Parse your adventure log to Twitter

[Mercifull]

 

After getting a few requests from people on how I parse my adventure log to Twitter I thought i'd write a little guide.

 

So how do I get from this...

...to this...

 

Note: I am going to assume you are already signed up to Twitter but if not it's easy just go to www.twitter.com and follow the instructions.

 

Access your adventure log and locate the RSS feed url. Click the RSS icon which looks like an orange square with radio waves coming from the bottom left corner.

Mine is at http://services.runescape.com/m=adventurers-log/rssfeed?searchName=Mercifull so basically just replace my user name for your own.

 

You will need to register at a feed parsing site such as www.twitterfeed.com or www.dlvr.it. I used to use twitterfeed but now I use dlvr.it and this guide focusses on the one I am using now.

When you have registered for this service you can then set up a feed.

 

Add a new feed using the add route button from the control panel when you log in.

 

You then get two boxes appear, the left hand one looks like this.

 

Type in the name you want your feed to be called at the top of the box. This is no shown to anyone and it only used for your own benefit so you know which feed is which. I called mine "Adventure log: Mercifull"

 

After you have done this click the +add button.

 

Then click the 'New' option on the source option

 

A large set of options then appears as shown below.

 

In the box marked 'Feed URL * [?]' copy and paste the url of your adventure log feed. Make sure that 'Feed Active' is ticked

 

Click the 'Feed update' tab for more options.

 

Set the 'Feed Update Period' to something like every 30 minutes and the 'Max Number of Items to Post per Update Period' to something reasonable such as 2 or 3. You don't want to spam your dungeoneering escapades to everyone nonstop. It also stops multiple "I killed X mithril dragons" and stuff from parsing to your twitter account.

 

In the 'Item Text' tab you get to choose some prefix and suffix text to accompany the feed. I have chosen [Adventure Log] but some other people use [RS] or [ALOG]. I then suffix the hashtag #advlog. I originally used #runescape but stopped and changed it to a different one as adventure logs were spamming the generic Runescape hashtag and it was getting difficult to know human posted Runescape tweets from automatic ones from the adventure log. I keep the #runescape tag for Tweets I write myself and use the #advlog one for my feeds. A lot of other people are unfortunately still using #runescape and If I catch you doing the same you might find yourself getting messages from people asking you to change it on a fairly regular basis. :P

 

Lastly in this dialogue box if you select the 'Advanced' tab you can choose what parts of the feed get posted.

I have chosen to use the summary content rather than the entire feed. The summary is this bit:

• "I helped Thorvar Crittersmash retrieve his items from a dungeon and saved the Heimland Games."

The full feed is this:

• "Quest complete: O Little Town of Daemonheim. I helped Thorvar Crittersmash retrieve his items from a dungeon and saved the Heimland Games."

Not only is it long but it also looks funny on some things, see example:

• "Hard treasure trail completed. I have completed a hard treasure trail."

Looks a bit repetitive and wastes space. On Twitter you only get 140 characters and if it can't fit it will just cut off mid sentence and not show everyth...

 

Then simply save source

 

Now we move on to the second, right hand side, box.

 

Click the +add button and a long list of sites you can send your feed to appears. The one we are interested in is at the top of the list.

 

Select the new button next to the Twitter icon and the following box appears.

 

When you click the 'Start Authorisation' button a new window will pop up from Twitter, if you are logged in already you will see the screen below and you can choose to 'allow'. If not you will be asked to log in first.

 

When you have authorised access you can close the popup and check the last two tabs.

 

In the 'Post Content' tab make sure that the 'Post Body' and 'Post link' boxes are checked.

 

In the 'Advanced' tab turn off the Auto-hashtag placement and press save

 

And there we go. Your Runescape adventure log will now start parsing to your Twitter account. If you have a [Censored - Don't use a URL shortner] account you can use the route settings to use that too as well as Google analytic code but this isn't necessary.

 

Hope this guide helps. Post comments/corrections/etc here and I will fix if I need to.

 

Mercifull

[Hegelstad]

Thanks! So helpful, always wondered how i could do this!

 

:thumbsup:

[Golvellius]

What's the point?

Does twitter let you do something special to adventure log like add graphics or music?

[Mercifull]

What's the point?

Does twitter let you do something special to adventure log like add graphics or music?

Is that a rhetorical question? A lot of people on Twitter like to follow what other players are up to. You don't always need to make a fancy YouTube video with graphics, special effects and music to share your achievements when for the most part they can be explained in less than 140 characters.

[Grogthurk]

Thanks! Really neat. Linked to my twitter :D