twitch-webchat

Simple consumption/logging of twitch web chat (non IRC) using puppeteer

Simple to use

var tw = require('twitch-webchat');
var channelName = 'totalbiscuit';
var controls = tw.start( channelName, function (err, message) {
  if (err) throw err

  switch (message.type) {
    case 'chat': // chat message from the channel
      var user = message.from
      var text = message.text // chat message content as text string
      var html = message.html // chat message content as html string

      var isModerator = !!message.moderator // user is a moderator
      var isSubscriber = !!message.subscriber // user is a subscriber
      var isPrime = !!message.prime // user is twitch prime member

      console.log(user + ": " + text)
      break
    case 'system': // system message from the channel
      // (subscription messages, channel mode messages etc)
      console.log('[system]: ' + message.text)
      break
    case 'tick': // DOM polled for messages
    case 'debug': // various debug messages
    default: // ignore
  };
});

// controls.stop() - stop polling for chat messages and shut down underlying processes (phantomjs)
// controls.exit() - same as above
// controls.kill() - same as above

Demo

http://twitchwebchat.jin.fi/

About

Consume chat message from the web version of twitch chat (non IRC). Requires no login.

How

Using puppeteer we can run a headless browser environment to connect to twitch chat and poll (default every 1000 ms) the DOM for changes.

Why

For fun.. was interesting to see how you would be able to consume/parse content generated from a dynamic web page. It's much more complicated than consuming static, pre-rendered content. Can't simply use something like cheerio and plain old HTTP requests. The answer being headless browsers.

For who?

Kappa

Installation

from npm

npm install twitch-webchat

from source

git clone https://github.com/talmobi/twitch-webchat
cd twitch-webchat
npm install

API

module.exports = {
  start: function ( channel:String || opts:Object, callback (err, data) )
  /*
   * @desc Open and start polling the DOM for chat messages for the given channel.
   *
   * @params {string} channel - channel name
   *   or
   * @params {object} opts - options object
   *              opts.channel - channel name
   *              opts.interval - DOM polling interval (default 1000 ms)
   *              opts.flexible - slow down polling interval based on chat messages
                                        per (10 * interval) ratio (capped at 10 * interval)
   *
   * @params {function} callback - DOM polling callback function
   *              err - error || undefined
   *              message - message object
   *                message.type - 'chat', 'system', 'debug' or 'tick'
   *                message.from - message author (username), only if type === 'chat'
   *                message.text - message content as text string
   *                message.html - message content as html string
   *
   *                message.moderator - user is Moderator (moderator text)
   *                message.prime - user is Twitch Prime Subscriber (twitch prime text)
   *                message.subscriber - user is Channel Subscriber (subscriber text)
   */

  getTopStreamers: function (err, channels)
  /*
   * @desc Get a list of the current top twitch streamers (from https://twitch.tv/directory/all)
   *
   * @params {function} callback - callback function
   *              @params {Error} err
   *              @params {Array.<string>} channels - array of channel names
   */
};

CLI

A simple Command Line Interface is also included

$ npm install -g twitch-webchat
$ twitch-webchat --help

Usage: twitch-webchat [options] <channel>

Examples:

  twitch-webchat totalbiscuit
  twitch-webchat --color sodapoppin
  twitch-webchat -h

Options:

  -t, --top          List current top live streamers

  -c, --color        Colorize output

  -v, --version      Display version
  -h, --help         Display help (this text)

Test

npm test

LICENSE

MIT

didindinn/twitch-webchat