Installation and usage

Requirements

Python 3.8+
API keys Twitter and/or Mastodon

Installation

Create and activate a virtualenv

$ python -m venv .venv
$ source .venv/bin/activate

Install from pip

(.venv) $ pip install twootfeed

Initialize the configuration file

(.venv) $ twootfeed_init

Fill in fields for the client(s) you want to use in ‘~/.config/twootfeed/config.yml’ :
Note

Details on feed and app parameters.
- for Twitter: see https://apps.twitter.com
copy/paste the Twitter API key values in config.yml file (’consumerKey’ and ‘consumerSecret’)
- for Mastodon: see Python wrapper for the Mastodon API
use the included script which will register your app and prompt you to log in, creating the credential files for you.
$ twootfeed_create_mastodon_cli
Warning

It may be necessary to temporarily disable two-factor authentication in your Mastodon account, if enabled.
Generate the token to access feeds

New in version 0.7.0.

Since twootfeed is connected to the user account (personal API keys), feeds may display items with restricted visibility (like private toots or direct messages).

A token is now mandatory to start the application and access feeds, to limit exposing private items (feeds should not be publicly available).

Some examples for token generation (minimum length: 25 characters):

> with Python

$ python
Python 3.10.5 (main, Jun  6 2022, 18:49:26) [GCC 12.1.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import secrets
>>> secrets.token_urlsafe()
'pgoeS3qOsLHxduzNY_gmn6p5vWZqSzqBgnb_VPupQ7o'
>>>

> with a linux command line

$ date | sha256sum | base64 | head -c 25; echo
NWU2MzE1ZGM0MmVlZDg5NDNhN

After generation, copy the value into ‘config.yml’.

Warning

If the token is missing or invalid, twootfeed will not start.

The files location and settings can be changed by exporting the following environment variables:

variable	description	app default value
`TWOOTFEED_CONFIG_DIR`	configuration and credentials files directory	‘~/.config/twootfeed/’
`TWOOTFEED_CONFIG_FILE`	config file full path	config dir + ‘config.yml’ => with default value: ‘~/.config/twootfeed/config.yml’
`TWOOTFEED_LOG`	application log file	no default value (log printed on the console)
`TWOOTFEED_SETTINGS`	application settings	‘ProductionConfig’

Start the app

(.venv) $ twootfeed

Upgrade

Activate the virtualenv

$ source .venv/bin/activate

Upgrade with pip

(.venv) $ pip install -U twootfeed

Restart the application

Systemd service

To create a Linux service with systemd:

create a service file:

$ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/twootfeed.service

Template (to update depending on your distribution and installation):

[Unit]
Description=twootfeed service
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=1
User=<USER>
#Environment="TWOOTFEED_CONFIG_DIR="
#Environment="TWOOTFEED_CONFIG_FILE="
#Environment="TWOOTFEED_LOG="
#Environment="TWOOTFEED_SETTINGS="
ExecStart=<TWOOTFEED_DIRECTORY>/.venv/bin/python3 -m twootfeed

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

start the service:

$ sudo systemctl start twootfeed

to start on boot:

$ sudo systemctl enable twootfeed

Usage

Changed in version 0.7.0.

The following RSS feeds are available:

for Twitter search:
- http://localhost:8080/tweets?q=<query>&token=<token>
for Mastodon search:
- hashtag:
  http://localhost:8080/toots/tags/<hashtag>?token=<token> (without the leading #)
- query:
  http://localhost:8080/toots/search?q=<query>&token=<token>
for Mastodon user favorites:
- http://localhost:8080/toots/favorites?token=<token>
for Mastodon user bookmarks:
- http://localhost:8080/toots/bookmarks?token=<token>
for Mastodon user home timeline:
- http://localhost:8080/toots/home_timeline?token=<token>

where <token> is the token set in configuration.