Add data from social media to a Project Siena app

 

You can connect your Project Siena app to several channels of social media and not only show data from your account but also post updates. When you're satisfied with how your app behaves, you'll need to register with whichever social-media channels you used and then configure the data connection before you can publish your app.

For a general overview of Project Siena and links to resources such as sample apps, video tutorials, and forums, see Project Siena.

Prerequisites

• Project Siena, which you can get for free from the Windows Store.

  For system requirements and other information, see the release notes.

• Familiarity with basic operations in Project Siena, as Create your first app with Project Siena describes.

Show tweets from your Twitter account

1. Open Project Siena, press Alt-V, click Social, and then click Twitter Following.

   

2. When prompted, enter your credentials, click Sign in, and then click Authorize app.

   Note

   You must authorize the app only once.

   The gallery lists the accounts you follow.

   

3. Set the Items property (in the Data category) of the gallery to this function, replacing YourScreenName with your screen name:

   Twitter!UserTweets("YourScreenName")

4. Delete the Following label (above the gallery) and the Image control (in the first item of the gallery).

5. Widen both remaining Label controls so that they span the width of the gallery, and shrink the height of the top label so that its text appears along the top of each gallery item.

6. Move the bottom label so that appears just below the top label, and increase the height of the bottom label so that its bottom edge touches the bottom of each gallery item.

   

7. Set the Text property (in the Data category) of the top label to this function:

   Text(DateValue(ThisItem!created_at),"mm/dd/yyyy")

   As an alternative, you can format dates with the "dd/mm/yyyy" or "mmm dd, yyyy" parameter.

8. Set the Text property (in the Data category) of the bottom label to this function:

   PlainText(ThisItem!text)

   

Before you can publish your app, you'll need an API key, an API secret, and a callback URL. If you're not part of an organization that can provide you with this information, see Creating and configuring web service keys.

Show photos from your Facebook account

1. Open Project Siena, press Alt-V, click Social, and then click Facebook Albums.

   

2. When prompted, enter your credentials, and then click Log in.

   

3. Press F5, open the drop-down list, and then click the album that contains the photos you want to display.

   The gallery shows photos from the album you specified.

4. Press Esc to return to the design workspace.

Before you can publish your app, you'll need a client ID. If you're not part of an organization that can provide you with that information, see Creating and configuring web service keys.

Show your Instagram feed

1. Open Project Siena, press Alt-V, click Social, and then click Instagram Feed.

   

2. When prompted, enter your credentials, and then click Sign in.

   The gallery shows the most recent images from your feed, along with account names and (if provided by the person who owns the account) a description of each image.

Before you can publish your app, you'll need a client ID and a redirect URI. If you're not part of an organization that can provide you with that information, see Creating and configuring web service keys.

Show a YouTube video

1. Open Project Siena, press Alt-V, click Web, and then click YouTube Watch.

   

2. Click in the center of the video control that appears, click the Data icon if it appears in the lower-left corner, and then click Media.

   

3. In the text box, replace the default URL with the URL of the video you want to show.

   Important

   Keep the double quotation marks around the URL.

4. Press F5, and then click the play button the middle of the video player.

   The video that you specified plays in the player.

5. Press Esc to return to the design workspace.

If you use other YouTube functions such as showing videos from a playlist, you'll need a client ID and a redirect URI before you can publish your app. If you're not part of an organization that can provide you with that information, see Creating and configuring web service keys.