rtweet
R client for accessing Twitter’s REST and stream APIs. Check out the rtweet package documentation website.
Installation
To get the current released version from CRAN:
## install rtweet from CRAN
install.packages("rtweet")
## load rtweet package
library(rtweet)To get the current development version from Github:
## install devtools package if it's not already
if (!requireNamespace("devtools", quietly = TRUE)) {
install.packages("devtools")
}
## install dev version of rtweet from github
devtools::install_github("mkearney/rtweet")
## load rtweet package
library(rtweet)Usage
All you need is a Twitter account and you can be up in running in minutes!
- See the
authvignette (or the API authorization section below) for instructions on obtaining access to Twitter’s APIs: http://rtweet.info/articles/auth.html.
API authorization
All users must be authorized to interact with Twitter’s APIs. To become authorized, follow the instructions below to (1) make a Twitter app and (2) create and save your access token (using one of the two authorization methods described below).
1. Create an app
- To gain access Twitter’s APIs, first go to
apps.twitter.com and create a new app
by completing the form fields (note: users must enter the value
for
Callback URLexactly as it appears below):Name: Name of Twitter app e.g.,my_twitter_research_appDescription: Describe use case e.g.,for researching trends and behaviors on twitterWebsite: Valid website e.g.,https://twitter.com/kearneymw***Callback URL***:http://127.0.0.1:1410
- Check yes if you agree and then click “Create your Twitter application”
2a. Authenticate via web browser (interactive)
Go to your app’s page at apps.twitter.com and click the tab labeled
Keys and Access TokensCopy the
Consumer KeyandConsumer Secretvalues and pass them, along with the name of your app, to thecreate_token()function## web browser method: create token and save it as an environment variable create_token( app = "my_twitter_research_app", consumer_key = "XYznzPFOFZR2a39FwWKN1Jp41", consumer_secret = "CtkGEWmSevZqJuKl6HHrBxbCybxI1xGLqrD5ynPd9jG0SoHZbD")
2b. Authenticate via access token
Go to your app’s page at apps.twitter.com and click the tab labeled
Keys and Access TokensScroll down to
Token Actionsand clickCreate my access tokenCopy the
Consumer Key,Consumer Secret,Access Token, andAccess Token Secretvalues and pass them, along with the name of your app, to thecreate_token()function## access token method: create token and save it as an environment variable create_token( app = "my_twitter_research_app", consumer_key = "XYznzPFOFZR2a39FwWKN1Jp41", acess_token = "9551451262-wK2EmA942kxZYIwa5LMKZoQA4Xc2uyIiEwu2YXL", access_secret = "9vpiSGKg1fIPQtxc5d5ESiFlZQpfbknEN1f1m2xe5byw7")
And that’s it! You’re ready to start collecting and analyzing Twitter
data! And because create_token() automatically saves your token as an
environment variable, you’ll be set for future sessions as well!
Package features
Search tweets
Search for up to 18,000 (non-retweeted) tweets containing the rstats hashtag.
## search for 18000 tweets using the rstats hashtag
rt <- search_tweets(
"#rstats", n = 18000, include_rts = FALSE
)Quickly visualize frequency of tweets over time using ts_plot().
## plot time series of tweets
ts_plot(rt, "3 hours") +
ggplot2::theme_minimal() +
ggplot2::theme(plot.title = ggplot2::element_text(face = "bold")) +
ggplot2::labs(
x = NULL, y = NULL,
title = "Frequency of #rstats Twitter statuses from past 9 days",
subtitle = "Twitter status (tweet) counts aggregated using three-hour intervals",
caption = "\nSource: Data collected from Twitter's REST API via rtweet"
)Twitter rate limits cap the number of search results returned to 18,000
every 15 minutes. To request more than that, simply set
retryonratelimit = TRUE and rtweet will wait for rate limit resets for
you.
