Updating your social networking status is now a frequent job. To make this job easier there are lots of web services, desktop applications, mobile applications, plug-ins available to the users. Some people wants to update there status from a single place. Like others Ping.fm, Hellotxt.com are providing single place service with a variety of options. But I think that updating status from command line is the easiest way for most of the Linux users who loves their terminal.

I have used ping.fm REST API for my script as a result It can update all the services registered with ping.fm at once or a single service putting additional parameter. You just need the Internet connection and terminal to put the command.

File: ~/bin/raypm

#! /usr/bin/env python
"""
A Simple program to update your social networking status using ping.fm

This program will update all your social networking sites via ping.fm.

requirements
	- sign for a account at ping.fm
	- setup ping.fm for desired social networking sites.
	- get your developer api key http://www.ping.fm/developers
	- get your user key from http://www.ping.fm/key

@example
	- shell > raypm "your message text to update your all social networking status, like twitter, facebook, linkedin"
	- shell > raypm twitter "your message text to update twitter status only"
	- shell > raypm facebook "your message text to update facebook status only"

@author		: Md. Rayhan Chowdhury
@email		: ray@raynux.com
@website	: www.raynux.com
@license	: GPL
@copy		: All right are reserved
"""

import urllib
import urllib2
import sys
from xml.etree import ElementTree as ET

# modify __apiKey__ with your own
# get your apiKey from http://www.ping.fm/developers
__apiKey__ = 'YOUR DEVELOPER API KEY HERE' 

# modify __userKey__ with your own user key
# get your user key from http://www.ping.fm/key
__UserKey__ = "YOUR USER APP KEY HERE"

__apiUrl__ = 'http://api.ping.fm/v1/'

# debug
# 1 - will not update your status, dump xml response text
# 0 - will update your status
debug = 0

class RayStatus:

	def __init__(self, msg = None, service = None):
		"create message"    

		global debug

		data = {	'api_key'		: __apiKey__,
					'user_app_key'	: __UserKey__,
					'post_method'	: 'default',
					'body'			: msg,
					'debug'			: debug
                  }
		if service is not None:
			data['service'] = service		

		#Encode the data to be posted
		data = urllib.urlencode(data)	

		print "Loading..."
		# post the data
		req = urllib2.Request(__apiUrl__ + 'user.post', data)
		try:
			response = urllib2.urlopen(req)

			responseXML = response.read()

			# parse response data
			result = ET.XML(responseXML)
			if result.attrib is not None:
				if result.attrib['status'] == 'OK':
					print 'Congratulations! your message posted successfully!';
				else:
					print 'Error: ' + result[2].text

			if debug:
				print
				print "debug info: "
				print responseXML

		except urllib2.URLError, e:
			if hasattr(e, 'reason'):
				print 'Could not connect to the server.'
				print 'Reason: ', e.reason
			elif hasattr(e, 'code'):
				print 'The server couldn\'t fulfill the request.'
				print 'Error code: ', e.code
		else:
			print

if __name__ == '__main__':
	try:
		if (len(sys.argv) == 2):
			RayStatus(sys.argv[1], None)
		elif (len(sys.argv) == 3):
			RayStatus(sys.argv[2], sys.argv[1])
	except IndexError:
		print "Please enter your desired message to be posted."

To make the script working, you need to sign up for a ping.fm user account, and registrar for services you want, they support all major social networking sites including twitter, facebook, linkedIn.

You will need to get these two keys.
- developer api_keys from http://ping.fm/developers/
- user app key from http://ping.fm/key/

I have my developer api key from ping.fm which will work for you, but I can’t disclose it openly. It will be great to have your own api key and user key is unique for each user.

Installation:

1. create a directory inside your home folder named bin
2. create a file named raymp inside the bin folder and copy and paste the code
3. replace api key and user key with your own.
4. make the file executable with this command
   # chmod +x ~/bin/raypm
5. you may need to restart the system to add the newly added bin folder to PATH.

& done.

now you can update your status with the following commands
# raypm "update all social networking status at once"
or
# raypm twitter "update twitter status only"
or
# raypm facebook "update facebook status only"

def whats_on_the_telly(penguin=None):
    if penguin is None:
        penguin = []
    penguin.append("property of the zoo")
    return penguin
  
def another_func():
    return 1

Here, the function definition ends at after a blank line followed by another definition. I was disappointed with this features of Python and found it is confusing for a large code base for manageability.

As a result I moved to Ruby. After installing Ruby in my PC I started learning the basics of Ruby Language. I have found some interesting features in Ruby language. But I am not impressed with some features like the way of return statement in a function definition.

This is my opinion as a beginner. Yet, I want to try both of them.