog and select a transition effect and its properties.

• Number of lines

  Enter the number of lines to fit into the widget area. The font size is automatically adjusted for this.

• Looping

  Select whether the widget ends after the last tweet or loops to the first one.

• Show Logo

  Select whether the Twitter logo should be displayed.

Multi Tweet

This widget displays one or more tweets on the same page using pre-formatted design. The tweets are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist. Note that only text content is displayed by this widget, no media.

Multi Tweet properties

The following properties, found under "Properties" tab, can be used to customize the widget:

• Data

  Click the button to open the Data Properties dialog and set up the data source.

• Locale

  Select the locale used for displaying dates and numbers.

• Slide duration

  Enter the number of seconds each slide of tweets is displayed on the screen.

• Transition

  Click on the button to open the "Transition Properties" dialog and select a transition effect and its properties.

• Looping

  Select whether the widget ends after the last tweet or loops to the first one.

• Number of rows

  Enter the number of tweets to display on a single slide.

• Delay per cell

  Enter the number of seconds to wait before displaying the next cell of the table.

• Header
  • Show header

    Select whether the header should be displayed.

  • Show logo

    Select whether the Twitter logo should be displayed on the header.

  • Text

    Custom text to show on the header.

Configuration

Each of the widgets above can be customized using the options provided under "Properties" tab - for more details go to the dedicated page of each widget type, linked above.

Date source setup

Data Properties

To edit the properties related to the data source, click on the button. This opens the "Data Properties" dialog, which allows changing the following:

• Account

  Select one of the connected Twitter accounts or click "Connect account..." if none was previously connected.

• Timeline

  Select the data to be displayed between "Home timeline", "Posted by me" (default), and "Posted by user".

  Elementi X users have additional options: "Liked by me", "Retweets of me", "Mentions of me", "Liked by user", and "Twitter Search".

• @username

  If "Poster by user" is chosen, this options let you select the username of the user to be displayed. Do not forget the @ sign.

• Max count

  Max number of tweets to be retrieved.

• Refresh

  Enter a number, optionally followed by s (implicit), m or h, to specify the period after which the widget should refresh the feed data (this is useful especially when the widget is running in a loop); the minimum accepted value is 60 seconds. Using "When document opens" will refresh the data only when the document is re-opened.

• Include retweets

  If selected, user re-tweets are also included in the retrieved tweets.

Note:

At any point, the data source configuration can be tested by clicking on the "Test..." button.

Twitter channel connection

Security is a fundamental element to consider when giving access to your personal data and we've created our data-driven widgets with that in mind. To ensure secure access and permission control, without exposing any user credentials, Cockpit must authorize any request for third-party data. For that, you need to do the following:

1. Create a Cockpit account, if you don't have one.
2. Register your Elementi license into your Cockpit account.
3. Add your players into your Cockpit account.
4. Connect your Twitter account to your Cockpit account.

See more about secure data access.

When selecting this channel in the "Data Properties" dialog, your existing Twitter accounts are automatically retrieved from Cockpit and displayed in the "Account" drop-down box. If you need to connect a new account, follow these steps:

1. Select "Connect account..." option .
2. Click the link displayed within the "Connect account..." dialog to open it in a browser.
3. If you are not signed into your Cockpit account, you are asked to do that.
4. Cockpit then checks that your Elementi license is registered into your Cockpit account; if not, you are asked to do that.
5. You are then redirected to the Twitter website. Log into your account there, if you are not already.
6. Then, you need to authorize the SpinetiX app to access the specified information of your Twitter account.
7. Once done, you are redirected back to Cockpit channels page and you can find your account listed under "Connected Accounts".
8. Then, return to Elementi and click the "OK" button within the "Connect Account..." dialog.
9. The list of accounts is refreshed and you can select the new one from the "Account" drop-down box.

Note:

The Twitter account can be disconnected at any time from Cockpit from the "Channels" page.

Troubleshooting

Publish error

• You get this message: Problem detected with target device. Widgets using channels will not work properly. Are you sure you want to continue?

  This happens when trying to publish a project containing Twitter widgets and one or more of the target HMPs have not been added to Cockpit.

  To solve the issue, open the HMP Control Center and add the player to Cockpit using the same account as the one used to registered the Elementi license into Cockpit

• Multiscreen usage.

  These widgets can only be used on a single screen when creating a multiscreen project; for multiple screens, a data feed widget must be used instead.

See also

• Elementi 2018 Widgets, Elementi 2017 Widgets, Elementi 2016 Widgets
• Data-driven widgets
• Data feeds
• Widgets