rtweet: Collecting Twitter Data

• R package for collecting Twitter Data in R via Twitter's REST and stream API's

Install

• to install rtweet run the following code in R:

if (packageVersion("devtools") < 1.6) {
  install.packages("devtools")
}
devtools::install_github("mkearney/rtweet")

Obtaining access tokens

1. To create Twitter app(s) [and secure access to oauth tokens necessary for API queries]

visit http://apps.twitter.com/app/new 2. Enter information in Name, Description, Website, and Callback URL fields like example provided below. For Callback URL make sure to copy/paste the following: http://127.0.0.1:1410 3. Once the app is created, copy and paste consumer key and consumer secret key into the create_token() function (see demo below).

Using Tokens in R

• Using the information obtained from obtaining access tokens

above, generate a token via the create_token function.

• Modify the code below by replacing appX_name with name of your

application and xxxx... with the appropriate alpha-numeric keys associated with your app (see: 'obtaining access tokens').

• If this is the first time running create_token for an app, a

web browser will automatically pop up. Select yes/agree to authorize once for each app.

library(rtweet)

twitter_tokens <- c(
  create_token(app = "app1_name",
    consumer_key = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    consumer_secret = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"),
  create_token(app = "app2_name",
    consumer_key = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    consumer_secret = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"))

• You can save your token(s) object anywhere, but it's important to know

where you saved it. For that reason, I recommend saving your token(s) object in your home directory. To locate your home directory enter normalizePath("~/") into your R console. Save the token(s) object like this:

home_directory <- normalizePath("~/")

file_name <- paste0(home_directory, "/", "twitter_tokens")

save(twitter_tokens, file = file_name)

• To create an environmental variable to access your token(s) later

on (a best practice recommended by Hadley), open a new plain text document. You can do this in any text editor like TextEdit or Notepad. Or, if you're using Rstudio, (File > New File > Text File).

• In the blank plain text document, type the text below where

blahblahblahblahblahblah is the path to wherever you've saved the token(s). On my mac, for example, it looks like this: TWITTER_PAT=/Users/mwk/twitter_tokens. Make sure the last line of the document is left empty, otherwise R won't read the file.

TWITTER_PAT=blahblahblahblahblahblah

• Save the file to your home directory, which, again, you can find

by entering normalizePath("~/") in the R console.

normalizePath("~/")

• Restart R so it can process your environment variable on startup

and then call the get_tokens function.

library(rtweet)

tokens <- get_tokens()

elect16 <- search_tweets(q = "election2016", count = 500, tokens[[1]])
elect16

• Or, more conveniently, if you followed the steps above correctly, you

don't have to load your tokens at all. The rtweet functions will fetch your tokens for you!

library(rtweet)

elect16 <- search_tweets(q = "election2016", count = 500)
elect16

contact

• email me at mkearney@ku.edu