1.
Fun! with the Twitter API
Stephanie Kim, @stephlkim
Erin Shellman, @erinshellman
!
June 30, 2014
Seattle PyLadies presents…

2.
Every other Monday.
http://www.meetup.com/Seattle-PyLadies/

3.
Intro to Python
http://www.meetup.com/Girl-Develop-It-Seattle/

4.
APIs describe how
software communicates
• Application Programming Interfaces often come in
the form of a module containing specialized
classes.

5.
REST APIs interface consumers
with resources on a server
• Representational state transfer (REST)
• REST APIs are specifications of remote calls
exposed to API consumers.
1. Separate client from server.
2. Stateless.
3. Use HTTP/HTTPS.

6.
What could you build?

7.
OAuth
OAuth is an open standard that
allows us to access protected
resources hosted by a resource
server.
https://dev.twitter.com/docs/auth/authorizing-request

8.
Lets get some tokens!
https://apps.twitter.com/

9.
Reading documentation is 90%
https://dev.twitter.com/docs/api/1.1

10.
Request verbs
• There are 5 common methods a client can apply to a
resource:
• GET
• HEAD
• POST
• PUT
• DELETE

11.
The anatomy of a request
• Request Line - Tells the server what type of
request is being sent (e.g. GET, POST, PUT, DELETE)
• Header - Send over any required values, like
security tokens.
• Body - What resource are you asking for?

12.
request line
header
body

13.
Responses
• A successful request to the server results in a
response, hopefully containing the resource you
requested.
• The response will contain a 3-digit status code
starting with 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.

14.
Response Codes
• 1__: Working on the request.
• 2__: Everything’”⁹s cool.
• 3__: Everything’”⁹s cool, but something else is
happening.
• 4__: Oh man, not cool.
• 5__: The server errored out.
See: https://dev.twitter.com/docs/error-codes-responses

15.
The response also has a
response line, header and body
• Similarly to the request, a response contains a
response line, a header and a body.

16.
https://github.com/Seattle-PyLadies/TwitterApiWorkshop

17.
https://dev.twitter.com/docs/api/1.1/get/statuses/retweets_of_me

18.
https://dev.twitter.com/docs/api/1.1/post/statuses/update

19.
Make your own!

20.
Teaser for next time:
http://it-stinks.herokuapp.com/

21.
Resources
1. Programmable Web. http://
www.programmableweb.com/
2. Designing a RESTful API with Flask. http://
blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/designing-a-restful-api-with-
python-and-flask
3. Cool mashups made possible with APIs. http://
mashable.com/2009/10/08/top-mashups/
4. Great book about REST APIs. http://www.amazon.com/
RESTful-Web-APIs-Leonard-Richardson-ebook/dp/
B00F5BS966