DEV Community: Sumedh Patkar

How to create a Twitter Bot using Node.js and Heroku

Sumedh Patkar — Sat, 25 Jul 2020 14:39:49 +0000

Making a twitter bot is one of the many use cases of using the Twitter API. A bot can be used to enhance your business, assist customers through automated replies, automate retweets for specific terms, and a lot more.
This article is about how I created The Data Science Bot using Node.js.

Apply for Twitter developer account
Create app on twitter
Setup dev environment
Write code in nodejs
Deploy to heroku
How to avoid duplication of retweets

Step 1: Apply for Twitter Developer Account

This is the most important and perhaps the most difficult step according to me.

Login into Twitter
Go to developers.twitter.com and click on 'Apply for a Developer account'
Select the type of application i.e. student/business/hobbyist, etc.
Mention the purpose of your application. Be as specific as you can over here.

Make sure you have read the Developer Agreement and Policy, Automation rules and The Twitter Rules thoroughly before applying.

Failing to meet these conditions will cause your application to be rejected

Read the full article on How to apply for a twitter developer Account

Step 2: Create app on twitter

Once your twitter developer account access has been approved.

Create an APP on apps.twitter.com.
Fill in the required details.
Generate API keys. Click on your apps details and navigate to Keys and tokens

⚠️ Warning (Don't reveal the API keys in any case).

Step 3: Setup Development Environment

Make sure you have Node.js and npm installed on your PC.

For Ubuntu, install using the following commands

sudo apt install nodejs
sudo apt install npm

For other distributions, click here for installation instructions.

Create a directory named your-botname.
In my case, I have named it the-datascience-bot.

To initialize the git environment and install the package twit using npm, enter the following commands inside the your-botname directory:

Congratulations! You have successfully set up your Node.js DEV environment 🎉🎉

Step 4: Code

Firstly, we have to authenticate twit. To do this, we will link our twitter app and code using the generated API keys.

Create a file named config.js.
Put the following code in your config.js file

config.js

Put your keys copied from your twitter apps dashboard.

Next, we write the code for the bot in a file bot.js.

Here is the code.

bot.js

const config = require('./config')
const twit =  require('twit')

const T = new twit(config)

function retweet(searchText) {
    // Params to be passed to the 'search/tweets' API endpoint
    let params = {
        q : searchText + '',
        result_type : 'mixed',
        count : 25,
    }

    T.get('search/tweets', params, function(err_search, data_search, response_search){

        let tweets = data_search.statuses
        if (!err_search)
        {
            let tweetIDList = []
            for(let tweet of tweets) {
                tweetIDList.push(tweet.id_str);

                //more code here later...
            }

            // Call the 'statuses/retweet/:id' API endpoint for retweeting EACH of the tweetID
            for (let tweetID of tweetIDList) {
                T.post('statuses/retweet/:id', {id : tweetID}, function(err_rt, data_rt, response_rt){
                    if(!err_rt){
                        console.log("\n\nRetweeted! ID - " + tweetID)
                    }
                    else {
                        console.log("\nError... Duplication maybe... " + tweetID)
                        console.log("Error = " + err_rt)
                    }
                })
            }
        }
        else {
            console.log("Error while searching" + err_search)
            process.exit(1)
        }
    })
}

// Run every 60 seconds
setInterval(function() { retweet('#DataScience OR #DataVisualization'); }, 60000)

Let's break it down.

We initialize the twit object using our configuration details from config.js
The retweet function first calls the search/tweets API endpoint for the given search query. In my case, it is '#DataScience OR #DataVisualization'
We pass the following parameters to search API
- q: The search query
- result_type: 'mixed' for latest as well as popular older tweets
- count: number of tweets to retrieve at once
The retrieved JSON object has the list of tweets having either #DataScience or #DataVisualization in it.

-We then pass each of the tweet IDs to the statuses/retweet/:id API endpoint, which retweets the tweet.

Detailed API reference guides for Search and Retweet.

