Persistent spinners and broken Twitter feeds

Changes to Twitter's API mean that there's no longer an easy way get a Twitter RSS feed. The old approach, using a URL of the form http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=XXXX, produces an error message like this:

<errors>
  <error code="68">
    The Twitter REST API v1 is no longer active. 
    Please migrate to API v1.1. 
    https://dev.twitter.com/docs/api/1.1/overview.
  </error>
</errors>

If you put such a URL in an RSS portlet, it causes odd symptoms in Plone:

• The portlet doesn't display.
• The spinner () is persistently displayed if you are logged in.
• The browser makes repeated requests (you'll only notice this if you have a plug-in, such as HTTPFox in Firefox).

To locate and remove a problem portlet:

1. Visit a page the persistently displays the spinner.
2. Move up the site by repeatedly clicking the penultimate item on the breadcrumb trail until you reach a page where the spinner disappears.
3. Use your browser's back button to return to the previous page.
4. Click Manage Portlets.
5. If there's a portlet listed something like this  (without an X), click on "go here" in the following that should be showing near the top of the page:
   
6. If there's a portlet listed something like this  (with an X), check that it's a Twitter RSS feed by viewing its edit screen. If it is, delete it by clicking the X.
7. Check that the spinner no longer appears on the page.

I hope that solves a mystery for someone.

About Me - Steven Hayles