TwitterContext Limitations outside of LinqToTwitter API calls

Question

Follow up to Extract BearerToken from LinqToTwitter IAuthorizer

Although I am not using the LTT library for anything past authorization (at this point), I still seem to be limited to 200 tweets when calling directly to the /statuses/user_timeline API with

{parameter string: user_id={0}&screen_name={1}&count=3200&exclude_replies=true&include_rts=false&trim_user=false&contributor_details=false}

And

webClient.Headers.Add(String.Format("Authorization:  Bearer {0}", BearerToken));

Is this a limit of TwitterContext Authorization? If so how can I change that limit without using the library calls?

i.e. I am not using

statusResponse = (from tweet in twitterCtx.Status ...)

I don't use the library because it is utilizing the Twitter search object which may produce inconsistent results per Twitter's limitations on the search object.

Thank you in advance!

Joe Mayo Joe Mayo · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-08T17:48:38

According to Twitter's statuses/user_timeline documentation, the max value of count is 200. However, that's a per query max. You can make multiple queries to retrieve up to 3200 tweets. Twitter has a nice explanation, in their Working with Timelines page, on how to work with timelines to retrieve those 3200 tweets. I realize you aren't querying with LINQ to Twitter, but for the benefit of anyone else who finds this answer, this how LINQ to Twitter does it:

static async Task RunUserTimelineQueryAsync(TwitterContext twitterCtx)
{
    //List<Status> tweets =
    //    await
    //    (from tweet in twitterCtx.Status
    //     where tweet.Type == StatusType.User &&
    //           tweet.ScreenName == "JoeMayo"
    //     select tweet)
    //    .ToListAsync();

    const int MaxTweetsToReturn = 200;
    const int MaxTotalResults = 100;

    // oldest id you already have for this search term
    ulong sinceID = 1;

    // used after the first query to track current session
    ulong maxID;

    var combinedSearchResults = new List<Status>();

    List<Status> tweets =
        await
        (from tweet in twitterCtx.Status
         where tweet.Type == StatusType.User &&
               tweet.ScreenName == "JoeMayo" &&
               tweet.Count == MaxTweetsToReturn &&
               tweet.SinceID == sinceID &&
               tweet.TweetMode == TweetMode.Extended
         select tweet)
        .ToListAsync();

    if (tweets != null)
    {
        combinedSearchResults.AddRange(tweets);
        ulong previousMaxID = ulong.MaxValue;
        do
        {
            // one less than the newest id you've just queried
            maxID = tweets.Min(status => status.StatusID) - 1;

            Debug.Assert(maxID < previousMaxID);
            previousMaxID = maxID;

            tweets =
                await
                (from tweet in twitterCtx.Status
                 where tweet.Type == StatusType.User &&
                       tweet.ScreenName == "JoeMayo" &&
                       tweet.Count == MaxTweetsToReturn &&
                       tweet.MaxID == maxID &&
                       tweet.SinceID == sinceID &&
                       tweet.TweetMode == TweetMode.Extended
                 select tweet)
                .ToListAsync();

            combinedSearchResults.AddRange(tweets);

        } while (tweets.Any() && combinedSearchResults.Count < MaxTotalResults);

        PrintTweetsResults(tweets);
    }
    else
    {
        Console.WriteLine("No entries found.");
    }
}

which you can find in the LINQ to Twitter documentation on Querying the User Timeline. I also wrote a blog post, Working with Timelines with LINQ to Twitter, to explain LINQ to Twitter's approach to paging. It's for an earlier (non-async) version, but the concepts are still the same.

TwitterContext Limitations outside of LinqToTwitter API calls

1 Answers