Twython

Twython is a Python library providing an easy way to access Twitter data. Supports Python 3. It's been battle tested by companies, educational institutions and individuals alike. Try it today!

Note: As of Twython 3.7.0, there's a general call for maintainers put out. If you find the project useful and want to help out, reach out to Ryan with the info from the bottom of this README. Great open source project to get your feet wet with!

Features

• Query data for:
  • User information
  • Twitter lists
  • Timelines
  • Direct Messages
  • and anything found in the docs
• Image Uploading:
  • Update user status with an image
  • Change user avatar
  • Change user background image
  • Change user banner image
• OAuth 2 Application Only (read-only) Support
• Support for Twitter's Streaming API
• Seamless Python 3 support!

Installation

Install Twython via pip:

$ pip install twython

If you're on a legacy project that needs Python 2.7 support, you can install the last version of Twython that supported 2.7:

pip install twython==3.7.0`

Or, if you want the code that is currently on GitHub:

git clone git://github.com/ryanmcgrath/twython.git
cd twython
python setup.py install

Documentation

Documentation is available at https://twython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Starting Out

First, you'll want to head over to https://apps.twitter.com and register an application!

After you register, grab your applications Consumer Key and Consumer Secret from the application details tab.

The most common type of authentication is Twitter user authentication using OAuth 1. If you're a web app planning to have users sign up with their Twitter account and interact with their timelines, updating their status, and stuff like that this is the authentication for you!

First, you'll want to import Twython

from twython import Twython

Obtain Authorization URL

Now, you'll want to create a Twython instance with your Consumer Key and Consumer Secret:

• Only pass callback_url to get_authentication_tokens if your application is a Web Application
• Desktop and Mobile Applications do not require a callback_url

APP_KEY = 'YOUR_APP_KEY'
APP_SECRET = 'YOUR_APP_SECRET'

twitter = Twython(APP_KEY, APP_SECRET)

auth = twitter.get_authentication_tokens(callback_url='http://mysite.com/callback')

From the auth variable, save the oauth_token and oauth_token_secret for later use (these are not the final auth tokens). In Django or other web frameworks, you might want to store it to a session variable

OAUTH_TOKEN = auth['oauth_token']
OAUTH_TOKEN_SECRET = auth['oauth_token_secret']

Send the user to the authentication url, you can obtain it by accessing

auth['auth_url']

Handling the Callback

If your application is a Desktop or Mobile Application oauth_verifier will be the PIN code

After they authorize your application to access some of their account details, they'll be redirected to the callback url you specified in get_authentication_tokens.

You'll want to extract the oauth_verifier from the url.

Django example:

oauth_verifier = request.GET['oauth_verifier']

Now that you have the oauth_verifier stored to a variable, you'll want to create a new instance of Twython and grab the final user tokens

twitter = Twython(
    APP_KEY, APP_SECRET,
    OAUTH_TOKEN, OAUTH_TOKEN_SECRET
)

final_step = twitter.get_authorized_tokens(oauth_verifier)

Once you have the final user tokens, store them in a database for later use::

    OAUTH_TOKEN = final_step['oauth_token']
    OAUTH_TOKEN_SECRET = final_step['oauth_token_secret']

For OAuth 2 (Application Only, read-only) authentication, see our documentation.

Dynamic Function Arguments

Keyword arguments to functions are mapped to the functions available for each endpoint in the Twitter API docs. Doing this allows us to be incredibly flexible in querying the Twitter API, so changes to the API aren't held up from you using them by this library.

Basic Usage

Function definitions (i.e. get_home_timeline()) can be found by reading over twython/endpoints.py

Create a Twython instance with your application keys and the users OAuth tokens

from twython import Twython
twitter = Twython(APP_KEY, APP_SECRET, OAUTH_TOKEN, OAUTH_TOKEN_SECRET)

Authenticated Users Home Timeline

twitter.get_home_timeline()

Updating Status

This method makes use of dynamic arguments, read more about them.

twitter.update_status(status='See how easy using Twython is!')

