jenkr55.github.io/twitterbot.html at master · jenkr55/jenkr55.github.io · GitHub

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    <title>Ruby Twitter Bot Tutorial - Jennifer Kruse</title>

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                        <h1 style="color: white">Ruby Twitter Bot Tutorial</h1>
                        <h2 class="subheading" style="color: white">How to make a simple, easy Twitter bot using the Ruby programming language.</h2>
                        <span class="meta">January 22, 2015</span>
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                    <p>If you're a Twitter user, you've probably seen Twitter bots around. Some famous Twitter bots include <a href="https://twitter.com/DearAssistant">DearAssistant</a>,
			<a href="https://twitter.com/accidental575">AccidentalHaiku</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/Horse_ebooks">Horse 				ebooks</a>. In this tutorial you'll learn how to make your own Twitter bot using
			<a href="https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/">Ruby</a>, the Twitter API, and <a href="https://www.heroku.com/">Heroku</a>. 				This tutorial assumes you know a bit about using the command line and basic programming.</p>

		  <p>Please note, I'm using my Linux operating system (Ubuntu) so some of the commands might be different for you, depending
		    on what operating system you're using. </p>


		   <p>First, make sure you have Ruby installed. You can learn how to do that
			<a href="https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/installation/">here</a>. In this tutorial we'll be using the
			command line, so it's best to keep your files for this project in their own folder. </p>

		  <p>Before we get started, you need to make a Twitter account for your bot. Your account will need its own mobile number,
		    but you can use <a href="https://www.google.com/voice">Google Voice</a> if you've already used your number for a Twitter
		    account. Once you've made your account, head on over to <a href="https://apps.twitter.com/">Twitter Apps</a> and click
		    on "Create New App" and fill out the form. The name, description, and website don't really matter that much, so don't
		    worry if you don't have a website or good name for your application. You can always change it later.</p>

		<p>After this, you should be able to click on the "Keys and Access Tokens" to generate and view your tokens. This is how we'll authorize
		   Twitter later on. Make sure you have tokens under the "Application Settings" and "Your Access Token" headings. You need to keep these keys secret. Give the account at least read and write permissions.</p>

		<img class="blogImg" src="img/botTutorial/tutorial1.png">

		<p>Next, make a file in your project folder with the ".rb" file extension. The one I'll be using will be called "bot.rb".
		   For this project, we'll be using the <a href="https://rubygems.org/gems/twitter">Twitter Gem</a>, so type "gem install
		  twitter" into your command line. </p>

		<img class="blogImg" src="img/botTutorial/tutorial2.png">

		<p>Next, open up your ruby file in your editor. Since we need to use the Twitter Gem in our program, we have to require it before we do anything else. </p>

		<img class="blogImg" src="img/botTutorial/tutorial3.png">

		<p>Next, we need to authenticate the Twitter account we just made using the keys from earlier so that we can use
		Twitter's API. I have blurred out my keys, and you need to substitute your own. <p>

		<img class="blogImg" src="img/botTutorial/tutorial4.png">

		<p>To test that you're authenticated and ready to go, type in "ruby bot.rb" (this is how we'll run the program) into the command 			   line. If you get an error about
		   authentication, then your keys are incorrect. If nothing happens, then we're on the right track. You can now tweet from
		   your account. Try this line of code and your twitter bot will make its first tweet. (Then feel free to delete the tweet.)</p>

		<img class="blogImg" src="img/botTutorial/tutorial5.png">

		<p>What you do next depends on what you want your bot to do. I'll leave this up to you. You can find the twitter gem's
		   documentation <a href="http://www.rubydoc.info/gems/twitter">here</a>. Some great examples of using this gem are
		   <a href="https://github.com/sferik/twitter/tree/master/examples">here</a>.</p>

		<p>After you've got your bot the way you want it, we want to set it up to run automatically. To do that, head on over to
		   <a href="https://heroku.com">Heroku</a> and sign up. You need to add a credit card number to your account to use the Heroku
		   Scheduler (how we run the bot automatically), but the scheduler is free and I've never been billed for it. Then,
		   install the <a href="https://toolbelt.heroku.com/">Heroku Toolbelt</a> so that we can use Heroku with the command
		   line.</p>

		<p>After that's all set up, go to your <a href="https://dashboard.heroku.com/apps">Heroku Dashboard</a> and create a new app
		by clicking on the plus symbol in the upper right-hand corner. Then, follow the instructions provided using the command line
		to set up your git repository and deploy your bot to heroku. Then, in the command line, type "heroku addons:add scheduler"
		to add the <a href="https://addons.heroku.com/scheduler">Heroku Scheduler</a> to your bot. </p>

		<p>Then, go back to your dashboard and click on your app. You should be able to click on the Heroku Scheduler to add scheduled
		jobs to your bot, like so. </p>

		<img class="blogImg" src="img/botTutorial/tutorial6.png">

		<p>You can pretty much run your Twitter bot as often or seldom as you want, however, if you run your bot too much then you might
		get <a href="https://dev.twitter.com/rest/public/rate-limiting">rate limited</a>. </p>

		<p>If your bot isn't running or working, run the command "heroku logs" in your command line to check what's going on. </p>

		<p>After that, you're good to go! You can always tweak your bot a little bit and re-deploy to Heroku. Have fun! </p>


                    <p class="contactText"> Questions? Comments? Don't hesitate to <a href="http://jenniferkruse.me/about">contact me</a>!</p>
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