Flow to exclude Twitter replies

[Flash]

Hello,

I am working with the "Post on Microsoft Teams when a new tweet matches the specified hashtag" template. One change I would like to implement to the template is to exclude reply tweets. I have attempted to include a condition that looks to the Original Tweet starting with string('@') to exclude the replies.  When running a test the flow error returns with "The template language function 'startsWith' expects its first parameter to be of type string. The provided value is of type 'Object'." 

I have seen others solutions to exclude reply tweets but they all are done in the retired advanced mode for the Condition card.

Any direction would be appreciated, thanks in advance!

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @Flash ,

Please try this configuration:

Determine if Tweet text starts with RT. If not, it means that this is not a reply.

Best Regards,

[Flash]

Hello @v-bacao-msft ,

Unfortunately that does not meet my requirements. I want to filter out reply tweets which start with "@". When I attempt to use a condition like yours and enter in "@" the field fills with multiple "@" symbols which makes this not work. Any other suggestions to filter out reply tweets? Thanks! 

[Flash]

@Anonymous and @Eliot 

Do either of you have a solution for this issue now that the advanced view in the condition card has been removed? Thanks!

[Eliot]

Hi, @Flash, I've got a solution for you, just give me a hot second and I'll add it in.

In the meantime, I'll let you know that I use the replied-to function. You may even get there before me, it's just a logic switch.

OK, here's the basic version of it, just use this condition:

That's basically it.

You will run in to issue when the user replies to themselves, just add another level of conditioning to control that (I think including it with an AND / OR is messy, and too difficult for my tiny brain).

Just a quick question, did you find my name elsewhere on here? If so, very many thanks for thinking of me!

Best

Eliot - Project Five Ltd. (UK)

[Flash]

Hi @Eliot 

Thank you for sharing your solution. I found another thread here where you had worked on a similar problem which is why mentioned you on the thread. 

Unfortunately I've not got your condition logic to work yet in my flow. I'm not quite sure what I am missing. I also realized that dynamic content is presenting differently than what you posted in your screenshot.

Notice my dynamic content for "in_reply_to_user_id" presents as "triggerOutputs()?['body/TweetInReplyToUserId']" when hovered over with the mouse, which is different than yours. As for the value in the condition, are you setting it to be the Twitter user's handle you want to capture? 

Thanks again for any assistance!

[Eliot]

Hi, @Flash , it's possible that you have an old version of the Twitter trigger in your flow.

Perhaps try a new flow (for testing this) and see what changes. If you get the desired results, then perhaps either try changing the trigger on your existing flow, or rebuild the whole thing in a new flow.

Here's a brand new flow that I've just created:

Best

Eliot - Project Five Ltd (UK)

[Eliot]

OK, @Flash , if you stick something that is similar to the following somewhere near the beginning of your flow, you can go forward using the variables to drive your branching. If you work through this in your head, you'll probably start thinking about parent tweets, etc.

Here's the basic full logic in small, click to enlarge, obviously - the full logic will be at the end:

basic logic

Here's that broken down:

1. Firstly, set the trigger, to when a new tweet is posted, you decide what's in that box. Here you'll also initialise variable to later decide whether or not a Tweet;
   1. is a reply,
   2. and / or is a thread.
      

      1 - When A New Tweet Is Posted and Variable settings

2. After this you'll need a condition to see if this is a reply, if it isn't a reply go to #3, if it is #4.
   2 - Condition to see if it is a reply
3. If it is NOT a reply, then it won't be a thread (yet), so you can set both variables to false.
   3 - If it isn't a reply then it isn't a thread set the variables accordingly
4. If it is a reply, then set the isReply variable to true.
   4 - If it is a reply set a variable to show it is a reply and test for thread
5. Now you need a condition to see if it is a thread;
   1. so if it the reply is to the user making said reply you can set the isThread variable to true,
   2. so if it the reply is to the user making said reply you can set the isThread variable to false.
      5 - Condition to set variables as to whether or not it is a thread

... and finally, here's everything together:

full logic

Heh ... obviously I'm not going to build your flow for you ... or your logic  😉  ... but I hope that this sorts out your Tweet Reply issues. 🙂

Best

Eliot - projectfive Ltd. (UK)

[Flash · Accepted solution]

Hi Eliot, thanks for your help.

I ended up using a condition with Tweet text starts with "@" which has satisfied my needs for now.

[Eliot]

OK, glad that you got there, @Flash , genuinely. 🙂

What you've done there is actually where I started before ending up where I am now.

If you get the chance, please do go back and try to include the above, as (believe me) it'll really help. Especially if (like me) you're recording the tweets of a popular account (mine is the 🐦Microsoft Alerts account) and they reply WAY more than they tweet, because so many people are asking them "is [blank] down right now?" 😏

[EJG]

I ended up not really needing the isThread variable, but this worked well - have been looking for a solution here for a few days to exactly this same issue, so thank you!

[Anonymous]

I found an easy solution to this that solved my needs. I hope it works for you.

My flow:

1. When a new tweet is posted - Search Text "from:@MSFT365Status"

2. Add Step - Condition - "in_reply_to_user_id" "is equal to" (leave blank)

3. If Yes - do an action (I have it post to a Teams channel). If No - (leave blank for nothing)

According to Twitter documentation, the metadata "in_reply_to_user_id" definition is:

Nullable. If the represented Tweet is a reply, this field will contain the integer representation of the original Tweet’s author ID. This will not necessarily always be the user directly mentioned in the Tweet.

So when this meta has any value, it's a reply. That's my take anyway.

[msop]

This is actually a double post, but I always stumbled upon two different threads when searching for a solution, so I hope it's OK 😉

I feel like this should be easier to achieve, but at last I found a solution now which isn't too complicated. For some reason other suggested solutions didn't work for me... so here is my take for filtering out the replies.

Create a string variable Reply from in_reply_to_user_id, then check if the variable is empty with empty(variables('Reply')) is equal to true (the function true, only typing true as text doesn't work). I have to check with the variable and empty - checking for Null (yes the function null) does not work, no clue why that is.

Also I check (OR) if the variable Reply is equal to 474113855 which is the ID of the Twitter Account I check (Microsoft 365 Status) because they reply to their own tweets when they have updates on an issue. And yes I have to do this with the variable, doing the same directly with in_reply_to_user_id does NOT work - although it should in my opinion.

The flow seems to work reliably so far.

Hope that helps 🙂 I was a bit hesistant to use a variable because it thought it's complicated, but actually it makes it much easier.

[Anonymous]

Awesome! This is even better!

[MrArruda12345]

Hello Everyone!

For some reason, my flow is only working when I test it. (I've tried both syntaxes provided). Whenever I make a post, it doesn't automatically create the teams post. Do you know any potential reasons why?

here's what I have:

Thank you!