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Twitter from the command line in Python using OAuth - step-by-step howto

55 points by jmillerinc 16y ago

paulgb 16y ago
Thanks Jeff, this is exactly what I've been looking for. I found out about twitter killing basic auth today, but all the documentation seems to assume you have a web app. I just run a simple RSS scraper to twitter feed script on a cron job, so this is helpful.
- mshafrir 16y ago
  Once I have generated an ACCESS_KEY and ACCESS_SECRET, when will they expire? Is there any way to programmatically grant/approve OAuth access so that expired access key and access secret can be generated as needed?
  - jmillerinc 16y ago
    Twitter says they "do not currently expire access tokens." http://apiwiki.twitter.com/OAuth-FAQ http://apiwiki.twitter.com/OAuth-FAQ Who knows what they will do in the future. I don't know of any easy way to programatically grant OAuth access.
cmelbye 16y ago
I wonder how difficult it would be to implement xAuth. Presumably, the configuration for username/password could be left intact because xAuth is performed by giving the username/password.
ck2 16y ago
After setting up Twitter which uses OAuth 1.0, try Facebook's OAuth 2.0 - it's amazingly easy in comparison since it doesn't use secrets, simply relying on HTTPS's SSL encryption instead. http://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/ http://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/ Soooo much easier.
pilif 16y ago
This just goes to show how badly suited OAuth is for desktop applications: Basically, what ever you do, you will need to direct your users over to a browser (or embed one) and they'll have to deal with strange "passcodes" or whatever you want to call it. This is much more difficult for a user to understand ("why can I give twitter my password, but in this client here, I have to do this strange dance? What am I supposed to do now?"). In most of the client apps, the issue of having to enter your password is a non-issue as there's no need for a third-party to know it. In the case of desktop apps, IMHO, OAuth does nothing but makes the lives of both client developers and users harder.
- hboon 16y ago
  There's XAuth which helps with this issue so that opening a browser is not needed.
  - semanticist 16y ago
    Yes, but you need to ask Twitter nicely to see if they'll let you use it.
    - hboon 16y ago
      It looks like they'll grant it if you have a mobile app. (I do and they did).
jot 16y ago
Twitter have released a nice curl-like tool for using OAuth on the command line, it's called twurl: http://github.com/marcel/twurl http://github.com/marcel/twurl

55 points by jmillerinc 16y ago

Thanks Jeff, this is exactly what I've been looking for. I found out about twitter killing basic auth today, but all the documentation seems to assume you have a web app. I just run a simple RSS scraper to twitter feed script on a cron job, so this is helpful.

mshafrir 16y ago
Once I have generated an ACCESS_KEY and ACCESS_SECRET, when will they expire? Is there any way to programmatically grant/approve OAuth access so that expired access key and access secret can be generated as needed?
- jmillerinc 16y ago
  Twitter says they "do not currently expire access tokens." http://apiwiki.twitter.com/OAuth-FAQ http://apiwiki.twitter.com/OAuth-FAQ Who knows what they will do in the future. I don't know of any easy way to programatically grant OAuth access.

cmelbye 16y ago

I wonder how difficult it would be to implement xAuth. Presumably, the configuration for username/password could be left intact because xAuth is performed by giving the username/password.

ck2 16y ago

After setting up Twitter which uses OAuth 1.0, try Facebook's OAuth 2.0 - it's amazingly easy in comparison since it doesn't use secrets, simply relying on HTTPS's SSL encryption instead. http://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/ http://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/ Soooo much easier.

pilif 16y ago

This just goes to show how badly suited OAuth is for desktop applications: Basically, what ever you do, you will need to direct your users over to a browser (or embed one) and they'll have to deal with strange "passcodes" or whatever you want to call it. This is much more difficult for a user to understand ("why can I give twitter my password, but in this client here, I have to do this strange dance? What am I supposed to do now?"). In most of the client apps, the issue of having to enter your password is a non-issue as there's no need for a third-party to know it. In the case of desktop apps, IMHO, OAuth does nothing but makes the lives of both client developers and users harder.

hboon 16y ago
There's XAuth which helps with this issue so that opening a browser is not needed.
- semanticist 16y ago
  Yes, but you need to ask Twitter nicely to see if they'll let you use it.
  - hboon 16y ago
    It looks like they'll grant it if you have a mobile app. (I do and they did).

jot 16y ago

Twitter have released a nice curl-like tool for using OAuth on the command line, it's called twurl: http://github.com/marcel/twurl http://github.com/marcel/twurl