Major overhaul to use search rather than public timeine, works much b…

…etter.

README

@@ -2,30 +2,30 @@
 
 The twitter search follow bot:
  * Searches twitter public timeline for configurable keywords
+ * Can restrict those users to a particular location too, and,
  * Follows users who tweet with those keywords
 
+Changes in this version:
+ * Use search rather than public timeline fetch directly.
+ * Much more effective, finds a lot more users!
+ * New configuration
+ * Now only need to run every 30 minutes rather than every other minute!
+
 Dependencies:
 sudo gem install jnunemaker-twitter --source=http://gems.github.com
 
 Configure:
 
 config.yml should be self explanatory.
 
-You can monitor specific keywords from users in particular locations and belonging to particular directories. 
-
-Currently it identifies Indian users from the tweepleindia directory as well as from location strings.
+You can monitor specific keywords from users within a particular lat/long radius. 
 
 Install: 
-It's meant to be run as a cron and is not a daemon. Run every ten to fifteen minutes or so.
+It's meant to be run as a cron and is not a daemon. Run every thirty minutes or so.
 
 To run:
  ruby -rubygems search-follow-bot.rb
 
-
-To run periodically, try:
- watch -n 60 "ruby -rubygems search-follow-bot.rb"
-
-For production install on cron of course.
 
 --  
   All code is Copyright (C) Vishnu Gopal. 2009.

TODO

@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 
-* Filter based on location, for e.g. only users from "India" (done, 30 May)
-* Search older updates of users for keywords and then follow.
+* Filter based on location, for e.g. only users from "India" (done, 30 May 2009)
+* Search older updates of users for keywords and then follow. (done, 30 May 2009)

config.yml

@@ -4,14 +4,9 @@ username: 'mobshare'
 password: 'our1account'
 
 # any of these words
-search_words: ['mobile', 'phone', 'mms', 'internet', 'twitter', 'airtel', 'aircel', 'bsnl', 'mtnl', '#ipl', '#indiavotes09']
-
-# AND: (
-# any of these words in location 
-location_match: ["india", "gurgaon", "delhi", "bombay", "kolkata", "hyderabad", "calcutta", "chennai", "noida", "bangalore"]
-# OR:
-check_in_tweeple_india_directory: true
-# )
+search_words: ['mobile', 'phone', 'internet', 'airtel', 'aircel', 'bsnl', 'mtnl', '#ipl', '#indiavotes09']
+geocode: ['21.248422', '78.442383'] #lat, long, this is around the middle of India
+within: '750mi' #750 miles
 
 # check if profile image is set.
 profile_image_check: false

lib/twitter_public_timeline.rb → lib/twitter_extensions.rb

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
-module TwitterPublicTimeline
+module TwitterExtensions
   def self.included(base)
     base.class_eval do
       def public_timeline
@@ -11,6 +11,6 @@ def public_timeline
 
 module Twitter
   class Base
-    include TwitterPublicTimeline
+    include TwitterExtensions
   end
 end

search-follow-bot.rb

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 
 require 'config_store'
 require 'twitter'
-require 'twitter_public_timeline'
+require 'twitter_extensions'
 require 'pp'
 
 
@@ -19,18 +19,25 @@ def initialize(config)
     process
   end
 
-  def process
-    twitter.public_timeline.each do |update|
-      #out "Analyzing user: #{update['user']['screen_name']}, update: #{update['text']}..."
-      if relevant_update?(update)
-        pp update['user']
-        out "Found user: #{update['user']['screen_name']}(id: #{update['user']['id']}) with the tweet: #{update['text']}"
-        out "Starting to follow..."
-        twitter.friendship_create(update['user']['id'], true) #Start following!
-        out "Done!"
+  def process  
+    config['search_words'].each do |term|
+      Twitter::Search.new.geocode(config['geocode'][0], config['geocode'][1], '750mi').containing("#{term}").fetch().results.each do |update|
+        begin
+          out "Found user: #{update['from_user']}(id: #{update['from_user_id']}) with the tweet: #{update['text']}"
+          out "Starting to follow..."
+          twitter.friendship_create(update['from_user'], true)
+          out "Done!"
+          sleep 0.5
+        rescue Twitter::NotFound
+          out "User ID not found correctly, trying next"
+          sleep 0.5 and next
+        rescue Twitter::General => e
+          out "Error: #{e.inspect}"
+          sleep 0.5 and next
+        end
       end
     end
-  rescue Twitter::RateLimitExceeded
+  rescue Twitter::RateLimitExceeded, Net::HTTPServerError
     out "Rate limit exceeded, try spacing out cron intervals!"
   end
 
@@ -40,39 +47,9 @@ def text_contains_any_of(text, array)
     end
     false
   end
-
-  def relevant_update?(update)
-    if text_contains_any_of(update['text'], config['search_words'])
-      out "Text matched, let's see if location matches..." 
-      out "(was analyzing user: #{update['user']['screen_name']}, location: #{update['user']['location']}, update: #{update['text']})"
-      if indian_user?(update['user'])
-        out "User found to be indian too, great!"
-        out "(was analyzing user: #{update['user']['screen_name']}, location: #{update['user']['location']}, update: #{update['text']})"
-        return true
-      end
-    end
-    false
-  end
 
-
-  def indian_user?(user)
-    if text_contains_any_of(user['location'], config['location_match'])
-      out "User #{user['screen_name']} location matched #{user['location']}, tagging as Indian."
-      return true 
-    end
-    if config['check_in_tweeple_india_directory']  
-      return in_tweeple_india_directory?(user)
-    end
-    false
-  end
-
-  # This works by checking for friendship between tweeple_india and the current user
-  def in_tweeple_india_directory?(user)
-    if twitter.friendship_exists?("tweepleindia", user['screen_name'])
-      out "User #{user['screen_name']} found in tweeple directory. Tagging as indian"
-      return true
-    end
-    false
+  def profile_image_for_user?(user)
+    return user['profile_image_url'].strip != ''
   end
 
   def out(text)