Collect tweets to a mongoDB using the Twitter search API.
Project description
Twitter Tap
Collect tweets to a mongoDB using the twitter search API.
About
Twitter Tap is a python tool that connects to the Twitter API and issues calls to the search endpoint using a query that the user has entered. The tool follows all the next_results links (with the corresponding max_id) so that all results are collected. When all the next_results links are exhausted the query is repeated using the since_id of the latest tweet from the results of the first query and follows all the next_results links again. The latest since_id is also stored in the database for each distinct query (query, geolocation, language), so that when the tool is restarted you will still only receive unique tweets.
Tweets are stored into a mongoDB, which has a unique index on the Tweet ID so that there is no duplication of data if more than 1 query is executed simultaneously.
There is an arbitrary wait time before each API call so that the rate limit is not reached. The default value of 2 seconds makes sure that there are no more than 450 requests per 15 minutes as is the rate limit of the search endpoint for authenticating with the app (not the user).
The tool can be run from the command line or be run as a daemon using supervisor (recommended). A sample supervisord.conf script is included with the tool.
Installation
Install Twitter Tap using pip
pip install twitter-tap
Or, if you want the current code
git clone git://github.com/janezkranjc/twitter-tap.git
cd twitter-tap
python setup.py install
Before you start
Please follow this link https://apps.twitter.com/ and create a twitter app. You will need the consumer key and consumer secret to access the twitter API.
Using twitter tap
Run Twitter Tap in the command line like this.
tap
Show help text
tap -h
Executing a query
To execute a query you must provide a query, the consumer secret and either the consumer key or the access token. Consumer key and secret can be obtained at the http://apps.twitter.com/ website, while the access token will be obtained when first connecting with the key and secret.
tap --consumer-key CONSUMERKEY --consumer-secret CONSUMERSECRET -q "miley cyrus" -v DEBUG
Running as a daemon
To run Tap as a daemon you are encouraged to use supervisor. (Doesn’t work natively under windows. You should use cygwin.)
Here is a sample supervisord.conf file for running tap
; Sample supervisor config file for daemonizing the twitter search to mongodb software
[inet_http_server] ; inet (TCP) server disabled by default
port=127.0.0.1:9001 ; (ip_address:port specifier, *:port for all iface)
username=manorastroman ; (default is no username (open server))
password=kingofthedragonmen ; (default is no password (open server))
[supervisord]
stopsignal=INT
logfile=supervisord.log ; (main log file;default $CWD/supervisord.log)
logfile_maxbytes=50MB ; (max main logfile bytes b4 rotation;default 50MB)
logfile_backups=10 ; (num of main logfile rotation backups;default 10)
loglevel=info ; (log level;default info; others: debug,warn,trace)
pidfile=supervisord.pid ; (supervisord pidfile;default supervisord.pid)
nodaemon=false ; (start in foreground if true;default false)
minfds=1024 ; (min. avail startup file descriptors;default 1024)
minprocs=200 ; (min. avail process descriptors;default 200)
[rpcinterface:supervisor]
supervisor.rpcinterface_factory = supervisor.rpcinterface:make_main_rpcinterface
[supervisorctl]
serverurl=http://127.0.0.1:9001 ; use an http:// url to specify an inet socket
username=manorastroman ; should be same as http_username if set
password=kingofthedragonmen ; should be same as http_password if set
[program:tap]
command=tap --consumer-key CONSUMERKEY --consumer-secret CONSUMERSECRET -q "janez kranjc" -v DEBUG
stdout_logfile=tap.log
stderr_logfile=tap_err.log
autostart=true
autorestart=true
startsecs=10
stopwaitsecs=10
Afterwards you can start the daemon like this (you must be in the same folder as supervisord.conf or your supervisord.conf must be /etc/)
supervisord
Open your browser to http://127.0.0.1:9001 to see the status of the daemon. By default the username is manorastroman and the password kingofthedragonmen.
Alternatively you can see the status like this
supervisorctl status
Or see the tail of the logs (log file locations can be setup in supervisord.conf)
supervisorctl tail tap
Whenever you feel like shutting it down
supervisorctl shutdown
Useful Links
MongoDB https://www.mongodb.org/
Twitter developers https://dev.twitter.com/
Supervisor http://supervisord.org/
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