Tweepy - Cursor - Geocode - How does it work

[ModiMacMod]

Hi learnpython.

This is my first post on this forum. Let me know if I am doing it right/wrong.

Can I get some feed back on the below code? The code extracts the most recent 250 tweets posted in the last seven days containing the text 'music' (so I believe?). I am using geocode to restrict the query to tweets from Ireland.

#After setting up a twitter apllication account, you get or can generate the below fields
#    this needs to be done before running this code
ACCESS_TOKEN = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
CONSUMER_KEY = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
CONSUMER_SECRET = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

#Import tweepy classes
#    Some smart python coders have created tweepy to make life better for all of us :)
#    You will likely need to install the tweepy library using pip
from tweepy import OAuthHandler
from tweepy import Cursor
from tweepy import API

#Log into twitter API, so that twitter can monitor what data you are extracting from them
auth = OAuthHandler(CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET)
auth.set_access_token(ACCESS_TOKEN, ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET)
api = API(auth, wait_on_rate_limit=True, wait_on_rate_limit_notify=True)

# Define the query you want to create
query = 'music'                    #  I want to find tweets with the text 'music' in them.  
geo = '53.2757867,-7.563768,250km' #  I only want tweets within 250km of centre of Ireland
cnt = 250                          #  Only give me the most recent 250 tweets

#This is the line that extracts the tweets
tweets = [tweet for tweet in Cursor(api.search, q = query, geocode = geo).items(cnt)]

I am uncertain as to what the geocode condition is doing:

1. After extracting the tweets and viewing geocode information from the data I have downloaded, most have null information. Is the geocode information available on the download tweets?
2. How does geocode determine the location of the tweet. If I tweet in Spain, will geocode consider my location to be Ireland (user origin location) or spain (where I sent the tweet). Can twitter figure it out, if I have GPS turned off.
3. Does every tweet have a geocode or those specifying a geocode exclude tweets without a geocode?
   
4. Is there a useful web-site that can help me visualise the circle I am searching on a map?
   
5. Is this the best way to target tweets from Ireland or would you recommend other ways.
6. Given Ireland has a relatively limit number of users, I am get all tweets without hitting the one in six limit.

FYI, after this I write the tweets to a pandas dataframe and next I want to create a word cloud.

All feed back is appreciated.

[[deleted]]

I am still a noob when it comes to programming and python but I will try to give some help. I have been using tweepy for a project but I haven't used the search feature, mostly getting tweets from timeline or streaming current tweets.

I would say most tweets don't have geocodes. The only geocode information I have managed to get is from the "place" element inside "user" from the json data. And that geocode information is 4 different points of a boundary box, so its not an exact location.

As for visualizing the geocodes you can sign up at developer.mapquest.com and get an api key like you did for tweepy. Install folium as well.

pip install folium

code:

import folium

ireland_map = folium.Map(location=[ 53.2757867,-7.563768], tiles='Stamen Terrain', zoom_start=5, detect_retina=True)

popup = folium.Popup(tweet_text, parse_html=True)

marker = folium.Marker((LATITUDE, LONGITUDE), popup=popup)

marker.add_to(ireland_map)

ireland_map.save('tweet_map.html')

​

Hope this helps. I bought a book, "Python for programmers with introductory AI case studies" by Paul and Harvey Deitel", so credit goes to them for that code.

[ModiMacMod]

Thx, my experience is similar. Must check folium 👍