Adding your most recent Twitter tweet to your Pidgin status

Basically nothing changes, but I just like to be comprehensive.

  1. Download the TwitterStatus plugin.  It’ll be a file ending in .pl.
  2. Move this file to your Pidgin plugins folder.  If any folders don’t exist, create them:
    • Linux: ~/.purple/plugins/
    • Windows Vista/7: C:\Users<Username>\AppData\Roaming.purple\plugins
  3. Install Perl:
  4. Install  the XML::XPath module into perl:
    1. Open a command line.
    2. Run perl -MCPAN -e shell.
    3. Type install XML::XPath and then hit Return.  Wait for the install to finish.
    4. Type quit and hit Return, then close your command line
  5. Start (or restart) Pidgin.
  6. From the contact list, go to Help > About.  At the very bottom of the textbox that appears it should say “Perl: Enabled”.  If it does not, repeat steps 3 and 4.
  7. From the contact list, go to Tools > Plug-ins.  Find Twitter Status on the list, check the checkbox next to it, and then click Configure Plug-in.
  8. In the configuration window that appears, type in your username in the top textbox (labelled Username, surprise surprise).  Configure anything else you want to your liking.

That’s it!  You do not need to set this up again, it is a one-off set up for the computer.  Of course, you will need to go through this procedure again if you have multiple computers you use Pidgin on, or if you format and reinstall your OS.