Test the bot locally using the following command:

node bot.js

Your Twitter timeline should show the retweets.

Try debugging on the console if it doesn't work.

Step 5: Deploy to Heroku

Create an account on Heroku
Create an app named 'your-botname' on Heroku

Make sure the name of your local project directory is exactly the same as your Heroku project name.

Install heroku-cli on your pc

If you have an Ubuntu/Debian based distribution, then use the following command to install heroku-cli

curl https://cli-assets.heroku.com/install-ubuntu.sh | sh

For other environments, the installation instructions can be found here

Create a file named 'Procfile' having the following code

Procfile

worker: node bot.js

$ heroku login

This will open a login link on heroku, where you have to enter your password.

Deploy to Heroku using these commands

One last step

Start the worker dyno on Heroku.
Go to dashboard.heroku.com/apps and click on your bot app.

Then, click on configure Dynos

Start the worker dyno and click on confirm

And your bot is Ready! 🎉🎉

Step 6: How to avoid duplication of retweets

Add the following code in the for loop where we wrote
//more code here later..

Check duplication

Then outside the loop -

// Utility function - Gives unique elements from an array
function onlyUnique(value, index, self) { 
    return self.indexOf(value) === index;
}

// Get only unique entries
tweetIDList = tweetIDList.filter( onlyUnique )

The utility function onlyUnique can be written outside the retweet function as well.

This will let our bot avoid duplicate retweets.

Short explanation of the above code

Each tweet has a unique property id_str.
If you retweet someone's tweet, it has a different id_str.
The search API finds both the original tweet and the retweeted ones.
When we call the statuses/retweet/:id API endpoint, it retweets all of them.
To a novice Twitter user, it looks like your bot has retweeted the same stuff two or more times.

Something like this 👇

If tweet text starts with "RT @" then it is a retweeted tweet, with a different id_str than the original. We take the id_str of the original tweet and filter duplicates using the onlyUnique function

There are a lot more things you can do with the API. Check out the API reference(https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/api-reference-index) for more details.

Source Code -

The full source code can be accessed here

Sumedh-Patkar / the-datascience-bot

A Twitter bot for retweeting tweets having hashtags #DataScience, #DataVisualization

the-datascience-bot

A Twitter bot for retweeting tweets having hashtags #DataScience, #DataVisualization

View on GitHub

The Data Science Bot 🤖

The bot retweets tweets having hashtags #DataScience and #DataVisualization

Here is the link to my bot https://twitter.com/datasciencebot_

// Detect dark theme var iframe = document.getElementById('tweet-1280069048202477568-524'); if (document.body.className.includes('dark-theme')) { iframe.src = "https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1280069048202477568&theme=dark" }

Alright, that's it!

This was my first tech article on the Developer community.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for reading! 😊

Beginners Guide - How to apply for a Twitter Developer account

Sumedh Patkar — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 10:56:45 +0000

Twitter is one of the biggest social networks in the world, used by millions of users worldwide, who create around half a billion tweets per day!

Twitter API provides companies, developers, and users with programmatic access to Twitter public data which users have agreed to share with the world.

For newbies, think of an API as a 'middleman service' which acts as an intermediary between your code and Twitter's Database.

Use Cases:

One can use the Twitter API for enhancing their business, advertising or simply exploring the API.

Some use cases are

Data Analytics
Making a twitter bot for automated replies
Publishing and Curating
Advertisement campaign

Detailed information about the Twitter API and use cases here

For getting a Developer account, follow these steps -

Create an account on Twitter

Go to Twitter and log in or sign up for an account which you would use for development.

It is recommended to create a separate account for your twitter application. Especially if you are applying for enhancing your business, for creating a bot or a web-hosted app.

Apply for access

Go to developers.twitter.com and click on Apply
On the next page, click on Apply for a Developer account

Specify the type of application

In the next step, you will have to enter the purpose of your twitter developer account

The first category is Professional which is generally used by business teams to enhance their business process.

