twitter_connect.py

"""Python boilerplate for using Twitter API w/OAuth, based on sixohsix-twitter.

As of 2010-08-31, Twitter has shut down Basic Auth completely.
You must use OAuth instead.  This boilerplate does just that.

http://dev.twitter.com/pages/basic_auth_shutdown

This Python script uses the Python twitter package by Mike Verdone et al.
http://pypi.python.org/pypi/twitter
http://mike.verdone.ca/twitter/
"Python Twitter Tools (PTT)"

Extracted from twitter.cmdline module.  For use on Unix-like systems.
"""

import os

from twitter.api import Twitter
from twitter.oauth import OAuth, read_token_file
from twitter.oauth_dance import oauth_dance

# Yes, these are public secrets, published in sixohsix-twitter github repo.
CONSUMER_KEY='uS6hO2sV6tDKIOeVjhnFnQ'
CONSUMER_SECRET='MEYTOS97VvlHX7K1rwHPEqVpTSqZ71HtvoK4sVuYk'

# Where OAuth credentials are saved, or where to save them.
oauth_filename = os.path.expanduser('~/.twitter_oauth')

# Create the OAuth credentials file if it doesn't already exist.
if not os.path.exists(oauth_filename):
    # Reusing credentials from Python Twitter Tools. Consider creating your own.
    oauth_dance("the Command-Line Tool",
                CONSUMER_KEY,
                CONSUMER_SECRET,
                oauth_filename)

# Read the local OAuth credentials file.
oauth_token, oauth_token_secret = read_token_file(oauth_filename)

# Create an instance of the twitter.api.Twitter class.
twitter = Twitter(
    auth=OAuth(
        oauth_token, oauth_token_secret, CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET),
    secure=True,
    api_version='1',
    domain='api.twitter.com')

# Congratulations, you now have an object mapped to the Twitter API.
# Now do something.

# Example: print most recent user status update (doesn't include "Retweets").
timeline = twitter.statuses.user_timeline()
print timeline[0]['text']