Python Twitter Tools

====================

> [!IMPORTANT]

> This project is no longer maintained and has been archived.

> The existing releases and code remain available in their current state.

> Thank you to everyone who used and contributed to the success of this project.

The Minimalist Twitter API for Python is a Python API for Twitter,

everyone's favorite Web 2.0 Facebook-style status updater for people

on the go.

Also included is a Twitter command-line tool for getting your friends'

tweets and setting your own tweet from the safety and security of your

favorite shell and an IRC bot that can announce Twitter updates to an

IRC channel.

For more information:

* install the [package](https://pypi.org/project/twitter/) `pip install twitter`

* import the `twitter` package and run `help()` on it

* run `twitter -h` for command-line tool help

twitter - The Command-Line Tool

-------------------------------

The command-line tool lets you do some awesome things:

* view your tweets, recent replies, and tweets in lists

* view the public timeline

* follow and unfollow (leave) friends

* various output formats for tweet information

The bottom line: type `twitter`, receive tweets.

twitterbot - The IRC Bot

------------------------

The IRC bot is associated with a Twitter account (either your own account or an

account you create for the bot). The bot announces all tweets from friends

it is following. It can be made to follow or leave friends through IRC /msg

commands.

`twitter-log`

-------------

`twitter-log` is a simple command-line tool that dumps all public

tweets from a given user in a simple text format. It is useful to get

a complete offsite backup of all your tweets. Run `twitter-log` and

read the instructions.

`twitter-archiver` and `twitter-follow`

---------------------------------------

twitter-archiver will log all the tweets posted by any user since they

started posting. twitter-follow will print a list of all of all the

followers of a user (or all the users that user follows).

Programming with the Twitter API classes

========================================

The `Twitter` and `TwitterStream` classes are the key to building your own

Twitter-enabled applications.

The `Twitter` class

-------------------

The minimalist yet fully featured Twitter API class.

Get RESTful data by accessing members of this class. The result

is decoded python objects (lists and dicts).

The Twitter API is documented at:

**[https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs](https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs)**

The list of most accessible functions is listed at:

**[https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/api-reference-index](https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/api-reference-index)**

Examples:

```python

from twitter import *

t = Twitter(

auth=OAuth(token, token_secret, consumer_key, consumer_secret))

# Get your "home" timeline

t.statuses.home_timeline()

# Get a particular friend's timeline

t.statuses.user_timeline(screen_name="boogheta")

# to pass in GET/POST parameters, such as `count`

t.statuses.home_timeline(count=5)

# to pass in the GET/POST parameter `id` you need to use `_id`

t.statuses.show(_id=1234567890)

# Update your status

t.statuses.update(

status="Using @boogheta's sweet Python Twitter Tools.")

# Send a direct message

t.direct_messages.events.new(

_json={

"event": {

"type": "message_create",

"message_create": {

"target": {

"recipient_id": t.users.show(screen_name="boogheta")["id"]},

"message_data": {

"text": "I think yer swell!"}}}})

# Get the members of maxmunnecke's list "network analysis tools" (grab the list_id within the url) https://twitter.com/i/lists/1130857490764091392

t.lists.members(owner_screen_name="maxmunnecke", list_id="1130857490764091392")

# Favorite/like a status

status = t.statuses.home_timeline()[0]

if not status['favorited']:

t.favorites.create(_id=status['id'])

# An *optional* `_timeout` parameter can also be used for API

# calls which take much more time than normal or twitter stops

# responding for some reason:

t.users.lookup(

screen_name=','.join(A_LIST_OF_100_SCREEN_NAMES), _timeout=1)

# Overriding Method: GET/POST

# you should not need to use this method as this library properly

# detects whether GET or POST should be used, Nevertheless

# to force a particular method, use `_method`

t.statuses.oembed(_id=1234567890, _method='GET')

# Send images along with your tweets:

# - first just read images from the web or from files the regular way:

with open("example.png", "rb") as imagefile:

imagedata = imagefile.read()

# - then upload medias one by one on Twitter's dedicated server

# and collect each one's id:

t_upload = Twitter(domain='upload.twitter.com',

auth=OAuth(token, token_secret, consumer_key, consumer_secret))

id_img1 = t_upload.media.upload(media=imagedata)["media_id_string"]

id_img2 = t_upload.media.upload(media=imagedata)["media_id_string"]

# - finally send your tweet with the list of media ids:

t.statuses.update(status="PTT ★", media_ids=",".join([id_img1, id_img2]))

# Or send a tweet with an image (or set a logo/banner similarly)

# using the old deprecated method that will probably disappear some day

params = {"media[]": imagedata, "status": "PTT ★"}

# Or for an image encoded as base64:

params = {"media[]": base64_image, "status": "PTT ★", "_base64": True}

t.statuses.update_with_media(**params)

# Attach text metadata to medias sent, using the upload.twitter.com route

# using the _json workaround to send json arguments as POST body

# (warning: to be done before attaching the media to a tweet)

t_upload.media.metadata.create(_json={

"media_id": id_img1,

"alt_text": { "text": "metadata generated via PTT!" }

})

# or with the shortcut arguments ("alt_text" and "text" work):

t_upload.media.metadata.create(media_id=id_img1, text="metadata generated via PTT!")

# Alternatively, you can reuse the originally instantiated object,

# changing the domain, that is:

t.domain = 'upload.twitter.com'

# Now you can upload the image (or images).

id_img1 = t.media.upload(media=imagedata)['media_id_string']

id_img2 = t.media.upload(media=imagedata)["media_id_string"]

# You now can reset the domain to the original one:

t.domain = 'api.twitter.com'

# And you can send the update:

t.statuses.update(status="PTT ★", media_ids=",".join([id_img1, id_img2]))

```

Searching Twitter:

```python

# Search for the latest tweets about #pycon

t.search.tweets(q="#pycon")

# Search for the latest tweets about #pycon, using [extended mode](https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/tweet-updates)

t.search.tweets(q="#pycon", tweet_mode='extended')

```

Retrying after reaching the API rate limit

------------------------------------------

Simply create the `Twitter` instance with the argument `retry=True`, then the

HTTP error codes `429`, `502`, `503`, and `504` will cause a retry of the last

request.

