Tags: programming | python

At the huge corporation that I spend my days at we have recently started using Yammer to communicate. Hopefully this will mean that communication between Depts, countries and all the various VP's will increase tremendously. Either that, or everyone will forget about it in two weeks.

Since it might be handy to publish items to your feed, here is how to do it in Python via the Yammer API.

#!/usr/bin/env python

import oauth2 as oauth
import time
import urllib

import urlparse

TOKEN_STORE = "/tmp/yammer.token"

#OAuth details for SENewsPosterBot
#Consumer (Application) Key
CONSUMER_KEY = ''

#Consumer (Application) Secret
CONSUMER_SECRET = ''

#Request Token URL
REQUEST_TOKEN_URL = 'https://www.yammer.com/oauth/request_token'

#Access Token URL
ACCESS_TOKEN_URL = 'https://www.yammer.com/oauth/access_token'

#Authorize URL
AUTH_URL = 'https://www.yammer.com/oauth/authorize'

authKey = ''
authSecret = ''

try:
    file_object = open(TOKEN_STORE)
    # read file details...
    lines = file_object.readlines( )
    file_object.close ()
    # parse...
    authKey = lines[0].rstrip('\n')
    authSecret = lines[1].rstrip('\n')
    print "access token : key : %s, secret : %s" % (authKey, authSecret)
except IOError:
    print 'Had problems reading file : ' + TOKEN_STORE


if (authKey == ''):
    consumer = oauth.Consumer(CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET)
    client = oauth.Client(consumer)

    resp, content = client.request(REQUEST_TOKEN_URL, "GET")
    if resp['status'] != '200':
        raise Exception("Invalid response %s." % resp['status'])

    request_token = dict(urlparse.parse_qsl(content))

    print "Request Token:"
    print "oauth_token = %s" % request_token['oauth_token']
    print "oauth_token_secret = %s" % request_token['oauth_token_secret']
    print
    print "Go to the following link in your browser:"
    print "%s?oauth_token=%s" % (AUTH_URL, request_token['oauth_token'])
    print

    oauth_verifier = raw_input('What is the PIN? ')

    token = oauth.Token(request_token['oauth_token'], request_token['oauth_token_secret'])
    token.set_verifier(oauth_verifier)
    client = oauth.Client(consumer, token)

    resp, content = client.request(ACCESS_TOKEN_URL, "POST")
    access_token = dict(urlparse.parse_qsl(content))

    print "Access Token:"
    print "access token = %s" % access_token['oauth_token']
    print "access secret = %s" % access_token['oauth_token_secret']
    print
    print "You may now access protected resources using the access tokens above." 
    print

    # store these items somewhere...
    toStore = access_token['oauth_token'] + "\n", access_token['oauth_token_secret'] + "\n"
    authKey = access_token['oauth_token']
    authSecret = access_token['oauth_token_secret']    
    file_object = open(TOKEN_STORE, 'w')
    file_object.writelines (toStore)
    file_object.close( )

# this can be either xml or json
url = 'https://www.yammer.com/api/v1/messages.xml'

GROUP_ID = 
ME_ID = 

token = oauth.Token(key=authKey, secret=authSecret)
consumer = oauth.Consumer(key=CONSUMER_KEY, secret=CONSUMER_SECRET)

client = oauth.Client(consumer, token)
resp, content = client.request(url)

print resp
print content

# do something with the json...?

# sending messages to a group
url = 'https://www.yammer.com/api/v1/messages/'

params = {
    'group_id': GROUP_ID,
    'body' : 'Hello World',
#    'direct_to_id' : ME_ID
    'broadcast' : 1
}

encodedParams = urllib.urlencode (params)
resp, content = client.request(url, 'POST', encodedParams)
print resp['status']

You will need to register your Application to get a Consumer Key and Secret. It is highly recommended that you create a Private Group to test this code. You don't want to the CEO to see that you are wasting time...!

And no running a Yammer Poster Bot from Crontab telling everyone you are hard at work on Saturday night. I wouldn't do that. Never. Of course not...!