Back
May 12, 2010

Twitter API, OAuth and decorators

In my current project I had a task to use twitter API. Twitter uses OAuth for authentication, which is pretty dreary. To avoid fiddling with it all the time, I've moved authentication to decorator, now it looks like this:

@twitter_api
def tweet_hello(request, api):
    api.update_status('hello')
# ...

Decorator checks if key is available, and, if needed - initiates authentication. User is redirected to twitter, grants permission and is redirected back to site, to the same place where he left off. If key is available - nothing happens, just view is launched as usual.

It's convenient that there's no need for additional twitter settings in user profile.

tweepy is used as an API wrapper.

def twitter_api(view):
    def wrapped(request, args, *kwargs):
        callback_url = absolute_url(oauth_endpoint)
        auth = tweepy.OAuthHandler(CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET, callback_url)

        if 'twitter_access_token' in request.session:
            key, secret =     request.session['twitter_access_token']
            auth.set_access_token(key, secret)
            return view(request, api=tweepy.API(auth), *args, **kwargs)

        request.session['twitter_action'] = request.path
        redirect_url = auth.get_authorization_url()
        request.session['twitter_request_token'] = (auth.request_token.key, auth.request_token.secret)
        return redirect(redirect_url)

    return wrapped


def oauth_endpoint(request):
    callback_url = absolute_url(oauth_endpoint)
    auth = tweepy.OAuthHandler(CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET, callback_url)
    key, secret = request.session.pop('twitter_request_token')
    auth.set_request_token(key, secret)
    verifier = request.REQUEST.get('oauth_verifier')
    auth.get_access_token(verifier)
    request.session['twitter_access_token'] = (auth.access_token.key, auth.access_token.secret)
    return redirect(request.session.pop('twitter_action'))
  • of course, you need to wrap everything in try..except blocks and process errors accordingly
  • absolute_url should return full url, with http://
  • apart from request.path you can also store POST and GET.
  • path can be passed as an argument to callback_url

Subscribe for the news and updates

More thoughts
Apr 18, 2023Technology
TDD guide for busy people, with example

This quick introduction to TDD is meant to show the implementation of this practice with a real-life example.

Nov 29, 2022Technology
React Performance Testing with Jest

One of the key requirements for modern UI is being performant. No matter how beautiful your app looks and what killer features it offers, it will frustrate your users if it clangs.

Jun 1, 2018Technology
Site search organization: basic concepts

Now it's time to get acquainted with Elasticsearch. This NoSQL database is used to store logs, analyze information and - most importantly - search.

Jul 27, 2017Technology
How to Deploy Django app with AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

In this article I'll show you how to deploy Django application to AWS Beanstalk.

Mar 3, 2017Technology
Flask vs Django. Which Is Better for Your Web App?

There are two most popular web frameworks in Python. There is the Django with lots of intelligent defaults and the Flask micro framework with complete freedom in the choice of modules. Let’s see, what django vs flask is in 2017.

Oct 3, 2016Technology
How to include JQuery plugins in Angular 2 running via webpack

Learn more about how to include jquery plugins in angular 2 running via webpack. Our tutorial is perfect for Angular beginners.