Installing the Loklak Search and Deploying it to Surge

The Loklak search creates a website using the Loklak server as a data source. The goal is to get a search site, that offers timeline search as well as custom media search, account and geolocation search.

In order to run the service, you can use the API of http://api.loklak.org or install your own Loklak server data storage engine. Loklak_server is a server application which collects messages from various social media tweet sources, including Twitter. The server contains a search index and a peer-to-peer index sharing interface. All messages are stored in an elasticsearch index.

The site of this repo is deployed on the GitHub gh-pages branch and automatically deployed here: http://loklak.org

In this blog, we will talk about how to install Loklak_Search locally and deploying it to Surge (Static web publishing for Front-End Developers).

How to clone the repository

Sign up / Login to GitHub and head over to the Loklak_Search repository. Then follow these steps.

  1. Go ahead and fork the repository
https://github.com/fossasia/loklak_search
  1.   Get the clone of the forked version on your local machine using
git clone https://github.com/<username>/loklak_search.git
  1.   Add upstream to synchronize repository using
git remote add upstream https://github.com/fossasia/loklak_search.git

Getting Started

The Loklak search application basically consists of the following :

  1. First, we will need to install angular-cli by using the following command:
npm install -g @angular/cli@latest

2. After installing angular-cli we need to install our required node modules, so we will do that by using the following command:

npm install

3. Deploy locally by running this

ng serve

Go to localhost:4200 where the application will be running locally.

How to Deploy Loklak Search on Surge :

Surge is the technology which publishes or generates the static web-page demo link, which makes it easier for the developer to deploy their web-app. There are a lot of benefits of using surge over generating demo link using GitHub pages.

  1. We need to install surge on our machine. Type the following in your Linux terminal:
npm install –global surge

This installs the Surge on your machine to access Surge from the command line.

  1. In your project directory just run
surge
  1. After this, it will ask you three parameters, namely
Email
Password
Domain

After specifying all these three parameters, the deployment link with the respective domain is generated.

Auto deployment of Pull Requests using Surge :

To implement the feature of auto-deployment of pull request using surge, one can follow up these steps:

  • Create a pr_deploy.sh file
  • The pr_deploy.sh file will be executed only after success of Travis CI i.e. when Travis CI passes by using command bash pr_deploy.sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash
if [ “$TRAVIS_PULL_REQUEST” == “false” ]; then
echo “Not a PR. Skipping surge deployment.”
exit 0
fi
npm i -g surge
export SURGE_LOGIN=test@example.co.in
# Token of a dummy account
export SURGE_TOKEN=d1c28a7a75967cc2b4c852cca0d12206
export DEPLOY_DOMAIN=https://pr-${TRAVIS_PULL_REQUEST}-fossasia-LoklakSearch.surge.sh
surge –project ./dist –domain $DEPLOY_DOMAIN;

Here, Travis CI is first installing surge locally by npm i -g surge  and then we are exporting the environment variables SURGE_LOGIN , SURGE_TOKEN and DEPLOY_DOMAIN.

Now, execute pr_deploy.sh file from .travis.yml by using command bash pr_deploy.sh

Resources

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Adding additional information to store listing page of Loklak apps site

Loklak apps site has now got a completely functional store listing page where users can find all relevant information about the app which they want to view. The page has a left side bar which shows various categories to switch between, a right sidebar for suggesting similar kind of apps to users and a middle section to provide users with various important informations about the app like getting started, use of app, promo images, preview images, test link and various other details. In this blog I will be describing how the bottom section of the middle column has been created (related issue: #209).

The bottom section

The bottom section provides various informations like updated, version, app source, developer information, contributors, technology stack, license. All these informations has to be dynamically loaded for each selected app. As I had previously mentioned here, no HTML content can be hard coded in the store listing page. So how do we show the above mentioned informations for the different apps? Well, for this we will once again use the app.json of the corresponding app like we had done for the middle section here.

At first, for a given app we need to define some extra fields in the app.json file as shown below.

"appSource": "https://github.com/fossasia/apps.loklak.org/tree/master/MultiLinePlotter",
  "contributors": [{"name": "djmgit", "url": "http://djmgit.github.io/"}],
  "techStack": ["HTML", "CSS", "AngularJs", "Morris.js", "Bootstrap", "Loklak API"],
  "license": {"name": "LGPL 2.1", "url": "https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1"},
  "version": "1.0",
  "updated": "June 10,2017",

The above code snippet shows the new fields included in app.json. The fields are as described below.

  • appSource: Stores link to the source code of the app.
  • Contributors: Stores a list containing objects. Each object stores name of the contributor and an url corresponding to that contributor.
  • techStack: A list containing names of the technologies used.
  • License: Name and link of the license.
  • Version: The current version of the app.
  • Updated: Date on which the app was last updated.

These fields provide the source for the informations present in the bottom section of the app.

Now we need to render these information on the store listing page. Let us take an example. Let us see how version is rendered.

<div ng-if="appData.version !== undefined && appData.version !== ''" class="col-md-4 add-info">
                  <div class="info-type">
                    <h5 class="info-header">
                      <strong>Version</strong>
                    </h5>
                  </div>
                  <div class="info-body">
                    {{appData.version}}
                  </div>
                </div>

We first check if version field is defined and version is not empty. Then we print a header (Version in this case) and then we print the value. This is how updated, appSource and license are also displayed. What about technology stack and contributors? Technology stack is basically an list and it may contain quite a number of strings(technology names). If we display all the values at once the bottom section will get crowded and it may degrade the UI of the page.To avoid this a popup dialog has been used. When user clicks on the technology stack label, a popup dialogue appears which shows the various technologies used in the app.

<div class="info-body">
                    <div class="dropdown">
                      <div class="dropdown-toggle" type="button" data-toggle="dropdown">
                        View technology stack
                      </div>
                      <ul class="dropdown-menu">
                        <li ng-repeat="item in appData.techStack" class="tech-item">
                           {{item}}
                        </li>
                      </ul>
                    </div>
                  </div>

After displaying a header, we iterate over the techStack list and populate our popup dialogue. This popup dialogue is attached to the label ‘View technology stack‘. Whenever a user clicks on this label, the popup is shown. The same technique technique is also applied for rendering contributors. A popup dialogue is used to display all the contributors. Thus technology stack and contributors list is shown only on demand.

For developer information, name of the developer is shown which is linked to his/her website and there is an option to send email or copy email id if present.

<div class="info-body">
                    <span ng-if="appData.author.url !== undefined && appData.author.url !== ''">
                      <a href="{{appData.author.url}}"> {{appData.author.name}} </a>
                    </span>
                    <a ng-if="appData.author.email !== undefined && appData.author.email !== ''" class="mail"
                      href="mailto:{{appData.author.email}}">
                      <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-envelope"></span>
                    </a>
                  </div>



For email id, bootstrap’s email glyphicon is used along with a mailto link pointing to the developer’s email id. What does mailto do? It simply opens your default mail client. For example if you are on linux, it might open Thunderbird. If you do not have a mail client installed, but your default browser is google chrome, it will open gmail mail composer. If you are viewing the site on android device, it will open gmail app directly.

