Some recipes for the Twitter API for twurl +jq, and other useful Twitter code snippets and tools

basic-recipes.md

The basics

This is a collection of basic "recipes", many using twurl (the Swiss Army Knife for the Twitter API!) and jq to query the Twitter API and format the results. Also, some scripts to test or automate common actions.

basic-user-info.md

twurl "/1.1/users/show.json?screen_name=andypiper" | jq '. | {id: .id_str, name: .name, screen_name: .screen_name, bio: .description, location: .location}'

{
  "id": "786491",
  "name": "andy piper (pipes)",
  "screen_name": "andypiper",
  "bio": "I'm the lead @TwitterDev @twitterapi platform team - find the best help via https://t.co/T2vkQoJ64f. Code, community, & respect. ⌨️ 🌈 🙇 #HeForShe 🏳️‍🌈",
  "location": "Kingston upon Thames, London"
}

batch-handles-to-IDs.md

twurl "/1.1/users/lookup.json?screen_name=andypiper,evilpiper,airatair" | jq '[.[] | {user_id: .id_str, screen_name: .screen_name}]'

[
  {
    "user_id": "786491",
    "screen_name": "andypiper"
  },
  {
    "user_id": "54931584",
    "screen_name": "evilpiper"
  },
  {
    "user_id": "509867806",
    "screen_name": "AiratAir"
  }
]

count-search-results.md

twurl "/1.1/search/tweets.json?q=%23london&count=100" | jq '[.statuses[]] | length'

-> 6

(i.e. put the statuses into a new array and count the length of that)

curate-collection.md

twurl -t -A "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"id": "custom-543399461108469761","changes": [{ "op": "add", "tweet_id": "390897780949925889"},{ "op": "add", "tweet_id": "390853164611555329"}]}' "/1.1/collections/entries/curate.json"

‼️ REQUIRES twurl 0.9.3 (or Content-Type will be ignored -> fail)

engagement-api.md

The Engagement API is a commercial API that enables access to data about Tweet engagement (impressions, etc). Your application key can be granted permission for these endpoints if you've purchased access to the API. Contact Twitter here to discuss access.

‼️ Note that you can only request information about Tweet IDs owned by the authenticating user account.

twurl -H data-api.twitter.com -A "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST "/insights/engagement/totals" -d '{"tweet_ids": ["908115328856621056","908279258480594944","908296740691947520"],"engagement_types":["impressions","engagements","favorites"],"groupings": {"grouping name": {"group_by": ["tweet.id","engagement.type"]}}}'

{
  "grouping name": {
    "908115328856621056": {
      "engagements": "16",
      "favorites": "5",
      "impressions": "556"
    },
    "908279258480594944": {
      "engagements": "25",
      "favorites": "4",
      "impressions": "278"
    },
    "908296740691947520": {
      "engagements": "3",
      "favorites": "1",
      "impressions": "48"
    }
  }
}

follower-count.md

twurl "/1.1/users/show.json?screen_name=andypiper&exclude_status=true" | jq '. | {followers: .followers_count}'

{
  "followers": 14815
}

get-streaming-data.md

$ twurl -t -H stream.twitter.com -A "Accept-encoding: none" -d "follow=54931584" -X POST "/1.1/statuses/filter.json" | jq --unbuffered

‼️ use Accept-encoding: none to avoid gzipped data

‼️ must add params to -d since this is a POST

listc.sh

#!/bin/sh
# count members in Twitter list

twurl "/1.1/lists/show.json?slug=$1&owner_screen_name=andypiper" | jq '. | {count: .member_count}'

listzap.sh

#!/bin/sh
# remove from Twitter list

twurl -q -d "screen_name=$2&slug=$1&owner_screen_name=andypiper" "/1.1/lists/members/destroy.json"

oauth-app-only.sh

#!/bin/sh
#
# get an app-only auth token (Bearer Token)
# pass in consumer key and consumer secret as params
# expected JSON response of form {"access_token":"CCCCCCCC","token_type":"bearer"}
# 
# remove | python -m json.tool if no Python installed (or, no need to prettify results)
#

curl -s -S -u "$1:$2" --data 'grant_type=client_credentials' 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth2/token' | python -m json.tool

oembed.md

twurl -H publish.twitter.com "/oembed?url=https://twitter.com/andypiper&limit=5"

