Page 128 -
P. 128

functions
                         Web

           Use the Force, Luke

           It’s pretty complicated to write a program that sends messages to a service
           like Twitter. Fortunately, other people have already tackled problems like this
           and posted their code on the Web. Here’s a Python function (found on the
           Web) that is very similar to what you need:
                                          This is the text of the
                                          message that will be sent.




                                                                               Put your Twitter
             def send_to_twitter():                                                               Put your
                  msg = "I am a message that will be sent to Twitter"          username here.     Twitter
                                                                                                  here.
                  password_manager = urllib.request.HTTPPasswordMgr()                             password
                  password_manager.add_password("Twitter API",
                                                "http://twitter.com/statuses", "...", "...")
                  http_handler = urllib.request.HTTPBasicAuthHandler(password_manager)
                  page_opener = urllib.request.build_opener(http_handler)
                  urllib.request.install_opener(page_opener)
                  params = urllib.parse.urlencode( {'status': msg} )
                  resp = urllib.request.urlopen("http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json", params)
                  resp.read()





           This code looks complex but, for now, all you need to know is that it sends
           a message to the Twitter service. An advantage of using functions (which is
           illustrated here) is that they allow you to understand a program at a high level
           without having to initially understand all the details. This is known as working
           at a higher level of abstraction.
                                                                                           Do this!







                 This code looks like it could be useful. But is        To use the code you will first need
                 there a problem?                                       to sign up for a free Twitter account.
                                                                        To register, go to:
                 Why can’t you just replace the print()
                 calls in our existing program with calls to this         https://twitter.com/signup
                 function?





                                                                                        you are here 4    93
   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133