pnytter

A Python library for scraping Twitter using one or more Nitter instances.

About Nitter & Pnytter

From Nitter's GitHub repository description: "A free and open source alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy and performance".

Pnytter is a Python library that performs requests to Nitter instances for fetching different data from Twitter, requiring no official API credentials, and theorically no rate limits.

Features

This project currently features the following:

• Supported methods:
  • Get Twitter profile data, by username
  • Get all the Tweets from a profile, by username in a date range
  • Get a single Tweet data by Tweet ID
• Technical details:
  • Usage of multiple Nitter instances (chosen randomly for each request)
  • Return data using Pydantic objects

The features are bound to the development of my twitterscraper. Features may be requested through Issues or (preferably) Pull-Requests.

Requirements

• Python >= 3.7
• Requirements listed on requirements.txt
• A hosted Nitter instance is recommeded for intensive use, to avoid overloading the public instances. It is recommended to use a Nitter version according the release date of the Pnytter version being used, to avoid incompatibilities.

Installing

Package available at PyPI.

# Virtual environment recommended
pip install pnytter

Usage

from pnytter import Pnytter
import pprint

# The Pnytter object needs at least 1 Nitter instance to work, but these can be added after initialization
pnytter = Pnytter(
  nitter_instances=["https://nitter.net"]
)

# Method to add instances to a Pnytter object. The `times` kwarg repeats the instance to increase its chances of being used
pnytter.add_instance("https://nitter.pussthecat.org", times=2)



# Find the data from a single user
user = pnytter.find_user("jack")
pprint.pp(user.dict())
# {'id': 12,
#  'username': 'jack',
#  'fullname': 'jack',
#  'biography': '#bitcoin',
#  'verified': True,
#  'joined_datetime': datetime.datetime(2006, 3, 21, 20, 50, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc),
#  'stats': {'tweets': 28602,
#            'following': 4573,
#            'followers': 6419102,
#            'likes': 35210},
#  'pictures': {'profile': {'twitter_url': HttpUrl('https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1115644092329758721/AFjOr-K8.jpg', scheme='https', host='pbs.twimg.com', tld='com', host_type='domain', port='443', path='/profile_images/1115644092329758721/AFjOr-K8.jpg'),
#                           'nitter_path': '/pic/pbs.twimg.com%2Fprofile_images%2F1115644092329758721%2FAFjOr-K8.jpg'},
#               'banner': {'twitter_url': HttpUrl('https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_banners/12/1584998840/1500x500', scheme='https', host='pbs.twimg.com', tld='com', host_type='domain', port='443', path='/profile_banners/12/1584998840/1500x500'),
#                          'nitter_path': '/pic/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fprofile_banners%2F12%2F1584998840%2F1500x500'}}}


# Find user tweets during a date range
tweets = pnytter.get_user_tweets_list("year_progress", filter_from="2022-06-01", filter_to="2022-06-25")
pprint.pp(tweets)
# [TwitterTweet(tweet_id=1539246778041745409, author='year_progress', created_on=datetime.datetime(2022, 6, 21, 14, 0, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), text='▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░ 47%', stats=Stats(comments=29, retweets=1066, quotes=113, likes=5497)),
#  TwitterTweet(tweet_id=1537918020118491136, author='year_progress', created_on=datetime.datetime(2022, 6, 17, 22, 0, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), text='▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░ 46%', stats=Stats(comments=26, retweets=984, quotes=102, likes=5866)),
#  TwitterTweet(tweet_id=1536589258370297856, author='year_progress', created_on=datetime.datetime(2022, 6, 14, 6, 0, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), text='▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░ 45%', stats=Stats(comments=40, retweets=1490, quotes=144, likes=7543)),
#  TwitterTweet(tweet_id=1535275600482816000, author='year_progress', created_on=datetime.datetime(2022, 6, 10, 15, 0, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), text='▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░ 44%', stats=Stats(comments=21, retweets=937, quotes=95, likes=5879)),
#  TwitterTweet(tweet_id=1533946844497199104, author='year_progress', created_on=datetime.datetime(2022, 6, 6, 23, 0, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), text='▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░░ 43%', stats=Stats(comments=42, retweets=1090, quotes=121, likes=7327)),
# TwitterTweet(tweet_id=1532633192020205570, author='year_progress', created_on=datetime.datetime(2022, 6, 3, 8, 0, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), text='▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░░ 42%', stats=Stats(comments=31, retweets=1152, quotes=165, likes=7021))]



# Find single tweet
tweet = pnytter.get_tweet(1539246778041745409)
pprint.pp(tweet.dict())
# {'tweet_id': 1539246778041745409,
#  'author': 'year_progress',
#  'created_on': datetime.datetime(2022, 6, 21, 14, 0, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc),
#  'text': '▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░ 47%',
#  'stats': {'comments': 29, 'retweets': 1066, 'quotes': 113, 'likes': 5497}}

Known issues

Unfixable

• Certain tweets are not available on certain regions due to legal reasons. Pnytter method get_tweet allows forcing the query of all available Nitter instances until available in one of them.
• Instances running certain versions of Nitter may not be compatible with the current Pnytter codebase. It is recommended to run/use a Nitter instance using an updated version, or a version according the release date of a targetted Pnytter version.

Changelog

Versions 0.y.z are expected to be unstable, and the API may change on Minor (y) releases.

• 0.2.1
  • Fix error when a profile does not have a picture and/or banner. Breaking: TwitterProfile.id & TwitterProfile.Pictures.* fields are optional, when the profile lacks picture/banner.
  • Fix error when a profile does not have a biography.
• 0.1.1
  • Get tweet stats (count of comments, retweets, quotes, likes)
  • Allow configuring Nitter instances after Pnytter initialization
• 0.0.1
  • Initial release:
    • Get profile by username: id, username, fullname, biography, verified, when joined, stats (count of tweets, following, followers, likes), pictures (profile, banner)
    • Get profile tweets in date range (tweet id, author, when posted, text)
    • Get single tweet