Thanks to @gotwalt for spotting the missing commas. Fixed JSON sample ...
[ { "coordinates": null, "truncated": false, "created_at": "Thu Oct 14 22:20:15 +0000 2010", "favorited": false, "entities": { "urls": [ ], "hashtags": [ ], "user_mentions": [ { "name": "Matt Harris", "id": 777925, "id_str": "777925", "indices": [ 0, 14 ], "screen_name": "themattharris" } ] }, "text": "@themattharris hey how are things?", "annotations": null, "contributors": [ { "id": 819797, "id_str": "819797", "screen_name": "episod" } ], "id": 12738165059, "id_str": "12738165059", "retweet_count": 0, "geo": null, "retweeted": false, "in_reply_to_user_id": 777925, "in_reply_to_user_id_str": "777925", "in_reply_to_screen_name": "themattharris", "user": { "id": 6253282, "id_str": "6253282" }, "source": "web", "place": null, "in_reply_to_status_id": 12738040524, "in_reply_to_status_id_str": "12738040524" } ] Best, @themattharris On Oct 18, 5:19 pm, Matt Harris <thematthar...@twitter.com> wrote: > Last week you may remember Twitter planned to enable the new Status ID > generator - 'Snowflake' but didn't. The purpose of this email is to explain > the reason why this didn't happen, what we are doing about it, and what the > new release plan is. > > So what is Snowflake? > ------------------------------ > Snowflake is a service we will be using to generate unique Tweet IDs. These > Tweet IDs are unique 64bit unsigned integers, which, instead of being > sequential like the current IDs, are based on time. The full ID is composed > of a timestamp, a worker number, and a sequence number. > > The problem > ----------------- > Before launch it came to our attention that some programming languages such > as Javascript cannot support numbers with >53bits. This can be easily > examined by running a command similar to: (90071992547409921).toString() in > your browsers console or by running the following JSON snippet through your > JSON parser. > > {"id": 10765432100123456789, "id_str": "10765432100123456789"} > > In affected JSON parsers the ID will not be converted successfully and will > lose accuracy. In some parsers there may even be an exception. > > The solution > ---------------- > To allow javascript and JSON parsers to read the IDs we need to include a > string version of any ID when responding in the JSON format. What this means > is Status, User, Direct Message and Saved Search IDs in the Twitter API will > now be returned as an integer and a string in JSON responses. This will > apply to the main Twitter API, the Streaming API and the Search API. > > For example, a status object will now contain an id and an id_str. The > following JSON representation of a status object shows the two versions of > the ID fields for each data point. > > [ > { > "coordinates": null, > "truncated": false, > "created_at": "Thu Oct 14 22:20:15 +0000 2010", > "favorited": false, > "entities": { > "urls": [ > ], > "hashtags": [ > ], > "user_mentions": [ > { > "name": "Matt Harris", > "id": 777925, > "id_str": "777925", > "indices": [ > 0, > 14 > ], > "screen_name": "themattharris" > } > ] > }, > "text": "@themattharris hey how are things?", > "annotations": null, > "contributors": [ > { > "id": 819797, > "id_str": "819797", > "screen_name": "episod" > } > ], > "id": 12738165059, > "id_str": "12738165059", > "retweet_count": 0, > "geo": null, > "retweeted": false, > "in_reply_to_user_id": 777925, > "in_reply_to_user_id_str": "777925", > "in_reply_to_screen_name": "themattharris", > "user": { > "id": 6253282 > "id_str": "6253282" > }, > "source": "web", > "place": null, > "in_reply_to_status_id": 12738040524 > "in_reply_to_status_id_str": "12738040524" > } > ] > > What should you do - RIGHT NOW > ---------------------------------------------- > The first thing you should do is attempt to decode the JSON snippet above > using your production code parser. Observe the output to confirm the ID has > not lost accuracy. > > What you do next depends on what happens: > > * If your code converts the ID successfully without losing accuracy you are > OK but should consider converting to the _str versions of IDs as soon as > possible. > * If your code has lost accuracy, convert your code to using the _str > version immediately. If you do not do this your code will be unable to > interact with the Twitter API reliably. > * In some language parsers, the JSON may throw an exception when reading the > ID value. If this happens in your parser you will need to ‘pre-parse’ the > data, removing or replacing ID parameters with their _str versions. > > Summary > ------------- > 1) If you develop in Javascript, know that you will have to update your code > to read the string version instead of the integer version. > > 2) If you use a JSON decoder, validate that the example JSON, above, decodes > without throwing exceptions. If exceptions are thrown, you will need to > pre-parse the data. Please let us know the name, version, and language of > the parser which throws the exception so we can investigate. > > Timeline > ----------- > by 22nd October 2010 (Friday): String versions of ID numbers will start > appearing in the API responses > 4th November 2010 (Thursday) : Snowflake will be turned on but at ~41bit > length > 26th November 2010 (Friday) : Status IDs will break 53bits in length and > cease being usable as Integers in Javascript based languages > > We understand this isn’t as seamless a transition as we had planned and > appreciate for some of you this change requires an update to your code. > We’ve tried to give as much time as possible for you to make the migration > and update your code to use the new string representations. > > Our own products and tools are affected by the change and we will be making > available any pre-parsing snippets we have created to ensure code continues > to work with the new IDs. > > Thanks for your support and understanding. > > --- > @themattharris > Developer Advocate, Twitterhttp://twitter.com/themattharris -- Twitter developer documentation and resources: http://dev.twitter.com/doc API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi Issues/Enhancements Tracker: http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list Change your membership to this group: http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk