Configuring Myriad OCP v6 to use your own Twitter Developer account (no longer available for Myriad OCP v5)

Introduction

March 2023 Update: Following the change in Twitter's policies that allowed free access to the Twitter API, this has severely limited what products like Myriad can do with the Twitter platform.

Because of this change, Myriad OCP v5 is no longer able to post to the Twitter platform, however the good news is that Myriad OCP v6 is unaffected, and starting with Myriad OCP v6.1.2, uses a new method to allow you to post up to 1500 tweets per month as part of their "free developer tier" account.

Setting up a Twitter developer account can be a complicated process, so you should follow the Twitter documentation at https://developer.twitter.com

Process

Note: This process was accurate at the time of updating this article, however the process may have changed, so some options may be different.

Once you are logged into your Twitter Developer account:

1. Go to the "Developer Portal" and you should see a button in the center to "+ Create Project".
2. Click this button, and you will be asked for a Project Name. We suggest using something memorable like "Myriad OCP" and then Click Next
3. You will now be asked what the intended use is. Choose the option that best matches, we suggest "Build customized solutions in-house" and click Next
4. You will now be asked to enter a Project Description, enter something suitable such as "To send tweets from our radio station to our listeners." and click Next.
5. You will now be asked to "Name your App" - enter a suitable name such as "Myriad OCP" and click Next. If it will not let you use the name, try appending your station name - for example "Myriad OCP for Hot FM"
6. You will now be shown your "Keys and Tokens" - these are what you are after, so copy and paste these into a document somewhere suitable, as once you move on from this page you cannot reveal them again.
7. At the bottom of the page, click App Settings to see the details of the newly created App and you should see a screen that looks like this:
8. Under the "User authentication settings" section, click the Setup button
9. At the top of the window, select "Read and write" so that your new App can post tweets on your behalf:
   
   
   
10. Scroll down and under "Type Of App" select "Native App"
11. Under the App Info section you must enter a Callback URI - enter https://localhost/
12. You also need to enter the URL for a website, we suggest using your radio station's website - for example https://www.myradiostation.com/ 
    
13. Scroll down to the bottom and click the Save button. If you see a message that changing permissions might affect your app, click to accept these changes.
14. You will then be shown your Client ID and Secret. You don't need these for Myriad, but make a note of them in case they are needed in future.

Myriad OCP Settings

In Myriad OCP v6, on the Station you want to configure click the Settings cog button in the top right hand corner and choose Station Settings.

On the Social Media tab, in the Twitter settings area,  click Clear Credentials button to remove any existing information, then make sure the "API Key" and "API Key Secret" fields are empty:

Go back to the document you created earlier where you saved the API key and API Key Secret that you were given when you created the App in twitter and carefully copy and paste these into the fields in the window, making sure not to have any leading or trailing spaces:

Click the Authenticate button and click Yes to the message box that is shown, then a few seconds later, a web browser page will open asking you to Authorize your app to access your account:

Click the Authorize App button and you will be shown a Pin number, copy this pin number into the "Twitter Authorisation" window that should also be visible:

Click OK on this message box and the Twitter Settings should now update to show that you have Authenticated correctly and the window should look like below and show the Twitter username that it OCP will use to post tweets as:

Click OK to  save the settings and close the window.

Posting your first Tweet

You are now ready to start posting Tweets directly from Myriad's Scheduled Log. You can also test this by using the built in option in OCP on the Station Settings cog to "Post a social message to BR App/Facebook":

If you see a message in the log at the bottom of the OCP window saying that there was a fault sending the post, then you may need to install some additional software called the ".NET Desktop Runtime"

• If you are running 64 bit Windows, then you should download and install from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/thank-you/runtime-aspnetcore-6.0.16-windows-x64-installer
• If you are running 32 bit Windows, then you should download and install from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/thank-you/runtime-aspnetcore-6.0.16-windows-x86-installer 
• More options for downloading the "Desktop runtime" can be found at https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/6.0