Day by day Bot usage is increasing. The bot help startups, SMEs and big brands in reaching customers and enhancing customer engagement. If I talk about Twitter Bot, then around 15% of twitter is formed of bots.
Twitter allows you to build a bot, but it enables you to create one bot for a single function means Twitter Bot cannot be created for multiple purposes. Twitter Bot can be built by using Python, but for this, you need to use the Tweepy library.
Now you might be thinking Tweepy, what is this?? It is a Python library for accessing the Twitter API. Tweepy is best for manageable automation, and building Twitter Bots it holds multiple features.
Do You Know?
- In 2020, 187 countries represented an official presence on Twitter.
- As per the University of Southern California and Indiana University study, 48 million Twitter bots are active.
Steps To Build Twitter Bot Using Python
Let’s discuss a simple procedure to create Twitter Bot using Python. Follow each of the mentioned steps carefully as then only you will be able to build a Twitter Bot.
#Step 1: Begin With Making Module
Before working on any project or starting any work, it is mandatory to build the proper plan; this simplifies the development process and also helps you to identify the next step. If you create an adequate project development module, then for you, it will be simple to estimate the bot development time.
If you want to create a Twitter Bot that tweets out, then for that, we need to use Twitter’s API as this helps in tweet posting. You can also use Git hubs API to obtain the post history. After making use of API, you need to write code in Python as this step will stimulate the Twitter Bot development process.
Know More: Best Chatbot Development Companies For SME’s & Startups in India | USA
# Step 2: Assembling Materials and Building Structure
Firstly find out the materials which you want to use in Twitter Bot development as this will make the material assembling process more manageable. I have used Twitter_bot.py as my first file. This file has four main parts, and this includes Imports, APIs Keys, Authentication, and Code.
How To Get API Keys?
You need to create an account on Twitter developer platform as this will only help you in getting the API Keys for developing Twitter Bot. If you don’t know how to create an account on Twitter developer platform, then just follow the process mentioned below.
- Firstly open the Twitter developer page.
- Then from the Twitter developer homepage, click on the Apply option.
- Thereafter, another page will get open from there click on the Apply for a developer account tab.
- On clicking the tab, Twitter Sign In page will open. On that page, you need to enter the phone, email, or username and Password. Once after entering all credentials, simply tap the login tab.
- Thereafter, another page will get open in that you need to need general information like what the bot is going to do, do you plan on gathering data, etc.
- Once after entering all the details, another page of terms and policy will get open from there, read all the information, check the boxes and at last tap the Submit Application tab.
- In this way, your Twitter developer account will get created. Now just click the create an app tab, on tapping this option another page of App detail will get open in that simply enter the asked details.
- Once after entering the details, click the create option.
- On clicking the create adoption, another page will get open from there, choose the Keys and Token.
- On choosing the keys and token option, you will get Get API Keys.
- In this way, you can simply get the API Keys. Once after getting the API Keys, you will be able to build a Twitter Bot using Python.
GitHub APIs
To fetch GitHub APIs is more simple, in comparison to Twitter. To get GitHub APIs, you just need to create an account on it, and then after that, you just need to make a few relevant clicks and taps as on this you will be able to fetch the GitHub API.
If in case you are confronting any sort of issue or having doubt then you can Hire a Python Programmer from the recognized Software outsourcing company this will help you in developing the full-fledged Twitter Bot.
# Step 3: Initiate Bot Writing (Imports, APIs Keys, Authentication, and Code)
Imports
On researching, you will be able to find the relevant API documentation to create the Twitter Bot. Now you need to install Tweepy for creating a bot and for this you can use the pip install command. Don’t forget to install DateTime to manage this process. The vital part of import is – environ. The primary component of your file should look similar to this:
API’s Key
To begin the process firstly, you need to load the keys. For each key make a separate file and then after that set the variable names. Both files naming should be compatible. To keep keys private, we need to push it to GitHub, and for that, we use a variable environment.
Environment variables enable us to reach the keys without placing them in the code; this is the reason why we imported environ from os back in the import section.
If you are going to make this Twitter Bot for the public then at that point I will recommend you create a separate keys.py file.
The keys.py file should look like this:
If you want that your bot tweet every day then don’t forget to set interval and it can be set by using 60 * 60 * 24, you should also declare variable d like this (cur_date = datetime.today) to make a bot using the correct date-time object. Now the Twitter_bot.py file will accommodate this section.
Substantiation
Now you will be able to verify the APIs, and this will finally help the bot in communicating with Twitter. We can use api and g as the variable names for Twitter and GitHub, respectively; this will help you in cutting down the number of keystrokes. You can use api and g variables in Twitter_bot.py. On doing variable to Twitter_bot.py, it will look like this:
Code
For running the program indefinitely, you have to set a while loop equal to True. Within the while loop, list down the repos date-time object. For listing down the date-time object in the list first, you have to extract the same.
After doing this, we can check the current date in the list, after that we can use if and else for managing the tweet post in the Twitter Bot. If you want to track the number of tweet days, then you need to add a count variable to the program; on doing this, every day count will get updated in the program.
Now we need to add time.sleep(INTERVAL) outside the loop this will make the function wait for 24 hours until it does it ageing and its code will look like this:
THAT’S HOW YOUR TWITTER BOT BY USING PYTHON LANGUAGE WILL GET CREATED
It’s Time To Make Your Bot More Perfect
After creating the bot, a process not ends means now you need to make your Twitter Bot more perfect, this will help your business in generating more customer leads. It is really easy to build a basic bot, but when it comes to perfection, then even experts face the issue, in that case, you can Hire Python developer from a Software outsourcing company.
Trafficking With Error
After some time, Twitter does not allow users to post the same tweet, and if you do this again and again, then it will ultimately display an error. This problem can be rectified by using if else statements. If you want to avoid this error message then you can use this sort code:
Stop Running This Program Continuously On your Computer
If you want to stop running this program on your computer, then you can push this program to Cloud like Heroku. This will protect your program when the computer loses internet connectivity. It is not possible to turn on your computer all the time as this somewhere affects the computer functionalities. It will be beneficial if you upload your bot program on Cloud as this safe your data and will also protect the Twitter Bot program from other bugs and errors.
Test Twitter Bot
After completion of the whole development process don’t forget to test the Bot functioning. If all the functions are running perfectly then, it means your Twitter bot is all set, and now it can be used for business tasks.
If while testing you are facing any sort of glitch then try to resolve the same, and if in case you are unable to fix the same then you can also take help from experts, but for that, you need to Hire Python developer. For hiring, developers do choose the best software development company as this will help you in enhancing the bot performance.
Wrapping Up
In this write-up, all the steps related to building a Twitter Bot using Python is mentioned. The whole bot development process covers the following points: Apply for a developer account, Setup a development environment, Link your Twitter app and dev environment, program the bot, Test the bot. If you want to build the leading Twitter Bot, then you just need to create the correct bot program, and for doing so, you can utilize Python language.
If in case, you don’t know how to use code or if you are a non-technical person; then you can also choose the ValueCoders to Hire chatbot developers. The developers will help you in building the excellent Twitter Bot by using Python.
