Profile image url?

[MartijnSaly]

What is the url for a profile picture that I can just paste into any HTML?

I’m looking for a url that somehow has the profile name in it, so I don’t have to fiddle with an API. After all, profile pictures are public, and they must have a url eventually. So what is a url where I can just fill in a profile name and have it return the picture for that profile?

For example, my own profile picture happens to be https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1617333866/_1320162409_421_normal.gif , but I can hardly imagine how to construct such a hairy url when knowing nothing but the profile name. For starters, I don’t know (and have no way of knowing) what those numbers mean. So, a more “permanent” url is needed. Something like https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/MartijnSaly.gif or something. Doesn’t work of course, but I’m looking for something as easily reusable as that.

[episod]

You would need to use the API, which requires authentication, to request a user object by screen name. That user object would contain the most recent profile image URL for that user. The URLs change over time.

There’s no means to programmatically determine the profile image URL for a user without having used the API and authentication.

[MartijnSaly]

The fact that I have to use the API is somewhat understandable. It’s sad, because it’s technically not neccesary. Any url with the only variable being the profile name, could theoretically be set up (by Twitter) to return or redirect to the profile image.

The fact that authentication is needed, boggles my mind. Aren’t profile pictures publicly accessible??

[niall]

[niall]

[niall]

[niall]