{
  "url": "https://twitter.com/andypiper",
  "title": "",
  "html": "<a class=\"twitter-timeline\" data-tweet-limit=\"5\" href=\"https://twitter.com/andypiper\">Tweets by andypiper</a>\n<script async src=\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>",
  "width": null,
  "height": null,
  "type": "rich",
  "cache_age": "3153600000",
  "provider_name": "Twitter",
  "provider_url": "https://twitter.com",
  "version": "1.0"
}

prettify-twurl.md

Handy shell alias for making twurl output more readable...

jsonator () {
	ruby -rubygems -r pp -e 'require "json"; ARGF.each {|l| puts JSON.pretty_generate(JSON.parse(l))}'
}

jtwurl () {
	twurl $@ | jsonator
}

set-dm-welcome-msg.md

Two stages: create a welcome message, and assign it to the default rule.

‼️ the account must have "Receive Direct Messages from anyone" enabled in account settings or these calls will fail with an error.

twurl -A 'Content-type: application/json' /1.1/direct_messages/welcome_messages/new.json -d '{"name": "evil-welcome", "welcome_message": {"message_data": {"text": "Welcome! I am the evil version of @andypiper"}}}'

(take note of the id value in the response to use in the follow-up call)

twurl -A 'Content-type: application/json' -X POST /1.1/direct_messages/welcome_messages/rules/new.json -d '{"welcome_message_rule": {"welcome_message_id": "966308520869187588"}}'

summarise-timeline.md

twurl "/1.1/statuses/user_timeline.json?count=5" | jq '[.[] | { text: .text, source: .source, time: .created_at}]'

[
  {
    "text": "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque interdum rutrum sodales. Nullam mattis fermen… https://t.co/kb5SVo14NR",
    "source": "<a href=\"http://wibble.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">simpletester123</a>",
    "time": "Wed Jul 26 10:12:53 +0000 2017"
  },
  {
    "text": "test https://t.co/76eZnhqKj4",
    "source": "<a href=\"http://wibble.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">simpletester123</a>",
    "time": "Wed Jul 26 10:11:44 +0000 2017"
  },
  {
    "text": "Well done @LastWeekTonight 👏🏻 https://t.co/DyHKpUKGy1",
    "source": "<a href=\"http://twitter.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">Twitter for iPhone</a>",
    "time": "Mon Jul 24 19:19:16 +0000 2017"
  },
  {
    "text": "Test https://t.co/wBZ9lp9kCR",
    "source": "<a href=\"https://fabric.io\" rel=\"nofollow\">PhotoboothDemoiOS</a>",
    "time": "Fri Jun 30 12:25:50 +0000 2017"
  },
  {
    "text": "just a test\nlook at this\n😎 https://t.co/gYEcopskOR",
    "source": "<a href=\"https://fabric.io\" rel=\"nofollow\">PhotoboothDemoiOS</a>",
    "time": "Thu Jun 29 17:26:21 +0000 2017"
  }
]

summarize-list.md

Summarise a list of people:

twurl "/1.1/lists/members.json?slug=First-50&owner_screen_name=andypiper&count=5000&skip_status=1&include_entities=false" | jq '[.users[] | {id: .id_str, name: .name, screen_name: .screen_name}]' > peeps.json

Summarise a set of lists a user is a member of:

twurl "/1.1/lists/memberships.json?screen_name=andypiper&count=650" | jq '[.lists[] | {name: .name, description: .description, uri: .uri, people: .member_count, subscribers: .subscriber_count}]'

update-profile-image.md

$ FILE=$(base64 unnamed.png)

$ echo $FILE // just to prove that worked...