The bottom section can be viewed here.

Important resources

 

Continue ReadingAdding additional information to store listing page of Loklak apps site

Loklak Timeline Using Sphinx Extension In Yaydoc

In Yaydoc, I decided to add option, to show show the twitter timeline which showthe latest twitter feed. But I wanted to implement it using loklak instead of twitter embedded plugin. I started to search for an embedded plugin that exists for loklak. There is no such plugin, hence I built my own plugin. You can see the source code here.

Now that I have the plugin, the next phase is to add the plugin to the documentation. Adding the plugin by appending the plugin code to HTML is not viable. Therefore I decided to make Directive for Sphinx which adds a timeline based on the query parameter which user provides.

In order to make a Directive, I had to make a Sphinx extension which creates a timeline Directive. The Directive has to look like this

.. timeline :: fossasia

from docutils import nodes

from docutils.parsers import rst

class timeline(nodes.General, nodes.Element):
  pass

def visit(self, node):
  tag=u'''

”’

.format(node.display_name)
  self.body.append(tag)
  self.visit_admonition(node)

def depart(self, node):
  self.depart_admonition(node)

class TimelineDirective(rst.Directive):
  name = 'timeline'
  node_class = timeline
  has_content = True
  required_argument = 1
  optional_argument = 0
  final_argument_whitespace = False
  option_spec = {}

 def run(self):
    node = self.node_class()
    node.display_name = self.content[0]
    return [node]

def setup(app):            app.add_javascript("https://cdn.rawgit.com/fossasia/loklak-timeline-plugin/master/plugi
 n.js")
  app.add_node(timeline, html=(visit, depart))
  app.add_directive('timeline', TimelineDirective)

We have to create an empty class for Nodes that inherits`Node.General` and `Node.Elements`. This class is used for storing the value which will be passed by the directive.

I wrote a `Visit` function which executes when sphinx visits the `timeline` directive. `Visit` function basically appends the necessary html code needed to render the twitter timeline. Then I created TimelineDirective class which inherits rst.Directive. In that class, I defined a run method which read the argument from the directive and passed it to the node. Finally I defined a setup method which adds the loklak-timeline-plugin js to the render html node, and directive to the sphinx. Setup function has to be defined, in order to detect module as an extension by the sphinx.

Resources:

Continue ReadingLoklak Timeline Using Sphinx Extension In Yaydoc

Improving Loklak apps site

In this blog I will be describing some of the recent improvements made to the Loklak apps site. A new utility script has been added to automatically update the loklak app wall after a new app has been made. Invalid app query in app details page has been handled gracefully.

A proper message is shown when a user enters an invalid app name in the url of the details page. Tests has been added for details page.

Developing updatewall script

This is a small utility script to update Loklak wall in order to expose a newly created app or update an existing app. Before moving into the working of this script let us discuss how Loklak apps site tracks all the apps and their details. In the root of the project there is a file names apps.json. This file contains an aggregation of all the app.json files present in the individual apps. Now when the site is loaded, index.html loads the Javascript code present in app_list.js. This app_list.js file makes an ajax call to root apps.json files, loads all the app details in a list and attaches this list to the AngularJS scope variable. After this the app wall consisting of various app details is rendered using html. So whenever a new app is created, in order to expose the app on the wall, the developer needs to copy the contents of the application’s app.json and paste it in the root apps.json file. This is quite tedious on the part of the developer as for making a new app he will first have to know how the site works which is not all directly related to his development work. Next, whenever he updates the app.json of his app, he needs to again update apps.json file with the new data.

This newly added script (updatewall) automates this entire process. After creating a new app all that the developer needs to do is run this script from within his app directory and the app wall will be updated automatically.

Now, let us move into the working of this script. The basic workflow of the updatewall script can be described as follows. The script loads the json data present in the app.json file of the app under consideration. Next it loads the json data present in the root apps.json file.

if __name__ == '__main__':

    #open file containg json object
    json_list_file = open(PATH_TO_ROOT_JSON, 'r')

    #load json object
    json_list = json.load(json_list_file,  object_pairs_hook=OrderedDict)
    json_list_file.close()

    app_json_file = open(PATH_TO_APP_JSON, 'r')
    app_json = json.load(app_json_file,  object_pairs_hook=OrderedDict)
    app_json_file.close()

    #method to update Loklak app wall
    expose_app(json_list, app_json)

When we are loading the json data we are using object_pairs_hook in order to load the data into an OrderedDict rather than a normal python dictionary. We are doing this so that the order of the dictionary items are maintained. Once the data is loaded we invoke the expose method.

def expose_app(json_list, app_json):
    #if app is already present in list then fetch that app
    app = getAppIfPesent(json_list, app_json)

    #if app is not present then add a new entry
    if app == None:
        json_list['apps'].append(app_json)
        update_list_file(json_list)
        print colors.BOLD + colors.OKGREEN + 'App exposed on app wall' + colors.ENDC

    #else update the existing app entry
    else:
        for key in app_json:
            app[key] = app_json[key]
        update_list_file(json_list)
        print colors.BOLD + colors.OKGREEN + 'App updated on app wall' + colors.ENDC

The apps.json file contain a key called apps. This value of this key is a list of json objects, each object being the json data of an individual app’s app.json file. In the above function we iterate over all the json objects present in the list. If we are unable to find a json object whose name value is same as that of the newly created app then we simply append the new app’s app.json object to that list. However if we find an object containing the same name value as that of the newly created app, then we simply update its properties. In short, if the app is a new one, its data gets added to apps.json otherwise the corresponding app data is updated.

Handling invalid app names in the URL of details page

The url of the app details page takes the app name as parameter. If any user wants to see the store listing of an app then he has to use the following url.

https://apps.loklak.org/details.html?q=<app_name>

Here app name is a url parameter used to load the store listing information. Now if anyone enters an invalid app name, that is an app which does not exists, then a proper error message has to be shown to the user. This can be done by checking whether the given app name is present in the root apps.json file or not. If not present if simply set a flag so that the error message can be conditionally rendered.

$scope.getSelectedApp = function() {
        for (var i = 0; i < $scope.apps.length; i++) {
            if ($scope.apps[i].name === $scope.appName) {
                $scope.selectedApp = $scope.apps[i];
                $scope.found = true;
                $("nav").show();
                break;
            }
        }
        if ($scope.found == false) {
            $scope.notFound = true;
        }
    }

In the above snippet if the app is not found then we set notFound to true. This causes the error message to appear on the page.

