If you are someone like me who considers Twitter to be far better than Instagram, then I might be having something for you. We all know gaining followers on twitter can be pretty tough but sometimes retweeting quality content can gain you, followers, too. Obviously, you are a busy person and you don’t have time to sit around on your phone or laptop to read and retweet content. Pretty boring task right? Let’s make our smart friend do it. This article revolves around how to automate twitter using selenium Python.
First, you will be needing Python. You download python from here. Now, let’s begin coding. First, create a folder named Twitter Automation and then change the directory to the newly created folder. Now, create a file named requirements.txt and add just this one line to it.
selenium==3.141.0
Next, open up your terminal and type
pip install -r requirements.txt
Next, you will need a chrome driver. You can download it from here. After the download is complete, move the downloaded driver to your newly created folder Twitter Automation.
Now all the requirements are taken care of. Now let’s begin with the coding.
Now, create a file called credentials.txt and add the following lines to it.
email: {your twitter email}
password: {your twitter password}
Replace the email and password placeholder with your original credentials of twitter. I am using a text file. One could also use a .env file but here for simplicity I am using a .txt file.
Next, create another file called secrets.py and add the following lines of code to it.
Python3
""" Add your twitter handle's email and password in the credentials.txt file. This will be used to automate the login."""def get_credentials() -> dict: # dictionary for storing credentials credentials = dict() # reading the text file # for credentials with open('credentials.txt') as f: # iterating over the lines for line in f.readlines(): try: # fetching email and password key, value = line.split(": ") except ValueError: # raises error when email and password not supplied print('Add your email and password in credentials file') exit(0) # removing trailing # white space and new line credentials[key] = value.rstrip(" \n") # returning the dictionary containing the credentials return credentials |
I have added a detailed code explanation in the inline comments for better understanding. Now, let’s create the most important file, the one which does all the magic. Create a new file called twitterbot.py and add the following lines to it.
Python3
from selenium import webdriverfrom selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keysfrom selenium.webdriver import ActionChainsfrom selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options'''Uncomment the below line when running in linux'''# from pyvirtualdisplay import Displayimport time, osclass Twitterbot: def __init__(self, email, password): """Constructor Arguments: email {string} -- registered twitter email password {string} -- password for the twitter account """ self.email = email self.password = password # initializing chrome options chrome_options = Options() # adding the path to the chrome driver and # integrating chrome_options with the bot self.bot = webdriver.Chrome( executable_path = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), 'chromedriver'), options = chrome_options ) def login(self): """ Method for signing in the user with the provided email and password. """ bot = self.bot # fetches the login page # adjust the sleep time according to your internet speed time.sleep(3) email = bot.find_element_by_xpath( '//*[@id ="react-root"]/div / div / div[2]/main / div / div / form / div / div[1]/label / div / div[2]/div / input' ) password = bot.find_element_by_xpath( '//*[@id ="react-root"]/div / div / div[2]/main / div / div / form / div / div[2]/label / div / div[2]/div / input' ) # sends the email to the email input email.send_keys(self.email) # sends the password to the password input password.send_keys(self.password) # executes RETURN key action password.send_keys(Keys.RETURN) time.sleep(2) def like_retweet(self, hashtag): """ This function automatically retrieves the tweets and then likes and retweets them Arguments: hashtag {string} -- twitter hashtag """ bot = self.bot # fetches the latest tweets with the provided hashtag bot.get( hashtag+'&src = typed_query&f = live' ) time.sleep(3) # using set so that only unique links # are present and to avoid unnecessary repetition links = set() # obtaining the links of the tweets for _ in range(100): # executing javascript code # to scroll the webpage bot.execute_script( 'window.scrollTo(0, document.body.scrollHeight)' ) time.sleep(4) # using list comprehension # for adding all the tweets link to the set # this particular piece of code might # look very complicated but the only reason # I opted for list comprehension because is # lot faster than traditional loops [ links.add(elem.get_attribute('href'))\ for elem in bot.find_elements_by_xpath("//a[@dir ='auto']") ] # traversing through the generated links for link in links: # opens individual links bot.get(link) time.sleep(4) try: # retweet button selector bot.find_element_by_css_selector( '.css-18t94o4[data-testid ="retweet"]' ).click() # initializes action chain actions = ActionChains(bot) # sends RETURN key to retweet without comment actions.send_keys(Keys.RETURN).perform() # like button selector bot.find_element_by_css_selector( '.css-18t94o4[data-testid ="like"]' ).click() # adding higher sleep time to avoid # getting detected as bot by twitter time.sleep(10) except: time.sleep(2) # fetches the main homepage |
Now, it’s time to code our driver script. To do that, create a file called main.py and add the following lines to it.
Python3
import twitterbot as tbimport secrets, sys# fetches the hashtag from command line argumenthashtag = sys.argv[1]# fetches the credentials dictionary# using get_credentials functioncredentials = secrets.get_credentials()# initialize the bot with your credentialsbot = tb.Twitterbot(credentials['email'], credentials['password'])# logging inbot.login()# calling like_retweet functionbot.like_retweet(hashtag) |
Now, we are done with the code. Let’s call our driver script by running the following command in your terminal.
python main.py {hashtag}
Just in place of the hashtag placeholder replace it with any trending hashtag, for example, you can try
python main.py python3
This will like and retweet 100 tweets with the hashtag python. You can check out how it would perform in the video below. So, there you have it. Go ahead and try it out and do not increase the number of tweets because twitter has a daily limit of tweets.
Some advantages of using Selenium for Twitter automation include:
- Improved productivity: Automation allows you to perform tasks faster and more efficiently, freeing up time for other tasks.
- Consistency: Automation ensures that tasks are performed consistently and accurately, reducing the risk of errors.
- Customizability: Selenium allows you to customize the automation to meet your specific requirements.
Some disadvantages of using Selenium for Twitter automation include:
- Limited capabilities: Selenium can only automate tasks that are available through the web interface, so it may not be suitable for tasks that require more advanced functionality.
- Maintenance: Automation scripts may require regular maintenance to keep up with changes in the Twitter interface and API.
- Risk of account suspension: Twitter has strict rules against automation, so it’s important to use automation responsibly and within the limits set by Twitter to avoid account suspension or banning.