$ twurl -X POST -d "image=$FILE" "/1.1/account/update_profile_image.json

user-search.md

twurl "/1.1/users/search.json?q=andypiper" | jq '[.[] | {id: .id_str, name: .name, screen_name: .screen_name}]'

[
  {
    "id": "786491",
    "name": "Pipes",
    "screen_name": "andypiper"
  },
  {
    "id": "77825609",
    "name": "Andy Piper",
    "screen_name": "andypiper8"
  },
  {
    "id": "455565439",
    "name": "Andrew St",
    "screen_name": "Andypip14"
  },
  {
    "id": "332796322",
    "name": "Andy Pipe",
    "screen_name": "andypipe38"
  },
  {
    "id": "424300699",
    "name": "Felipe Basto",
    "screen_name": "Andypipe98Basto"
  },
  {
    "id": "2894986614",
    "name": "Andy Piper",
    "screen_name": "AndyAndypiper"
  },
  {
    "id": "244145232",
    "name": "andres felipe",
    "screen_name": "andypipe7"
  },
  {
    "id": "427650744",
    "name": "andy pipe",
    "screen_name": "andypipe3"
  },
  {
    "id": "295296501",
    "name": "ANDRES FELIPE BOTINA",
    "screen_name": "andypipe2011"
  },
  {
    "id": "3119979580",
    "name": "andres cardenas",
    "screen_name": "andypipe1207"
  },
  {
    "id": "175910590",
    "name": "Anderson Felipe",
    "screen_name": "andypipe_"
  },
  {
    "id": "2215376413",
    "name": "andy.pip",
    "screen_name": "andypip1"
  },
  {
    "id": "156437723",
    "name": "andres felipe pinzon",
    "screen_name": "andypipe29"
  },
  {
    "id": "4774876672",
    "name": "andy",
    "screen_name": "andypip69"
  },
  {
    "id": "268190008",
    "name": "Philip Piper",
    "screen_name": "andypiper3971"
  },
  {
    "id": "915079999",
    "name": "Andy Piper",
    "screen_name": "andypiper1985"
  },
  {
    "id": "1388227916",
    "name": "andres felipe garzon",
    "screen_name": "andypipe22"
  },
  {
    "id": "1570721150",
    "name": "AndyPipe",
    "screen_name": "daniandi2002"
  },
  {
    "id": "180432443",
    "name": "Andres Felipe",
    "screen_name": "andypipe206"
  },
  {
    "id": "236309993",
    "name": "AndyPipes",
    "screen_name": "xcellxx"
  }
]

validate-tweet.js

// use the twitter-text library to parse and validate a Tweet string
// updated for twitter-text 2.0 new semantics
// npm install twitter-text
// node ./validate-tweet.js

var twitter = require('twitter-text');

var tweet = "123 @andypiper 123456 @mauropiano #winning $TWTR 8901789zz #gnip 0123456789... http://blog.rust-lang.org/2016/05/26/Rust-1.9.html more at http://localhost:3000/notes/595 @juandoming Dallas teachers improved student performance by 20% w/mobile video messaging. Would this be useful to you? stars.now wibble wobble testing #pipes";
//var tweet = "@juandoming Dallas teachers improved student performance by 20% w/mobile video messaging. Would this be useful to you? stars.now"
//var tweet = "testing testing #blog https://andypiper.co.uk"

var parsed = twitter.parseTweet(tweet);

var chars = parsed.weightedLength;
var valid = parsed.valid;
var usernames = twitter.extractMentions(tweet);
var urls = twitter.extractUrls(tweet);
var hash = twitter.extractHashtags(tweet);
var cash = twitter.extractCashtags(tweet);

console.log("text:     " + tweet + "\n");
console.log("validity: " + valid + "\n");
console.log("length:   " + chars);
console.log("users:    " + usernames);
console.log("links:    " + urls);
console.log("hashtags: " + hash);
console.log("cashtags: " + cash);