<div ng-if="notFound" class="not-found">
        <span class="brand-and-image">
          <img src="images/loklak_icon.png">
          <span class="loklak-brand"> <span class="loklak-header">
            loklak </span> <span>apps</span>
          </span>
        </span>
        <span class="error-404">
          Error: Requested app not found
        </span>
        <span class="go-back">
          <a href="/"> Go Back to Home Page >> </a>
        </span>
      </div>

The code renders the error message if notFound is set to true.

Writing tests for store listing page

Almost the entire content of the store listing is loaded dynamically by Javascript logic. So it is very important to write tests for store listing page. Protractor framework has been used to write automated browser test. The tests make sure that for a given app, the content of the middle section is loaded correctly.

it("should have basic information", function() {
    expect(element(by.css(".app-name")).getText()).toEqual("MultiLinePlotter");
    expect(element(by.css(".app-headline")).getText()).toEqual("App to plot tweet aggregations and statistics");
    expect(element(by.css(".author")).getText()).toEqual("by Deepjyoti Mondal");
    expect(element(by.css(".short-desc")).getText()).toEqual("An applicaton to visually compare tweet statistics");
  });

The above tests make sure that the top section is loaded properly. Next we check that getting started section and app use section are not empty.

it("main content should not be empty", function() {
    expect(element(by.css(".get-started-md")).getText()).not.toBe("");
    expect(element(by.css(".app-use-md")).getText()).not.toBe("");
  });

Apart from these, two more tests are performed to check the behaviour of the side bar menu items on click event and the functionality of the Try now button.

Future roadmap

There is still a lot of scope for the site’s improvement and enhancement. Some of the features which can be implemented next are given below.

  • Add more tests to make the site stable and add tests to travis build.
  • Make the apps independent. Work on this has already been started and can be viewed here – issue, PR
  • Optimise the site for mobile using services workers and caching (making a progressive web app).
  • Add a splash screen and home screen icon for mobile.

Important resources

Continue ReadingImproving Loklak apps site

Using Protractor for UI Tests in Angular JS for Loklak Apps Site

Loklak apps site’s home page and app details page have sections where data is dynamically loaded from external javascript and json files. Data is fetched from json files using angular js, processed and then rendered to the corresponding views by controllers. Any erroneous modification to the controller functions might cause discrepancies in the frontend. Since Loklak apps is a frontend project, any bug in the home page or details page will lead to poor UI/UX. How do we deal with this? One way is to write unit tests for the various controller functions and check their behaviours. Now how do we test the behaviours of the site. Most of the controller functions render something on the view. One thing we can do is simulate the various browser actions and test site against known, accepted behaviours with Protractor.

What is Protractor

Protractor is end to end test framework for Angular and AngularJS apps. It runs tests against our app running in browser as if a real user is interacting with our browser. It uses browser specific drivers to interact with our web application as any user would.

Using Protractor to write tests for Loklak apps site

First we need to install Protractor and its dependencies. Let us begin by creating an empty json file in the project directory using the following command.

echo {} > package.json

Next we will have to install Protractor.

The above command installs protractor and webdriver-manager. After this we need to get the necessary binaries to set up our selenium server. This can be done using the following.

./node_modules/protractor/bin/webdriver-manager update
./node_modules/protractor/bin/webdriver-manager start

Let us tidy up things a bit. We will include these commands in package.json file under scripts section so that we can shorten our commands.

Given below is the current state of package.json

{
    "scripts": {
        "start": "./node_modules/http-server/bin/http-server",
        "update-driver": "./node_modules/protractor/bin/webdriver-manager update",
        "start-driver": "./node_modules/protractor/bin/webdriver-manager start",
        "test": "./node_modules/protractor/bin/protractor conf.js"
    },
    "dependencies": {
        "http-server": "^0.10.0",
        "protractor": "^5.1.2"
    }
}

The package.json file currently holds our dependencies and scripts. It contains command for starting development server, updating webdriver and starting webdriver (mentioned just before this) and command to run test.

Next we need to include a configuration file for protractor. The configuration file should contain the test framework to be used, the address at which selenium is running and path to specs file.

// conf.js
exports.config = {
    framework: "jasmine",
    seleniumAddress: "http://localhost:4444/wd/hub",
    specs: ["tests/home-spec.js"]
};

We have set the framework as jasmine and selenium address as http://localhost:4444/wd/hub. Next we need to define our actual file. But before writing tests we need to find out what are the things that we need to test. We will mostly be testing dynamic content loaded by Javascript files. Let us define a spec. A spec is a collection of tests. We will start by testing the category name. Initially when the page loads it should be equal to All apps. Next we test the top right hand side menu which is loaded by javascript using topmenu.json file.

it("should have a category name", function() {
    expect(element(by.id("categoryName")).getText()).toEqual("All apps");
  });

  it("should have top menu", function() {
    let list = element.all(by.css(".topmenu li a"));
    expect(list.count()).toBe(5);
  });

As mentioned earlier, we are using jasmine framework for writing our specs. In the above code snippet ‘it’ describes a particular test. It takes a test description and a callback function thereby providing a very efficient way to document our tests white write the test code itself. In the first test we use expect function to check whether the category name is equal to All apps or not. Here we select the div containing the category name by its id.

Next we write a test for top menu. There should be five menu options in total for the top menu. We select all the list items that are supposed to contain the top menu items and check whether the number of such items are five or not using expect function. As it can be seen from the snippet, the process of selecting a node is almost similar to that of Jquery library.

Next we test the left hand side category list. This list is loaded by AngularJS controller from apps,json file. We should make sure the list is loaded properly and all the options are present.

it("should have a category list", function() {
    let categoryIds = ["All", "Scraper", "Search", "Visualizer", "LoklakLibraries", "InternetOfThings", "Misc"];
    let categoryNames = ["All", "Scraper", "Search", "Visualizer", "Loklak Libraries", "Internet Of Things", "Misc"];

    expect(element(by.css("#catTitle")).getText()).toBe("Categories");

    let categoryList = element.all(by.css(".category-main"));
    expect(categoryList.count()).toBe(7);

    categoryIds.forEach(function(id, index) {
      element(by.css("#" + id)).isPresent().then(function(present) {
        expect(present).toBe(true);
      });

      element(by.css("#" + id)).getText().then(function(text) {
        expect(text).toBe(categoryNames[index]);
      });
    });
  });

At first we maintain two lists of category id and category names. We begin by confirming that Category title is equal to Categories. Next we get the list of categories and iterate over them, For each category we check whether the corresponding id is present in the DOM or not. After confirming this, we match the names of the categories with the expected names. Elements.all function allows us to get a list of selected nodes.

