Create your own Bot with Google Scripts

This is how you can write a Twitter bot with the help of Google Apps Script. Internally, it uses Wolfraph Alpha to get the answers.

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function start() {

// REPLACE THESE DUMMY VALUES

var TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY = "AAAA";

var TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET = "BBBB";

var TWITTER_HANDLE = "CCCC";

var WOLFRAM_API_ID = "DDDD";

// Store user variables

ScriptProperties.setProperty("CONSUMER_KEY", TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY);

ScriptProperties.setProperty("CONSUMER_SECRET", TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET);

ScriptProperties.setProperty("TWITTER_HANDLE", TWITTER_HANDLE);

ScriptProperties.setProperty("WOLFRAM_API_ID", WOLFRAM_API_ID);

// The MAX_TWITTER_ID will store the ID of the last tweet read by the bot

ScriptProperties.setProperty("MAX_TWITTER_ID", 0);

// Delete exiting triggers, if any

var triggers = ScriptApp.getScriptTriggers();

for(var i=0; i < triggers.length; i++) {

ScriptApp.deleteTrigger(triggers[i]);

}

// Setup a time-based trigger for the Bot to fetch and process incoming Tweets

// every minute. If your Google Script is running out of quota, change the

// time to 5 or 10 minutes though the bot won't offer real-time answers then.

ScriptApp.newTrigger("fetchTweets")

.timeBased()

.everyMinutes(1)

.create();

}

// We are using oAuth with Twitter API 1.1 to connect to Twitter

function oAuth() {

var oauthConfig = UrlFetchApp.addOAuthService("twitter");

oauthConfig.setAccessTokenUrl("https://api.twitter.com/oauth/access_token");

oauthConfig.setRequestTokenUrl("https://api.twitter.com/oauth/request_token");

oauthConfig.setAuthorizationUrl("https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authorize");

oauthConfig.setConsumerKey(ScriptProperties.getProperty("CONSUMER_KEY"));

oauthConfig.setConsumerSecret(ScriptProperties.getProperty("CONSUMER_SECRET"));

}

// This is the bot that reads the tweets

function fetchTweets() {

oAuth();

var twitter_handle = ScriptProperties.getProperty("TWITTER_HANDLE");

var phrase = "lang:en+to:" + twitter_handle;

var search = "https://api.twitter.com/1.1/search/tweets.json?q=";

search = search + encodeString(phrase)

+ "&since_id=" + ScriptProperties.getProperty("MAX_TWITTER_ID");

// Make sure the URLs are RFC 3986 Compliant else OAuth may throw service

// exceptions as Twitter will deny the oAuth request and you'll have to

// authorize with Twitter every time your run the script.

var options =

{

"method": "get",

"oAuthServiceName":"twitter",

"oAuthUseToken":"always"

};

try {

var result = UrlFetchApp.fetch(search, options);

if (result.getResponseCode() === 200) {

var data = Utilities.jsonParse(result.getContentText());

if (data) {

var tweets = data.statuses;

for (var i=tweets.length-1; i>=0; i--) {

var question = tweets[i].text.replace (

new RegExp("\@" + twitter_handle, "ig"), "");

var answer = askWolframAlpha(question);

sendTweet(tweets[i].user.screen_name, tweets[i].id_str, answer);

}

} catch (e) {

// Log oAuth errors if any.

// You can also use GmailApp to get email notifications of errors.

Logger.log(e.toString());

}

function sendTweet(user, reply_id, tweet) {

// Remember that we issue status updates with a POST method

var options =

{

"method": "POST",

"oAuthServiceName":"twitter",

"oAuthUseToken":"always"

};

var status = "https://api.twitter.com/1.1/statuses/update.json";

status = status + "?status=" + encodeString("@" + user + " " + tweet);

status = status + "&in_reply_to_status_id=" + reply_id;

try {

var result = UrlFetchApp.fetch(status, options);

ScriptProperties.setProperty("MAX_TWITTER_ID", reply_id);

}

catch (e) {

Logger.log(e.toString());

}

// encodeURIComponent isn't enough for oAuth as it does encode certain

// characters like !, *, (), etc. Thank you +Martin Hawksey - you are awesome

function encodeString (q) {

var str = encodeURIComponent(q);

str = str.replace(/!/g,'%21');

str = str.replace(/\*/g,'%2A');

str = str.replace(/\(/g,'%28');

str = str.replace(/\)/g,'%29');

str = str.replace(/'/g,'%27');

return str;

}

function askWolframAlpha(q) {

// We are using v2 of the Wolfram Alpha API

var request = "http://api.wolframalpha.com/v2/query?"

+ "podindex=2&format=plaintext&appid="

+ ScriptProperties.getProperty("WOLFRAM_API_ID")

+ "&input=" + encodeString(q);

// Wolfram API returns results in an XML format

// and these are easy to parse with Google Scripts

var answer = Xml.parse(UrlFetchApp.fetch(request).getContentText(), true);

if (answer.queryresult.success == "true")

return answer.queryresult.pod.subpod.plaintext.Text;

else

return "Sorry but I do not have an answer to that question.";

}