Twitter APIs not working on hosting [Works fine on localhost] - php

Question

I am working on an app to show the tweets done in 1 mile radius of given geolocation (Latitude and Longitude). This is my PHP code,
<?php
// $lat = $_GET['lat'];
$lat = 26.511740;
// $long = $_GET['long'];
$long = 80.234973;
require_once("twitteroauth/twitteroauth.php"); //Path to twitteroauth library
$notweets = 100;
$consumerkey = "XXXX";
$consumersecret = "XXXX";
$accesstoken = "XXXX-XXXX";
$accesstokensecret = "XXXX";
function getConnectionWithAccessToken($cons_key, $cons_secret, $oauth_token, $oauth_token_secret) {
$connection = new TwitterOAuth($cons_key, $cons_secret, $oauth_token, $oauth_token_secret);
return $connection;
}
$connection = getConnectionWithAccessToken($consumerkey,$consumersecret, $accesstoken, $accesstokensecret);
$tweets = $connection->get("https://api.twitter.com/1.1/search/tweets.json?geocode=".$lat.",".$long.",5mi&result_type=recent&count=".$notweets);
// echo $tweets;
echo json_encode($tweets);
?>
I am using Wamp server (PHP V5.5.12) and my code is working fine on it. But when I host my application on some free hosting sites (I have tried hostinger.in and 000webhost.com), this script fails and just prints 'null'.
Please help me to solve this problem.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I've tried in both, hostinger and 000webhost and several others. The reason they dont work is the library to connect to twitter uses php curl, and many free hosting have disabled curl, or outgoing connections or twitter refuses the curl connection when it comes from the ips from free hosting servers. For what I've read in internet it's probably because many hackers have been messing with twitter and hosting from free hosting accounts. So finding a free hosting with cpanel that works with Twitter API it's a challenge, i've tried over 20 and they dont work, some of them automatically deleted the account or the file or block the ftp access if you try to curl to twitter

Answer 2

Likely to be related to the libraries available to you.
Add error_reporting(E_ALL) to the top of the script.
Check that cURL is installed on the cheap hosting as I believe that's the only php library that twitteroauth requires.

Answer 3

What is your TwitterOAuth version? Your code seems to be so legacy and not compatible with latest version.
https://twitteroauth.com/
<?php
require "vendor/autoload.php";
use Abraham\TwitterOAuth\TwitterOAuth;
$lat = 26.511740;
$long = 80.234973;
$notweets = 100;
$ck = "XXXX";
$cs = "XXXX";
$ot = "XXXX-XXXX";
$os = "XXXX";
$to = new TwitterOAuth($ck, $cs, $ot, $os);
$tweets = $to->get('search/tweets', [
'geocode' => "$lat,$long",
'result_type' => 'recent',
'count' => $notweets,
]);
if (isset($tweets->errors[0]->message)) {
echo 'Error: ' . $tweets->errors[0]->message;
} elseif (!is_array($tweets)) {
echo 'Unknown Error';
} else {
echo '<pre>';
var_dump($tweets);
echo '</pre>';
}
Alternatively, you can use TwistOAuth instead of TwitterOAuth. I'm the author of this library. This library is almost compabible with TwitterOAuth, but support strict exception handling. Error reasons are always to be clear.
https://github.com/mpyw/TwistOAuth
<?php
require 'TwistOAuth.phar'; // Or 'vendor/autoload.php' for composer
$lat = 26.511740;
$long = 80.234973;
$notweets = 100;
$ck = "XXXX";
$cs = "XXXX";
$ot = "XXXX-XXXX";
$os = "XXXX";
try {
$to = new TwistOAuth($ck, $cs, $ot, $os);
$tweets = $to->get('search/tweets', [
'geocode' => "$lat,$long",
'result_type' => 'recent',
'count' => $notweets,
]);
echo '<pre>';
var_dump($tweets);
echo '</pre>';
} catch (TwistException $e) {
echo 'Error: ' . $e->getMessage();
}
Which code do you like?