Advanced Usage

• Advanced Twython Usage
• Streaming with Twython

Questions, Comments, etc?

My hope is that Twython is so simple that you'd never have to ask any questions, but if you feel the need to contact me for this (or other) reasons, you can hit me up at [email protected].

Or if I'm to busy to answer, feel free to ping [email protected] as well.

Follow us on Twitter:

• @ryanmcgrath
• @mikehelmick

Want to help?

Twython is useful, but ultimately only as useful as the people using it (say that ten times fast!). If you'd like to help, write example code, contribute patches, document things on the wiki, tweet about it. Your help is always appreciated!

History

3.8.0 (2020-04-02)

• Bump release with latest patches from GitHub.
• Fix Direct Messages with patches from @manuelcortez.

3.7.0 (2018-07-05)

• Fixes for cursoring API endpoints
• Improve html_for_tweet() parsing
• Documentation cleanup
• Documentation for cursor's return_pages keyword argument
• Update links to Twitter API in documentation
• Added create_metadata endpoint
• Raise error for when cursor is not provided a callable

3.6.0 (2017-23-08)

• Improve replacing of entities with links in html_for_tweet()
• Update classifiers for PyPI

3.5.0 (2017-06-06)

• Added support for "symbols" in Twython.html_for_tweet()
• Added support for extended tweets in Twython.html_for_tweet()
• You can now check progress of video uploads to Twitter when using Twython.upload_video()

3.4.0 (2016-30-04)

• Added upload_video endpoint
• Fix quoted status checks in html_for_tweet
• Fix html_for_tweet method response when hashtag/mention is a substring of another

3.3.0 (2015-18-07)

• Added support for muting users
• Fix typos in documentation
• Updated documentation examples
• Added dynamic filtering to streamer

3.2.0 (2014-10-30)

• PEP8'd some code
• Added lookup_status function to endpoints.py
• Added keyword argument to cursor to return full pages rather than individual results
• cursor now uses while loop rather than recursion
• Fixed issue where Twython was unnecessarily disabling compression
• Using responses to mock API calls in tests
• Fixed some typos in documentation
• Added retry_after attribute to TwythonRateLimitError
• Added upload_media method to Twython in favor of update_with_media
• Deprecating update_with_media per Twitter API 1.1 (https://dev.twitter.com/rest/reference/post/statuses/update_with_media)
• Unpin requests and requests-oauthlib in requirements.txt

3.1.2 (2013-12-05)

• Fixed Changelog (HISTORY.rst)

3.1.1 (2013-12-05)

• Update requests version to 2.1.0.
• Fixed: Streaming issue where Exceptions in handlers or on_success which subclass ValueError would previously be caught and reported as a JSON decoding problem, and on_error() would be called (with status_code=200)
• Fixed issue where XML was returned when bad tokens were passed to get_authorized_tokens
• Fixed import for setup causing installation to fail on some devices (eg. Nokia N9/MeeGo)

3.1.0 (2013-09-25)

• Added html_for_tweet static method. This method accepts a tweet object returned from a Twitter API call and will return a string with urls, mentions and hashtags in the tweet replaced with HTML.
• Pass client_args to the streaming __init__, much like in core Twython (you can pass headers, timeout, hooks, proxies, etc.).
• Streamer has new parameter handlers which accepts a list of strings related to functions that are apart of the Streaming class and start with "on_". i.e. ['delete'] is passed, when 'delete' is received from a stream response; on_delete will be called.
• When an actual request error happens and a RequestException is raised, it is caught and a TwythonError is raised instead for convenience.
• Added "cursor"-like functionality. Endpoints with the attribute iter_mode will be able to be passed to Twython.cursor and returned as a generator.
• Twython.search_gen has been deprecated. Please use twitter.cursor(twitter.search, q='your_query') instead, where twitter is your Twython instance.
• Added methods get_list_memberships, get_twitter_configuration, get_supported_languages, get_privacy_policy, get_tos
• Added auth_endpoint parameter to Twython.__init__ for cases when the right parameters weren't being shown during the authentication step.
• Fixed streaming issue where results wouldn't be returned for streams that weren't so active (See https://github.com/ryanmcgrath/twython/issues/202#issuecomment-19915708)
• Streaming API now uses _transparent_params so when passed True or False or an array, etc. Twython formats it to meet Twitter parameter standards (i.e. ['ryanmcgrath', 'mikehelmick', 'twitterapi'] would convert to string 'ryanmcgrath,mikehelmick,twitterapi')

