R/tweet_threading.R

In mkearney/rtweet: Collecting Twitter Data

#' Collect statuses contained in a thread
#'
#' Return all statuses that are part of a thread. By default the function
#' traverses first backwards from the origin status_id of the thread up to the
#' root, then checks if there are any child statuses that were posted after
#' the origin status.
#'
#' @param tw [lookup_tweets()] output containing
#'  at least the last status in the thread
#' @param traverse character, direction to traverse from origin status in tw,
#'  Default: c('backwards','forwards')
#' @param n numeric, timeline to fetch to start forwards traversing, Default: 10
#' @param verbose logical, Output to console status of traverse, Default: FALSE
#' @return [lookup_tweets()] tibble
#' @examples
#' \dontrun{
#' tw <- lookup_tweets("1084143184664510470")
#' tw_thread <- tweet_threading(tw)
#' tw_thread
#' }
#' @export
tweet_threading <- function(tw, traverse = c("backwards", "forwards"), n = 10, verbose = FALSE) {
  for (i in traverse) {
    direction <- switch(i,
      backwards = tweet_threading_backwards,
      forwards = tweet_threading_forwards,
      abort("`traverse` must contain only 'backwards' or 'forwards")
    )

    tw <- direction(tw, n, verbose)
    if (verbose) cat("\n")
  }

  tw
}

tweet_threading_backwards <- function(tw, n = NULL, verbose = FALSE) {
  last_found <- FALSE

  if (verbose) {
    message("Initializing Backwards Traverse")
  }

  counter <- 0

  while (!last_found) {
    nr <- nrow(tw)
    last_found <- is.na(tw$in_reply_to_status_id[nr])

    tw_tail <- lookup_tweets(tw$in_reply_to_status_id[nr])
    tw <- rbind(tw, tw_tail)

    if (!last_found) {
      counter <- counter + 1

      if (verbose) {
        cat(".")

        if (counter %% 80 == 0) {
          cat(sprintf(" %s \n", counter))
        }
      }
    } else {
      if (verbose) {
        cat(sprintf(" %s statuses found \n", counter))
      }
    }
  }

  tw
}

tweet_threading_forwards <- function(tw, n = 10, verbose = FALSE) {
  if (verbose) {
    message(sprintf("Retrieving last %s statuses from @%s's timeline", n, tw$screen_name[1]))
  }

  timeline <- get_timeline(tw$screen_name[1], n = n)
  from_id <- tw$id[1]

  last_found <- FALSE

  if (verbose) {
    message("Initializing Forwards Traverse")
  }

  counter <- 0

  while (!last_found) {
    idx <- which(timeline$in_reply_to_status_id %in% from_id)
    last_found <- length(idx) == 0

    tw <- rbind(timeline[idx, ], tw)
    from_id <- timeline$id[idx]

    if (!last_found) {
      counter <- counter + 1

      if (verbose) {
        cat(".")

        if (counter %% 80 == 0) {
          cat(sprintf(" %s \n", counter))
        }
      }
    } else {
      if (verbose) {
        cat(sprintf(" %s statuses found \n", counter))
      }
    }
  }

  tw
}