Twitter API with node.js, get a list of followers

Question

Hi I'm currently working on a Twitter bot with the Twitter API and Node.JS. I want the bot to return all of my followers and some of their features in an javascript object. Something like :

{['id', 'screen_name', 'name', 'screen_name', 'followers_count', 'friends_count']}

RN my code is :

var Twitter = new TwitterPackage(config);


var options = 
              {
                screen_name: 'mowsolicious',
              };

Twitter.get('followers/ids', options,  function (err, data) {    // returns a list of ids
  var nbFollowers = data.ids.length
  var id = []
  console.log(nbFollowers)                                       // how many followers I have
  for (i=0 ; i <= nbFollowers ; i++) {
    ids = data.ids
    var id = ids[i]
    Twitter.get('users/show/' + id, function(err, data)  {    
      console.log(id + " - " + data.name + " - " + data.screen_name + " - " + data.followers_count + " - " + data.friends_count)
    })
  }
})

I'm pretty sure something is terribly wrong with my method (more precisely when I put the Twitter.get thing in the loop) and it returns a bunch of undefined in the console.

I tried to work with the API doc but I'm experiencing some troubles understanding it. If someone could help that would be great.

Thank you

Answer 1

Most likely, you get undefined because the user is not found :

[ { code: 50, message: 'User not found.' } ]

Checking err variable would take care of that. But looking at GET followers/id documentation, you should use GET users/lookup to efficiently request mutliple user objects (up to 100 user per request with user id delimited by comma)

Also, I assume you'd like a unique callback to be called when all requests are completed, using Promises will take care of that :

var res_array = [];

function getUserInfo(id_list) {
    return Twitter.get('users/lookup', {
            "user_id": id_list
        }).then(function(data) {
            res_array.push(data);
        })
        .catch(function(error) {
            throw error;
        })
}

Twitter.get('followers/ids', function(err, data) {

    if (err) {
        console.log(err);
        return;
    }

    console.log("total followers : " + data.ids.length);

    var requestNum = Math.floor(data.ids.length / 100);
    var remainder = data.ids.length % 100;

    var promises_arr = [];

    for (var i = 0; i < requestNum; i++) {
        promises_arr.push(getUserInfo(data.ids.slice(i * 100, i * 100 + 100).join(",")));
    }
    if (remainder != 0) {
        promises_arr.push(getUserInfo(data.ids.slice(requestNum * 100, requestNum * 100 + 100).join(",")));
    }

    Promise.all(promises_arr)
        .then(function() {
            for (var i in res_array) {
                for (var j in res_array[i]) {
                    var user = res_array[i][j];
                    console.log(user.id + " - " +
                        user.name + " - " +
                        user.screen_name + " - " +
                        user.followers_count + " - " +
                        user.friends_count)
                }
            }
        })
        .catch(console.error);
})

Answer 2

List of followers can be retrieved with superface sdk , try it based on the example below

npm install @superfaceai/one-sdk
npx @superfaceai/cli install social-media/followers

const { SuperfaceClient } = require('@superfaceai/one-sdk');

const sdk = new SuperfaceClient();

async function run() {
  // Load the installed profile
  const profile = await sdk.getProfile('social-media/followers');

  // Use the profile
  const result = await profile
    .getUseCase('GetFollowers')
    .perform({
      profileId: '429238130'
    });

  return result.unwrap();
}

run();