The document outlines a workshop on using the Twitter API, covering topics such as API basics, REST principles, OAuth for accessing protected resources, and request/response anatomy. It highlights the importance of reading documentation and provides resources for further learning. Additionally, it mentions common request methods and the structure of API responses, including status codes.

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

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

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

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

8. 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.

9. What could you build?

11. 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

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

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

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

15. 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?

16. request line
header
body

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 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.

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

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

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

31. Make your own!

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

33. 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