How to build a Twitter Bot with Heroku and Twit

Robert Askam in Blog 18 Aug • 2 min read

You can see the progress here Twitter Bot Github. Start by creating an App in Twitter Application Manager. Once created get the following in you app’s dashboard:

Consumer Key
Consumer Secret
Access Token
Access Token Secret

Then create a Free Heroku Account here.

Lets Start

Now create to files called bot.js and package.json in a folder.

Packages Required

We will require the Twit package and Node but copy the following and change the details for your app.

{
  "name": "robATwitter",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "A twitter bot for my site Rob Askam",
  "main": "bot.js",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node bot.js"
  },
  "keywords": [
    "bot",
    "twitter",
    "robaskam"
  ],
  "author": "Robert Askam",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "rss-tweet-bot": "^0.1.1",
    "twit": "^2.2.5",
    "path": "^0.12.7",
    "express": "^4.14.0"
  },
  "engines": {
    "node": "7.9.0"
  }
}

Bot File

Firstly to hide your keys process.env.[key name] and i will show you how to use them on Heroku. Change the

const stream = TH.stream

track, these are what will be looked for and if found access the function.

const express = require('./node_modules/express');
const app = express();
const path = require('./node_modules/path');
app.set('port', (process.env.PORT || 5000));
app.get('/', function (request, response) {
    response.sendFile(path.join(__dirname + '/index.html'));
}).listen(app.get('port'), function () {
    console.log('App is running, server is listening on port ', app.get('port'));
});


const Twit = require('./node_modules/twit');
const TH = new Twit({ // Twit Handler
    consumer_key : process.env.consumer_key,
    consumer_secret : process.env.consumer_secret,
    access_token : process.env.access_token,
    access_token_secret : process.env.access_token_secret
});

const stream = TH.stream('statuses/filter', {
    track: ['robert-askam', 'robert-askam.co.uk','www.robert-askam.co.uk']
});

stream.on('tweet', (tweet) => {   
    
//This will like the tweet if contains the above keywords
    TH.post('favorites/create',{
        id:tweet.id_str
    },function (err,response) { 
        console.log(err);
        console.log(response);
    });
//This will retweet the tweet if it contains the above keywords
 TH.post('statuses/retweet/:id', {
     id: tweet.id_str
  });
    
//This will add a rely to the selected tweet.
     TH.post('statuses/update', {
       status: `@${tweet.user.screen_name} Thanks for sharing :)`,
      in_reply_to_status_id: tweet.id_str 
    });
    return; 
});