Ping.fm Custom URL Hook?

I've also been thinking about abstracting out the Ping.fm node creation stuff into a different module, keeping the API seperate from the functionality. Does that make sense?

Just made a rather large commit: http://drupal.org/cvs?commit=189508

It creates a new hook_pingfm_custom_url() which looks a little something like this:

/**
 * Called when a custom URL is invoked from Ping.fm.
 *
 * Note that this is already passed through the security check on the user's application key.
 *
 * @param $user
 *   The Drupal user account that called the custom URL.
 * @param $data
 *   The data that's passed from Ping.fm. An associative array detailing:
 *   $data['method']
 *     The method of the message being sent (blog, microblog, status).
 *   $data['title']
 *     If method is "blog" then this contain the blog's title.
 *   $data['message']
 *     The posted message content.
 *   $data['location']
 *     Any location updates posted with the message.  This is plaintext, verbatim from the posting interface.
 *   $data['media']
 *     If media is posted, this will contain a URL to the media file.
 *   $data['raw_message']
 *     If media is posted, this will contain the posted message WITHOUT the hosted media link (i.e. http://ping.fm/p/12345)
 *   $data['trigger']
 *     If you post a message with a custom trigger (http://ping.fm/triggers/), it will show here.
 */
function hook_pingfm_custom_url($user, $data = array()) {
  // In this example, we create a node for the user.
  $node = array(
    'title' => $data['title'],
    'uid' => $user->uid,
    'name' => $user->name,
    'body' => $data['message'],
    'type' => $user->pingfm_customurl_nodetype,
    'promote' => 1,
  );
  if ($node = node_submit($node)) {
    node_save($node);
  }
}

The benefit to using this is that it goes through an md5 security check, and you don't have to worry about any of the user settings or anything. See an example in pingfm_node.module.

Now we just need to backport it to 5 :-P . Heh, yeah right.

What the Ping.fm block module is missing is the ability to display Ping.fm updates from different users. This would have to be an additional setting in pingfmblock_block(). Something like this might work, I haven't tested it....

/**
 * Implementation of hook_pingfm_custom_url().
 */
function pingfmblock_pingfm_custom_url($user, $data = array()) {
  $data['date'] = date("m.d.y g:ia");
  variable_set('pingfmblock_content_'. $user->uid, $data);
}

// implementation of hook_theme
function pingfmblock_theme() {
  return array(
    'pingfmblock_status' => array(
      'arguments' => array('data' => NULL),
    ),
  );
}

// theme function
function theme_pingfmblock_status($data = array()) {
  if(empty($data)) {
    return t('There are not any Ping.fm updates.... Yet!');
  }
  $status = '';
  $status .= '<div id="pingfmblock_wrapper">';
  $status .= '<div class="pingfmblock_title">'.$data['title'].'</div>';
  $status .= '<div class="pingfmblock_content">'.$data['message'].'</div>';
  $status .= '<div class="pingfmblock_source">(via \''.$data['method'].'\' at '.$data['date'].')</div>';
  $status .= '</div>';

  return $status;
}

// implementation of hook_block
function pingfmblock_block($op = 'list', $delta = 0, $edit = array()) {
    switch($op) {
      case 'list':
      $blocks[0] = array(
        'info' => t('Ping.FM Update'),
        'weight' => 0,
        'enabled' => 1,
        'region' => 'left',
        'cache' => BLOCK_NO_CACHE,
        );
        
        return $blocks;  
        break;
      case 'configure':
      $form['user'] = array(
        '#type' => 'textfield',
        '#title' => t('User account'),
        '#description' => t('The user ID number of which user you would like to show in the ping.fm block.'),
        '#default_value' => variable_get('pingfmblock_user', 1),
      );
      return $form;

        break;
      case 'save':
        switch($delta) {
          case 0:
            variable_set('pingfmblock_user', $edit['user']);
          break;
        }
        break;
      case 'view':
        switch($delta) {
          case 0:
            $user = variable_get('pingfmblock_user', 1);
            $data = variable_get('pingfmblock_content_'. $user, array());
            $block = array(
              'subject' => t('Latest from Ping.FM'),
              'content' => theme('pingfmblock_status', $data),
            );
            return $block;
            break;
        }
        break;
    }
}

Yup, when using the Custom URL with the Ping.fm module, it requires the user ID, as well as an encrypted hash of the user's Ping.fm remote API key. This way, if someone attempts to post to your site, they won't be able to, since they don't have that encrypted Ping.fm remote key. If you have a look at the pingfm_custom_url() function, you'll see that it checks if ($key == md5($user->pingfm_app_key)).

If you install the Ping.fm module and edit your account, you'll see that the custom URL it gives you to provide to Ping.fm is pretty secure ;-) .

Very nicely done! Tested and works! Just need a release ;-) .