Vipul Gupta
Vipul is a software engineer at balena and a documentarian running his docs initiative called Mixster. He advocates strongly for open-source, cheesecakes and party parrots.
Invading Twitter with Python
Hi, I am Vipul Gupta
Available all over the web by vipulgupta2048
Student, Programmer, Writer, Open-Source Contributor,
Traveller, C&H Comics Collector
Tweet @vipulgupta2048
Resembling a mountain bluebird with a dash of hummingbird thrown in, the Twitter bird has a beak and body that point toward the sky in what Bowman called “the ultimate representation of freedom, hope, and limitless possibility.”
What is Twitter
for people living under a rock
- Founders - Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, Evan Williams
- Founded in 2006
-
Written in Java, Ruby, Scala, JavaScript
-
Serving 350 million users
- The company that started the trend of hashtags #ordidit
Twitter API
Twitter dislikes spiders
Harnessing that API
- Using curl to request the API for information
- Wreaking havoc with bots
- Getting your account banned
- .. and a lot more.
Bots, in general
- Script/software fuelled by public API's
- Automates and reiterates tasks over and over.
- Imitates human patterns to avoid detection.
Examples
Examples
Examples
Examples
Examples
Examples
Examples
Examples
Let's build
- Step 0 - The idea, basic requirements
- Step 1 - Writing the script
- Step 2 - Testing & refactoring
- Step 3 - Deployment
Idea & Basic Requirements
- Ask yourself. Why?
- Explore your tools. What?
- Data flowing through Public API's. How?
- Credentials for your Twitter Module.
Go to - https://apps.twitter.com
Writing the Script
Writing the Script
Installing Tweepy
# Install Tweepy for Python
pip install tweepy
# Download Scripts from Vanilla Repository
wget https://github.com/vipulgupta2048/vanilla/raw/master/vanilla_bot/config.py
wget https://github.com/vipulgupta2048/vanilla/raw/master/vanilla_bot/vanilla.py
Check out - https://github.com/vipulgupta2048/vanilla/
Oauth Dance - Not anymore
# Connecting/Authenticating our module with Twitter API
AUTH = tweepy.OAuthHandler(consumer_key, consumer_secret)
AUTH.set_access_token(access_token, access_token_secret)
API = tweepy.API(AUTH)
# Get access token
auth.get_access_token("verifier_value")
'''Doesn't get easier than this'''Following the planet
for follower in tweepy.Cursor(api.followers).items():
follower.follow()This snippet will follow every follower of the authenticated user.
Following the planet
for follower in tweepy.Cursor(api.followers).items():
follower.follow()This snippet will follow every follower of the authenticated user.
Title Text
- Bullet One
- Bullet Two
- Bullet Three
Testing and Refactoring
Limiting requests - #Respectthemaintainer
import time
.
..
.
for tweet in tweepy.Cursor(API.search, q=searchterm):
tweet.retweet()
# limiting the number of requests sent
time.sleep(15)
def limit_handled(cursor):
while True:
try:
yield cursor.next()
except tweepy.RateLimitError:
time.sleep(15 * 60)
for follower in limit_handled(tweepy.Cursor(api.followers).items()):
if follower.friends_count < 300:
print follower.screen_name
Handling the rate limit
using cursors
def limit_handled(cursor):
while True:
try:
yield cursor.next()
except tweepy.RateLimitError:
time.sleep(15 * 60)
for follower in limit_handled(tweepy.Cursor(api.followers).items()):
if follower.friends_count < 300:
print follower.screen_name
Handling the rate limit
using cursors
# Only iterate through the first 200 statuses
for status in tweepy.Cursor(api.user_timeline).items(200):
process_status(status)
# Only iterate through the first 3 pages
for page in tweepy.Cursor(api.user_timeline).pages(3):
process_page(page)Pagination using cursors
Deployment
- Heroku - recommended
- Any hosting service...
What more can you do?
- https://blog.twitter.com/developer/en_us.html
- Have tons of fun, learn a new skillset
- Solve small real world problems
- Run basic sentiment analysis projects using Twitter's data
The world is your oyster and the only thing that limits you is what you can see and imagine.
- Vipul Gupta
References
- Embarrassing number of Wikipedia pages
- Messy youtube history of how to give a great talk
- Almost filled bookmark bar about conversation-fillers
- and these....
References
- Give a star to Tweepy on GitHub
- Check out the PyCon India 2018 bot here
- Blog of the amazing Twitter API team
- Blog on freecodecamp, using Tkinter
Buy a lightsaber from someone but,
Rebuild your own with confidence
See what you like in other bots.
Keep what works, throw out what doesn't.
A bot is only as ethical as the person who programs it.
When you realize the
power of Twitter's API
Danke scheon !!
Questions? Any feedback
Did you like the talk? tweet about it. Retweets guaranteed !!
Vipul Gupta
Student, Programmer, Writer, Open-Source Contributor, Traveller, C&H Comics Collector
Tweet @vipulgupta2048
[PyDelhi] Invading Twitter with Python
By Vipul Gupta
[PyDelhi] Invading Twitter with Python
The zero to hero guide of making twitter bots using the Python Programming Language.
