NOTE: Please see updated information on this issue at “Disruption to UT Drupal Kit’s Twitter feed functionality.”
The UT Drupal Kit team has become aware of the impending retirement of Twitter’s “V1.1” API (application programming interface). This API is used by the “Twitter Profile Widget” module for Drupal to retrieve data from Twitter and populate the Drupal Kit’s Twitter Feed component.
Based on the information available from Twitter, we understand that the V1.1 API endpoint used for retrieving tweets has been deprecated (meaning that it is no longer officially supported) as of March 9, 2023, but no date has been set for full retirement (meaning that it will stop functioning).
We are actively exploring the available options for switching to Twitter’s newer V2 API, but it is not clear at this time whether the V2 API will support the same type of functionality without requiring a paid account.
A newer option called Twitter Publish appears to offer a free, simple interface for users to create embeddable Twitter feeds that could be placed on a UT Drupal Kit site by copying the <iframe> code generated from https://publish.twitter.com to a block using the “Full HTML” text format. This option works independently of the UTDK Twitter Feed component, does not require creating a Twitter developer account, and is available today for site owners to use. We encourage site owners to experiment with it as a free, lightweight alternative to the UTDK component.
While we investigate the V2 API, Twitter Publish, and other available options for incorporating Twitter content into websites, we encourage site owners to stay aware of where the Twitter Feed component may be in use on their sites, and to be prepared to remove those components in the case that the V1.1 API suddenly stops working. Our testing shows that in the event that the V1.1 API stops functioning, existing Twitter Feed components will display with the block title and call-to-action button for linking to the Twitter account page for that block, but no tweets will be visible.
If you have additional questions about the Twitter Feed component and these changes, please open a support ticket by emailing drupal-kit-support@utlists.utexas.edu.
