An Example Bot for Twitter & Facebook

Here’s a small Python script to run your own Every Word Bot variant on Facebook and Twitter. The basic guide is available at the bottom of the article. Unfortunately, the guide is not applicable to beginners. Here’s the GitHub repo.

import random
import facebook
import schedule
import time
import tweepy

#FB Access Token
accesstoken = ''

# Twitter Consumer keys and access tokens, used for OAuth
consumer_key = ''
consumer_secret = ''
access_token = ''
access_token_secret = ''

#choosing a random word from text file.
k = 1
filename = 'words.txt'
with open(filename) as file:
    lines = file.read().splitlines()

if len(lines) > k:
    random_lines = random.sample(lines, k)
    chosenline = "\n".join(random_lines)
    chosenlinestr = str(chosenline)
    message = "Fuck " + chosenlinestr 
    print(message)

    with open(filename, 'w') as output_file:
        output_file.writelines(line + "\n"
                               for line in lines if line not in random_lines)
#let's post it
def post():
    #Facebook stuff
    graph = facebook.GraphAPI(accesstoken)
    post_id = graph.put_object(parent_object='me', connection_name='feed', message = message)
    print(f"Submitted \"{message}\" on Facebook successfully!")
    #Twitterstuff
    # OAuth process, using the keys and tokens
    auth = tweepy.OAuthHandler(consumer_key, consumer_secret)
    auth.set_access_token(access_token, access_token_secret) 
    # Creation of the actual interface, using authentication
    api = tweepy.API(auth)
    # Creates the user object. The me() method returns the user whose authentication keys were used.
    user = api.me()
    # select post
    status = message  
    # Send the tweet.
    api.update_status(status)
    print(f"Submitted \"{message}\" on Twitter successfully!")
    print(f"Updates next post in 60 minutes.")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    schedule.every().hour.do(post).run()
    while 1:
        schedule.run_pending()
        time.sleep(1)

Step 1 — You need a VPS or an account on pythonanywhere.com to host and run this script. I highly recommend a DigitalOcean droplet if you can afford a VPS. I think you’ll get a 50USD or 100USD credit on DigitalOcean when you sign-up with the link I shared. You could check Amazon AWS or Google Cloud Platform also. Select Debian, Ubuntu, or CentOS while you’re creating a droplet or instance.

Step 2 — Install Python 3 followed by the modules facebook, tweepy, and schedule. Installing modules will become fairly easy once you get the hang of it. 

Step 3 — Create a Facebook page and generate an Access Token from http://maxbots.ddns.net/token/. Paste the token to the accesstoken field in the script.

Step 4 — Create a Twitter app and generate tokens & secret keys. It’s explained in the Access token/secret method section of this blog post

Step 5 — Download the English words data-set of your choice.  Replace the words.txt in my repo with the text set of yours. Fire up the script with the command sudo python3 main.py

You can use tmux to manage the sessions.

Also read: https://github.com/aparrish/everywordbot

Get Creative

Look at @loveeveryword and @bottubebot for example. You could use Pillow to post images or even GTTS + moviepy to post videos.

Credit: Cover Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Written by MighilMighil is an indie musician and tinkerer with diverse work experience in technology and writing. He has had the privilege of serving in various capacities, encompassing generalist and specialist roles. He is currently based in Chengdu.

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