Postcards from the middle of nowhere

A bot on a roadtrip, tweeting postcards from the places it visits every day.

Get started

Stuff you need installed

This bot is built with Node.js so before you get any further:

1. Go to nodejs.org and download the installer for your operating system.
2. Install it..
3. To check if it's installed:
   • In Terminal / CP, type node -v and press the ↲ (Enter) key.
   • If Terminal / CP shows a number, like v0.10.26 then it means you have version 0.10.26 installed.

OK, got everything installed

1. Fork this repository and clone it to your computer.

2. Go to apps.twitter.com and create a new app.

3. Rename RENAME_ME-config.js: call it config.js.

4. Open config.js and change YOUR_TWITTER_APP_CONSUMER_KEY and all the other bits in capitals to your Twitter app's values (which you can find at apps.twitter.com/app/YOUR_APP_ID/keys)

   module.exports = 
   {
   	twitterKeys:
   	{
   		consumer_key: 'YOUR_TWITTER_APP_CONSUMER_KEY',
   		consumer_secret: 'YOUR_TWITTER_APP_CONSUMER_SECRET',
   		access_token_key: 'YOUR_TWITTER_APP_TOKEN_KEY',
   		access_token_secret: 'YOUR_TWITTER_APP_TOKEN_SECRET'
   	}
   	...
   }	

5. Navigate to this folder in Terminal and then run sudo npm install.

6. Test the bot by running node index.js.

Pushing your bot to Heroku

Heroku (pronounced her-OH-koo) is a cloud application platform.

This means that instead of running your bot from the Terminal on your computer, you can deploy it to Heroku and it will tweet from there, however many times you want (per hour, day, week..)!

1. Go to Heroku and sign up for a free account.

2. When asked to specify your primary development language, pick Node.js

3. Once you're signed up, and download the Toolbelt

   

4. Open Terminal (or Command Prompt if you're on Windows), type heroku into it and press the ↲ (Enter) key.

   This properly installs Heroku on your computer. You will see a window pop up that looks like this

   

   Choose Install

5. Once the installation has finished, type heroku login and hit the ↲ (Enter) key.

6. We're going to prep your bot's folder to send to Heroku

   Type cd, hit space, then drag the folder from Finder into Terminal (cd stands for change directory) and press the ↲ (Enter) key.

7. Type heroku create and hit ↲ (Enter).

   Here, you're asking Heroku to create a space for Git to deliver your files to.

   Terminal should say Git remote heroku added.

8. ^OPTIONAL Let's create a separate branch for your bot on Heroku.

   This will allow you to add your config.js file with all your secret Twitter info to a new heroku branch, whilst keeping the master branch clean and backed-up on GitHub.

   git checkout -b heroku

   Remove config.js from .gitignore

   git commit -am "Config for Heroku"

9. Now it's time to deploy your bot to Heroku!

   git push heroku heroku:master

   Terminal should start spitting out a lot of messages, starting from Counting objects: 57, done. and finishing with

   remote: Verifying deploy... done.
   To https://git.heroku.com/YOUR_HEROKU_NAME.git
   * [new branch]      heroku -> master
   

   This means that your bot is deployed. 👌

10. And, for the almost final step, type in heroku run node index.js and hit ↲ (Enter).

    You're now testing the bot by telling Heroku to run it. If Terminal, after munching your users tells you something like DONE! followed by a sentence then it means it has tweeted! Go check out your bot's Twitter account and see for yourself.

11. Now, the whole thing about Heroku is that you can schedule how often you want it to get your bot to tweet, so you don't have to do it yourself.

    Type in heroku addons:create scheduler:standard and hit ↲ (Enter).

    If you have not added your card to Heroku, now's the time to do so. In fact, it will prompt you to do so.

    Once you've done that, type in heroku addons:open scheduler and hit ↲ (Enter). Terminal will open this page

    

    Click Add new job.

    In the filed that starts with $ type in node index.js

    The rest is kind of self-explanatory (if you've got so far!).

    Click Save and your bot is all set up! 🎉

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

TODO

• Greetings from {region} #{country} to gain social media juice
• Have a variety of Tweet starters, not just Greetings
• Tweet coordinates
• Photo filters
  • Caman is throwing tantrums when installing (something to do with node-gyp)
  • Using Jimp instead
• Adjust photo URL depending on zoomLevels
• Patch together multiple tiles for a higher photo res?
• Detect people in photo tiles (portraits in a landscape...)
• To translate or not to translate?
• Remove District from {region}
• Mention @visit{country}?
• Replace United States with USA (better hashtag?) etc.
• Like similar pictures from the place we tweet about?
• Weather-inspired feelings using Tracery
• Emoji-flags 🎉