threadExtractor

a small python script for digesting twitter archives

Usage:

1. download your twitter archive (settings->your account->download an archive). Expect to wait at least a day before the archive is available.
2. find data/tweet.js
3. remove window.YTD.tweet.part0 = from the first line
4. save as tweet.json in the same directory as threadExtractor.py
5. run threadExtrator.py

this script offers three modes:

• [S]earch: It can attempt to find every thread in your twitter archive and export them as text files.
• [H]unt: Given the id of the last tweet in a thread, it can extract the rest of that thread and export it as a text file.
• [I]ndex: Given the id of the last tweet in an index thread (ie: a thread composed of qrts of other threads), it can extract each qrted thread and export them as text files (with names reflecting any caption present in the index).

Flaws:

• No provisions are made to handle branching threads and I haven't tested how it reacts to them. Some tweets may be lost.
• In [S]earch and [H]unt, Output text files are named based on the ID and time of the final tweet in each thread, instead of the initial one.
• [I]ndex is not fully tested and may break in some situations.
• While the script attempts to strip numbering from tweets (eg trailing "y/" or "y/x"), this is imperfect.