Uncovering a Twitter handle using Twitter API

get_follower_ids.py

import sys
import json
import base64
import tweepy
import time

def is_valid_handle(handle):
    #checks if given handle matches olivia handle specs
    return True if re.compile("^[a-z]{10,}$").match(handle) else False

def is_valid_date(date):
    #might be 2012, she said sophomore year...but said 2011
    #did she skip a grade? smart cookie
    return True if (date.month == 1 and (date.year == 2011)) else False

def is_valid_user(user):
    #olivia probably has default profile and more than 10 favorites
    #does she have profile picture? 
    return is_valid_date(user.created_at) and is_valid_handle(user.screen_name) and not user.following and user.default_profile and user.favourites_count > 10

secrets_file = 'secrets.json'

with open(secrets_file) as secrets_file:
    keys = json.load(secrets_file)

print 'Connecting to Twitter and authenticating'
auth = tweepy.OAuthHandler(keys['consumer_key'], keys['consumer_secret'])
auth.set_access_token(keys['access_token'], keys['access_token_secret'])
api = tweepy.API(auth)

handles = ['Royals', 'FiveThirtyEight', 'Buster_ESPN', 'MLB', 'FoxTV', 'NPR','NYTimes'] #possibly silver's personal handle as well

def wait_a_minute():
    print '\tSleeping for a minute to meet rate limit restrictions'
    sys.stdout.write('\t')
    for i in range(60):
        sys.stdout.write('.')
        sys.stdout.flush()
        time.sleep(1)
    sys.stdout.write('\n')

for handle in handles[1:]:
    print 'Processing', handle
    file_name = handle+'.ids'
    fyle = open(file_name, 'w')
    fyle.write('{')

    cursor = -1
    page_count = 1
    print '\tQuerying for the first page of follower IDs...'
    response = api.followers_ids(id=handle, cursor=cursor)

    while cursor != 0:
        response = api.followers_ids(id=handle, cursor=cursor)
        try:
            ids = response[0]
            fyle.write(str(ids)[1:-1] + ',\n')
            fyle.flush()
            print '\tRecieved page',page_count,'with',len(ids),'IDs!'
            cursor = response[1][1]
            wait_a_minute()
            page_count += 1
        except:
            print 'Excepted!', page_count, cursor, handle
            wait_a_minute()


    fyle.close()

get_follower_ids_old.py

import json
import base64
import requests

def is_valid(handle):
    #checks if given handle matches olivia handle specs
    return True if re.compile("^[a-z]{10,}$").match(handle) else False

get_bearer_token = False
secrets_file = 'secrets.json'
bearer_token_file = 'bearer_token.json'

if get_bearer_token:
    with open(secrets_file) as secrets_file:
        keys = json.load(secrets_file)

    credentials = keys['consumer_key'] + ':' + keys['consumer_secret']
    print credentials
    base64_bearer_token_credentials = base64.b64encode(credentials)
    print base64_bearer_token_credentials

    url = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth2/token'
    headers = {'authorization':'Basic ' + base64_bearer_token_credentials, 'content-type':'application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=UTF-8'}
    payload = 'grant_type=client_credentials'
    response = requests.post(url, headers=headers,data=payload)

    json_bearer_token = json.loads(response.text)
    if 'access_token' in json_bearer_token:
        bearer_token = json_bearer_token['access_token']
        with open(bearer_token_file, 'w') as bearer_token_file_obj:
            bearer_token_file_obj.write("{\"bearer_token\":\"" + bearer_token + "\"}")
        print 'Using bearer token', bearer_token
    else:
        print 'Cannot get bearer token'
        sys.exit(1)
else:
    with open(bearer_token_file) as bearer_token_file:
        bearer_token = json.load(bearer_token_file)['bearer_token']


    print 'Using bearer token:', bearer_token

    handle_1 = '@NYTimes'
    handle_2 = '@FiveThirtyEight' #possibly silver's personal handle as well
    handle_3 = '@MLB'
    handle_4 = '@Buster_ESPN'
    handle_5 = '@FoxTV'
    handle_6 = '@NPR'
    handle_7 = '@Royals'
    handle_8 = '@NPR'

    get_followers(handle_8)

def get_followers(user_id):
    cursor = -1
    authorization_header = 'Bearer ' + bearer_token
    headers = {"authortization":authorization_header}
    url = "https://api.twitter.com/1.1/followers/ids.json?cursor=" + str(cursor) + "&user_id="
    response = requests.get(url, 

Also relevant:

https://gist.github.com/skoppula/1a16e77a13c1e6fc9fe7
https://gist.github.com/skoppula/cd1ec62aa7248bd2ad97