Finally we check the click functionality of the left side menu. Expected behaviour is, on clicking a menu item, the category name should get replaced with the selected category name. For this we need to simulate the click event. Protractor allows us to do it very easily using click function.

it("category list should respond to click", function() {
    let categoryIds = ["All", "Scraper", "Search", "Visualizer", "LoklakLibraries", "InternetOfThings", "Misc"];
    let categoryNames = ["All apps", "Scraper", "Search", "Visualizer", "Loklak Libraries", "Internet Of Things", "Misc"];

    categoryIds.forEach(function(id, index) {
      element(by.id(categoryIds[index])).click().then(function() {
        browser.getCurrentUrl().then(function(url) {
          expect(url).toBe("http://127.0.0.1:8080/#/" + categoryIds[index]);
        });
        element(by.id("categoryName")).getText().then(function(text) {
          expect(text).toBe(categoryNames[index]);
        });
      });
    });
  });



Once again we maintain two lists, category id and category names. We obtain the present list of categories and iterate over them. For each category link we simulate a click event. For each click event we check two values. We check the new browser URL which should now contain the category id. Next we check the value of category name. It should be equal to the category selected.
FInally after all the tests are over we get the final report on our terminal.
In order to run the tests, use the following command.

npm test

This will start executing the tests.

Important resources

Continue ReadingUsing Protractor for UI Tests in Angular JS for Loklak Apps Site

Adding download feature to LoklakWordCloud app on Loklak apps site

One of the most important and useful feature that has recently been added to LoklakWordCloud app is enabling the user to download the generated word cloud as a png/jpeg image. This feature will allow the user to actually use this app as a tool to generate a word cloud using twitter data and save it on their disks for future use.

All that the user needs to do is generate the word cloud, choose an image type (png or jpeg) and click on export as image, a preview of the image to be downloaded will be displayed. Just hit enter and the word cloud will be saved on your disk. Thus users will not have to use any alternative process like taking a screenshot of the word cloud generated, etc.

Presently the complete app is hosted on Loklak apps site.

How does it work?

What we are doing is, we are exporting a part of the page (a div) as image and saving it. Apparently it might seem that we are taking a screenshot of a particular portion of a page and generating a download link. But actually it is not like that. The word cloud that is being generated by this app via Jqcloud is actually a collection of HTML nodes. Each node contains a word (part of the cloud) as a text content with some CSS styles to specify the size and color of that word. As user clicks on export to image option, the app traverses the div containing the cloud. It collects information about all the HTML nodes present under that div and creates a canvas representation of the entire div. So rather than taking a screenshot of the div, the app recreates the entire div and presents it to us. This entire process is accomplished by a lightweight JS library called html2canvas.

Let us have a look into the code that implements the download feature. At first we need to create the UI for the export and download option. User should be able to choose between png and jpeg before exporting to image. For this we have provided a dropdown containing the two options.

<div class="dropdown type" ng-if="download">
                <div class="dropdown-toggle select-type" data-toggle="dropdown">
                  {{imageType}}
                <span class="caret"></span></div>
                <ul class="dropdown-menu">
                  <li ng-click="changeType('png', 'png')"><a href="">png</a></li>
                  <li ng-click="changeType('jpeg', 'jpg')"><a href="">jpeg</a></li>
                </ul>
              </div>
              <a class="export" ng-click="export()" ng-if="download">Export as image</a>

In the above code snippet, firstly we create a dropdown menu with two list items, png and jpeg. With each each list item we attach a ng-click event which calls changeType function and passes two parameters, image type and extension.

The changeType function simply updates the current image type and extension with the selected ones.

$scope.changeType = function(type, ext) {
        $scope.imageType = type;
        $scope.imageExt = ext;
    }

The ‘export as image’ on clicking calls the export function. The export function uses html2canvas library’s interface to generate the canvas representation of the word cloud and also generates the download link and attaches it to the modal’s save button (described below). After everything is done it finally opens a modal with preview image and save option.

$scope.export = function() {
        html2canvas($(".wordcloud"), {
          onrendered: function(canvas) {
            var imgageData = canvas.toDataURL("image/" + $scope.imageType);
            var regex = /^data:image\/jpeg/;
            if ($scope.imageType === "png") {
                regex = /^data:image\/png/;
            }
            var newData = imgageData.replace(regex, "data:application/octet-stream");
            canvas.style.width = "80%";
            $(".wordcloud-canvas").html(canvas);
            $(".save-btn").attr("download", "Wordcloud." + $scope.imageExt).attr("href", newData);
            $("#preview").modal('show');
          },
          background: "#ffffff"
        });
    }

At the very beginning of this function, a call is made to html2canvas module and the div containing the word cloud is passed as a parameter. An object is also passed which contains a callback function defined for onrendered key. Inside the callback function we check the current image type and generate the corresponding url from the canvas. We display this canvas in the modal and set this download url as the href value of the modal’s save button.

Finally we display the modal.

The modal simply contains the preview image and a button to save the image on disk.

A sample image produced by the app is shown below.

Important resources

  • Know more about html2canvas here.
  • Know more about Jqcloud here.
  • View the app source here.
  • View loklak apps site source here.
  • View Loklak API documentation here
  • Learn more about AngularJS here.
Continue ReadingAdding download feature to LoklakWordCloud app on Loklak apps site

Live Feeds in loklak Media wall using ‘source=twitter’

Loklak Server provides pagination to provide tweets from Loklak search.json API in divisions so as to improve response time from the server. We will be taking advantage of this pagination using parameter `source=twitter` of the search.json API on loklak media wall. Basically, using parameter ‘source=twitter’ in the API does real time scraping and provides live feeds. To improve response time, it returns feeds as specified in the count (default is 100).

In the blog, I am explaining how implemented real time pagination using ‘source = twitter’ in loklak media wall to get live feeds from twitter.

Working

First API Call on Initialization

The first API call needs to have high count (i.e. maximumRecords = 20) so as to get a higher number of feeds and provide a sufficient amount of feeds to fill up the media wall. ‘source=twitter’ must be specified so that real time feeds are scraped and provided from twitter.

http://api.loklak.org/api/search.json?q=fossasia&callback=__ng_jsonp__.__req0.finished&minified=true&source=twitter&maximumRecords=20&timezoneOffset=-330&startRecord=1

 

If feeds are received from the server, then the next API request must be sent after 10 seconds so that server gets sufficient time to scrap the data and store it in the database. This can be done by an effect which dispatches WallNextPageAction(‘’) keeping debounceTime equal to 10000 so that next request is sent 10 seconds after WallSearchCompleteSuccessAction().

