hnpy

hnpy

a Hacker News API wrapper written in Python

|Build Status| |Coverage Status|

Purpose

This was written with the goal of sticking close to the API in terms of naming and structure, but with the added benefits that come with using Python objects.

Installation

Use one of the following, depending on how your system is configured:

.. code:: shell

pip install hnpy
pip3 install hnpy
python3 -m pip install hnpy

Usage

Create an instance of the main class like this:

.. code:: python

import hnpy

hn = hnpy.HackerNews()

Items

If you know an item’s ID, you can access it like this:

.. code:: python

    post = hn.item(8863)

An Item can be one of five types: “job”, “story”, “comment”, “poll”, or
“pollopt.” You can determine its type by accessing ``post.type``.

Item objects are loaded lazily, meaning they only make network requests
when information that they don’t already have is needed.

Items can be checked for equality against other Items or against the ID
in ``int`` or ``str`` form.

Items have various attributes which depend on their type. You can use
``hasattr()`` to programmatically determine whether a certain Item has
an attribute or not. More on attributes
`here <https://github.com/HackerNews/API#items>`__. Attribute names in
hnpy are copied from field names in the API.

Items have five special attributes:

+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Attribute name                    | Explanation                       |
+===================================+===================================+
| content                           | The “meat” of the Item —          |
|                                   | ``text``, ``url``, or ``title``,  |
|                                   | with a fallback to an empty       |
|                                   | string if none exist.             |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| link                              | URL to access the Item.           |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| parent                            | Item that this one replies to     |
|                                   | (not always present).             |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| poll                              | Item of type ``poll`` that this   |
|                                   | one belongs to (only present on   |
|                                   | ``pollopt`` Items).               |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| by                                | User who created this Item.       |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

The ``link`` and ``content`` attributes are noted here because the API
does not directly provide them, so they are not documented elsewhere.
The ``parent``, ``poll`` and ``by`` attributes are noted because they
contain fully-featured, lazily-loaded Items as opposed to just the IDs
that the API responds with. The rest of an Items attributes are
delivered in the same format that they are received from the API.

The attributes can be accessed like so:

.. code:: python

    post.content
    post.link
    post.parent
    post.poll
    post.by

Items also have 2 special methods which iterate and deliver Items. Each
takes an optional ``limit=`` parameter which defaults to 25.

+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Method name                       | Use                               |
+===================================+===================================+
| kids()                            | Iterate over the comments that    |
|                                   | reply to this Item.               |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| parts()                           | Iterate over the options of this  |
|                                   | Item (only present on ``poll``    |
|                                   | types).                           |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

The methods can be used like this:

.. code:: python

    for kid in post.kids(limit=5):
        print(kid.content)
    for opt in post.parts():
        print(opt.content)

Listings

You can use hnpy to view the following listings provided by Hacker News:

• Top (this is the view shown on the homepage of Hacker News)
• Best
• New
• Ask HN Stories
• Show HN Stories
• Job Stories

Just like the special methods of an Item, these methods of a HackerNews object take an optional limit= parameter. They iterate over the specified listing, yielding lazy Items as they go.

Example:

.. code:: python

for post in hn.best(limit=5):
    print(post.link)

The method names are:

• top()
• best()
• new()
• ask()
• show()
• jobs()

Users

A User can be created from a user’s name using the ``HackerNews.user()``
method:

.. code:: python

    user = hn.user('jl')

Besides the attributes `noted in the Hacker News API
documentation <https://github.com/HackerNews/API#users>`__, Users
contain the following attributes and methods:

+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Attribute/method name             | Purpose                           |
+===================================+===================================+
| link                              | A URL to view the User’s profile  |
|                                   | online.                           |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| submitted()                       | Iterate over Items created by the |
|                                   | user, with optional ``limit=``    |
|                                   | parameter.                        |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

Misc
~~~~

The HackerNews object has a method ``updates()`` which returns an
Updates object, which has iterating methods just like those of other
objects (optional ``limit=`` parameter, objects yielded) which give the
most recently changed item and profiles (more info
`here <https://github.com/HackerNews/API#changed-items-and-profiles>`__).
Its two methods are ``items()`` and ``profiles()``.

The HackerNews object also has a method ``max_item()`` which returns a
lazy version of the newest Item.

Credits
-------

This package came originally from my `A
Bot <https://github.com/jarhill0/abot>`__ project. It was adapted to
support lazy loading of objects, and as a consequence has only four
classes (HackerNews, Item, User, Updates), rather than having a class
for every type of Item with a complex inheritance model. This version
also supports Users and Updates, which the old version did not.

This package was inspired by the Python Reddit API Wrapper aka PRAW
(`docs <https://praw.readthedocs.io/en/latest/>`__/`source <https://github.com/praw-dev/praw/>`__)
in its use of objects and iteration methods and ``limit=`` parameters.

.. |Build Status| image:: https://travis-ci.org/jarhill0/hnpy.svg?branch=master
   :target: https://travis-ci.org/jarhill0/hnpy
.. |Coverage Status| image:: https://coveralls.io/repos/github/jarhill0/hnpy/badge.svg?branch=master
   :target: https://coveralls.io/github/jarhill0/hnpy?branch=master