Accessing Twitter Direct Messages using SLRequest iOS

Question

I need to access the Direct Messages using SLrequest. I got the oAuthToken and oAuthToken Secret using the Reverse oAuth of twitter. Now I need to know how to fetch the direct messages from the https://api.twitter.com/1.1/direct_messages.json url. I have tried adding oAuthToken and oAuthTokenSecret part of SLRequest but I get the same error, "This application is not allowed to access or delete your direct messages". What is the use of oAuthToken and oAuthTokenSecret? How to make direct messages work for the app? I have changed the access level of application to "Read, write, and direct messages". Please help me in solving the problem.

Answer 1

Here is how to access direct messages for the iOS default Twitter account.

This example uses the STTwitter library, which internally uses SLRequest for phase 2 and a custom crafted request for phase 1.

NSString *CONSUMER_KEY = @"";
NSString *CONSUMER_SECRET = @"";

STTwitterAPI *twitter = [STTwitterAPI twitterAPIWithOAuthConsumerName:nil
                                                          consumerKey:CONSUMER_KEY
                                                       consumerSecret:CONSUMER_SECRET];

[twitter postReverseOAuthTokenRequest:^(NSString *authenticationHeader) {

    STTwitterAPI *twitterAPIOS = [STTwitterAPI twitterAPIOSWithFirstAccount];

    [twitterAPIOS verifyCredentialsWithSuccessBlock:^(NSString *username) {

        [twitterAPIOS postReverseAuthAccessTokenWithAuthenticationHeader:authenticationHeader
                                                            successBlock:^(NSString *oAuthToken,
                                                                           NSString *oAuthTokenSecret,
                                                                           NSString *userID,
                                                                           NSString *screenName) {

                                                                STTwitterAPI *x = [STTwitterAPI twitterAPIWithOAuthConsumerName:nil
                                                                                                                    consumerKey:CONSUMER_KEY
                                                                                                                 consumerSecret:CONSUMER_SECRET
                                                                                                                     oauthToken:oAuthToken
                                                                                                               oauthTokenSecret:oAuthTokenSecret];

                                                                [x verifyCredentialsWithSuccessBlock:^(NSString *username) {

                                                                    [x getDirectMessagesSinceID:nil count:10 successBlock:^(NSArray *messages) {
                                                                        // ...
                                                                    } errorBlock:^(NSError *error) {
                                                                        // ...
                                                                    }];

                                                                } errorBlock:^(NSError *error) {
                                                                    // ...
                                                                }];


                                                            } errorBlock:^(NSError *error) {
                                                                // ...
                                                            }];

    } errorBlock:^(NSError *error) {
        // ...
    }];

} errorBlock:^(NSError *error) {
    // ...
}];

Answer 2

You can't do it using reverse authentication. Reverse authentication basically gives you access to the OAuth tokens at the same access level as the root iOS app, so you can do twitter processing on a remote server. It doesn't use the expanded permissions from your twitter app from the dev portal. As documented on twitter's website, you have to use the full OAuth authentication flow, including the web popup, to gain the user's explicit permission to access direct messages.