@Effect()
nextWallSearchAction$
= this.actions$
.ofType(apiAction.ActionTypes.WALL_SEARCH_COMPLETE_SUCCESS)
.debounceTime(10000)
.withLatestFrom(this.store$)
.map(([action, state]) => {
return new wallPaginationAction.WallNextPageAction();
});

Consecutive Calls

To implement pagination, next consecutive API call must be made to add new live feeds to the media wall. For the new feeds, count must be kept low so that no heavy pagination takes place and feeds are added one by one to get more focus on new tweets. For this purpose, count must be kept to one.

this.searchServiceConfig.count = queryObject.count;
this.searchServiceConfig.maximumRecords = queryObject.count;return this.apiSearchService.fetchQuery(queryObject.query.queryString, this.searchServiceConfig)
.takeUntil(nextSearch$)
.map(response => {
return new wallPaginationAction.WallPaginationCompleteSuccessAction(response);
})
.catch(() => of(new wallPaginationAction.WallPaginationCompleteFailAction()));
});

 

Here, count and maximumRecords is updated from queryObject.count which varies between 1 to 5 (default being 1). This can be updated by user from the customization menu.

Next API request is as follows:

http://api.loklak.org/api/search.json?q=fossasia&callback=__ng_jsonp__.__req2.finished&minified=true&source=twitter&maximumRecords=1&timezoneOffset=-330&startRecord=1

 

Now, as done above, if some response is received from media wall, next request is sent after 10 seconds after WallPaginationCompleteSuccess() from an effect by keeping debounceTime equal to 10000.

In the similar way, new consecutive calls can be made by keeping ‘source = twitter’ and keeping count low for getting a proper focus on new feed.

Reference

Continue ReadingLive Feeds in loklak Media wall using ‘source=twitter’

Posting Tweet from Loklak Wok Android

Loklak Wok Android is a peer harvester that posts collected tweets to the Loklak Server. Not only it is a peer harvester, but also provides users to post their tweets from the app. Images and location of the user can also be attached in the tweet. This blog explains

Adding Dependencies to the project

In app/build.gradle:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply plugin: 'me.tatarka.retrolambda'

android {
   ...
   packagingOptions {
       exclude 'META-INF/rxjava.properties'
   }
}

dependencies {
   ...
   compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.1'

   compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:2.3.0'
   compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:converter-gson:2.3.0'
   compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:adapter-rxjava2:2.3.0'

   compile 'io.reactivex.rxjava2:rxjava:2.0.5'
   compile 'io.reactivex.rxjava2:rxandroid:2.0.1'
}

 

In build.gradle project level:

dependencies {
   classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.3'
   classpath 'me.tatarka:gradle-retrolambda:3.2.0'
}

 

Implementation

User first authorize the application, so that they are able to post tweet from the app. For posting tweet statuses/update API endpoint of twitter is used and for attaching images with tweet media/upload API endpoint is used.

As, photos and location can be attached in a tweet, for Android Marshmallow and above we need to ask runtime permissions for camera, gallery and location. The related permissions are mentioned in Manifest file first

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
// for location
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.location.gps"/>
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.location.network"/>

 

If, the device is using an OS below Android Marshmallow, there will be no runtime permissions, the user will be asked permissions at the time of installing the app.

Now, runtime permissions are asked, if the user had already granted the permission the related activity (camera, gallery or location) is started.

For camera permissions, onClickCameraButton is called

@OnClick(R.id.camera)
public void onClickCameraButton() {
   int permission = ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(
           getActivity(), Manifest.permission.CAMERA);
   if (isAndroidMarshmallowAndAbove && permission != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
       String[] permissions = {
               Manifest.permission.CAMERA,
               Manifest.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE,
               Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
       };
       requestPermissions(permissions, CAMERA_PERMISSION);
   } else {
       startCameraActivity();
   }
}

 

To start the camera activity if the permission is already granted, startCameraActivity method is called

private void startCameraActivity() {
   Intent intent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
   File dir = getActivity().getExternalFilesDir(Environment.DIRECTORY_PICTURES);
   mCapturedPhotoFile = new File(dir, createFileName());
   Uri capturedPhotoUri = getImageFileUri(mCapturedPhotoFile);
   intent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, capturedPhotoUri);
   startActivityForResult(intent, REQUEST_CAPTURE_PHOTO);
}

 

If the user decides to save the photo clicked from camera activity, the photo should be saved by creating a file and its uri is required to display the saved photo. The filename is created using createFileName method

private String createFileName() {
   String timeStamp = new SimpleDateFormat("ddMMyyyy_HHmmss").format(new Date());
   return "JPEG_" + timeStamp + ".jpg";
}

 

and uri is obtained using getImageFileUri

private Uri getImageFileUri(File file) {
   if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
       return Uri.fromFile(file);
   } else {
       return FileProvider.getUriForFile(getActivity(), "org.loklak.android.provider", file);
   }
}

 

Similarly, for the gallery, onClickGalleryButton method is implemented to ask runtime permissions and launch gallery activity if the permission is already granted.

@OnClick(R.id.gallery)
public void onClickGalleryButton() {
   int permission = ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(
           getActivity(), Manifest.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE);
   if (isAndroidMarshmallowAndAbove && permission != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
       String[] permissions = {
               Manifest.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE,
               Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
       };
       requestPermissions(permissions, GALLERY_PERMISSION);
   } else {
       startGalleryActivity();
   }
}

 

For starting the gallery activity, startGalleryActivity is used

private void startGalleryActivity() {
   Intent intent = new Intent();
   intent.setType("image/*");
   intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
   intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_ALLOW_MULTIPLE, true);
   startActivityForResult(
           Intent.createChooser(intent, "Select images"), REQUEST_GALLERY_MEDIA_SELECTION);
}

 

And finally for location onClickAddLocationButton is implemented

@OnClick(R.id.location)
public void onClickAddLocationButton() {
   int permission = ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(
           getActivity(), Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION);
   if (isAndroidMarshmallowAndAbove && permission != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
       String[] permissions = {Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION};
       requestPermissions(permissions, LOCATION_PERMISSION);
   } else {
       getLatitudeLongitude();
   }
}

 

If, the permission is already granted getLatitudeLongitude is called. Using LocationManager last known location is tried to obtain, if there is no last known location, current location is requested using a LocationListener.

private void getLatitudeLongitude() {
   mLocationManager =
           (LocationManager) getActivity().getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);

   // last known location from network provider
   Location location = mLocationManager.getLastKnownLocation(LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER);
   if (location == null) { // last known location from gps
       location = mLocationManager.getLastKnownLocation(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER);
   }

   if (location != null) { // last known loaction available
       mLatitude = location.getLatitude();
       mLongitude = location.getLongitude();
       setLocation();
   } else { // last known location not available
       mLocationListener = new TweetLocationListener();
       // current location requested
       mLocationManager.requestLocationUpdates("gps", 1000, 1000, mLocationListener);
   }
}

 

TweetLocationListener implements a LocationListener that provides the current location. If GPS is disabled, settings is launched so that user can enable GPS. This is implemented in onProviderDisabled callback of the listener.

private class TweetLocationListener implements LocationListener {

   @Override
   public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
       mLatitude = location.getLatitude();
       mLongitude = location.getLongitude();
       setLocation();
   }

   @Override
   public void onStatusChanged(String s, int i, Bundle bundle) {

   }

   @Override
   public void onProviderEnabled(String s) {

   }

   @Override
   public void onProviderDisabled(String s) {
       Intent intent = new Intent(Settings.ACTION_LOCATION_SOURCE_SETTINGS);
       startActivity(intent);
   }
}

 

If the user is asked for permissions, onRequestPermissionResult callback is invoked, if the permission is granted then the respective activities are opened or latitude and longitude are obtained.

