CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptangularjsnode.jsexpresstwitter
Catorda
Catorda

Reputation: 43

How to perform Twitter API search in Node.js with user-entered keyword

I am a complete newbie to Node.js, Express, and Angular. I have a Node/Express app running on my localhost. I am trying to make this into a Twitter search application, using the Twitter API, so that I can enter a search term and the API returns the search results for this search term. For this, I am using the twitter package. In index.js, I have filled in my Twitter keys and secrets at the Xs as follows:

var Twitter = require('twitter');

var client = new Twitter({
  consumer_key: 'X',
  consumer_secret: 'X',
  access_token_key: 'X',
  access_token_secret: 'X'
});

When I then put the following code into index.js, the search results for keyword "awesome" are logged to the console:

var tmpSearch = 'awesome';
client.get('search/tweets', {q: tmpSearch}, function(error, tweets, response){
        if (error) throw error;
        console.log(tweets);
    });

This works. My home page uses a controller myCtrl, which makes sure that when the user presses the Search button (with property ng-click="search(searchTerm)"), the entered search term is assigned to the variable searchTerm (using ng-model="searchTerm" for the input area). The code for the controller is as follows:

app.controller('myCtrl', ['$scope',
    function($scope){
        $scope.search = function(searchTerm){
          console.log("Searching for " + searchTerm);
          // Search here...
          console.log("Search finished.");
        };
    }
]);

It logs the search term to the console, but I don't know how to proceed from here. Where it says // Search here... I want to execute the client.get code from above, but I cannot use the client variable from routes/index.js in my public/javascript.js. What do I need to add to my code in order to perform the search?

I have the feeling that I am not understanding a very important part of Node/Express, but I don't know which part that is, so my search for solutions hasn't been very succesful. I have never used APIs before either, and I have spent many hours going through documentation and tutorials both for Node.js and for the Twitter API, but it's only a week ago that I started learning it so most of it isn't making a lot of sense to me yet. I have found a few examples of Node apps using the Twitter API on GitHub (most of them using different packages), of which I tried to understand the code, but I couldn't figure out what I should do. I hope someone will be patient enough to explain to me what I am missing.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2375

Answers (1)

Dave Cassel
Dave Cassel

Reputation: 8422

You need to think about where each step is happening. The Twitter code you're showing is running in Node, on your server. The myCtrl code is AngularJS code, running in the browser. As you've sensed, there's something missing to connect them.

The flow of control will be like this:

  • user types in a term and clicks the Search button
  • your controller sends an HTTP request to your Node.js
  • your Node.js server makes a call to Twitter
  • Node.js hands the results back to the client (myCtrl)
  • the results are displayed to your user

You have pieces of this in place. What's missing is the HTTP request and response. Here's what you do:

  • add an endpoint, say, /api/twittersearch. You'll do this with Node.js and Express
  • the implementation of that endpoint will be a function with parameters req and res (request and response; those names are not required but are frequently used); this function will do the new Twitter and client.get code that you have above
  • the client.get call has a callback function, which you have currently implemented; in your callback, you'll send the tweets back to the client (something like res.send(tweets)
  • in your controller, your "search here" code will be something like $http.get('/api/twittersearch?term=' + searchTerm)

That last call to $http.get() returns a Promise. You'll follow that up with .then(function(tweets){ ... }).catch(function(errors){ ... }). In the function you pass to then, you'll take the results from your call and update your model.

Upvotes: 4

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