## search for 250,000 tweets containing the word data
rt <- search_tweets(
"data", n = 250000, retryonratelimit = TRUE
)Search by geo-location—for example, find 10,000 tweets in the English
language sent from the United States. Note: lookup_coords() requires
users have a Google API
key
## search for 10,000 tweets sent from the US
rt <- search_tweets(
"lang:en", geocode = lookup_coords("usa"), n = 10000
)
## create lat/lng variables using all available tweet and profile geo-location data
rt <- lat_lng(rt)
## plot state boundaries
par(mar = c(0, 0, 0, 0))
maps::map("state", lwd = .25)
## plot lat and lng points onto state map
with(rt, points(lng, lat, pch = 20, cex = .75, col = rgb(0, .3, .7, .75)))Stream tweets
Randomly sample (approximately 1%) from the live stream of all tweets.
## random sample for 30 seconds (default)
rt <- stream_tweets("")Stream all geo enabled tweets from London for 60 seconds.
## stream tweets from london for 60 seconds
rt <- stream_tweets(lookup_coords("london, uk"), timeout = 60)Stream all tweets mentioning realDonaldTrump or Trump for a week.
## stream london tweets for a week (60 secs x 60 mins * 24 hours * 7 days)
stream_tweets(
"realdonaldtrump,trump",
timeout = 60 * 60 * 24 * 7,
file_name = "tweetsabouttrump.json",
parse = FALSE
)
## read in the data as a tidy tbl data frame
djt <- parse_stream("tweetsabouttrump.json")Get friends
Retrieve a list of all the accounts a user follows.
## get user IDs of accounts followed by CNN
cnn_fds <- get_friends("cnn")
## lookup data on those accounts
cnn_fds_data <- lookup_users(cnn_fds$user_id)Get followers
Retrieve a list of the accounts following a user.
## get user IDs of accounts following CNN
cnn_flw <- get_followers("cnn", n = 75000)
## lookup data on those accounts
cnn_flw_data <- lookup_users(cnn_flw$user_id)Or if you really want ALL of their followers:
## how many total follows does cnn have?
cnn <- lookup_users("cnn")
## get them all (this would take a little over 5 days)
cnn_flw <- get_followers(
"cnn", n = cnn$followers_count, retryonratelimit = TRUE
)Get timelines
Get the most recent 3,200 tweets from cnn, BBCWorld, and foxnews.
## get user IDs of accounts followed by CNN
tmls <- get_timelines(c("cnn", "BBCWorld", "foxnews"), n = 3200)
## plot the frequency of tweets for each user over time
tmls %>%
dplyr::filter(created_at > "2017-10-29") %>%
dplyr::group_by(screen_name) %>%
ts_plot("days", trim = 1L) +
ggplot2::geom_point() +
ggplot2::theme_minimal() +
ggplot2::theme(
legend.title = ggplot2::element_blank(),
legend.position = "bottom",
plot.title = ggplot2::element_text(face = "bold")) +
ggplot2::labs(
x = NULL, y = NULL,
title = "Frequency of Twitter statuses posted by news organization",
subtitle = "Twitter status (tweet) counts aggregated by day from October/November 2017",
caption = "\nSource: Data collected from Twitter's REST API via rtweet"
)Get favorites
Get the 3,000 most recently favorited statuses by JK Rowling.
jkr <- get_favorites("jk_rowling", n = 3000)Search users
Search for 1,000 users with the rstats hashtag in their profile bios.
## search for users with #rstats in their profiles
usrs <- search_users("#rstats", n = 1000)Get trends
Discover what’s currently trending in San Francisco.
sf <- get_trends("san francisco")Post actions
- Posting (tweeting from R console) or reading direct messages require additional permissions
- If you’d like to post Twitter statuses, follow or unfollow accounts, and/or read your direct messages, you’ll need to create your own Twitter app
- To create your own Twitter app, follow the instructions in the authorization vignette on obtaining and using access tokens
Vignettes
Obtaining and using Twitter API tokens
## quick overview of rtweet functions
vignette("auth", package = "rtweet")Quick overview of rtweet package
## quick overview of rtweet functions
vignette("intro", package = "rtweet")## working with the stream
vignette("stream", package = "rtweet")Troubleshooting common rtweet problems
## working with the stream
vignette("FAQ", package = "rtweet")Contact
Communicating with Twitter’s APIs relies on an internet connection, which can sometimes be inconsistent. With that said, if you encounter an obvious bug for which there is not already an active issue, please create a new issue with all code used (preferably a reproducible example) on Github.