This is a script which monitor’s Twitter for tweets containing certain hashtags, words, or phrases. When one of those appears, it saves that tweet, and the user’s information to a csv file. A similar version of this script is available on GitHub here. The main difference between the code presented here and the repo is that here I am added extensive comments in the code explaining what is happening. Also, the code below runs as a Jupyter notebook.
To get the code below to run, you need to added your own Twitter API credentials.
Preliminaries
#Import libraries
from tweepy.streaming import StreamListener
from tweepy import OAuthHandler
from tweepy import Stream
import time
import csv
import sys
Create A Twitter Stream Miner
# Create a streamer object
class StdOutListener(StreamListener):
# Define a function that is initialized when the miner is called
def __init__(self, api = None):
# That sets the api
self.api = api
# Create a file with 'data_' and the current time
self.filename = 'data'+'_'+time.strftime('%Y%m%d-%H%M%S')+'.csv'
# Create a new file with that filename
csvFile = open(self.filename, 'w')
# Create a csv writer
csvWriter = csv.writer(csvFile)
# Write a single row with the headers of the columns
csvWriter.writerow(['text',
'created_at',
'geo',
'lang',
'place',
'coordinates',
'user.favourites_count',
'user.statuses_count',
'user.description',
'user.location',
'user.id',
'user.created_at',
'user.verified',
'user.following',
'user.url',
'user.listed_count',
'user.followers_count',
'user.default_profile_image',
'user.utc_offset',
'user.friends_count',
'user.default_profile',
'user.name',
'user.lang',
'user.screen_name',
'user.geo_enabled',
'user.profile_background_color',
'user.profile_image_url',
'user.time_zone',
'id',
'favorite_count',
'retweeted',
'source',
'favorited',
'retweet_count'])
# When a tweet appears
def on_status(self, status):
# Open the csv file created previously
csvFile = open(self.filename, 'a')
# Create a csv writer
csvWriter = csv.writer(csvFile)
# If the tweet is not a retweet
if not 'RT @' in status.text:
# Try to
try:
# Write the tweet's information to the csv file
csvWriter.writerow([status.text,
status.created_at,
status.geo,
status.lang,
status.place,
status.coordinates,
status.user.favourites_count,
status.user.statuses_count,
status.user.description,
status.user.location,
status.user.id,
status.user.created_at,
status.user.verified,
status.user.following,
status.user.url,
status.user.listed_count,
status.user.followers_count,
status.user.default_profile_image,
status.user.utc_offset,
status.user.friends_count,
status.user.default_profile,
status.user.name,
status.user.lang,
status.user.screen_name,
status.user.geo_enabled,
status.user.profile_background_color,
status.user.profile_image_url,
status.user.time_zone,
status.id,
status.favorite_count,
status.retweeted,
status.source,
status.favorited,
status.retweet_count])
# If some error occurs
except Exception as e:
# Print the error
print(e)
# and continue
pass
# Close the csv file
csvFile.close()
# Return nothing
return
# When an error occurs
def on_error(self, status_code):
# Print the error code
print('Encountered error with status code:', status_code)
# If the error code is 401, which is the error for bad credentials
if status_code == 401:
# End the stream
return False
# When a deleted tweet appears
def on_delete(self, status_id, user_id):
# Print message
print("Delete notice")
# Return nothing
return
# When reach the rate limit
def on_limit(self, track):
# Print rate limiting error
print("Rate limited, continuing")
# Continue mining tweets
return True
# When timed out
def on_timeout(self):
# Print timeout message
print(sys.stderr, 'Timeout...')
# Wait 10 seconds
time.sleep(10)
# Return nothing
return
Create A Wrapper For The Miner
# Create a mining function
def start_mining(queries):
'''
Inputs list of strings. Returns tweets containing those strings.
'''
#Variables that contains the user credentials to access Twitter API
consumer_key = "YOUR_CREDENTIALS"
consumer_secret = "YOUR_CREDENTIALS"
access_token = "YOUR_CREDENTIALS"
access_token_secret = "YOUR_CREDENTIALS"
# Create a listener
l = StdOutListener()
# Create authorization info
auth = OAuthHandler(consumer_key, consumer_secret)
auth.set_access_token(access_token, access_token_secret)
# Create a stream object with listener and authorization
stream = Stream(auth, l)
# Run the stream object using the user defined queries
stream.filter(track=queries)
Run The Stream Miner
# Start the miner
start_mining(['python', '#Python'])
Encountered error with status code: 401
