C4LN 2012: Intro to the Twitter API

Presenter: Rick Scott - @shadowspar

API Overview

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

Parts

The twitter API breaks down into three main areas

• the REST API
  • query→response based access
  • this is what you're most likely to use
• the Streaming API
  • aka drinking from the firehose =)
  • push-based communication w/ v.high ratelimit
• the Search API
  • just like it says on the tin
  • also trending topics

Find your library

https://dev.twitter.com/docs/twitter-libraries

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

Creating a new app

• https://dev.twitter.com/apps/new
• sign in with your twitter account

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

Example

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

Other Miscellany

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