The other 3 categories are Hobbyist, Student and Other which are for Individual developer account

Categories of Developer accounts

Individual dev account vs Team dev account

Decide which category your account falls into, and then select the appropriate one.

If you chose a team developer account, which is for professionals, then you will have to specify your organization's details as seen in the above image.

Specify Intended use

In this step, you have to specify the use case for your application.

Be as specific as you can while specifying your intended use of the Twitter API

The more specific you are, the better are your chances of getting approval.

IMPORTANT❗ READ ALL THE guidelines before applying

Make sure you have read the Developer Agreement and Policy, Automation rules and The Twitter Rules thoroughly before applying.

It consists of the DOs and DON'Ts of how to use the Twitter API.

It's a pain in the neck to read the entire thing, so I have summarized it for you.

Summary

Reverse Engineering - Don't try to reverse engineer the Twitter API. Do not try to sell, lease, distribute, or provide access to any licensed material to a third-party.
Security - Never give away your account's API keys (The ones which you generate after creating an app)
Rate limits - Don't call the Twitter API endpoints beyond the specified rate limits. In short, don't spam. The rate limits of individual endpoints can be found in Twitter API reference.
Location Data - This data can only be used to identify the tagged location of Twitter content like tweets, retweets, DMs, and more.
Use of Twitter Marks - Don't use the Twitter Logo for this account
Automation Guidelines - Automated liking, automated bulk following, and automated adding to lists or collections are discouraged.

⚠️ Failing to meet these conditions will cause your application to be rejected

Review, confirm the application, and wait!

⚠️ Note: Once you submit your application, it cannot be edited. So make sure you have reviewed it properly.

Also, take a screenshot of the 'review application' page, so that you can view it later.

It usually takes a day or two, or sometimes more, for your application to be reviewed by Twitter.

After you receive the E-mail:

Twitter can send you three types of emails -

✅ Approved developer account
❌ Application rejected
🔶 Review - They will ask you to review your application since it violates one or more sections of their policies.

In the third case, you will have to read which parts of the developer policies are being violated, amend your application so that it complies with those policies, and submit it by replying to the same email.

The screenshot of the 'review application' page which you took will come in handy over here since you can't view it on the website again.

What next?

If your application gets approved, Congratulations! 😀 🎉 You can now develop apps, improve your skills, and showcase your projects done using the Twitter API.

If it gets rejected - Hard luck! 🙁 Twitter doesn't specify why they rejected an application.

That's it. All the best with your application!
And Happy Coding!

BTW, This is my first article on the Dev Community. 🎉
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments 😇

ELI5: Why was Deno necessary when we had Node.js

Sumedh Patkar — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 17:46:58 +0000

Can anyone explain to me like I'm five - Why deno was created when nodejs existed?

Consider me as a beginner who has written 3-4 server-side programs in node.

P.S. - Please don't post a link to Ryan Dahl's video

Test post

Sumedh Patkar — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 16:38:30 +0000

Hey everyone!

DEV Community: Sumedh Patkar

How to create a Twitter Bot using Node.js and Heroku

Table Of Contents

Step 1: Apply for Twitter Developer Account

Step 2: Create app on twitter

Step 3: Setup Development Environment

Step 4: Code

config.js

bot.js

Step 5: Deploy to Heroku

Procfile

One last step

And your bot is Ready! 🎉🎉

Step 6: How to avoid duplication of retweets

Check duplication

Something like this 👇

Source Code -

Sumedh-Patkar / the-datascience-bot

A Twitter bot for retweeting tweets having hashtags #DataScience, #DataVisualization

the-datascience-bot

The Data Science Bot 🤖

Beginners Guide - How to apply for a Twitter Developer account

Use Cases:

Create an account on Twitter

Apply for access

Specify the type of application

Categories of Developer accounts

Individual dev account vs Team dev account

Specify Intended use

IMPORTANT❗ READ ALL THE guidelines before applying

Summary

Review, confirm the application, and wait!

After you receive the E-mail:

What next?

ELI5: Why was Deno necessary when we had Node.js

Test post