Twitter REST API v1.1 requires OAuth for every endpoints so you no longer be able to call it from front-end directly. Additionaly, Twitter Streaming API needs to be converted in browser compatible protocol such as WebSocket to get data in real-time. This proxy server solves those problems.
Twitter API Proxy is designed for pure front-end framework such as Angular.js. The concept is to separate front-end client completely from back-end. It supports Twitter REST API and Streaming API. Streaming data is streamed via WebSocket on Socket.IO in real time.
- Install
npmdependencies in project directory.
$ git clone https://github.com/kg782/twitter-api-proxy
$ cd twitter-api-proxy
$ npm install
-
Rename configs.js.sample to configs.js and update for your environment.
-
Start server
$ node app.js
This proxy hides consumer key and access token from front-end clients. Those keys won't be exposed.
Clients access tokens are kept in persistent storage (MongoDB) then retrieved by session without authorizing each time.
As stutases/sample has same results for every clients, the proxy establishes only one shared streaming connection to Twitter with developers access token, then it broadcasts to every front-end clients without authentication. So it requires developers access token to establish shared streaming connection.
Access /twitter/login, it redirects twitter Auth page. /twitter/logout is to log out. To check authentication status, access /twitter/authenticated
All endpoints of Twitter REST API v1.1 require authentication. Before access those API, clients need to authenticate.
- URL: /twitter/ +
twitter resource(eg./twitter/account/verify_credentials.jsontoaccount/verify_credentials.json) - HTTP Method: HTTP Method to the proxy is used to access twitter API. If you access with GET method, twitter GET method is called.
- Parameters: Parameters are passed to call twitter API
$.ajax({
url: '/twitter/account/verify_credentials.json',
type: 'GET',
success: function(data) {
console.log(data);
},
error: function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
console.error('Error', jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown);
}
})
To connect and listen the events. Socket.IO namespaces are corresponding to Twitter API endpoints. In this case, accessing statuses/sample endpoint.
var socket = io.connect('/twitter/statuses/sample');
socket
.on('error', function() {
console.error('unable to connet to the namespace');
})
.on('connect', function() {
console.log('successfully established a connection to the namespace');
})
.on('disconnect', function() {
console.log('Socket was disconnected');
})
.on('data', function(data) {
console.log('data', data);
});
namespace: /twitter/statuses/filter
Streams to Twitter are established for each user. To query the streaming API,
socket.emit('query', {
track: $('input[name="track"]').val()
});
namespace: /twitter/statuses/sample
Server shares only one stream connection to Twitter and broadcasts to all clients as the response of statuses/sample is identical for each clients. The streaming is done by developers access token then user doesn't need to authenticate to access this API.
namespace: /twitter/user
It requires user authentication.
MIT