@Override
public void onRequestPermissionsResult(
       int requestCode, @NonNull String[] permissions, @NonNull int[] grantResults) {
   boolean isResultGranted = grantResults[0] == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED;
   switch (requestCode) {
       case CAMERA_PERMISSION:
           if (grantResults.length > 0 && isResultGranted) {
               startCameraActivity();
           }
           break;
       case GALLERY_PERMISSION:
           if (grantResults.length > 0 && isResultGranted) {
               startGalleryActivity();
           }
           break;
       case LOCATION_PERMISSION:
           if (grantResults.length > 0 && isResultGranted) {
               getLatitudeLongitude();
           }
   }
}

 

Since, the camera and gallery activities are started to obtain a result i.e. photo(s). So, onActivityResult callback is called

@Override
public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
   switch (requestCode) {
       case REQUEST_CAPTURE_PHOTO:
           if (resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK) {
               onSuccessfulCameraActivityResult();
           }
           break;
       case REQUEST_GALLERY_MEDIA_SELECTION:
           if (resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK) {
               onSuccessfulGalleryActivityResult(data);
           }
           break;
       default:
           super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
   }
}

 

If the result of Camera activity is success i.e. the image is saved by the user. The saved image is displayed in a RecyclerView in TweetPostingFragment. This is implemented in onSuccessfulCameraActivityResult mehtod

private void onSuccessfulCameraActivityResult() {
   tweetMultimediaContainer.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
   Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(mCapturedPhotoFile.getAbsolutePath());
   mTweetMediaAdapter.clearAdapter();
   mTweetMediaAdapter.addBitmap(bitmap);
}

 

For a gallery activity, if a single image is selected then the uri of image can be obtained using getData method of an Intent. If multiple images are selected, the uri of images are stored in ClipData. After uris of images are obtained, it is checked if more than 4 images are selected as Twitter allows at most 4 images in a tweet. If more than 4 images are selected than the uris of extra images are removed. Using the uris of the images, the file is obtained and then from file Bitmap is obtained which is displayed in RecyclerView. This is implemented in onSuccessfulGalleryActivityResult

private void onSuccessfulGalleryActivityResult(Intent intent) {
   tweetMultimediaContainer.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
   Context context = getActivity();

   // get uris of selected images
   ClipData clipData = intent.getClipData();
   List<Uri> uris = new ArrayList<>();
   if (clipData != null) {
       for (int i = 0; i < clipData.getItemCount(); i++) {
           ClipData.Item item = clipData.getItemAt(i);
           uris.add(item.getUri());
       }
   } else {
       uris.add(intent.getData());
   }

   // remove of more than 4 images
   int numberOfSelectedImages = uris.size();
   if (numberOfSelectedImages > 4) {
       while (numberOfSelectedImages-- > 4) {
           uris.remove(numberOfSelectedImages);
       }
       Utility.displayToast(mToast, context, moreImagesMessage);
   }

   // get bitmap from uris of images
   List<Bitmap> bitmaps = new ArrayList<>();
   for (Uri uri : uris) {
       String filePath = FileUtils.getPath(context, uri);
       Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(filePath);
       bitmaps.add(bitmap);
   }

   // display images in RecyclerView
   mTweetMediaAdapter.setBitmapList(bitmaps);
}

 

Now, to post images with tweet, first the ID of the image needs to be obtained using media/upload API endpoint, a multipart post request and then the obtained ID(s) is passed as the value of “media_ids” in statuses/update API endpoint. Since, there can be more than one image, a single observable is created for each image. The bitmap is converted to raw bytes for the multipart post request. As the process includes a network request and converting bitmap to bytes – a heavy resource consuming task which shouldn’t be on the main thread -, so an observable is created for the same as a result of which the tasks are performed concurrently i.e. in a separate thread.

private Observable<String> getImageId(Bitmap bitmap) {
   return Observable
           .defer(() -> {
               // convert bitmap to bytes
               ByteArrayOutputStream byteArrayOutputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
               bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, byteArrayOutputStream);
               byte[] bytes = byteArrayOutputStream.toByteArray();
               RequestBody mediaBinary = RequestBody.create(MultipartBody.FORM, bytes);
               return Observable.just(mediaBinary);
           })
           .flatMap(mediaBinary -> mTwitterMediaApi.getMediaId(mediaBinary, null))
           .flatMap(mediaUpload -> Observable.just(mediaUpload.getMediaIdString()))
           .subscribeOn(Schedulers.newThread());
}

 

The tweet is posted when the “Tweet” button is clicked by invoking onClickTweetPostButton mehtod

@OnClick(R.id.tweet_post_button)
public void onClickTweetPostButton() {
   String status = tweetPostEditText.getText().toString();

   List<Bitmap> bitmaps = mTweetMediaAdapter.getBitmapList();
   List<Observable<String>> mediaIdObservables = new ArrayList<>();
   for (Bitmap bitmap : bitmaps) { // observables for images is created
       mediaIdObservables.add(getImageId(bitmap));
   }

   if (mediaIdObservables.size() > 0) {
       // Post tweet with image
       postImageAndTextTweet(mediaIdObservables, status);
   } else if (status.length() > 0) {
       // Post text only tweet
       postTextOnlyTweet(status);
   } else {
       Utility.displayToast(mToast, getActivity(), tweetEmptyMessage);
   }
}

 

Tweet containing images are posted by calling postImageAndTextTweet, once the tweet data is obtained, the data is cross posted to loklak server. The image IDs are obtained concurrently by using the zip operator.

private void postImageAndTextTweet(List<Observable<String>> imageIdObservables, String status) {
   mProgressDialog.show();
   ConnectableObservable<StatusUpdate> observable = Observable.zip(
           imageIdObservables,
           mediaIdArray -> {
               String mediaIds = "";
               for (Object mediaId : mediaIdArray) {
                   mediaIds = mediaIds + String.valueOf(mediaId) + ",";
               }
               return mediaIds.substring(0, mediaIds.length() - 1);
           })
           .flatMap(imageIds -> mTwitterApi.postTweet(status, imageIds, mLatitude, mLongitude))
           .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
           .publish();

