twitter2mongodb-cli

Richard Wen
rrwen.dev@gmail.com

Command line tool for extracting Twitter data to MongoDB databases

Install

1. Install Node.js
2. Install twitter2mongodb-cli via npm

npm install -g twitter2mongodb-cli

For the latest developer version, see Developer Install.

Usage

Get help:

twitter2mongodb --help

Open documentation in web browser:

twitter2mongodb doc twitter2mongodb
twitter2mongodb doc twitter
twitter2mongodb doc mongodb

See twitter2mongodb for programmatic usage.

Environment File

An environment file .env is used to store Twitter API credentials and MongoDB details.

Step 1. Set the default config for the .env file:

• Every twitter2mongodb command will now use the designated .env file

twitter2mongodb config set env path/to/.env

Step 2. Set Twitter API credentials

twitter2mongodb env set TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY ***
twitter2mongodb env set TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET ***
twitter2mongodb env set TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_KEY ***
twitter2mongodb env set TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET ***

Step 3. Set MongoDB connection

twitter2mongodb env set MONGODB_CONNECTION mongodb://localhost:27017

REST API

The REST API obtains Twitter data in batches using search queries.

Step 1. Setup default twitter options:

1. Set Twitter REST method (one of get, post, delete or stream)
2. Set Twitter path
3. Set Twitter parameters for path

twitter2mongodb config set twitter.method get
twitter2mongodb config set twitter.path search/tweets
twitter2mongodb config set twitter.params "{\"q\":\"twitter\"}"

Step 2. Setup default MongoDB options:

1. Set database to store streamed Twitter data
2. Set collection to store streamed Twitter data
3. Set MongoDB query method for streamed Twitter data
4. Set jsonata filter before inserting

twitter2mongodb config set mongodb.database twitter2mongodb_database
twitter2mongodb config set mongodb.collection twitter_data
twitter2mongodb config set mongodb.method insertMany
twitter2mongodb config set jsonata statuses

Step 3. Extract Twitter data into MongoDB collection given setup options:

twitter2mongodb > log.csv

Stream API

The Stream API obtains Twitter data in real-time using tracking filters.

Step 1. Setup default twitter options:

1. Set Twitter stream method
2. Set Twitter path
3. Set Twitter stream parameters

twitter2mongodb config set twitter.method stream
twitter2mongodb config set twitter.path statuses/filter
twitter2mongodb config set twitter.params "{\"track\":\"twitter\"}"

Step 2. Setup default MongoDB options:

1. Set database to store streamed Twitter data
2. Set collection to store streamed Twitter data
3. Set MongoDB query method for streamed Twitter data

twitter2mongodb config set mongodb.database twitter2mongodb_database
twitter2mongodb config set mongodb.collection twitter_data
twitter2mongodb config set mongodb.method insertOne

Step 3a. Stream Twitter data into MongoDB collection given setup options:

twitter2mongodb > log.csv

Step 3b. Stream Twitter data into a MongoDB collection as a service:

1. Save a node runnable script of the current options
2. Install pm2 (npm install pm2 -g)
3. Use pm2 to run the saved script as a service

twitter2mongodb save path/to/script.js
pm2 start path/to/script.js
pm2 save

Logs

The logs are in the following Comma-Separated Values (CSV) format:

• time_iso8601: Time and date in ISO 8601 format
• status: Status of the log
• message: Relevant messages
• json: JSON object containing relevant debugging information

time_iso8601	status	message	json
...	...	...	...

Contributions

1. Reports for issues and suggestions can be made using the issue submission interface.
2. Code contributions are submitted via pull requests

See CONTRIBUTING.md for more details.

Developer Notes

Developer Install

Install the latest developer version with npm from github:

npm install git+https://github.com/rrwen/twitter2mongodb-cli

Install from git cloned source:

1. Ensure git is installed
2. Clone into current path
3. Install via npm

git clone https://github.com/rrwen/twitter2mongodb-cli
cd twitter2mongodb-cli
npm install

Tests

1. Clone into current path git clone https://github.com/rrwen/twitter2mongodb-cli
2. Enter into folder cd twitter2mongodb-cli
3. Ensure devDependencies are installed and available
4. Run tests with a .env file (see tests/README.md)
5. Results are saved to tests/log with each file corresponding to a version tested

npm install
npm test

Upload to Github

1. Ensure git is installed
2. Inside the twitter2mongodb-cli folder, add all files and commit changes
3. Push to github

git add .
git commit -a -m "Generic update"
git push

Upload to npm

1. Update the version in package.json
2. Run tests and check for OK status
3. Login to npm
4. Publish to npm

npm test
npm login
npm publish

Implementation

The module twitter2mongodb-cli uses the following npm packages for its implementation:

npm	Purpose
path	Handle file and directory paths
fs	Read and write config file
envfile	Parse and write env files
dotenv	Load environmental variables from a file
yargs	Command line builder and parser
yargs-command-config	Command for managing config files
yargs-command-env	Command for managing env files
twitter2mongodb	Extracts Twitter data to MongoDB
opn	Open online browser documentation
mongodb	Send queries to MongoDB database
parse-mongo-url	Parse MongoDB urls

  path     <-- Handle file and dir paths
   |
   fs      <-- Read and write config file
   |
 envfile   <-- parse and write env file
   |
 dotenv    <-- load env file
   |
 yargs
   |--- yargs-command-config   <-- manage config
   |--- yargs-command-env      <-- manage env
   |--- twitter2mongodb        <-- default command
   |--- opn                    <-- doc
   |--- mongodb                <-- query
   |--- parse-mongo-url        <-- parse MongoDB url for info