3.0.0 (2013-06-18)

• Changed twython/twython.py to twython/api.py in attempt to make structure look a little neater
• Removed all camelCase function access (anything like getHomeTimeline is now get_home_timeline)
• Removed shorten_url. With the requests library, shortening a URL on your own is simple enough
• twitter_token, twitter_secret and callback_url are no longer passed to Twython.__init__
  • twitter_token and twitter_secret have been replaced with app_key and app_secret respectively
  • callback_url is now passed through Twython.get_authentication_tokens
• Update test_twython.py docstrings per http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/
• Removed get_list_memberships, method is Twitter API 1.0 deprecated
• Developers can now pass an array as a parameter to Twitter API methods and they will be automatically joined by a comma and converted to a string
• endpoints.py now contains EndpointsMixin (rather than the previous api_table dict) for Twython, which enables Twython to use functions declared in the Mixin.
• Added OAuth 2 authentication (Application Only) for when you want to make read-only calls to Twitter without having to go through the whole user authentication ritual (see docs for usage)
• Added obtain_access_token to obtain an OAuth 2 Application Only read-only access token
• construct_api_url now accepts keyword arguments like other Twython methods (e.g. instead of passing {'q': 'twitter', 'result_type': 'recent'}, pass q='twitter', result_type='recent')
• Pass client_args to the Twython __init__ to manipulate request variables. client_args accepts a dictionary of keywords and values that accepted by requests (Session API <http://docs.python-requests.org/en/latest/api/#sessionapi>_) [ex. headers, proxies, verify(SSL verification)] and the "request" section directly below it.
• Added get_application_rate_limit_status API method for returning the current rate limits for the specified source
• Added invalidate_token API method which allows registed apps to revoke an access token presenting its client credentials
• get_lastfunction_header now accepts a default_return_value parameter. This means that if you pass a second value (ex. Twython.get_lastfunction_header('x-rate-limit-remaining', 0)) and the value is not found, it returns your default value

2.10.1 (2013-05-29)

• More test coverage!
• Fix search_gen
• Fixed get_lastfunction_header to actually do what its docstring says, returns None if header is not found
• Updated some internal API code, __init__ didn't need to have self.auth and self.headers because they were never used anywhere else but the __init__
• Added disconnect method to TwythonStreamer, allowing users to disconnect as they desire
• Updated TwythonStreamError docstring, also allow importing it from twython
• No longer raise TwythonStreamError when stream line can't be decoded. Instead, sends signal to TwythonStreamer.on_error
• Allow for (int, long, float) params to be passed to Twython Twitter API functions in Python 2, and (int, float) in Python 3

2.10.0 (2013-05-21)

• Added get_retweeters_ids method
• Fixed TwythonDeprecationWarning on camelCase functions if the camelCase was the same as the PEP8 function (i.e. Twython.retweet did not change)
• Fixed error message bubbling when error message returned from Twitter was not an array (i.e. if you try to retweet something twice, the error is not found at index 0)
• Added "transparent" parameters for making requests, meaning users can pass bool values (True, False) to Twython methods and we convert your params in the background to satisfy the Twitter API. Also, file objects can now be passed seamlessly (see examples in README and in /examples dir for details)
• Callback URL is optional in get_authentication_tokens to accomedate those using OOB authorization (non web clients)
• Not part of the python package, but tests are now available along with Travis CI hooks
• Added __repr__ definition for Twython, when calling only returning <Twython: APP_KEY>
• Cleaned up Twython.construct_api_url, uses "transparent" parameters (see 4th bullet in this version for explaination)
• Update requests and requests-oauthlib requirements, fixing posting files AND post data together, making authenticated requests in general in Python 3.3