   Disposable postingDisposable = observable
           .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
           .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
           .subscribe(this::onSuccessfulTweetPosting, this::onErrorTweetPosting);
   mCompositeDisposable.add(postingDisposable);

   // cross posting to loklak server   
   Disposable crossPostingDisposable = observable
           .flatMap(this::pushTweetToLoklak)
           .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
           .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
           .subscribe(
                   push -> {},
                   t -> Log.e(LOG_TAG, "Cross posting failed: " + t.toString())
           );
   mCompositeDisposable.add(crossPostingDisposable);

   Disposable publishDisposable = observable.connect();
   mCompositeDisposable.add(publishDisposable);
}

 

In case of only text tweets, the text is obtained from editText and mediaIds are passed as null. And once the tweet data is obtained it is cross posted to loklak_server. This is executed by calling postTextOnlyTweet

private void postTextOnlyTweet(String status) {
   mProgressDialog.show();
   ConnectableObservable<StatusUpdate> observable =
           mTwitterApi.postTweet(status, null, mLatitude, mLongitude)
           .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
           .publish();

   Disposable postingDisposable = observable
           .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
           .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
           .subscribe(this::onSuccessfulTweetPosting, this::onErrorTweetPosting);
   mCompositeDisposable.add(postingDisposable);


   // cross posting to loklak server
   Disposable crossPostingDisposable = observable
           .flatMap(this::pushTweetToLoklak)
           .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
           .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
           .subscribe(
                   push -> Log.e(LOG_TAG, push.getStatus()),
                   t -> Log.e(LOG_TAG, "Cross posting failed: " + t.toString())
           );
   mCompositeDisposable.add(crossPostingDisposable);

   Disposable publishDisposable = observable.connect();
   mCompositeDisposable.add(publishDisposable);
}

 

Resources

Continue ReadingPosting Tweet from Loklak Wok Android

Implementing 3 legged Authorization in Loklak Wok Android for Twitter

Loklak Wok Android is a peer harvester that posts collected tweets to the Loklak Server. Not only it is a peer harvester, but also provides users to post their tweets from the app. Posting tweets from the app requires users to authorize the Loklak Wok app, the client app created https://apps.twitter.com/ . This blog explains in detail about the authorization process.

Adding Dependencies to the project

In app/build.gradle:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply plugin: 'me.tatarka.retrolambda'

android {
   ...
   packagingOptions {
       exclude 'META-INF/rxjava.properties'
   }
}

dependencies {
   ...
   compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.1'

   compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:2.3.0'
   compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:converter-gson:2.3.0'
   compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:adapter-rxjava2:2.3.0'

   compile 'io.reactivex.rxjava2:rxjava:2.0.5'
   compile 'io.reactivex.rxjava2:rxandroid:2.0.1'
}

 

In build.gradle project level:

dependencies {
   classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.3'
   classpath 'me.tatarka:gradle-retrolambda:3.2.0'
}

 

Steps of Authorization

Step 1: Create client app in Twitter

Create a twitter client app at https://apps.twitter.com/. Provide the mandatory entries and also Callback url (would be used in next steps). Then go to “Keys and Access Token” and save your consumer key and consumer secret. In case you want to use Twitter API for yourself, click on “Create my access token”, which provides access token and access token secret.

Step 2: Obtaining a request token

Using the “consumer key” and “consumer secret” request token is obtained by sending a POST request to oauth/request_token. As Twitter API are Oauth1 based the sent request needs to be signed by generating oauth_signature. The oauth_signature is generated by intercepting the network request sent by retrofit rest API client, the oauth interceptor used in Loklak Wok Android is a modified version of this snippet. The retrofit TwitterAPI interface is defined

public interface TwitterAPI {

   String BASE_URL = "https://api.twitter.com/";

   @POST("/oauth/request_token")
   Observable<ResponseBody> getRequestToken();

   @FormUrlEncoded
   @POST("/oauth/access_token")
   Observable<ResponseBody> getAccessTokenAndSecret(@Field("oauth_verifier") String oauthVerifier);
}

 

And the retrofit REST client is implemented in TwitterRestClient. createTwitterAPIWithoutAccessToken method returns a twitter API client which can be called without providing access keys, this is used as we don’t have access tokens right now.

public static TwitterAPI createTwitterAPIWithoutAccessToken() {
   if (sWithoutAccessTokenRetrofit == null) {
       sLoggingInterceptor.setLevel(HttpLoggingInterceptor.Level.BODY);
       // uncomment to debug network requests
       // sWithoutAccessTokenClient.addInterceptor(sLoggingInterceptor);
       sWithoutAccessTokenRetrofit = sRetrofitBuilder
               .client(sWithoutAccessTokenClient.build()).build();
   }
   return sWithoutAccessTokenRetrofit.create(TwitterAPI.class);
}

 

So, getRequestToken method is used to obtain the request token, if the request is successful oauth_token is returned.

@OnClick(R.id.twitter_authorize)
public void onClickTwitterAuthorizeButton(View view) {
   mTwitterApi.getRequestToken()
           .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
           .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
           .subscribe(this::parseRequestTokenResponse, this::onFetchRequestTokenError);
}

 

Step 3: Redirecting the user

Using the oauth_token obtained in Step 2, the user is redirected to login page using WebView.

private void setAuthorizationView() {
   ...
   webView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
   webView.loadUrl(mAuthorizationUrl);
}

 

A WebView client is created by extending WebViewClient, this is used to keep track of which webpage is opened by overriding shouldOverrideUrlLoading.

@Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
   if (url.contains("github")) {
       String[] tokenAndVerifier = url.split("&");
       mOAuthVerifier = tokenAndVerifier[1].substring(tokenAndVerifier[1].indexOf('=') + 1);
       getAccessTokenAndSecret();
       return true;
   }
   return false;
}

 

As the link provided in callback url while creating our twitter app is a github page. The WebViewClient checks if it is a github page or not. If yes, then it parses the oauth_verifier from the github url.

