Hi, I started playing with Twitter API.  I have lots of permissions and keys but
no idea how to start using them.

I ultimately want to start using "GET statuses/user_timeline".  I am told to
type in a signature base string, authorization header, and cURL command.  Is
this, um, in Python?  Unfortunately the main page which might explain things
isn't loading.

Can someone recommend a good programming dev environment for the Mac in which I
can use those commands. thanks.

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On Tue, 03 Feb 2015 22:20:38 -0500, gregjohn wrote:

> Hi, I started playing with Twitter API.  I have lots of permissions and
> keys but no idea how to start using them.
> 
> I ultimately want to start using "GET statuses/user_timeline".  I am
> told to type in a signature base string, authorization header, and cURL
> command.  Is this, um, in Python?  Unfortunately the main page which
> might explain things isn't loading.
> 
> Can someone recommend a good programming dev environment for the Mac in
> which I can use those commands. thanks.

Sounds like a REST API. cURL is sometimes used for that from a bash 
prompt.

If you do Python development, have a look at the python-requests package 
- I do a little python/REST work myself for work, and I've found that to 
be the easiest way to handle this - python-requests will manage the 
session, so you only need to perform the authentication once (that's 
usually in addition to the authorization header, which I think includes 
an API key of some sort).

Jim



-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

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Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> On Tue, 03 Feb 2015 22:20:38 -0500, gregjohn wrote:
>
> > Hi, I started playing with Twitter API.  I have lots of permissions and
> > keys but no idea how to start using them.
> >
> > I ultimately want to start using "GET statuses/user_timeline".  I am
> > told to type in a signature base string, authorization header, and cURL
> > command.  Is this, um, in Python?  Unfortunately the main page which
> > might explain things isn't loading.
> >
> > Can someone recommend a good programming dev environment for the Mac in
> > which I can use those commands. thanks.
>
> Sounds like a REST API. cURL is sometimes used for that from a bash
> prompt.
>
> If you do Python development, have a look at the python-requests package
> - I do a little python/REST work myself for work, and I've found that to
> be the easiest way to handle this - python-requests will manage the
> session, so you only need to perform the authentication once (that's
> usually in addition to the authorization header, which I think includes
> an API key of some sort).
>
> Jim
>
>
>
> --
> "I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and
> besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

If you want to see the sources of something close to Twitter, maybe a look at
the diaspora project would help.

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Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> On Tue, 03 Feb 2015 22:20:38 -0500, gregjohn wrote:
>
> > Hi, I started playing with Twitter API.  I have lots of permissions and
> > keys but no idea how to start using them.
> >
> > I ultimately want to start using "GET statuses/user_timeline".  I am
> > told to type in a signature base string, authorization header, and cURL
> > command.  Is this, um, in Python?  Unfortunately the main page which
> > might explain things isn't loading.
> >
> > Can someone recommend a good programming dev environment for the Mac in
> > which I can use those commands. thanks.
>
> Sounds like a REST API. cURL is sometimes used for that from a bash
> prompt.
>
> If you do Python development, have a look at the python-requests package
> - I do a little python/REST work myself for work, and I've found that to
> be the easiest way to handle this - python-requests will manage the
> session, so you only need to perform the authentication once (that's
> usually in addition to the authorization header, which I think includes
> an API key of some sort).
>
> Jim


Okay, thanks!  I just want to grab a big slew of tweets, from 600 individuals
I've pre-selected, "one time", not necessarily make a full-blown application.
But it looks like the API may be the only officially approved way to do so.
(Counterevidence?)    Okay, I'll look at python-requests.   The one thing I do
find quite odd is in a world with dozens of programming environments, they
Twitter API team just dumps code out there with no explanation.

Post a reply to this message

On Sun, 08 Feb 2015 07:49:55 -0500, gregjohn wrote:

> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> On Tue, 03 Feb 2015 22:20:38 -0500, gregjohn wrote:
>>
>> > Hi, I started playing with Twitter API.  I have lots of permissions
>> > and keys but no idea how to start using them.
>> >
>> > I ultimately want to start using "GET statuses/user_timeline".  I am
>> > told to type in a signature base string, authorization header, and
>> > cURL command.  Is this, um, in Python?  Unfortunately the main page
>> > which might explain things isn't loading.
>> >
>> > Can someone recommend a good programming dev environment for the Mac
>> > in which I can use those commands. thanks.
>>
>> Sounds like a REST API. cURL is sometimes used for that from a bash
>> prompt.
>>
>> If you do Python development, have a look at the python-requests
>> package - I do a little python/REST work myself for work, and I've
>> found that to be the easiest way to handle this - python-requests will
>> manage the session, so you only need to perform the authentication once
>> (that's usually in addition to the authorization header, which I think
>> includes an API key of some sort).
>>
>> Jim
> 
> 
> Okay, thanks!  I just want to grab a big slew of tweets, from 600
> individuals I've pre-selected, "one time", not necessarily make a
> full-blown application. But it looks like the API may be the only
> officially approved way to do so. (Counterevidence?)    Okay, I'll look
> at python-requests.   The one thing I do find quite odd is in a world
> with dozens of programming environments, they Twitter API team just
> dumps code out there with no explanation.

That's not an uncommon practice, sadly - SDKs are something that don't 
get nearly enough attention when it comes to documentation.

Part of the problem is, I think, that the people documenting APIs have a 
significant amount of domain knowledge, and don't consider that their 
audience doesn't.

Jim
-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

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On 08/02/2015 08:38 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> Part of the problem is, I think, that the people documenting APIs have a
> significant amount of domain knowledge, and don't consider that their
> audience doesn't.

This is the problem with all technical product documentation, yes.

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On Sun, 08 Feb 2015 20:59:15 +0000, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> On 08/02/2015 08:38 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Part of the problem is, I think, that the people documenting APIs have
>> a significant amount of domain knowledge, and don't consider that their
>> audience doesn't.
> 
> This is the problem with all technical product documentation, yes.

Well, no, not *all* technical product documentation - but certainly a lot 
of it.

Jim
-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

Post a reply to this message