[logback-dev] Twitter Appender?

[Philippe Marschall]

Joern Huxhorn wrote:
> Hi guys,
> 
> I'm using Twitter4J on another small project and I was wondering if a
> TwitterAppender would make sense.

I think it would be cool, similar to an IRC appender.

> I'd obviously only do something in case of an error to prevent too much
> tweets followed by a ban of the user.
> I would have the benefit (at least foe ppl like me that get tweets
> pushed to their phone ;)) that I would get informed immediately if
> something really bad happens.
> 
> I'm just brainstorming here but I'd like to hear other ppls opinions on
> the case.
> The Appender would have a dedicated Twitter user. Twitter user and
> password would be set in the config.
> Additionally, a list of Twitter usernames would be provided.
> Those would receive a reply (or a DM?) in case of an error.
> 
> Some questions that jump to my mind:
> What should the actual message contain? We only have
> 140-username.length()-2 characters.

I think the layout should take care of this.

> Messages shouldn't contain anything confidential...

I think you should use makers for this.

> Messages must not be the same all the time. They need to differ,
> otherwise they will be ignored by Twitter.
> How should flooding be prevented if the app keeps producing errors (this
> would ban the twitter user, otherwise)

I think that should go into an other appender (TrottlingAppender or
whatever) that delegates to the TwitterAppender.

Cheers
Philippe