twitter2return

twitter2return

Richard Wen
[e-mail]

• Documentation

Module for extracting Twitter data using option objects

Install

1. Install Node.js
2. Install twitter2return via npm
3. Recommended: Install dotenv via npm

npm install --save twitter2return
npm install --save dotenv

For the latest developer version, see Developer Install.

Usage

It is recommended to use a .env file at the root of your project directory with the following contents:

• Obtain the keys below from https://apps.twitter.com/
• TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY: Consumer key (API Key)
• TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET: Consumer secret (API secret)
• TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_KEY: Access token
• TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET: Access token secret

TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY=***
TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET=***
TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_KEY=***
TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET=***

The .env file above can be loaded using dotenv:

require('dotenv').config();

See Documentation for more details.

REST API

1. Load .env file variables
2. Load twitter2return
3. Create options object
4. Optionally define Twitter API keys
5. Search keyword twitter from GET search/tweets
6. Apply a jsonata filter for statuses key only
7. Execute twitter2return with the REST API options

require('dotenv').config();

var twitter2return = require('twitter2return');

// (options) Initialize options object
var options = {twitter: {}};

// (options_twitter_rest) Search for keyword 'twitter' in path 'GET search/tweets'
options.twitter.method = 'get'; // get, post, or stream
options.twitter.path = 'search/tweets'; // api path
options.twitter.params = {q: 'twitter'}; // query tweets

// (options_jsonata) Filter for statuses array using jsonata
options.jsonata = 'statuses';

// (twitter2return_rest) Query tweets using REST API
twitter2return(options)
	.then(data => {
		console.log(data);
	}).catch(err => {
		console.error(err.message);
	});

Stream API

1. Load .env file variables
2. Load twitter2return
3. Create options object
4. Optionally define Twitter API keys
5. Track keyword twitter from POST statuses/filter
6. Log the tweets when they are received
7. Execute twitter2return with the Stream API options

require('dotenv').config();

var twitter2return = require('twitter2return');

// (options) Initialize options object
var options = {twitter: {}};

// (options_twitter_connection) Track keyword 'twitter' in path 'POST statuses/filter'
options.twitter.method = 'stream'; // get, post, or stream
options.twitter.path = 'statuses/filter'; // api path
options.twitter.params = {track: 'twitter'}; // query tweets

// (options_twitter_stream) Log the tweets when received
options.twitter.stream = function(err, data) {
	if (err) {console.error(err)};
	console.log(data.twitter.tweets);
};

// (twitter2return_stream) Stream tweets
var stream = twitter2return(options);
stream.on('error', function(error) {
	console.error(error.message);
});

Contributions

1. Reports for issues and suggestions can be made using the issue submission interface.
2. Code contributions are submitted via pull requests

See CONTRIBUTING.md for more details.

Developer Notes

Developer Install

Install the latest developer version with npm from github:

npm install git+https://github.com/rrwen/twitter2return

Install from git cloned source:

1. Ensure git is installed
2. Clone into current path
3. Install via npm

git clone https://github.com/rrwen/twitter2return
cd twitter2return
npm install

Tests

1. Clone into current path git clone https://github.com/rrwen/twitter2return
2. Enter into folder cd twitter2return
3. Ensure devDependencies are installed and available
4. Run tests with a .env file (see tests/README.md)
5. Results are saved to tests/log with each file corresponding to a version tested

npm install
npm test

Documentation

Use documentationjs to generate html documentation in the docs folder:

npm run docs

See JSDoc style for formatting syntax.

Upload to Github

1. Ensure git is installed
2. Inside the twitter2return folder, add all files and commit changes
3. Push to github

git add .
git commit -a -m "Generic update"
git push

Upload to npm

1. Update the version in package.json
2. Run tests and check for OK status (see tests/README.md)
3. Generate documentation
4. Login to npm
5. Publish to npm

npm test
npm run docs
npm login
npm publish

Implementation

The module twitter2return uses the following npm packages for its implementation:

npm	Purpose
twitter	Connections to the Twitter API REST and Streaming Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
jsonata	Query language to filter Twitter JSON data

twitter   <-- Extract Twitter data from API
    |
jsonata   <-- Filter Twitter JSON data