Twitter Aggregator (CMTA) - Use Case - How to Create a Curated List of Tweets by Subject

Use Case – How to create a curated list of tweets by subject

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Video Use-Case

Note: This guide requires:

Introduction

CM Curated Twitter Aggregator is a powerful tool for importing, merging and displaying Tweets from hashtags and user profiles on your WordPress site.

You can aggregate multiple Twitter hashtag feeds into one list and filter the content by keywords.

Use Case Front-End

Use Case Assumptions

In this example use case guide we will consider how to create a curated list of tweets by specific subject - WordPress news and articles. You can apply the same idea to the topic of your site.

We consider that you have already bought the plugin, but not installed it. 

It follows:

Installing The plugin

The process is the same for all CM plugins and add-ons.

  • Download the plugin from your customer dashboard
  • Log in to WordPress and navigate to the WordPress Admin → Plugins settings
  • Click on Add New
  • Activate it and add the license

Learn more: Getting Started - Plugin Overview

Configuring the Plugin

In this example use case guide we will concern only on the process of creating the curated list of tweets. But first of all, to make the plugin work, you need to connect the plugin to your Twitter account by providing API key and secret. Here is a detailed guide how to do this:

Before starting, you can also configure the plugin according to your needs - appearance of the curated list, what should be displayed, how filters should work and some more options:

Create a List

The process of building a curated list starts by adding a new List. Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Twitter Aggregator Pro → Lists.

The process of creating a new List is really simple. On the left part of the screen you can see the form, where you need just write a Name and Description, and click the Add New List button. You can also write a Slug, but it can be generated automatically from the Name.

All lists that you create appear in the table on the right part of the screen. You can edit or delete them, and change the order by dragging and dropping the items.

Add Categories to the List

Now it's time to add categories to the list. A category aggregates a Tweet source (can be a @user or #hashtag). It can filter Tweets by positive or negative keywords and it can also remove old tweets based on the category expiration time settings. 

It is also possible to display the category content using a shortcode in the widget area on any page or post.

Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Twitter Aggregator Pro → Categories.

On the left part of the screen you can see the form where you need to fill the data. 

Adding a new category is almost the same easy as adding new List. You need to input: 

  • Name - The category name.

  • Slug - You can write it or leave empty, as it can be generated automatically from the Name.

  • Parent Category - Assign a parent term to create a hierarchy. 

  • Description - Description of the Category.

  • Twitter sources - Field for Twitter source value (@name or #hashtag). 

TIP: Adding Multiple Sources

You can add multiple Twitter sources at once by separating them with comma and/or whitespace.

  • Match keywords - Keywords determine if tweet item is added to category.

  • Exclusion keywords - Exclusion keywords have higher priority than match keywords. In case an exclusion keyword is found the tweet taken from the source will not appear in the category.

  • Tweets processing interval (in minutes) - The interval determines how often tweets are processing.  If you have many categories and you define a very short processing interval your server can get slower. Another implication is related to Twitter API limits. Be sure once having many categories not to define too frequent processing intervals.

  • Tweets presentation duration (in minutes) - Tweets older than this set period of minutes will be deleted. Set "0" to never delete any tweets.

  • Lists - Select the List the Category belongs to. The Category can belong to many Lists. If there are no Lists, you first need to create one. 

  • Color - Change the Category background color from the default. 

Then, click the Add New Category button. 

When the category is created, the plugin starts aggregating relevant Tweets.

On the right part of the screen you can see the list of created Categories that you can edit or delete.

TIP: Change the Order of Categories

You can change the order of the Categories in the list on the Front-End by dragging and dropping it in the list. Learn more: Twitter Aggregator (CMTA) - Ordering Categories

You can view and manage all aggregated tweets by navigating to Admin Dashboard → Twitter Aggregator Pro → Tweets.

You can filter tweets by their sources. You can also delete a single tweet or delete them in bulk. Once deleting this tweet will not appear again in the category.

One more possibility is to edit tweet, but only its tags. Just hover on needed tweet and click Edit:

Add Tags and Assign Them to Tweets (Optionally)

Along with categories and sub-categories, Tags are another way for users to organize Tweets and add important information. Readers are able to search for specific Tags in the curated list to easily find what interests them. 

To create and manage Tags, navigate to Admin Dashboard → Twitter Aggregator Pro → Tags. 

As usual - on the left part of the screen you can see the form for adding the data. You need just give the Name for Tag and choose the color. Slug can be generated automatically from the Name. You can also write keywords in Match keywords area, so the plugin will automatically assign tags to tweets using keywords. Then click the Add New Tag button.

And on the right part of the screen you can see the list of created Tags that you can edit or delete.

TIP: Adding "New" Tag

You can create a tag NEW and configure, that every tweet would automatically have that tag for definite period of time, and the tag would disappear when that time passes. To do this, navigate to Admin Dashboard → Twitter Aggregator Pro → Options, choose that Tag and choose the Duration.

This is how it looks like on the Front-end:

Display List on a Page or Post

When we created Lists and Categories, we need to display the List on the Front-end. For that we need to put a shortcode  [cm_twitter_aggregator list="main"]  on the page or post, where list="main" is an attribute with a slug of the list. 

This shortcode can be used with different attributes, if you need to display not the whole curated list, but some definite Lists, Categories or tweets related to some definite Tags. You can learn more about it: Twitter Aggregator (CMTA) - Shortcodes

End Result

Following instructions found in the plugin and guides you should be able to create a curated list of tweets by definite subject.

Use Case Front-End


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