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How to add your Twitter feed to your WordPress website

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Learn how to add a Twitter feed to your WordPress website without using a plugin. This page will teach you how to do this using the PHP fetch_feed function or updated parse_feed function.

We’ve created two different PHP snippets bellow that allow you to add the latest tweets from your Twitter feed into WordPress template files such as header.php and sidebar.php.

Version 1

Copy the snippet below and paste it into your theme’s template/theme files where you want your latest tweets to be displayed.

  • Change “Botcrawl” on line 3 to your Twitter username.
  • To change the number of displayed tweets change “4” on line 4.
<?php
include_once(ABSPATH . WPINC . '/feed.php');
$rss = fetch_feed('https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=botcrawl');
$maxitems = $rss->get_item_quantity(4);
$rss_items = $rss->get_items(0, $maxitems);
?>

<ul>
<?php if ($maxitems == 0) echo '<li>No items.</li>';
else
// Loop through each feed item and display each item as a hyperlink.
foreach ( $rss_items as $item ) : ?>
<li>
<a href='<?php echo $item->get_permalink(); ?>'>
<?php echo $item->get_title(); ?>
</a>
</li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

Version 2 (Add text before and after tweet)

This version allows you to add text before and after the tweet. Copy the snippet below and paste it into your theme’s template/theme files where you want your latest tweets to be displayed.

  • Change “Botcrawl” on line 3 to your Twitter username.
<?php

// Your twitter username.
$username = "TwitterUsername";

// Prefix - some text you want displayed before your latest tweet. 
// (HTML is OK, but be sure to escape quotes with backslashes: for example href=\"link.html\")
$prefix = "";

// Suffix - some text you want display after your latest tweet. (Same rules as the prefix.)
$suffix = "";

$feed = "http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=from:" . $username . "&rpp=1";

function parse_feed($feed) {

$stepOne = explode("<content type=\"html\">", $feed);
$stepTwo = explode("</content>", $stepOne[1]);

$tweet = $stepTwo[0];
$tweet = str_replace("&lt;", "<", $tweet);
$tweet = str_replace("&gt;", ">", $tweet);

return $tweet;

}

$twitterFeed = file_get_contents($feed);

echo stripslashes($prefix) . parse_feed($twitterFeed) . stripslashes($suffix);

?>

How to change the Twitter API caching limit

As a precaution, the first version above is set to cache your Twitter feed every 12 hours because the Twitter API has a limited number of calls per hour. Still, the caching limited on your Twitter account can easily be modified by using the PHP code below (set to 2 hours).

Copy and paste the snippet below into your current theme’s functions.php file

function filter_handler( $seconds )
{
// change the default feed cache recreation period to 2 hours
return 7200;
}
add_filter( ‘wp_feed_cache_transient_lifetime’ , ‘filter_handler’ );
Written by

Jared Harrison

Jared Harrison is an accomplished tech author and entrepreneur, bringing forth over 20 years of extensive expertise in cybersecurity, privacy, malware, Google Analytics, online marketing, and various other tech domains. He has made significant contributions to the industry and has been featured in multiple esteemed publications. Jared is widely recognized for his keen intellect and innovative insights, earning him a reputation as a respected figure in the tech community.

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24 Comments

  • Pingback: Pulling Twitter RSS feed not working as expected (fatal error) - PhotoLens

  • Just to give the heads up on this.Twitter now require you to use Oauth library and their Json api to get feeds So this code is no longer valid. 🙁

    Reply

  • Whoa, it worked for me. I had tried the same method on another blog but unfortunately I didn’t add my username in the correct place, hence was getting an error. But since you highlighted the portion where which the editing , it did the job pretty well.

    Reply

  • Version 2 doesn’t seem to work? I can get Version 1 to work fine but when I try version 2 nothing is displayed other than the h2 tag. Suggestion?

    Reply

    • Version 1 seems to be fine, just tested it.

      The only reason I could think of such an issue would be if the code to include the blue color was copied and pasted on your site as well (span style=”color: #0000ff;”).

      If not, please copy and paste the code you used here so I can check it out.

      Reply

    • After all of the Twitter API changes I have not been able to repair the limit amount on version 2.
      Before, you were able to change the numeric on in the URL but it does not seem to work: $feed = “http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=from:” . $username . “&rpp=*HERE*“;

      I will have to look further into this and/or create an additional post.

      Reply

  • This didn’t work for me. When I pasted the code above (ver2) into my sidebar.php it just displays the raw php code in the sidebar.

    Reply

  • Hi Sean–

    Is there a way to remove the twitter name so it only displays the tweet? Example: joesbar: The special today Clam Chowder.

    Is there a way that is only displays the special today…. and not joesbar?

    Thanks

    Reply

    • Add your Twitter handle to this code. Change text before and after tweet to whatever you wish or remove them/leave blank if you don’t want anything.

      < ?php
$username = "Twitter handle here";
$prefix = "Text Before Tweet";
$suffix = "Text After Tweet";
$feed = "http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=from:" . $username . "&rpp=1";
 
function parse_feed($feed) {
    $stepOne = explode("", $feed);
    $stepTwo = explode("", $stepOne[1]);
    $tweet = $stepTwo[0];
    $tweet = str_replace("<", "< ", $tweet);
    $tweet = str_replace(">", ">", $tweet);
    return $tweet;
}
 
$twitterFeed = file_get_contents($feed);
    echo stripslashes($prefix) . parse_feed($twitterFeed) . stripslashes($suffix);
?>
      Reply

  • Hi,
    Thanks, this is a great hack which doesn’t degrade any other php even when using in main content areas (unlike most)
    Would it be possible to also fetch my twitter avatar.
    and would it be possible to style the fetched content?

    Reply

  • Super basic question:

    I want to only display the text of the single, most current tweet, and not as a hyperlink. I’ve managed to get it to not be a hyperlink, but how do I get rid of the twitter handle prefix? Right now, the display is “• (twitter handle): (twitter message)”. Ideally, I’d eliminate the list bullet and the twitter handle. Thanks in advance.

    Reply

    • The list bullets will show on themes where appropriate, they are generally added to display permalinks on a single line.

      I apologize but I do not have the correct line to remove the Twitter handle, but if I come across it I will let you know.

      All that would need to change is < ?php echo $item->get_title(); ?>

      get_title() grabs the (twitter handle): (twitter message) as you stated.

      Reply

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