APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are a structured way for programs to communicate with other programs. A knowledge of APIs allows your programs to communicate with major services such as The New York Times and Twitter and collect data from organizations such as the Library of Congress.
In this session, we'll discuss API fundamentals while using the Twitter API to create a Twitterbot—an automated Twitter account. We'll also discuss the ethical use of APIs and how tools such as APIs have shaped the modern internet.
Do not share your API key, secret, or access tokens with anyone, and do not publish code with your key or token visible. Treat your keys and tokens as you would a password.
Getting Your API key
Accessing the API
Creating a Twitterbot
Scraping Data Using the Streaming API
Resources
Session Leader: Patrick Smyth
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