Just a note before this begins: This is an older entry, for use with an older version of Pidgin.
I use Twitter, and a few IM clients, as well as Facebook and MySpace, and I would LOVE my Twitter posts to automatically sync to ALL my “status updates” and “away messages” and I’ve already accomplishd this with Facebook, but I couldn’t get it to work with anything else yet… So after trying so long to get plugins working for AIM to sync my latest Twitter post as my status message on AIM, I decided to give up, nothing worked, not even slightly. But recently I decided to make the switch to Pidgin, and incase you are unaware, Pidgin is what you SHOULD BE USING instead of AIM, or any other instant messaging client, it runs on the AIM, GTalk, MySpaceIM, Yahoo, Windows Live, Bonjour, ICQ, and IRC, and even more, but I’m actually unaware of what those protocols even are at this point, most people use something listed above. Pidgin runs on a number of platforms, including Windows, Linux, and other UNIX operating systems. This guide is for Windows.
- Install Pidgin from here.
- Download and install Strawberry Perl from here.
- Open a command prompt (Start, Run, CMD) and then enter:
perl -MCPAN -e shell - Press enter, you should have a CPAN prompt, then enter
install XML::XPathand hit enter. - Wait for the OK message, and for it to return to the CPAN prompt.
- Launch Pidgin, go to the Help menu, and choose “About”
and scoll to the bottom, near the bottom you should see Perl: Enabled. - Download twitter.pl and put it into your Pidgin plugins folder. If you didn’t change then default then it should be
C:\Program Files\pidgin\pluginscopy it there. - Once you have put the file in place, restart Pidgin and go to Tools -> Plugins. There will be a new plugin named “Twitter Status Feed“. Enable it and click on
Configure Plugin. Enter your twitter user name in the dialog box that pops up. - That should be all, be patient, mine didn’t work right away, walk away for 20 minutes to see if it works, mine sometimes has trouble actually applying the status message, it will download it from the Twitter servers, but sometimes it fails at applying it, but it should automatically try again in a matter of minutes.
Is this just a 1 time setup thing? What I am asking is if I reboot the computer will I have to go through these steps each time?
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Corey Reply:
March 21st, 2009 at 7:29 PM
@Charlie D,
It is a one time setup.
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Very cool, works great!
Your step-by-step setup was easy to follow and well-written.
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@ Charlie D, no its a one-time setup, but I should actually change this, as there is a new version of Pidgin, and a new version of Strawberry Perl that now works with it… And I’ve even discovered a NEW way to install the XML::XPath thats VERY simple.
@Jeff, thanks!!!
[Reply]
Hi Corey,
I’ve been trying to get Perl and Pidgin to play together for a while and have had no luck…
I’ve tried various combinations of Pidgin 2.5.0, 2.5.1 and 2.5.2 alogn with ActivePerl 824 and also following your details and using strawberry-perl-5.8.8.2
Whatever I do, Pidgin just seems to ignore it, and if I check Help > About I get
Perl: Disabled
However it is installed if I goto a cmd prompt and tpye perl I get:
C:\>perl -v
This is perl, v5.8.8 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
any ideas?
Thanks
Dave
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Fixed it…Pidgin 2.5 or above requires Perl 5.10 or above.
Thanks for the great tips it all helped get me there
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If you are on a Mac Adium does all of the above, out of the box.
Pidgin is OK, but Adium if much better for Mac heads.
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Although I appear to be, i’m not 100% machead =P
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perl -MCPAN -e “install XML::XPath”
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[...] Corey DeGrandchamp » Twitter/Pidgin (AIM/IM) Status Sync Guide (tags: twitter,pidgin,perl) [...]
I’ll probably be working on a new sync guide for the newest version of pidgin tomorrow or so.
[Reply]
I lied, I’ve moved on and figured out a way to do this with digsby, which is more important to me.
Pidgin is nice, but digsby does more.
[Reply]
[...] for AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, among others. Some of you may have seen my Twitter and Pidgin Sync Guide before, but that is outdated, and required PERL to be installed, and was a HUGE HEADACHE to get [...]
[...] by SuperVekora101 | 12 days ago Portable Apps First saved by ibennetch | 13 days ago Twitter/Pidgin (AIM/IM) Status Sync Guide First saved by drpipe | 14 days ago Stunna Shades First saved by Leviticus321 | 15 days ago [...]
hey corey, digsby is great and all, but its windows only. any chance you will share your new way of perl/xpath-ing pidgin to use twitter in pidgin?
cheers.
[Reply]
Corey Reply:
January 19th, 2009 at 11:15 AM
I only know how to make it work in Windows anyhow… I may someday write a guide up on it again, but I’m not sure. Unmotivated at this point.
[Reply]
Thanks for the blog post
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Always searching for articles that can help me. Thank you
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hm… luv it
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eh.. cognitively ))
[Reply]
[...] guide is intended to be a more up-to-date mirror of the guide you can find at Tech Jawa. All credit to them for the original [...]