If `retry` is an integer, it defines the maximum number of retry attempts.

Using the data returned

-----------------------

Twitter API calls return decoded JSON. This is converted into

a bunch of Python lists, dicts, ints, and strings. For example:

```python

x = twitter.statuses.home_timeline()

# The first 'tweet' in the timeline

x[0]

# The screen name of the user who wrote the first 'tweet'

x[0]['user']['screen_name']

```

Getting raw XML data

--------------------

If you prefer to get your Twitter data in XML format, pass

`format="xml"` to the `Twitter` object when you instantiate it:

```python

twitter = Twitter(format="xml")

```

The output will not be parsed in any way. It will be a raw string

of XML.

The `TwitterStream` class

-------------------------

The `TwitterStream` object is an interface to the Twitter Stream

API. This can be used pretty much the same as the `Twitter` class,

except the result of calling a method will be an iterator that

yields objects decoded from the stream. For example::

```python

twitter_stream = TwitterStream(auth=OAuth(...))

iterator = twitter_stream.statuses.sample()

for tweet in iterator:

...do something with this tweet...

```

Per default the `TwitterStream` object uses

[public streams](https://dev.twitter.com/docs/streaming-apis/streams/public).

If you want to use one of the other

[streaming APIs](https://dev.twitter.com/docs/streaming-apis), specify the URL

manually.

The iterator will `yield` until the TCP connection breaks. When the

connection breaks, the iterator yields `{'hangup': True}` (and

raises `StopIteration` if iterated again).

Similarly, if the stream does not produce heartbeats for more than

90 seconds, the iterator yields `{'hangup': True,

'heartbeat_timeout': True}` (and raises `StopIteration` if

iterated again).

The `timeout` parameter controls the maximum time between

yields. If it is nonzero, then the iterator will yield either

stream data or `{'timeout': True}` within the timeout period. This

is useful if you want your program to do other stuff in between

waiting for tweets.

The `block` parameter sets the stream to be fully non-blocking.

In this mode, the iterator always yields immediately. It returns

stream data, or `None`.

Note that `timeout` supercedes this argument, so it should also be

set `None` to use this mode, and non-blocking can potentially lead

to 100% CPU usage.

Twitter `Response` Objects

--------------------------

Response from a Twitter request. Behaves like a list or a string

(depending on requested format), but it has a few other interesting

attributes.

`headers` gives you access to the response headers as an

`httplib.HTTPHeaders` instance. Use `response.headers.get('h')`

to retrieve a header.

Authentication

--------------

You can authenticate with Twitter in three ways: NoAuth, OAuth, or

OAuth2 (app-only). Get `help()` on these classes to learn how to use them.

OAuth and OAuth2 are probably the most useful.

Working with OAuth

------------------

Visit the Twitter developer page and create a new application:

**[https://dev.twitter.com/apps/new](https://dev.twitter.com/apps/new)**

This will get you a `CONSUMER_KEY` and `CONSUMER_SECRET`.

When users run your application they have to authenticate your app

with their Twitter account. A few HTTP calls to Twitter are required

to do this. Please see the `twitter.oauth_dance` module to see how this

is done. If you are making a command-line app, you can use the

`oauth_dance()` function directly.

Performing the "oauth dance" gets you an oauth token and oauth secret

that authenticate the user with Twitter. You should save these for

later, so that the user doesn't have to do the oauth dance again.

`read_token_file` and `write_token_file` are utility methods to read and

write OAuth `token` and `secret` key values. The values are stored as

strings in the file. Not terribly exciting.

Finally, you can use the `OAuth` authenticator to connect to Twitter. In

code it all goes like this:

```python

from twitter import *

MY_TWITTER_CREDS = os.path.expanduser('~/.my_app_credentials')

if not os.path.exists(MY_TWITTER_CREDS):

oauth_dance("My App Name", CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET,

MY_TWITTER_CREDS)

oauth_token, oauth_secret = read_token_file(MY_TWITTER_CREDS)

twitter = Twitter(auth=OAuth(

oauth_token, oauth_secret, CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET))

# Now work with Twitter

twitter.statuses.update(status='Hello, world!')

```

Working with `OAuth2`

---------------------

Twitter only supports the application-only flow of OAuth2 for certain

API endpoints. This OAuth2 authenticator only supports the application-only

flow right now.

To authenticate with OAuth2, visit the Twitter developer page and create a new

application:

**[https://dev.twitter.com/apps/new](https://dev.twitter.com/apps/new)**

This will get you a `CONSUMER_KEY` and `CONSUMER_SECRET`.

Exchange your `CONSUMER_KEY` and `CONSUMER_SECRET` for a bearer token using the

`oauth2_dance` function.

Finally, you can use the `OAuth2` authenticator and your bearer token to connect

to Twitter. In code it goes like this::

```python

twitter = Twitter(auth=OAuth2(bearer_token=BEARER_TOKEN))

# Now work with Twitter

twitter.search.tweets(q='keyword')

```

License

=======

Python Twitter Tools are released under an MIT License.