Step 4: Converting the request token to an access token

A new rest client is created using the access token obtained in step 2, as implemented in createTwitterAPIWithAccessToken method.

public static TwitterAPI createTwitterAPIWithAccessToken(String token) {
   TwitterOAuthInterceptor withAccessTokenInterceptor =
           sInterceptorBuilder.accessToken(token).accessSecret("").build();
   OkHttpClient withAccessTokenClient = new OkHttpClient.Builder()
           .addInterceptor(withAccessTokenInterceptor)
           //.addInterceptor(loggingInterceptor) // uncomment to debug network requests
           .build();
   Retrofit withAccessTokenRetrofit = sRetrofitBuilder.client(withAccessTokenClient).build();
   return withAccessTokenRetrofit.create(TwitterAPI.class);
}

 

Now, to obtain access token and access token secret oauth_verifier obtained in step 3 is passed as a parameter to getAccessTokenAndSecret method defined in TwitterAPI interface which calls oauth/access_token endpoint from the rest client created above. This is implemented in getAccessTokenAndSecret method of WebViewClient class

private void getAccessTokenAndSecret() {
   mTwitterApi = TwitterRestClient.createTwitterAPIWithAccessToken(mOauthToken);
   mTwitterApi.getAccessTokenAndSecret(mOAuthVerifier)
           .flatMap(this::saveAccessTokenAndSecret)
           ....
}

 

Finally the obtained access_token and access_token_secret is saved in SharedPreference so that it can be used to call other Twitter API endpoints as in saveAccessTokenAndSecret

private Observable<Integer> saveAccessTokenAndSecret(ResponseBody responseBody)
       throws IOException {
   String[] responseValues = responseBody.string().split("&");

   String token = responseValues[0].substring(responseValues[0].indexOf("=") + 1);
   SharedPrefUtil.setSharedPrefString(getActivity(), OAUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN_KEY, token);
   mOauthToken = token; // here access_token that would be used for API calls

   String tokenSecret = responseValues[1].substring(responseValues[1].indexOf("=") + 1);
   SharedPrefUtil.setSharedPrefString(
           getActivity(), OAUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET_KEY, tokenSecret);
   mOauthTokenSecret = tokenSecret;
   return Observable.just(1);
}

 

Resources:

Continue ReadingImplementing 3 legged Authorization in Loklak Wok Android for Twitter

Enhancing LoklakWordCloud app present on Loklak apps site

LoklakWordCloud app is presently hosted on loklak apps site. Before moving into the content of this blog, let us get a brief overview of the app. What does the app do? The app generates a word cloud using twitter data returned by loklak based on the query word provided by the user. The user enters a word in the input field and presses the search button. After that a word cloud is created using the content (text body, hashtags and mentioned) of the various tweets which contains the user provided query word.

In my previous post I wrote about creating the basic functional app. In this post I will be describing the next steps that have been implemented in the app.

Making the word cloud clickable

This is one of the most important and interesting features added to the app. The words in the cloud are now clickable.Whenever an user clicks on a word present in the cloud, the cloud is replaced by the word cloud of that selected word. How do we achieve this behaviour? Well, for this we use Jqcloud’s handler feature. While creating the list of objects for each word and its frequency, we also specify a handler corresponding to each of the word. The handler is supposed to handle a click event. Whenever a click event occurs, we set the value of $scope.tweet to the selected word and invoke the search function, which calls the loklak API and regenerates the word cloud.

for (var word in $scope.wordFreq) {
            $scope.wordCloudData.push({
                text: word,
                weight: $scope.wordFreq[word],
                handlers: {
                    click: function(e) {
                        $scope.tweet = e.target.textContent;
                        $scope.search();
                    }
                }
            });
        }

As it can be seen in the above snippet, handlers is simply an JavaScript object, which takes a function for the click event. In the function we pass the word selected as value of the tweet variable and call search method.

Adding filters to the app

Previously the app generated word cloud using the entire tweet content, that is, hashtags, mentions and tweet body. Thus the app was not flexible. User was not able to decide on which field he wants his word cloud to be generated. User might want to generate his  word cloud using only the hashtags or the mentions or simply the tweet body. In order to make this possible, filters have been introduced. Now we have filters for hashtags, mentions, tweet body and date.

<div class="col-md-6 tweet-filters">
              <strong>Filters</strong>
              <hr>
              <div class="filters">
                <label class="checkbox-inline"><input type="checkbox" value="" ng-model="hashtags">Hashtags</label>
                <label class="checkbox-inline"><input type="checkbox" value="" ng-model="mentions">Mentions</label>
                <label class="checkbox-inline"><input type="checkbox" value="" ng-model="tweetbody">Tweet body</label>
              </div>
              <div class="filter-all">
                <span class="select-all" ng-click="selectAll()"> Select all </span>
              </div>
            </div>

We have used checkboxes for the individual filters and have kept an option to select all the filters at once. Next we require to hook this HTML to AngularJS code to make the filters functional.

if ($scope.hashtags) {
                tweet.hashtags.forEach(function (hashtag) {
                    $scope.filteredWords.push("#" + hashtag);
                });
            }

            if ($scope.mentions) {
                tweet.mentions.forEach(function (mention) {
                    $scope.filteredWords.push("@" + mention);
                });
            }

In the above snippet, before adding the hashtags to the list of filtered words, we first make sure that the checkbox for hashtags is selected. Once we find out the the variable bound to the hashtags checkbox is true, we proceed further and add the hashtags associated with a given tweet to the list of filteredWords. The same strategy is applied for both mentions (shown in the snippet) and tweet bodies.

Adding error notification

Next, we handle certain errors to notify the users that there is problem in their input. Such cases include empty input. If user provides empty input then we notify him or her and break the search. Next we check whether From date is before To date or not. If From date is after To date then we notify the user about the problem.

if ($scope.tweet === "" || $scope.tweet === undefined) {
            $scope.error = "Please enter a valid query word";
            $scope.showError();
            return;
}

In the above snippet we check for empty or undefined input and display snackbar along with error accordingly.

if ((sinceDate !== "" && sinceDate !== undefined) && (endDate !== "" && endDate !== undefined)) {
            var date1 = new Date(sinceDate);
            var date2 = new Date(endDate);
            if (date1 > date2) {
                $scope.error = "To date should be after From date";
                $scope.showError();
                return;
            }
        }

The above snippet compares date. For comparing dates, first we fetch the values entered (via jquery date widget) into the respective input fields and then create JavaScript Date objects out of them. Finally we compare those Date objects to find out if there is any error or not.

Now it might happen that a particular search is taking a long time (perhaps due to network problem), however the user becomes impatient and tries to search again. In that case we need to inform the user that the previous search is still going on. For this purpose we use a boolean variable  to keep track whether the previous search is completed or still going on. If the previous search is going on and user tries to make a new search then we provide a proper notification and prevent the user from making further searches.

Finally we need to make sure that the user is online and has an active internet connection before the search can take place and Loklak API can be called. For this we have used navigator. We have polled the onLine property of navigator to find out whether the user is online or not. If the user is offline then we inform him that we cannot initiate a search due to internet connectivity problem.

if ($scope.isLoading === true) {
            $scope.error = "Previous search not completed. Please wait...";
            $scope.showError();
            return;
        }
        if (!navigator.onLine) {
            $scope.error = "You are currently offline. Please check your internet connection!";
            $scope.showError();
            return;
        }

Important resources

  • View the app source here.
  • View loklak apps site source here.
  • View Loklak API documentation here
  • View Jqcloud documentation here.
  • Learn more about AngularJS here.
Continue ReadingEnhancing LoklakWordCloud app present on Loklak apps site