2.9.1 (2013-05-04)

• "PEP8" all the functions. Switch functions from camelCase() to underscore_funcs(). (i.e. updateStatus() is now update_status())

2.9.0 (2013-05-04)

• Fixed streaming issue #144, added TwythonStreamer to aid users in a friendly streaming experience (streaming examples in examples and README's have been updated as well)
• Twython now requires requests-oauthlib 0.3.1, fixes #154 (unable to upload media when sending POST data with the file)

2.8.0 (2013-04-29)

• Added a HISTORY.rst to start tracking history of changes
• Updated twitter_endpoints.py to endpoints.py for cleanliness
• Removed twython3k directory, no longer needed
• Added compat.py for compatability with Python 2.6 and greater
• Added some ascii art, moved description of Twython and __author__ to __init__.py
• Added version.py to store the current Twython version, instead of repeating it twice -- it also had to go into it's own file because of dependencies of requests and requests-oauthlib, install would fail because those libraries weren't installed yet (on fresh install of Twython)
• Removed find_packages() from setup.py, only one package (we can just define it)
• added quick publish method for Ryan and I: python setup.py publish is faster to type and easier to remember than python setup.py sdist upload
• Removed base_url from endpoints.py because we're just repeating it in Twython.__init__
• Twython.get_authentication_tokens() now takes callback_url argument rather than passing the callback_url through Twython.__init__, callback_url is only used in the get_authentication_tokens method and nowhere else (kept in init though for backwards compatability)
• Updated README to better reflect current Twython codebase
• Added warnings.simplefilter('default') line in twython.py for Python 2.7 and greater to display Deprecation Warnings in console
• Added Deprecation Warnings for usage of twitter_token, twitter_secret and callback_url in Twython.__init__
• Headers now always include the User-Agent as Twython vXX unless User-Agent is overwritten
• Removed senseless TwythonError thrown if method is not GET or POST, who cares -- if the user passes something other than GET or POST just let Twitter return the error that they messed up
• Removed conversion to unicode of (int, bool) params passed to a requests. requests isn't greedy about variables that can't be converted to unicode anymore
• Removed bulkUserLookup (please use lookupUser instead), removed getProfileImageUrl (will be completely removed from Twitter API on May 7th, 2013)
• Updated shortenUrl to actually work for those using it, but it is being deprecated since requests makes it easy for developers to implement their own url shortening in their app (see https://github.com/ryanmcgrath/twython/issues/184)
• Twython Deprecation Warnings will now be seen in shell when using Python 2.7 and greater
• Twython now takes ssl_verify parameter, defaults True. Set False if you're having development server issues
• Removed internal _media_update function, we could have always just used self.post

2.7.3 (2013-04-12)

• Fixed issue where Twython Exceptions were not being logged correctly

2.7.2 (2013-04-08)

• Fixed AttributeError when trying to decode the JSON response via Response.json()

2.7.1 (2013-04-08)

• Removed simplejson dependency
• Fixed destroyDirectMessage, createBlock, destroyBlock endpoints in twitter_endpoints.py
• Added getProfileBannerSizes method to twitter_endpoints.py
• Made oauth_verifier argument required in get_authorized_tokens
• Update updateProfileBannerImage to use v1.1 endpoint

2.7.0 (2013-04-04)

• New showOwnedLists method

2.7.0 (2013-03-31)

• Added missing slash to getMentionsTimeline in twitter_endpoints.py

2.6.0 (2013-03-29)

• Updated twitter_endpoints.py to better reflect order of API endpoints on the Twitter API v1.1 docs site