C4LN 2012: Intro to the Twitter API

Presenter: Rick Scott - @shadowspar

API Overview

• https://dev.twitter.com/ is API central.
• https://dev.twitter.com/docs is the main documentation area -- you'll spend a lot of time here =)
• other useful things linked from dev.twitter.com: API Status, API Known Issues, blog & discussion

Parts

• the REST API
• the Streaming API
• the Search API

REST API

• query→response based access
• the mainstay of the API; the first part of it you'll want to be concerned with, and the part you'll likely use most

Streaming API

• aka drinking from the firehose =)
• persistent connection
• push-based communication w/ v.high ratelimit (1% of all tweets)

Search API

• just like it says on the tin
• also trending topics

Find your library

https://dev.twitter.com/docs/twitter-libraries has a good list

• Perl: Net::Twitter
• Python: tweepy and many others
• Ruby: twitter rubygem and others

Creating a new app

First steps

• https://dev.twitter.com/apps/new
• sign in with your twitter account
• fill out basic info about your app
• agree to be a good citizen, as detailed below

Huzzah! You have your very own app!

A brief segue into OAuth

http://hueniverse.com/oauth/guide/intro/

OAuth metaphor: valet key to your car

• lets an app act on behalf of a user when dealing with some service
• lets a user give an app specific permissions to interact with a service on their behalf

Roles in OAuth:

• consumer (client) -- your app
• service provider (server) -- Twitter
• user (resource owner) -- user

• receive OAuth keys
  • consumer_key
  • consumer_secret

Setup

• tabs we're initially interested in: Details & Settings
• Settings tab:
  • Application type:
    • Read
    • Read/Write
    • Read/Write/Access DMs

Bot-specific stuff

• create an account for your bot
• authorize it on your app

Rules of Conduct

General Rules of the Road and TOS

• https://dev.twitter.com/terms/api-terms
• https://support.twitter.com/articles/76915 - automation rules and best practices

Other gotchas

• Repeated tweets

Example

http://twitter.com/inetkami https://github.com/rickscott/inetkami

Other Miscellany

• t, a Ruby command-line interface to the Twitter API